Professional Liability Risks & Trends Series: Bill Fleming

In this blog series, PLUS consults industry experts to discuss current trends in the market. This edition features Bill Fleming, a regular contributor to PLUS curriculum and content. In this interview, Bill highlights risks and trends in Medical and Healthcare Professional Liability.

To start, please tell us a little about your role and experience in the professional liability insurance (PLI) industry.

I serve as CEO of Segment Risk, Ltd, a London MGA specializing in solving unique problems in the healthcare value chain. I’ve previously worked in US medical professional liability, starting in claims, then underwriting, post-merger integration, M&A, and general management. I had the privilege of serving on the HMPL Conference committee, the PLUS Education Committee, acting as an SME for the MPL modules, and as PLUS University faculty.

Are there any current trends in the industry that you are keeping an eye on?

There are many growing stressors on healthcare, in the US and in other advanced economies. Provider burnout, worker shortages, post-COVID payment changes, rising cost of debt, and rising risk transfer costs, particularly for liability covers.

What makes these trends worth keeping an eye on?

Before we get to the business issues, we have to recognise the human toll, both on those who work in healthcare as well as those served by healthcare, which is all of us. These are the people who care for our kids, our aging parents, our neighbors, our communities. These stressors impact their daily lives and how they carry out their work. And the business or organisational impacts are widespread, which can find their way into multiple lines of PLI. Financial issues show up in D&O, Transactional Risk, etc. Employee health impacts workers’ compensation (or the local equivalent), and EPLI. Litigation costs impact MPL and HPL. Healthcare is so fundamental to society, stressors there show up everywhere else.

What are the top emerging risks for the PLI industry? 

The stressors in healthcare are, in large part, a subset of emerging risks, whether it is consequences of costlier debt, social inflation, geopolitical issues, etc.

If someone is interested in learning more about these topics are there other resources you would recommend for more information?

PLUS offers a lot of useful content in a variety of formats, and I think the RPLU curriculum provides a good foundation of industry knowledge to build on. Beyond that, and paraphrasing one of my favorite underwriters, be curious about the sector you serve, whether it is healthcare, financial services, life sciences, or other professions.