Your questions answered

Yes. We have made changes to extended reporting benefits based on feedback we have received from members who want greater certainty over options for protection once they retire.

We can now offer you the opportunity to make a single payment for extended reporting benefits (ERBs) at the time you retire.

Predicting the price of extended reporting benefits is difficult because of the rapidly changing claims environment and because it will also depend upon the length of your career and practice history.

We do understand the desire to know what the likely cost will be. So for illustrative purposes, we would say that as things currently stand we do not anticipate that the cost will be more than double your final year’s membership subscription with MPS claims-made protection.

We have listened to our members and are offering this new option following detailed discussions on risk sharing with our third party risk transfer partners.

We have previously offered ERBs in blocks of five years because of the uncertainty of forecasting how the litigation environment will look and the risk of future legislative change that could impact on the cost of settling claims.

Equally, we don’t know what the courts will be saying in 2026 and beyond but the approach they take at that time could impact on a claim reported today but settled ten years from now. By sharing these risks on a commercial basis with our third party risk transfer partners, we avoid having to share them on a mutual basis with the rest of the membership – meaning we can offer the new single payment option when a member retires. 

Our approach is always one of sustainability. We are not in a position to comment on the market strategy of other providers, including those who are new to Hong Kong or new to the specialist area of clinical negligence. We would encourage you to look carefully at the product, the provider's track record and their longevity in this specialist area. MPS has a proven track record of staying in countries when commercial insurers have not, and the reason for this is that we focus on supporting members rather than returns for shareholders.

Yes, we do. We understand the vital role that humanitarian care plays worldwide, especially in times of crisis, which is why we’ve offered members the right to request protection for humanitarian work for many years.

Members who have been in membership for six months or more, and who will be working for a recognised charity or humanitarian organisation, can request assistance and advice relating to humanitarian work for up to six months in any 12 month membership period. This can be applied to shorter periods of travel, or for a single six month period.

A member would need to contact us before they intended to travel, and would be responsible for checking that they understand and follow the laws and regulations of the country where they would be volunteering, including any requirements for work permits or visas. They also need to understand and follow any professional obligations such as registration or licensing, and the rules about the type of indemnity they are required to have.

Members who meet all of a country’s professional criteria can request assistance from us, although this protection is only available for matters brought within the member’s home territory.

To learn more about the humanitarian protection that we provide, please email [email protected]

This is true.

We have listened to feedback from members and received the clear message that you want MPS to be more local. As a result, we have made a commitment to open a regional office in South East Asia in the near future. More information on this will be available in due course.

We’ll also be releasing information about our 2017 programme of events in Singapore shortly. 

We’re proud to have supported thousands of healthcare professionals in Singapore with claims, complaints and other issues over the past forty years. Whilst many other organisations have come and gone, we want to continue supporting the profession in Singapore for many years to come.

No, we would not automatically refuse to renew your membership based upon a claim being made against you. Complaints and claims are a recognised risk when practising medicine, and having been an established provider of indemnity to the healthcare sector in Singapore for more than 40 years, we understand these risks and want to work with you to help prevent incidents occurring.   

Occasionally, some doctors experience higher risks than their colleagues who work in the same area of practice, often through no fault of their own. In these circumstances our approach to managing risk is to carefully balance the needs of individual members with those of the whole membership.

In the rare circumstances where a doctor faces significantly more claims than their peers, we aim to work with the member to identify and reduce the problems they are facing. We may also consider raising their membership subscription to reflect their increased level of risk. If we didn’t act, it would mean that subscriptions for everyone else would have to increase to cover these additional costs.

It is only in exceptional cases, where a member’s claims history far exceeds the norm of their peers, that we would consider ending their membership, or declining to renew it.

We are owned by members and are well aware of the potential impact such a decision could have on a member’s career. However, we firmly believe that the interests of the majority of members should not be compromised by a small minority who have received a comparatively high volume of claims or complaints, which can have a significant impact on subscriptions.

Our approach is different to other organisations because we aim to work with members to try and reduce their risk, not only for their benefit, but for the benefit of the wider profession. 

In 2017 MPS will celebrate 125 years of supporting doctors. During that time new providers of professional protection have come and gone, sometimes offering cheaper products in the short-term.

We think that companies charge less and may even make a loss initially because they want to enter the market. However, given that it can be many years between an incident happening and a claim being made, it is crucial that doctors ask themselves whether their provider of professional protection is offering a long-term solution.

MPS has decades of experience in dealing with complex clinical negligence cases in Singapore, which is a highly specialist area. We’re able to use this experience to more accurately predict the true price of risk.  Whilst no process can be an exact science, we are the best placed to set subscriptions that accurately reflect the full cost of protection. 

Clinical negligence is a specialist area of expertise and is very different to areas covered by traditional forms of insurance, such as car or household cover. It can be – and often is – several years between an incident taking place and the resulting claim emerging.  This means that providers of professional protection need to take a long term view, rather than act to make a short term profit. 

Healthcare is continually changing and is rarely straightforward. New challenges and issues constantly arise, some of which were inconceivable just a few years ago. Now more than ever it is important to have flexible indemnity arrangements in place to protect your career and reputation. 

As a member-owned organisation, we treat every case on its individual merit, and our starting point is always - how can we help? Discretion means we can offer help in unusual circumstances or where a new problem arises. Above all, we can be flexible in the support we offer. 

It is rare for us to decline to assist a member. This would normally only occur if they had deliberately misled us about the scope of their practice or had claimed that they were in a lower risk category than they actually were, and as such had been paying an incorrect membership subscription for the type of work they do.

This is no different from an insurance company declining assistance in such circumstances.

As a member-owned organisation, we weigh the interests of individual members against the interests of the membership as a whole. These rare situations should be balanced against the many cases where discretion has been exercised to actively support and protect a member. These are often unusual or unforeseen circumstances that may not be covered by other providers of professional protection.

There are many differences between MPS and traditional insurance companies:

• We are owned by you. MPS is a member-focused organisation, formed on the principle of doctors for doctors. Our entire purpose is to serve you and provide long term support, advice and protection over the course of your career.
• Every dollar of the membership subscriptions we charge is used to meet members’ needs. As we are owned by you, we work on a non-profit making basis, meaning we only charge what we expect the cost of protection to be. There are no shareholders looking to make a profit.
• Our focus, like yours, is on the future. We have a long-term commitment to support doctors in Singapore throughout their career, not a short-term requirement to generate profits.
• Your membership provides flexibility. Healthcare is constantly changing and is rarely straightforward. Our discretionary business model ensures flexibility and means we can offer help in unusual circumstances or where developments in the delivery or regulation of healthcare gives rise to new issues.
• Prevention is better than cure. We are much more than a last line of defence – we are committed to helping prevent problems from occurring through our expert advice and education workshops - not just helping resolve issues once they have occurred.
• For us it’s personal. We are a team of fellow healthcare and legal professionals who understand your needs and who want to work with you.