Insurance for Ontario Veterinarians
You’re passionate about caring for your pet patients.
As a veterinarian, your job is also to protect yourself and your practice with the right insurance package.
Ask your Western business insurance expert about what kind of veterinary insurance you need for your Ontario clinic or animal hospital.
We can help you get an insurance package that protects you whether you’re in the Greater Toronto Area, Aurora, Barrie, Cambridge, Woodstock, Sarnia, Petawawa, Pembroke, or anywhere in Ontario where you are operating a veterinary clinic or animal hospital.
Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) Insurance
Western Financial Group, in partnership with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, has developed the CVMA Insurance Program specifically for veterinarians.
This program provides a variety of insurance options that are tailored to CVMA members, providing industry-leading coverage to manage your risks. It offers complete in-house services, including claims and risk management services.
Speak to your Western business insurance expert about how the CVMA Insurance Program can benefit your veterinary practice.
What kind of veterinary insurance do I need?
You’ll need a veterinary insurance package to protect you and your veterinary clinic or animal hospital in the event of accidents, lawsuits, property damage, or employee injuries.
You could face situations such as an agitated animal that bites or attacks pet owners and their animals, or slips, trips and falls, and theft of medication.
Without the right package of insurance for veterinarians, you’d need to pay to remedy these incidents out of your own pocket.
Go over the types of coverages you need in detail with your Western business insurance expert to make sure your Ontario veterinary practice is covered for the risks that you face.
Here are the coverages that you will need for your veterinary practice:
1. Professional Liability Insurance: Professional liability insurance protects you against claims from your clients that allege negligence, misconduct, and failure to deliver services as promised. For example, it can help protect you against an error in diagnosis, treatment in surgery, and prescribing medication.
It offers you coverage if you make a mistake in your professional service. If you don’t have this type of insurance coverage you will be paying out of pocket for a lawyer, court fees and other related expenses.
Your Western business insurance expert will take the time to explain Professional Liability Insurance and how it will protect your veterinary practice.
2. General Liability Insurance (CGL): This type of coverage is often called “slip and fall” insurance because slips and falls are one of the most common liability claims faced by businesses. Some all it takes is a patch of ice on your sidewalk or a wet floor in your veterinary clinic for someone to be injured.
Slips and falls are covered by commercial general liability (CGL) insurance, which is a type of coverage almost every business needs.
Commercial general liability insurance covers:
- Medical bills if someone is injured on your business property
- Property damage caused by your business
- Settlements
- Legal expenses
- Damage to property that your veterinary practice is renting
- Libel, defamation, slander, and false advertising
3. Commercial Property Insurance: This coverage can help keep you protected from property losses, such as theft, vandalism. You can also add earthquake insurance, sewer backup or flood coverage extensions. You’ll need to do a total inventory of all your business property to determine how much commercial property insurance you will need.
Commercial property insurance protects your veterinary clinic and its contents.
Property you may need to insure:
- Buildings and other structures
- Furniture, equipment, supplies
- Inventory, Computers
- Documents such as payroll, accounts receivable
4. Crime Insurance: Your veterinary clinic could be a target of thieves, including your employees, because of the medications and medical supplies that you have on your premises.
This type of insurance helps protect you against certain types of losses that are not covered by a standard commercial property policy, such as: theft, including employee theft, or counterfeit money or cards.
Your Western business insurance expert will discuss the importance of Crime Insurance for your veterinary practice.
5. Cyber Insurance: You have your clients’ names, addresses and credit card information. If your computer system is hacked, cybercriminals can steal this information, clone it, and sell it on the dark web.
Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay out of your pocket for the cost of restoring your system. You may also be liable for damages to third parties whose information has been stolen and you may have to pay for notification expenses to inform customers affected by a breach.
Ask your Western business insurance expert how cyber insurance can protect your veterinary business as part of your as part of your veterinary insurance package.
6. Business interruption insurance: You may want to consider adding business interruption insurance to your veterinary clinic’s insurance package.
If there is an insured loss at your clinic that is severe enough to prevent your clinic from being open, the expenses associated with getting your business running again will be covered.
This type of policy usually covers vandalism, fire, wind, flooding, and other risks (make sure to understand what your policy covers). Your policy will help compensate you for lost income and expenses that you will need to continue paying even while you are unable to work.
7. Equipment Breakdown Insurance: Your veterinary practice can have ultrasound equipment, anesthetic machines, oxygen tanks and heart monitors. Equipment Breakdown Insurance provides coverage for property damage from the sudden and accidental breakdown of insured equipment not automatically covered by a standard commercial property policy.
Go over the specifics of equipment breakdown coverage with your Western business insurance expert and what you need to be covered.
8. Commercial Vehicle Insurance: Your personal car or truck insurance usually won’t cover your veterinary business. If you have a business car, truck, or van that you use as part of your practice, it needs commercial coverage as part of your plumbing insurance package.
How much veterinary insurance do I need and how much will it cost?
How much will it cost to insure my veterinary practice? It will depend on the size of your business and the kind work that you do.
That means it’s unlikely that all veterinary practices would pay the same monthly or annually for their coverage.
For example, small animal veterinarians would not have the same amount of insurance as veterinarians working in herd management or with high-value animals.
Ask your Western business insurance expert to help you get the right coverage at the right value to protect your veterinarian business.
Western Insurance has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get your Ontario veterinary business the right veterinary insurance package. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your veterinary business.
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