How to verify a practitioner's professional liability (malpractice) coverage and claims history, where to send requests at the major carriers and state patient compensation funds, and a free request letter. Everything here is summarized from the linked official sources.
On this page: Malpractice Verification Directory · How it works · Carrier & PCF directory · NPDB, state boards & associations · Request templates · Pending items
Phone, email, fax and request page for every carrier and patient compensation fund in the directory, in one place. Tap a phone number to call or an email to write, or use Copy. Only contacts copied from each organization's own website are shown. Where there isn't one, use the request page or form.
| Verification phone | Verification email | Fax | Request page / form |
|---|
A phone or email column shows a general contact (tagged General) only when the organization lists no verification-specific one. Full how-to notes, territories and extra links are in the directory.
Ask the carrier, or the practitioner, for a certificate of insurance or the policy declarations ("face") page. Check:
The checklist above is general credentialing practice, not a quoted standard. Many carriers (for example CAP and Physicians Insurance) let insured practitioners download their own certificate from a member portal.
A claims history (often called a loss run or claims-history letter) typically lists open and closed claims, dates and payments for the years the carrier insured the practitioner. Request one from every carrier covering the look-back period, not just the current one.
Insurers and other payers must report to the National Practitioner Data Bank any medical malpractice payment made for the benefit of a practitioner in settlement or satisfaction of a written claim or judgment. Because only payments are reported, the NPDB won't show open claims or claims closed without payment. The Guidebook notes that a payment doesn't create a presumption that malpractice occurred, and that payments a practitioner makes out of personal funds aren't reported. For NCQA, one source is enough: in an AMA-published NCQA webinar Q&A (third-party source), NCQA says it “accepts the NPDB or query of the malpractice carrier. An organization is not required to do both.” Many organizations still use both because the NPDB shows only payments; check your bylaws, payer contracts and state law. Organizations must register to query.
Practitioners at HRSA-deemed health centers are covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) instead of a commercial policy, so there may be no carrier COI or loss run. Search summaries of HRSA's FTCA FAQ say HRSA doesn't issue coverage confirmations for individual practitioners, and that you use the health center's Notice of Deeming Action plus documentation that the practitioner is an employee or qualifying contractor. HRSA's site blocks automated checks, so we couldn't confirm the wording; check the FAQ. Look up deemed health centers with the FTCA Deemed Health Center Search Tool; health center credentialing and privileging requirements are in Compliance Manual Chapter 21. VA's Office of General Counsel explains FTCA claims against VA on its FTCA page. NCQA accepts a “federal tort letter” as coverage documentation (see What accreditors say).
Keep the COI, each carrier's claims history, the NPDB response, the date received and who reviewed it. Follow up on any claim the practitioner disclosed that a carrier didn't list (and the reverse).
Major U.S. medical malpractice carriers and state patient compensation funds (PCFs), with the verification, COI or claims-history page each one publishes, and the contacts listed on its own site. Filter by state or region. Carriers with national reach show under every state; so do carriers whose territory we couldn't confirm (marked "territory not confirmed").
| Carrier / fund | Where | How to request | Contacts (from official site) |
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Verification contact means the site lists the email, phone or fax for credentialing, certificates or claims history. General means a main line or general mailbox. Rows without a dedicated verification page say so. Fax numbers are shown where the site lists one for credentialing.
Letter and response form asking a malpractice carrier or patient compensation fund to confirm coverage (policy dates, limits, type) and provide claims history or a loss run.
Letter asking each carrier, self-insured program or patient compensation fund that insured the practitioner for a loss run: every claim and reported incident, open or closed, with or without payment.
Practitioner form listing coverage history (including tail, prior acts and gaps) and every claim, suit or settlement, with a signed attestation. Compare it with carrier loss runs and the NPDB.
