Home Health Care Business Insurance

Insurance for home health care businesses is a combination of several coverages that make up a comprehensive policy package. The insurance policy will cover your business for general risks (e.g., a slip-and-fall accident you’re liable for) to specialized risks based on your services (e.g., allegations of malpractice from a patient). Here are the recommended coverages for home health care agencies:

• Medical malpractice insurance: In your industry, the most important coverage is medical malpractice insurance. This is a professional liability coverage predominantly for health care workers that can provide financial protection from claims of negligence that result in causing third-party bodily injury. Should a claim arise, you may be covered for legal defence costs, medical fees, and other related fees.

Common claims stem from allegations that typically fall within the following areas:

• • Failure to attend to a patient
  • A failure in diagnosis
  • Failures in referral or consultation
  • Failure to protect or warn third parties
  • Substandard treatment of a patient

Suppose you’re helping an elderly patient regain strength after a fall earlier in the week. Due to their progress, you’re confident they can walk for a moment without support. However, when you let go of their hands, they fall backward, exacerbating their injury. In this case, the patient could sue you for professional malpractice. If the patient makes a claim, medical malpractice insurance may cover the legal fees and any medical costs.

• Commercial general liability (CGL) insurance: CGL protects your business from the general risks to third parties that you could be found liable for, such as a slip-and-fall incident or unintentional damage to their property. For example, say you’re in a patients’ home helping them to clean their home. While dusting a bookshelf, you accidentally knock a decorative vase from the shelf. It turns out the vase was intended as an heirloom and worth a lot of money. In this case, your CGL insurance could cover the cost to replace or repair the broken vase.

• Commercial property insurance: If you run your business from a physical location or you own business-related equipment, commercial property insurance can cover your location and assets in the event of an insured risk, such as a fire, theft, or vandalism. Say your agency has office space for administrative work. One evening, the office is broken into and your computers are stolen. Commercial property insurance could offer coverage to replace the stolen computers.