Healthcare Insurance

Types of insurance cover your healthcare business may require

Insurance programmes for healthcare businesses would typically include a combination of the following cover:

• Medical malpractice: Cover yourself against claims around failing to provide medical treatment, or negligence when providing treatment. 

• Employers’ liability: This is a compulsory type of insurance for employers, regardless of whether the member of staff is permanent, temporary, volunteer, contractor or freelancer. The minimum level of protection is £5m, which will cover the cost of compensation claims if staff get injured or fall ill as a result of carrying out their required duties.

• Professional indemnity: Professional indemnity insurance covers professionals for losses and defence costs if they provide inadequate advice, services or designs that cost a customer to lose money.

• Directors’ and officers’ liability: With regulators increasingly holding directors and officers personally responsible, directors’ and officers’ liability cover is becoming more important, especially in the healthcare sector. It will cover both the personal assets of key employees and is a great way to attract senior staff members.

• Cargo: Cargo cover will protect the company against loss of or damage to any good in storage or in transit.

• Property: Property insurance will protect your organisation’s physical assets from damage, as well as any resulting disruption to your business. 

• Environmental impairment liability: Many aspects of the healthcare industry increase the risk of environmental damage – i.e. radioactive materials, toxic chemicals and hazardous waste. Environmental impairment liability will provide cover for clean-up costs and legal defence.

• Theft of takings insurance: If you offer to take payments in cash or your business deals in cash, then it is vital you are protected, in case of theft from you, anyone working for your or your premises. In addition, this type of insurance will also cover money that is in transit during your office hours or that is left locked in your office overnight.

• Business assets and equipment insurance: This insurance will provide cover for the assets that your surgery needs to operate, such as computers, medical equipment, tools, machines and stock. 

• Commercial contents insurance: This will cover the contents of your premises, such as chairs, desks, computers and any other office equipment. 

• Commercial buildings insurance: If you own your own premises, you’ll need to arrange for cover in the event of flooding, fire, bad weather or theft. This policy will also cover permanent fixtures such as toilets, kitchens, display units and built-in cupboards, and you’ll be able to claim for a total rebuild as well as repairs.

These are just examples of some of the types of healthcare insurance policies that we look after at Woodfield & Riley.

What insurance do I need for my healthcare business?

If you are responsible for the running of a healthcare business of any kind you should consider taking out a tailored insurance programme. The wide variety of risks to both the staff and customers create the need for an insurance solution that provides comprehensive protection.

We know that no two healthcare businesses are the same, so speak to us today to find out which policies will best meet your needs.

What else do I need to know about healthcare business insurance?

No matter whether you run a GP surgery, a small practice or a dental laboratory, you will need to consider a range of covers and what risks you may face. These may include:

• Loss or damage to medical equipment. It’s likely that as a healthcare professional, you have a range of very high-value equipment that you use on a daily basis. So, ensuring that equipment is insured in the event of a loss or breakdown is important, as is considering the resultant disruption to your practice.
• You need to make sure that your business is protected from legal costs and any compensation paid out in the event of a claim made by a member of the public or a staff member that they have been injured or otherwise suffered a loss as a consequence of your business activity. 
• You also need to make sure that if your practice contents and business equipment, such as computers, are lost, damaged or stolen are fully covered.