28 Jun Business Insurance for Healthcare Practitioners and Therapists

Many small businesses have very specific risks, and those that deal with their customers’ physical health and appearance, such as beauticians, hairdressers, private osteopaths, chiropractors, and sports therapists, need very specific business insurance.

Legal requirements for healthcare practices

Any business that employs staff must have employers’ liability insurance. Even if you only employ one person, you are legally required to have cover in place to cover any potential claim made against you should they fall ill or if they are injured as a result of working for your business.

If you don’t have employers’ liability cover and an employee makes a claim against your business, not only will you be responsible for paying court costs and any compensation awarded (which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds depending on the severity of the illness or injury), but you also run the risk of hefty fines if you are found to have employed staff and failed to purchase employers’ liability insurance.

Other business insurance cover for surgeries and practices

It can be hard to foresee the types of risk and losses that your business might face in the future, so ‘All Risks’ cover is a great way of ensuring your business assets are covered for accidents, fire, flood, theft, and damage by impact. In fact, All Risk cover will protect anything you have individually listed in your policy schedule unless any exclusions are specifically made in the policy wording.

So, if you travel to your clients’ homes to deliver sports massage therapies and you take equipment with you, it will be covered (up to a maximum limit) should it get lost, stolen or damaged during the trip.

If you work with the public, you will almost certainly want public liability insurance. This covers you for proceedings brought against you (or your company) for damages and injuries suffered by clients and members of the public. So, if your massage table collapses during a treatment in a client’s home and it smashes a TV or breaks some furniture, your client may wish to claim against you for the cost of replacing the damaged objects.

You may also wish to have the following:

• Contents and stock cover
• Goods in transit cover
• Money cover
• Product liability insurance
• Legal expenses cover
• Business interruption cover
• Drugs and medication stock cover
• Computer breakdown cover

Special considerations for beauty and health therapists

One thing to consider carefully when taking out your policy is whether you will need any supplementary cover.

Some public liability insurance policies will have restrictions surrounding certain products and treatments, for instance lip fillers and Botox treatments are often exempt, so you will need to check your policy wording carefully and consider all the types of treatment you provide.

You may need to take out supplementary cover which covers you for injuries caused by particular products rather than you, the practitioner; for example, a massage oil which causes an allergic reaction.

If you will be providing healthcare for pregnant women or clients with certain medical conditions you should discuss this with your insurer to make sure you are covered should anything go wrong.

Recommendations for Healthcare practitioners and therapists

Here are our top business insurance tips:

1. Never work without insurance – one claim made against you by a client could see the financial demise of your business.
2. Choose an insurer with specialist knowledge of providing insurance to surgeries and healthcare practices.
3. Keep detailed records of the treatments and therapies given. Report any suspicious behaviour to your insurer (spurious claims have become rife in recent times).
4. Talk to your insurer if your business model changes – your insurance policy is your safety net should anything untoward happen and it will pay to make your insurer aware of any changes to the services you provide or the way you work so that your cover remains in place.

Save time and money with Tredstone

You can get an online quote and buy immediate cover with Tredstone, powered by City Insurance, at any time. Or, for a more tailored approach, call us on 0345 6461395 to talk to one of our experienced advisors so we can get a full picture of your business insurance requirements.

We will seek a business insurance policy from a panel of top UK insurers to find you the most cost-effective package for your needs.

Call us today.