Running a healthcare practice is a rewarding endeavour, but a challenging one as well! At Lloyd & Whyte we understand that your profession is demanding and busy, which is why we make insuring your clinic or practice as easy as possible. In the article, we look at three common insurance-related risks associated with healthcare practices and how you can overcome them with the help of our experts.
1. Underinsurance
If a storm, flood, or fire damages your property, it could result in the need for a rebuild or at least extensive repairs. If your clinic or healthcare practice is underinsured it is likely you will only receive a partial payout leaving you with the remainder of the bill. Building construction can be costly and replacing damaged equipment and stock (if you run an optometry practice for example) can be expensive.
How does underinsurance impact on an insurance claim?
If you’re underinsured by 30% and your premises suffers from £30k of damage following a flood, you will only be paid £21k despite claiming for £30k. Some insurers may apply the ‘average clause’ and calculate your payout based on you being accurately insured.
Why could your practice be underinsured?
If you own your premises and you haven’t reviewed your insurance policy for a few years, your level of cover probably won’t reflect the following:
- Increase in the cost of building materials
Your sum insured (the amount your building is insured for) might be based on the cost of building materials from 5 years ago. If you need to repair your premises, the rebuild cost might be far more than you insured your premises for because of the increased rebuild cost.
- Increase in construction labour costs
Building contractors are in high demand, pushing the price of labour up. If you based your rebuild cost on the cost of builders and contractors from a few years ago, you might be underinsured without even knowing it.
- Cost of equipment and stock
Inflation drives up prices, including stock and equipment used in your healthcare profession. If you are a chiropractor and need a new adjustment table or ultrasound equipment and you based your sum insured on what it would cost to replace it pre-pandemic for example, you could be in danger of being underinsured. If you are an optometrist and have increased your summer stock levels with new ranges of sunglasses, we will need to adjust your insurance accordingly.
- Business Interruption
If you have taken out Business Interruption Insurance and your broker is unaware of changes to your business operations, your policy might not cover you for the full amount you need to pay for overheads and expenses while your practice resumes business as usual.
Chiropractic, Optical and GP
Dental, Veterinary
2. Security risks
Security risks present in two ways:
- Physical security of your premises and contents including equipment and any stock you hold
- Cyber security
Practice Insurance will include financial protection for physical assets such as your building (if you own it) and your contents. If the security of your premises is insufficient, or if you fail to disclose the full extent of its security (i.e. faulty locks or CCTV, or vulnerable areas potentially presenting easy access for a burglar), you might run into difficulties should you need to make an insurance claim. Being open and transparent with us when arranging Practice Insurance can ensure you don’t run the risk of issues around any claims.
Cyber security is another factor to take into serious consideration. With a rise in cyber criminals targeting healthcare practices across the UK, Cyber Insurance is crucial for maintaining business operations and professionalism. Loss of sensitive data such as patient records and payment details can ruin a healthcare practice’s reputation and cause significant financial loss.
Restoring or retrieving systems and data can be expensive, so Cyber Insurance through Lloyd & Whyte should be an essential part of your insurance package. Our insurance experts can arrange a cyber policy which covers a wide range of aspects following a cyber attack including:
- Cyber extortion or ransomware attacks
- Costs to reinstate data or restore programs following an attack
- Third party data breach notification costs
- Legal costs in the event of a third party breach – occurs from a network breach or privacy/data breach
- Regulatory legal costs should an investigation be brought against you by a government entity
3. Worldpay
UK healthcare practices can benefit from Lloyd & Whyte’s payment solutions through Worldpay. Taking credit and debit card payments has never been easier with Worldpay, enabling your patients and clients to pay quickly and easily. If you’re looking for an industry standard and compliant payment proposition for your practice, we can help. Just talk to us about how we can help you set up a Worldpay secure payment gateway with:
- Sophisticated AI-driven fraud detection
- Acceptance of ALL major credit and debit cards, plus ApplePay, GooglePay and PayPal
- User-friendly online reporting tools
- Secure payment systems compliant with PCI DSS industry standards
To discuss your credit and debit card processing options with our team, call 01823 250760
Don’t leave your insurance to chance. Book a review or get a new quote today. For enquiries around Practice Insurance, Cyber Insurance, and Debit and Credit Card processing, contact us now.
