Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 38 > Chapter 79 - Medical Malpractice Insurance

• Accumulated deficit: means the amount that the association's and the fund's liabilities exceed their assets, as reported in the association's and fund's respective most recently reported financial statements on June 30, 2019. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Act: means the South Carolina Jobs - Economic Development Fund Act. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Administrative funds: means all monies, received by the authority from the general fund of the State or from the exercise of the power of taxation by the State or any of its political subdivisions which are designated specifically to be used for the payment of administrative expenses, and the earnings on the funds. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Appointment: means an individual designated by an official or authorized representative of an authorized insurer to act on its behalf as a producer. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Association: means any joint underwriting association established by the General Assembly in 1987 and managed and operated pursuant to the provisions of this article. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Authority: means the South Carolina Jobs - Economic Development Authority, which is a state-owned enterprise. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Banks: means financial organizations organized, chartered, or holding an authorization certificate and subject to supervision by an agency or official of South Carolina or of the United States and authorized to make loans and receive deposits. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Bonds: means any evidence of indebtedness of the authority in any form including, but not limited to, notes, warrants, bonds, or any similar obligation evidenced in written, printed, or electronic means. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Insurance of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Director: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fund: means the Patients' Compensation Fund. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Future deficit: means any deficit accumulated by the association and fund after the most recently reported financial statements as of June 30, 2019. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License: means a document issued by the state's director or his designee authorizing a person to act as an insurance producer for the lines of authority specified in the document. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Licensed health care providers: means physicians and surgeons, nurses, oral surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, podiatrists, hospitals, nursing homes, or any similar major category of licensed health care providers. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Medical malpractice insurance: means medical professional liability insurance or insurance protection against the legal liability of the insured and against loss, damage, or expense incident to a claim arising out of the death or injury of any person as the result of negligence or malpractice in rendering or failing to render professional service by any licensed physician, licensed health care provider, or hospital. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Net-direct premiums: means gross-direct premiums written on medical malpractice insurance, medical professional liability insurance, hospital professional liability insurance, and any other type of professional liability insurance covering risks of licensed health care providers and facilities as determined and computed by the director or his designee, less return premiums or the unused or unabsorbed portions of premium deposits. See South Carolina Code 38-79-110
• Nonadmitted insurer: means an insurer not licensed to do an insurance business in this State. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means a corporation, agency, partnership, association, voluntary organization, individual, or another entity, organization, or aggregation of individuals. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Policy: means a contract of insurance. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premium: means payment given in consideration of a contract of insurance. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• producer: means a person who represents an insurance company and is required to be licensed pursuant to § 38-43-10. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Program funds: means any monies, including, but not limited to, the proceeds from bond sales, the sale or disposition of any assets, or any other source available to the authority, other than administrative funds and the earnings on the funds. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Surplus lines insurance: means insurance in this State of risks located or to be performed in this State, permitted to be placed through a licensed broker, or a licensed broker as provided in § 38-45-10(8)(b)(ii), with a nonadmitted insurer eligible to accept the insurance, other than reinsurance, wet marine and transportation insurance, insurance independently procured, and life and health insurance and annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Terminate: means the cancellation of the relationship between an insurance producer and the insurer or the termination of a producer's authority to transact insurance. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.