There are two main types of professional indemnity, and understanding which is right for you can be challenging. Understanding the difference is key to ensuring you have adequate protection in place for you and your patients.
Traditionally, most dentists in the UK held occurrence-based indemnity provided by a mutual indemnity organisation. Occurrence-based indemnity protects you for incidents that occur during your period of membership, even if a claim related to the incident is not made until years after. That means you are protected for future claims arising from any year in which you were a member.
Claims-made indemnity is what insurance policies usually provide. This protects you for claims related to your practice that arose, and are reported during, a continuous policy period. This means you would need to buy additional cover to get help with claims arising outside that period
As a dental professional, your career deserves the best protection against claims of clinical negligence. The consequences and cost of litigation can be significant, and unfortunately, claims and complaints may arise at any point during a long career and brought even after retirement. It is important to ensure you therefore have protection that ensures you can request assistance no matter when the claim or complaint arises.
In this video, we help explain the difference between occurrence-based and claims-made protection and what it means for you.
Our 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, when a complaint is made, or when a 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 over 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 on 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."
In summary, occurrence-based indemnity provides long-term protection for incidents that happen during your membership, while claims-made cover is dependent on when a claim is reported and may require additional cover after a policy ends or is transferred.
Understanding these differences can help dental professionals choose the protection that best suits their career stage and future plans.
To help dental professionals understand the different types of cover available, the GDC have published guidance on professional indemnity and insurance cover.
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If you have any questions regarding your indemnity, contact us.