Basic Types of Insurance Needed for a Home Healthcare Business

Home healthcare is one of the country’s fastest-rising industries, thanks to an aging population, more chronic diseases, and a greater focus on tele-health fueling the growth. The global home healthcare sector was worth an estimated $226 billion last year. By 2027, it’s expected to be worth a whopping $340.2 billion. 

With increasing need and popularity, you may find yourself advising someone who’s launching a home healthcare business. Since there are many risks involved, it’s beneficial to consult a specialty insurance broker for guidance. But to get you started, here are some basic insurance coverage types these businesses need.

Commercial General Liability Insurance

A commercial general liability policy provides coverage if a home healthcare business owner or employee causes accidental damage to someone’s body, property, or reputation while at the business. This policy will cover them if a patient slips and hurts themselves while receiving care, for example.

It’s important for home health providers to get a separate commercial general liability policy, rather than a business owner’s policy (BOP). While business liability coverage is a component of a BOP, which is always cheaper than purchasing separate policies, most of these policies won’t cover services performed at a patient’s home.

Medical Malpractice Insurance

A specialized professional liability policy, also called a medical malpractice policy, protects business owners from dissatisfied patients who feel their care has harmed them in some way. For example, this coverage can pay for legal representation if a patient feels they’ve received bad advice or a treatment exacerbated an injury.

They can get the best coverage if they use the same insurance provider for their commercial general liability and professional liability policies. These types of policies can vary, with some excluding coverage for circumstances they believe the other policy type should cover. When using the same provider, all circumstances clients want protection for should have coverage in one policy or another.

Employee Benefits

Unless your client is a sole proprietor, it’s important that their employees have coverage that offers benefits. Everyone from doctors and nurses to administrative and clerical staff needs benefits such as health insurance and disability coverage. Most reputable insurance companies have employee benefits programs that affordably bundle all the perks employees deserve.

Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation is an important employee benefit that covers medical expenses, lawsuits, and disability benefits for employees harmed while delivering the business’ home healthcare services. This insurance coverage is a compulsory healthcare staffing requirement in many states. Sole proprietors might not realize that workers’ compensation insurance can also cover expenses they incur through workplace injuries that aren’t covered by their standard health insurance policy. So it’s worth recommending this option to all clients in the home healthcare space, whether they run a large company like a home healthcare agency or a single-person home health operation.

Commercial Auto Insurance

In most states, your clients will need commercial auto insurance for any vehicles their business owns and uses to visit clients in their homes or aged-care facilities. This insurance works like private car insurance for personal vehicles, covering clients for any property damage or medical bills resulting from at-fault auto accidents in company vehicles. It also provides coverage if a company vehicle gets vandalized or stolen.

Telemedicine Malpractice Insurance

Telemedicine malpractice insurance is a special form of personal liability insurance. This insurance recognizes that telehealth professionals have the burden of diagnosing patient conditions, developing treatment plans, prescribing medications, and reimbursing fees via insurance providers remotely. This unique treatment model carries unique risks, which telemedicine malpractice insurance aims to mitigate. For example, it covers tele-health providers against complications that may occur when patients and tele-health professionals are in different states with different regulations. Coverage can also protect against damage from cybersecurity breaches, issues with remote health monitoring devices, and delays to service due to installation and upgrade issues.

Cyber Liability Insurance

Businesses providing home healthcare services outside telemedicine can still access cyber protection through a cyber liability insurance policy. This policy type is ideal for home healthcare providers, such as home healthcare agencies and medispas seeking financial protection against data breaches and cyber attacks. Under this policy, clients receive reimbursement for the cost of notifying patients of data breaches, monitoring their systems for cyber fraud, and prosecuting the perpetrators of data breaches.

It can be more affordable to add a cyber liability insurance policy to a commercial general liability policy. Alternatively, clients can purchase cyber liability insurance as a standalone policy.

 

With more than 100 insurance products, the team at Quaker Special Risk can connect you with the best home healthcare policies from many A-rated carriers. Contact a broker to learn more about the products that benefit clients in the booming home healthcare industry.

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