Posted by Amy Carbone on Dec 9, 2024 12:14:34 PM
Whether you’re just launching a dental practice or you simply want a review of your existing insurance policies, there are many options and coverage types to consider.
Operating your own practice is invariably accompanied by some level of risk — whether it’s the risk of litigation, a loss due to a natural disaster, or even a sudden loss of income due to an unforeseen health issue. Insurance products may help to minimize the impact of those risks, so you and your staff can count on your practice to better withstand even worst-case scenarios.
Explore nine different ways dental practice business insurance coverage can offer protection as you consider the insurance products that are right for you and your business.
Business Owner’s Policy
A business owner’s policy provides a broad range of coverage for your dental practice, and common coverages may include property damage, lost earnings, office technology, general liability, loss/reconstruction of patient records, medical waste disposal violations, and legal fees. Some policies may include Employment Practices Liability Insurance.
Entity Malpractice Insurance
In a malpractice lawsuit against you or your partners, your practice could potentially be named as a separate defendant. That means even if you have professional liability insurance to protect your personal assets, your business itself could be at risk and found responsible for damages. Entity malpractice insurance coverage may also help to cover errors made by practice employees.
Consider asking about this coverage as part of your professional liability insurance policy.
Worker’s Compensation
Employer coverage for on-the-job injuries and work-related illnesses is required by law in some states, and even where it’s not, it may be a smart way to help protect your practice. According to the CDC, the healthcare industry has one of the highest rates of nonfatal work illness and injury rates in the country.
Worker’s compensation may cover medical care and lost wages when an employee is injured on the job, regardless of who is at fault. Your policy may also include training programs to prevent workplace injury and illness.
Employment Practices Liability Insurance
Employment practices liability insurance may be included in a business owner’s policy and helps protect your practice from employment-related lawsuits. Common examples of these may include discrimination, wrongful termination, harassment, and failure to promote.
As your staff grows, your risk of an employment-related lawsuit may also increase. Some policies may include preventative measures for your practice, including human resource policy templates, training programs for staff, and legal advice.
Data Breach Coverage
Data breaches are becoming more common. Currently, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR reports that there were 725 healthcare data breaches that resulted in more than 133 million records being exposed or impermissibly disclosed in 2023 alone. This number is expected to rise due to an ongoing backlog of investigations.
Data breaches can be triggered by simple, everyday mistakes. If your practice’s computers are exposed to malware, your office email is hacked, a laptop is stolen out of a car, or confidential files are lost, your practice may face a data breach and everything that goes along with it.
Insurance for data breaches typically helps your practice manage the breach and mitigate the associated costs. This coverage may help to pay for public relations, good faith advertising, patient notification, credit monitoring, legal defense costs, and awards. Potentially just as important, including this coverage as part of your dental office insurance strategy may also provide professional assistance for quickly responding to a breach.
ERISA Bonds
ERISA, or The Employee Retirement Income Security Act, is a body of Department of Labor regulations intended to protect your employee benefits plan from fraud, mismanagement, and abuse. Simply put, ERISA Bonds cover persons with access to the money in your employer-sponsored retirement plans.
These bonds are obtained through providers approved by the U.S. Department of Treasury and may be required by law for employers who offer employee benefits. Unlike some other types of insurance or coverage, ERISA Bonds have benefit amounts and parameters set by the government.
Business Overhead Insurance
Car accidents, hospitalizations, or even a hand injury may all suddenly affect your ability to work. As the owner of a dental practice, your ability to earn an income will affect a lot more than just your personal finances, and you need dental business insurance that protects your practice.
When an injury or illness you from working, business overhead insurance may help to pay your practice’s monthly expenses until you return to work. Covered expenses typically include payroll, utility bills, rent, property taxes, accounting costs, legal fees, some business insurance premiums and professional dues, and some costs related to business premises or equipment interest and depreciation.
Buy-Sell Agreement
If you are an owner in a multi-practitioner practice, it’s important to consider what will happen if a partner is unable to work long-term due to a disability or suffers an untimely death. Buy-sell agreements protect the financial interests of business partners and help ensure smooth transitions in case of unexpected events.
It is important that the practice have a properly written buy-and-sell agreement that may help set a fair method of valuation for the disabled or deceased partner’s share, as well as a plan for how payments will be made.
Disability Insurance Buy-Sell Policy
When an illness or injury stops one partner from working long-term, a disability buy-sell policy may fund the buy-out of that partner’s share of the business.
Disability buy-sell insurance is one way to help ensure a disabled partner is compensated for his/her share of the practice so the business can continue even when one partner can no longer practice. Further, it may eliminate the need for the remaining partners to secure a bank loan or fund the buyout from cash flows at an inopportune time.
Life Insurance Buy-Sell Policy
In the event of a partner’s unexpected death, a life insurance buy-sell policy may help to protect your practice in several ways. For the remaining partners, the life insurance policy proceeds may be used to fund the buyout of the deceased partner’s share of the business, helping to mitigate the need for the surviving partners to obtain a bank loan or pay from cash flows.
Business Insurance For Dentists: Safeguard Your Dental Practice
As you seek ways to safeguard your livelihood and future, you’ll need to deepen your understanding of dental practice insurance solutions.
Download your complimentary copy of The Practice Owner’s Guide to Business Coverage and learn more about insurance coverages to protect your practice.
About Treloar & Heisel
Treloar & Heisel, an EPIC Company, is a premier financial services provider to dental and medical professionals across the country. We assist thousands of clients from residency to practice and through retirement with a comprehensive suite of financial services, custom-tailored advice, and a strong national network focused on delivering the highest level of service.
Insurance products offered through Treloar & Heisel, LLC.
