Theft where you least expect it
There are a lot of things to think about when you’re buying a practice, but you don’t expect to have to consider the integrity of your employees at the same time.
However, this is exactly the issue one of clients faced, having purchased an existing dental practice. He retained the existing work force, including another surgeon and the practice manager, amongst others. Unfortunately, that also meant that these individuals continued to practice their “extracurricular” treatments, whereby they offered a number of patients heavily discounted expensive dental procedures, provided “out of hours” and under the radar. In addition, patient records went missing to try and cover up the deception. Their underhand activity was not just a one-off occurrence, with several employees colluding to keep things hidden. The work undertaken naturally wasn’t put through the books and once discovered our client realised that a very substantial amount of money was haemorrhaging out of the practice.
Fortunately, the Practice Insurance taken out through Lloyd & Whyte, included fidelity (employee dishonesty) cover. Crime-related losses are not typically covered by commercial property insurance, but our policy paid out the maximum possible, which helped relieve a substantial amount of the client’s losses. We can offer up to £100,000 of cover.
Employee theft happens more frequently than you may imagine, across different professions. Whilst infidelity insurance will not guarantee the honesty of an employee, it will provide cover if the worst happens. Protect your business against criminal behaviour of a dishonest employee or a dishonest third party by ensuring your practice insurance is as comprehensive as possible.
Call to discuss with advisers to arrange protection on 01823 250700
How would you cope being off work for a year?
One of our sole trading clients found himself unable to work having suffered with chronic neck pain, resulting in him being unable to work for over a year.
Unfortunately neck and back pain are not uncommon amongst dentist and ironically chiropractors too, given the necessity to bend over, stoop or manipulate patients. Almost 28 million days of work were lost in 2018 due to back, neck and muscle problems, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).1 Unfortunately we are also seeing an increase in medical practitioners and health workers being unable to work due to pandemic related issues, which could leave your practice vulnerable due to long-term staff absences.
We are glad to report that as a result of his Locum Cover policy, he was able to claim substantial reimbursement in excess of tens of thousands, and he is currently making a phased return to work using 50% of his benefits to still support him. He was extremely glad to have financial support at such a crucial time and certainly without such cover, it could have been a very different story.
Locum Insurance is there should you or a member of your team be unable to work due to illness or injury, the insurance will pay a weekly benefit direct to the clinic to use as you see fit. It’s flexible, not medically underwritten and needs no proof of expenses. You will know exactly what you will receive and we can offer up to £2,500 per week of cover.
Call to discuss with our expert team to arrange protection
or book a review 01823 250700
A health check for finances
Just as you undertake regular medical check-ups for many of your patients, on the basis that prevention is better than cure, you should think of your insurance in the same way. As experts within this field, it is our job to review the insurance programme you have in place to ensure that you are adequately covered, but also to check that you are not paying for unnecessary cover. Does your current broker or insurer offer this service? If not, then they should!
An insurance review will thoroughly assess the policies of your practice, and the basis upon which they have been taken out, to ensure you are properly covered and your policies are still appropriate. You may be under or over insured or think everything is already covered satisfactorily, however in our experience many practices fail to update sums insured when purchasing new equipment or forget to inform us that income has fluctuated, leaving them underinsured. Such a review could even save you a huge amount of money in the long run. It costs nothing to do but could prevent future issues should a claim be necessary.
This was certainly the case with once client who benefitted from our review. We reduced their tenant’s improvement cover value by 44%. We also identified areas of critical underinsurance, such as contents which was increased by over 10% and their income protection was upped by over 450% . In addition, were able to update important material information which is vital for underwriters to be aware of when calculating risks and have an impact on policy validity. Any subsequent claims could become complicated or prolonged due to a material omission, such as not having the right locks fitted.
We were also able to introduce our Water Shut Off Device system, the presence of which helps to reduce premiums. We also highlighted areas of cover the policy holder had been unaware of such as Explosion and collapse of pressure vessels, which is included in our cover. Make sure that you have this included and have them inspected annually because believe us, although it’s a rare occurrence, if they blow, the damage and cost is very substantial. Pressure vessel inspections are a statutory requirement to comply with Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR) 2000 and we offer this inspection service.
We even discussed our Cyber Insurance and Inspection contracts, services previously unknown to our client.
So are you currently reviewing your insurance needs? If not, now is the time to give you and your business a financial check-up. At the end of the day our review may save you money, but ultimately it will give you peace of mind that you’ve got things correctly covered.
