How Error And Omission Insurance Can Benefit Holistic Professionals
In Ontario, Canada in today’s time there are a wide range of doctors. While these doctors has studied in the most advanced schools and have access to the most advance equipment they don’t always have the answer to ever disease or sickness. This leads many individuals to turn to another type of doctor. These doctors are known as holistic professionals and they offer a different type of treatment. These doctors offer more of an old world, all natural type of treatment. Most of the time people looking for all natural treatments or people who have exhausted all their options usually turn to holistic professionals for advice and treatment.
However, one just does not decide to become a holistic professional. It takes a lot of hard work and studying to learn the practices and treatments of the holistic world. If you put all that hard work and time into studying to become a holistic professional you don’t want to have it taken away from you in the blink of an eye, and it only takes one disgruntled customer or client to ruin your business. However, if you are protected with the right type of insurance coverage this is something that you will not have to worry about.
Understanding How Error And Omissions Insurance Works
Error and omissions insurance also known as professional liability insurance and malpractice insurance, is a special type of coverage that can protect you anytime your customers or clients suffer financial loses due to a mistake on your part or because you did not perform a service properly. For instance, if when you are prescribing your patient a holistic treatment and you leave out a key ingredient that causes your patient to only get sicker you are at fault. In most cases the patient is going to sue you in order to pay for the finical and emotional losses the he or she suffered.
There are also times when error and omission insurance can protect you when you are not at fault. For instance, if a patient already has it in his or her mind that your treatment will cure him or her and it turns out that it doesn’t he or she might be mad and look to sue you. Since you are not at fault you might think that the lawsuit will not really effect you, but just think about all the time and money that you are going to spend in court. In both of these situation errors and omissions insurance can cover your attorney fees, settlement fees, and any court costs that you incur throughout the process.
When And How Does A Holistic Professional Purchase E And O Insurance?
When it comes to any type of insurance the need to purchase is before the risk occurs. So, before you even open your doors for business or take in your first customer you need to make sure that you are covered by errors and omissions insurance. As far as buying the insurance is concerned this is a pretty straightforward process. There are several different insurance companies in the Ontario province that offer this type of coverage. A few of these companies are Lloyds or London, Intact insurance, Aviva, and Premier Marine.
However, when shopping for e and o insurance you need to keep in mind that not every company is created equally. Some might offer a policy that is better suited to your need where as others might not. Just make sure you take the time to research each policy before just signing up with the first company your come across.
What Error And Omission Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Yes, error and omissions insurance is necessary to protect your business, but it isn’t a golden ticket to success. Even with this insurance coverage, your company still could be at risk. This is why it is important that you completely understand everything that error and omissions insurance does not cover.
To start off error and omissions insurance does not cover any illegal acts that are performed by you or your employees. For instance, if you find that your business is strapped for cash and pay someone to burn down your store and you are caught error and omissions insurance cannot protect you against the kind of lawsuit that you might face.
If you have a customer in your shop or doctor’s off that slip and falls due to a leaky pipe, then errors and omissions insurance is not going to protect you against this type of lawsuit. If you often have customers in your shop and this is a potential risk then you might want to consider additional coverage.
Error and omissions insurance also does not cover any employee injuries. If you employee other workers and one of the gets hurt assisting a patient in and out of bed e and o is not going to cover this type of lawsuit.
When looking to hire employees and some applicants claim that you did not hire them due to discrimination issues, there is a chance that a lawsuit might be brought up. Error and omissions insurance is not going to cover you against this type of lawsuit.
Is The Same E&O Policy Suitable For Everyone?
Errors and omissions coverage does not have standard policy wordings, because each policy is unique and must contain the correct verbiage and information, pertaining to the holistic professional’s exposures. This basically means that same policy cannot be utilized for different professionals, so there is not one size fits all in this case.
Some E&O policies will contain defense expenses and punitive damages, while others will only include the defense expenses. Each holistic professional will need to understand the specifics of errors and omissions insurance coverage and the legal terminology. While it is okay to rely on the underwriter to explain the policy’s terms, you will still need to be educated to genuinely understand the every aspect of the policy.
Each policy will vary, depending on the professional’s field of study, business, claims history and location. You will need to supply the underwriter with specific information, such as contractual agreements, numbers of employees and training and documentation procedures.
