All Med Pro launches claims occurrence indemnity insurance in addition to claims made insurance cover for dentists across the UK

All Med Pro can now provide dentists with contract certain occurrence or claims made dental indemnity insurance with comprehensive claims support from fellow dentists at highly competitive premiums.

Occurrence Based Indemnity

Outside of the big three defence Organisations the vast majority of indemnity providers offer cover on what’s known as a “Claims Made” basis. This basically means that cover would only be in force whilst the policy was active. But what happens if a claim is made against you many years after the policy expires? Unless you have adequate “run-off” cover in place you would be effectively uninsured. Run-off cover is what insurers provide, usually in the event of retirement or death up to a fixed number of years after the policy expires.

Like the dental defence organisations, All Med Pro now provides claims occurrence based indemnity, which means that as long as you were insured with us when the treatment was provided then cover will always apply, irrespective of when the claim is made – which could be many years into the future!

So, in the event of long-term sickness, retirement or even a career break, cover would be in place indefinitely for the treatments you performed whilst being insured with All Med Pro under our claims occurrence policy.

Discretionary Cover vs Contractual Cover

For many years the vast majority of dentists have sought cover from the big three defence Organisations and the cover provided is usually discretionary. For this reason, there is no guarantee whatsoever that a claim will be paid and we have heard from numerous clients that this has happened to them. Dentists beware! If your indemnity provider refuses to cover an incident it does not mean the patient’s claim ends. It simply means you are left to personally cover all legal costs and compensation if you are found liable. You wouldn’t choose to insure anything else in this way and it seems like a very high-risk approach for dentists to protect themselves.

All Med Pro provides contract certain indemnity cover which means that there is a legally enforceable contract between the client and insurer. Contract (policy) terms and conditions are in place to protect the insured dentist and not to give the insurer an opportunity avoid covering an allegation of dental negligence. There are lots of ways that dentists who have purchased indemnity from an insurance provider are protected due to the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory governance of the insurance sector and as such, there are numerous rights of recourse available if a claim is rejected unfairly. In addition to both insurers and insurance intermediaries being regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority insurers are also regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority. This requires that:

• The practitioner (as a customer) is treated fairly
• The insurer must have adequate funds to meet all liabilities
• A formal complaints service must be available
• Access to the Financial Ombudsman Scheme is available if a dispute should arise with the insurer
• Access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is available if an insurer should fail (which in the context of medical malpractice insurance would be a very rare event).

Contract certain indemnity provides you with clarity of what is covered in the event of an allegation of dental negligence and avoids the reliance on discretionary indemnity. As long as full disclosure, particularly regarding your scope of practise and claims history, has been given the claim will be covered contractually.

Comprehensive service

Hiscox Insurance are one of the world’s leading insurers and have one of the best reputations when it comes to looking after clients should a claim arise. We have developed an indemnity solution that not only provides comprehensive cover but specialist dental and legal support when you need it the most.

In the event of a claim you will be able to speak with another dentist who is dual-qualified as a legal adviser who fully understands your position. They will work with you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the claim which enables us to quickly and efficiently bring claims to a close or be better placed to defend them.

In the event of a successful claim being made against you, our team will continue to provide support and recommendations to reduce the risk of similar claims arising in the future.

All Med Pro

Posted by Gemma