Optometrist Liability Insurance

A comprehensive insurance for optometrists will typically include the following coverages:

• Professional Liability Insurance:  Also referred to as medical malpractice insurance, this policy provides coverage for allegations of misconduct, negligence, and failure to deliver a professional service as promised. For example, you prescribe your client +5.00 glasses but they complain a week later of severe headaches. You realize your prescription was too strong for their vision based on when you recheck their assessment. They sue you for negligence – your insurance may cover legal fees and related monetary judgments.

• Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance: This insurance protects you from general risks you may encounter during day-to-day business operations, including third-party property damage or bodily injuries (such as a slip-and-fall). For example, you accidentally break a client’s existing glasses when testing their flexibility. In this scenario, you could be covered financially by CGL to replace their broken glasses.
  • Product liability insurance: As part of a CGL policy, you can be protected against property damage or bodily injury allegations due to a product you sell, manufacture, or distribute in your clinic. Most product liability claims arise from an issue with the product, such as incorrect labelling or manufacturing defects. For example, a client suffers an allergic reaction to the glasses cleaner you sold them with their new glasses. In this case, your product liability insurance could cover the medical fees and legal expenses.

• Commercial Property Insurance: Commercial property insurance protects your property (physical location, equipment, inventory) from an insured event, such as a fire, severe storm or theft. For example, if your location suffered smoke damage after a fire in the neighbouring unit, your commercial property insurance policy could cover the cleanup costs and the costs to repair or replace damaged property.

• Equipment Breakdown Insurance: Equipment breakdown insurance protects your optometry’s expensive equipment by providing funds to repair or replace it if it malfunctions because of internal damage, such as a power surge, electrical short, or mechanical failure. It also covers your clinic’s office equipment such as computers, photocopiers, landline telephones, and fax machines. However, this coverage does not pay for damage to your equipment due to wear and tear or operator error. It also does not cover damage or loss resulting from fire, flood, theft, or extreme weather (commercial property insurance will protect your equipment and business contents from fire, flood, or theft).