COPIC Comment: Physician involvement is critical to our mission

Monday, January 01, 2018 12:31 PM

by Ted J. Clarke, MD, Chairman & CEO, COPIC Insurance Company

The notion of “physician involvement” has been embedded in COPIC since the day we were founded. It’s a guiding principle that is visible through the expertise of our physician risk managers, and it extends into relationships we have cultivated throughout the health care community. In particular, physician leadership that drives COPIC is evident in two key areas: the faculty consultants we work with and members of our board of directors.

Faculty consultants

Overview: A network of physicians who serve as outside consultants to COPIC.

Areas of involvement:

• Consultants are called upon to help review cases related to their specialty.
• They attend at least two COPIC Claims Committee meetings per year.
• They participate in sessions to learn about operational issues such as premium rate determination, financial management and public affairs.
• They also assist in specialty-specific tasks that may include claim evaluations, underwriting, risk management and grant funding by the COPIC Medical Foundation.

Term: Three-year commitment

Candidate qualifications: Physicians who are active in a medical or health care practice and insured by COPIC. Generally, candidates are at midpoints in their medical careers.

Board of directors

Overview: Leadership team that oversees the management and strategic direction of the company.

Areas of involvement:

• Members attend quarterly board meetings.
• They serve on various committees related to the different business aspects of the company.
• They engage in actuarial and corporate management courses during their first year of tenure.
• They work closely with the management team to develop the company’s overall strategic plan.

Term: 12-year term

Candidate qualifications: Physician leaders who also have an interest/experience in the business side of health care and leadership management. In the past, several board members were faculty consultants before becoming part of the board.

Dual roles as advisors and advocates

The physicians who are part of these groups serve dual roles as advisors and advocates. They allow COPIC to stay closely connected to different perspectives within health care and help identify emerging challenges.

In addition, we consider faculty consultants and board members as our first level of patient safety and risk management outreach. As recognized leaders who have a strong voice in their professional networks, they help COPIC “spread the lessons learned” and disseminate information as real-time risk managers. They also provide direct feedback that is essential in developing our programs and resources.     

How does COPIC select physicians for these two areas? We proactively look for different candidates and many physicians come to us by way of referrals. The selection process is designed to identify a mix of physicians with various backgrounds and experiences so there is diverse representation. This entails selecting physicians from different geographic locations (urban and rural settings), medical specialties and practice size. Most importantly, we try to find physicians who will fit in with COPIC’s culture and possess a commitment to patient safety and risk management.

“I liked the way COPIC seemed to focus on both helping keep physicians out of medical liability claims through risk management programs and supporting physicians who wind up facing a claim. I wanted to learn more about these processes and contribute to improving the environment for my fellow physicians,” said Eric Zacharias, MD, a faculty consultant alumni.

COPIC’s investment in physician involvement remains a vital factor in our success. We recognize that those on the frontlines of medicine offer the most valuable insight, and our ability to tap into this will always lead to improvements in health care.