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All dentists are required to hold individual professional indemnity insurance as a requirement to be registered by AHPRA.  This can provide financial protection for a dentist from negligence claims brought against them.

Many practice owners do not consider a potentially important additional type of professional indemnity insurance which will separately protect their business or practice legal entity if a negligence claim is brought against that legal entity instead of, or in conjunction with a claim brought against an individual practitioner.

This type of cover can be found under several names in the insurance industry, such as entity professional indemnity cover, practice indemnity cover and practice malpractice cover. For example, a practitioner who own all or part of an incorporated entity (Pty Ltd) may consider this product.  It is not automatically granted as part of an individual policy.

A claim could be made against the dental practice (legal entity) for civil claims for compensation arising from injuries caused by/alleged to be caused by faulty treatment or privacy breaches by employed or contracted staff if the entity contributed to the harm caused.  Claims could be made against the entity because of the owner’s own actions, or from the vicarious liability arising from the actions of the employees, consultants, associates or other partners of the dental practice that the entity may have been responsible for. Practice or entity cover does not provide individual cover to AHPRA registered employees, principals or other staff for claims brought against them in their individual name or capacity.

If selected, practice indemnity cover is issued as an add on to the owner’s individual policy and an extra premium is payable.

Some insurers that offer individual professional indemnity insurance for Dentists do not offer practice or entity insurance and this may need to be purchased separately.

At the time of writing, the policy arranged by Experien General Insurance Services, for the insurer CGU, offers entity cover as an optional extra. We can also arrange “stand alone” practice indemnity insurance cover for Dentists on request.  The specific details of what is covered and excluded in these covers can be found in the policy wording and policy schedules issued and this article should not be relied on in that regard.

Contact us to find out more.

See the policy wording issued by the insurer (Insurance Australia Limited, trading as CGU Insurance) and your own policy schedule for the actual policy wordings applicable to you before buying cover.  This article contains only general information that does not take into account your own needs, goals and circumstance.

Experien General Insurance Services Pty Ltd (ABN 77 151 269 279) AFSL 430190 – trading as Experien Insurance Services – arranges Dental Professional Indemnity insurance and is not an insurer. Insurance Australia Limited ABN 11 000 016 722 AFSL 227681 trading as CGU Insurance is the insurer for new policies from 1 May 2019 and renewing policies.  In effecting this contract of insurance, Experien General Insurance Services will be acting under an authority given to it by the Insurer and Experien General Insurance Services will be effecting the contract as agent of the Insurer and not the Insured.  Information noted on this page, and linked pages, only apply if the insurer is CGU Insurance.