Why NICA?
- Lifetime Care For Child
- Obviously no one desires a birth-injury to occur. Unfortunately, they do. In the case of a covered birth-related injury, the child will receive a lifetime of medical care and many other benefits including nursing, housing, equipment and transportation assistance.
- No Expensive & Time Consuming Court Case
- Through this unique program, should a covered birth-related injury occur, you should not face an expensive and possibly difficult court case. You also do not have to spend hours or days out of the office. Birth-related injury claims are handled administratively through the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings with one judge who has expertise and hears all of the claims.
- A Malpractice Insurance Credit
- When you participate, most insurers provide a malpractice coverage credit. This credit varies by each insurance carrier, however, in many cases it covers most or all of the cost of participating in NICA.
- A No Fault Approach
- The purpose of NICA is to assure continued access to obstetrical care and take care of qualifying children. As a no-fault program, qualifying events are not reported to the National Practitioner Database although a copy of the Petition is provided to the Department of Health.
How to Participate
Maintaining your participation in the NICA Plan requires the payment of a $5,000 fee each calendar year. There is no provision for a pro-rated fee. If payment is not made by January 31st of each year, coverage begins the day the payment is received. Participating OBGYN's may therefore wish to send this payment by certified or overnight mail.
It is also possible to pay this fee online. Just click
here or on the 'Pay Online' button on the left.
In addition to payment of NICA annual fees, Florida law requires that participating physicians and hospitals give notice to their obstetrical patients that they are participants in the NICA Plan using forms provided by NICA. A brochure, entitled "Peace of Mind for an Unexpected Problem" has been prepared by NICA for hospitals and participating physicians. The giving of such brochure to the obstetric patient has been held to satisfy the notice requirement of Florida law. Copies are available free of charge from NICA in 12 different languages. Failure to properly provide this notice can expose health care providers to expensive malpractice litigation.
A signed acknowledgment of receipt of the NICA brochure should be obtained from your patients when the brochure is given. Notice must be given prior to delivery. NICA has prepared a suggested acknowledgment form that may be used for this purpose; these forms can be downloaded from this section of the website and are available by calling NICA.
All health care providers must provide a notice brochure and should obtain an acknowledgment form for patients, especially those who do not understand English. Forms in other languages, including Spanish and Creole, are available by calling NICA.
Physicians and hospitals should rely upon their own legal counsel's interpretation of
Section 776.316, Florida Statutes, with regard to providing notice and timeliness of notice, and actions to take in the event a patient refuses to acknowledge receipt of this notice.
