Dental Office Business Insurance

Dental Office Business Insurance is provided on our Business Owner Policy (BOP) coverage form and is designed to provide comprehensive insurance for dental practices and professional office combinations.  We know that Dental Office Business Insurance is needed for the variety of services you provide a within a number of general and specialty disciplines inside the classification of general dentistry.  Some dental practices also have dental laboratories connected to the place of patient treatment that may also fabricate and manufacture dental appliances and devices such as dentures.  In these cases we may need to more carefully consider the operations that are being conducted but we are also able to provide protection to dental laboratories under our Business Owner Insurance program.  We are not a source for dental medical malpractice insurance.

Dental Office Business Insurance under our BOP policy is designed for most dental office operations.  The Business Owner Policy for dental practices will include the following coverage:

Dental Office Business Insurance – Liability

• Bodily Injury and Property Damage, Premises Liability
• Personal Injury and Advertising Liability Coverage
• Employment Practices Liability Insurance
• Fellow Employee Coverage
• Host Liquor Liability
• Non-owned Watercraft
• Hired and Non-Owned Auto Liability
• Products and Completed Operations Liability
• Employee Benefits Liability
• Ohio Stop Gap Liability Insurance
• Cyber Insurance

Liability insurance protects against the tort of negligence in the Dental Office Business Insurance policy.  The tort of negligence is a breach of duty that is derived from common law principles that have evolved through decades and even centuries of recorded decisions about our relationships with one another including Dental Office Business Insurance.  A duty is an obligation we owe to someone else.  In essence, we owe each other the duty to protect them from the consequences of our actions and when someone is hurt or suffers harm to either body, property, or reputation, in our culture we boil down our grievances to a monetary settlement in most cases.  In the case of the liability coverage provided in our dental office business insurance policy, we will pay for the benefit of a legal defense against the claims of injury or damage and we will also pay the amounts that become due to another because a finding of your negligence has occurred through legal proceedings or an agreement accomplished through the negotiations of your insurance carrier and the other people involved in the claim.  This includes bodily injury and property damage as a result of events on the premises, through acts on and away from the work facilities, injuries caused by products, advertising injury, personal injuries other than bodily injury, hired and non-owned auto liability, and injury or damage caused due to computer intrusion and compromise when chosen.

Here is an example for Dental Office Business Insurance clients to consider.  During my career I have been extensively involved in providing dental medical professional liability insurance to dental clients.  While this example relates to the professional liability it is relevant to the discussion of liability.

I once insured a dentist who took a late Saturday morning appointment for a traveler in pain and needed some assistance.  He waived off the pre-screen form on the assurances the client was healthy with no medical or allergic concerns.  Once in the operatory, the dentist could clearly see the abscessed tooth and being in a hurry to catch up to early afternoon commitments, after a brief discussion he begins an extraction.  So he numbed the area and began the process of removing the tooth and immediately encountered problems when the root was found to have been hooked around the nerves near the jawbone.  By the time the extraction was complete the patient was experiencing numbness.  That numbness later was found to be nerve damage after legal proceedings were brought and the facts became known.  The dentist’s insurance carrier quickly settled for almost the limits of the policy.  Why?  He didn’t follow his standard of care!  He waived off the pre-screen.  He didn’t image the affected tooth and associated jaw structures to know of hidden complications.  He dove into the procedures not knowing that this tooth required different strategies to remove and probably needed a specialist.  What was to be a quick fee and a profitable Saturday finish for an afternoon golf game becomes an example of the breach of duty we owe to our clients and patients, and that is to protect them from harm arising from our actions.  Dental Office Business Insurance liability develops when we fail to protect another person from the consequences of our actions to the greatest degree possible.

Property for Dental Offices

• Buildings including multiple locations
• Business Personal Property including Operatory Equipment
• Building Limit Automatic Increase at the Time of Loss
• Valuable Papers and Records
• Accounts Receivable Coverage
• Computer Coverage and Cyber Crime
• Outdoor Signs—Attached and Detached
• Building Ordinance or Law Coverage
• Off-Premises Coverage for Business Personal Property, including Property in Transit
• Earthquake Coverage (Some carriers)
• Business Income, including Extra Expense Coverage
• Coverage For Water Back-up
• Equipment Breakdown

Property insurance is required to be included when a business owner policy is used.  If you own the building we must include the building.  We must include the business personal property, stock and fixtures because the Dental Office Business Insurance policy is a package policy that requires both liability and property coverage be included.  The reason the BOP policy is cost effective is the large package credits that are built into the premium charges.  The business owner policy provides a lot of coverage in a tidy package and it is flexible enough to handle several locations and variety of situations for building, business personal property, computer and cyber crime needs, signs, coverage on or off premises, loss of business income, and break down of critical building mechanical systems that may alter your ability to operate.

Inland Marine and Special Property

(See IM Section for more Details)

Mobile equipment and property that leaves the building is best covered with an inland marine endorsement that is designed for equipment that may float to where you actually do your work, like for example, dental screening event at a local school.  Certain equipment that is mobile in nature and leaves the business premises will find the broad coverage of the inland marine policy endorsement that best method of insurance this type of property.

Umbrella Liability

Dental Office Business Insurance often includes an Umbrella liability policy as an additional limit of liability coverage that protects for damages that exceed primary policies and sometimes losses that were not covered in the primary policies but were not excluded by the language of the umbrella policy.  Most carriers offering an umbrella policy probably will not cover over the dental medical malpractice but an Umbrella policy is still a good idea to cover over all other non-professional exposures.  It is good to know what is covered by the Umbrella so make sure to ask.

Crime and Fidelity

• Employee Theft
• Crime Inside
• Crime Outside

The loss of money through theft, robbery or burglary, or the dishonesty of an employee are losses that can cripple a business and tailoring the needs for crime and fidelity coverage can be done within the Business Owner Policy for dentist offices and businesses.

Business Auto

(See business Auto Section for Details)

When your business operates business vehicles it is important to insure the vehicles with liability protection just like the premises and operations.  The business auto coverage is dealt with in great detail in the business auto section.  Follow the link to this section for my information.

Professional Advice and Agency Service

Quality coverage begins with understanding your needs and the extent of your operation.  I have 37 years of experience working with business owners and have a unique and special connection to general dentistry practitioners and their business insurance needs.  When it comes to Dental Office Business Insurance I have considerable experience working with dentists and dental specialty practitioners.  This agency represents quality carriers that have the ability to provide the coverage your business needs whether or not it is ultimately provided inside of our Business Owner Policy or our more flexible Commercial Package Policy (CPP) option.  Call and ask for Terry McCarthy at (513) 779-7920, 9-5 Monday – Friday most days.