As a dentist or healthcare professional, your career deserves the best protection against claims of clinical negligence. The consequences and cost of litigation can be significant, and it’s an unfortunate fact that claims and complaints can be made against you at any stage over a long career. There are two main types of professional indemnity, and the differences can take time to understand. This video will help explain the difference between occurrence-based and claims-made protection.
Our Deputy Dental Director and Underwriting Policy Lead, Dr Yvonne Shaw, is here to clear things up:
“Your membership with Dental Protection provides occurrence-based discretionary indemnity. This allows you to request assistance for incidents that arise (or ‘occur’) at any time during your membership - irrespective of when the assistance is needed, or a complaint or claim arises. This could be years after the event – even during a career break or after membership has ended. This means we’ll still be there for you, should you need us, throughout your career and beyond.
Every year, we help thousands of members with issues that arise from their professional practice. By offering discretionary indemnity, we have the flexibility to help in a huge range of circumstances. Our assistance for UK dental members isn’t restricted by financial limits or contractual terms – nor do our members have to pay any excesses. We’ve provided discretionary indemnity to members for 130 years now, because it’s suitable and adaptable to the ever-changing needs of dental professionals.
An insurance product works differently. This type of protection will specify the cover provided in a policy and schedule, which will include details of any conditions, warranties or exclusions that may apply, as well as any financial limits or excesses. It is important to read insurance policy documents carefully to confirm whether the product is appropriate for your needs and what type of protection is being offered.
Insurance policies are often provided on a claims-made basis. This differs from occurrence-based protection as assistance is dependent upon both the date on which an incident occurs and the date that it is reported. With this type of product, you are usually required to notify your insurer/indemnity provider of an incident as soon as you become aware that the incident has happened.
If you retire, leave dentistry, or take a career break, you may need to purchase “extended-reporting benefits” (sometimes called “run-off cover”), to allow you to continue to request assistance for incidents that arose during the period of the claims-made policy or membership. If you switch providers, your new protection would need to include retroactive cover for any new matters that come to light after transferring to the new insurer or indemnifier. This can come at an additional cost."