Starting Your Dental Career? Make Sure You Have The Right Business Insurance
If you are starting your dental career, you want to make sure that you have the right business insurance to protect your practice and your career.
Claim Policy
During your first year of practice, you are going to need to obtain a first-year claims policy. This policy will cover you for any claims that could potentially arise during your first year of practice. It will cover you for claims that are up to the limits of your policy. For your first year of work, this policy is usually offered at a discounted rate.
How much this policy costs will depend upon where you are practicing. The rate can vary greatly from one state to the next and from rural to metropolitan areas as well. This policy only applies to first-year dentists who are just starting out.
Tail Policy
As a dentist, you are also going to need a tail policy as well. A tail policy is a policy that covers you after you are done practicing. As the window of liability lasts for a few years, you need insurance coverage for when you are done being a dentist as well. You need to carry this insurance policy with you throughout your career, as it will provide you with coverage for the long-run for situations that occurred when you were actively practicing.
Occurrence Insurance
During your first year of practice, you can also choose to get an occurrence insurance policy. With an occurrence insurance policy, you are covered against any claim that a patient were to bring against you, both when you are practicing and after you retire.
As a first-year dentist, just like with a claim policy, you can often get an occurrence policy for a reduced rate. The rate for an occurrence policy will increase after your first year. With many occurrence insurance policy, there is a significant rate hike around your fifth year of practice. The rate generally hikes because the longer you have been practicing, the greater the chance of a claim against you being filed.
One of the benefits of going with an occurrence policy over a claim policy is that with an occurrence policy, you don't also need to purchase a tail policy. An occurrence policy will cover you now and in the future as well from insurance claims.
Talk with an insurance agent to help you choose the best liability policy for your dental practice. You may also want to talk to other experienced dentists to get an idea of how they handle their liability insurance as well.
