Practice and Locum Insurance

Why it’s important to review your cover

If you’re a GMP in practice or a practice principal dental surgeon, one area of insurance often overlooked is practice expenses and locum insurance.

For general medical practitioners

As a general medical practitioner, your practice agreement will probably stipulate what your responsibility is for locum expenses if you’re ill.

With factors such as practice list size dictating what cover you need, it’s important to get advice on the options available to you. For most practices, a group locum insurance which covers all the partners under one policy is often the more economical route. 

For dental surgeons

For dental surgeons, practice fixed overheads such as rates, rent and staff costs are a huge expense. Whilst personal income protection will cover such expenses as your home bills if you fall ill, who will pay the practice bills? 

All practices have different requirements so specialist areas of insurance should not be overlooked. The level of cover and the speed at which you require the benefits also influences the price.

Increased competition and contract types

The market has certainly become much more competitive in recent years with more players vying for your business. It’s had a healthy effect on premiums so if you haven’t reviewed your practice or locum cover recently, it’s certainly worth doing so. 

This can, though, be a daunting and time consuming task for GP and dental practice owners, particularly as there are so many different types of contract in the market place to consider.

Absence based contracts to ones that require full underwriting have made it more difficult for medical professionals to decipher the differences.

Reviewing your cover

By reviewing your practice and locum insurance annually, you’ll ensure you have the locum and practice cover you need at a competitive price in today’s market.

Seeking advice from an independent financial adviser medical specialist, such as Legal & Medical Investments, will also enable you to review the whole of the market place, and all the nuances of the various types of contract that are applicable to you, without the stress and precious time it takes doing it yourself.

Remember too that both practice and locum insurance are classified as a business expense and are allowable against income. Instead of reviewing them in isolation, they should be considered as an integral part of your overall financial plan and situation.

Article by Raj Passi
Independent Financial Adviser at Legal & Medical Investments
March 2011