Jaycee Brown

Jaycee Brown

Director of Communications

Dentists and Business Owner’s Policies

Dental clinics should get business insurance, which “can help pay the costs of property damage, lawsuits, lost business income, and other covered losses” (“What Does Business Insurance Cover?”). While they legally need workers compensation insurance for employees, they also need other insurance policies for other situations, such as business property insurance, business income insurance, professional liability insurance, etc.” (“What Does Business Insurance Cover?”; “Insurance for Dental Offices”). Small and mid-sized dental clinics could enroll into business owners policy (BOP) (“BOP insurance: your guide to a business owners policy”; “Insurance for Dental Offices”).
BOPs provide a variety of coverage to protect the practice from unforeseen events. Dental clinics can benefit from BOPs due to the amount of coverage they have, such as “Property Coverage; Business Interruption and Continuation Coverage; General Liability Coverage; and Crime Protection” (“Business Owner’s Policy and Worker’s Compensation”). In addition to these types of coverage, they “can help save [beneficiaries] money…” (“What Does Business Insurance Cover?”). Dental clinics can remain assured that their policy’s property coverage would cover their “buildings and contents,” such as dentist chairs and X-ray machines, all of which “‘are very expensive to replace’” out-of-pocket (“What does a business owners policy (BOP) cover?”; Shacklett 2017). The policy could even help pay for situations when the clinic “[lost] important patient computer data to a virus…” (“Insurance for Dental Offices”). In situations where dental clinics experience a disaster such as a major fire “that disrupts the operation of the business,” BOP’s business interruption coverage “covers the loss of income… It can also include the extra expense of operating out of a temporary location” (“What does a business owners policy (BOP) cover?”). In addition, BOP’s liability coverage can help pay for the dental clinic’s “legal responsibility for the harm it may cause to others. This harm is a result of things [the beneficiary] and [his or her] employees do or fail to do in [his or her] business operations that may cause bodily injury or property damage due to defective products, faulty installations and errors in services provided” (“What does a business owners policy (BOP) cover?”). This benefit in the BOP could help clinics pay the other party’s medical bills (“Insurance for Dental Offices”). Crime coverage could also be convenient in cases of “employee dishonesty, computer fraud, and more” (“BOP insurance: your guide to a business owners policy”).
Although the dental practice may be functioning smoothly, it could encounter unexpected situations, such as a broken X-ray machine, patients injured in the clinic, fraud, etc. Without a business insurance policy, dentists have to use up most of their expenses for these events. Some dentists not only save some costs with BOPs, but also receive different types of coverage, preparing them for a variety of unforeseen events. BOPs could help alleviate their worries and costs, allowing their practice to continue despite the events that could financially damage their livelihood.

Works Cited
“BOP insurance: your guide to a business owners policy.” Esurance. Accessed May 31, 2018.
https://www.esurance.com/info/business/bop-insurance-your-guide-to-a-business-owners-policy.
“Business Owner’s Policy and Worker’s Compensation.” Dentist’s Advantage. Accessed May
31, 2018. http://www.dentists-advantage.com/sites/DA/products/Pages/Products-bopcov.aspx.
“Insurance for Dental Offices.” USA Business Insurance. Accessed May 31, 2018.
http://businessinsuranceusa.com/commercial-insurance-dental-office.
Shacklett, Mary. “Never work without a net: Insuring your business.” cnet, August 30, 2017.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/never-work-without-a-net-insuring-your-business/.  
“What does a business owners policy (BOP) cover?” Insurance Information Institute. Accessed
May 31, 2018. https://www.iii.org/article/what-does-businessowners-policy-bop-cover.
“What Does Business Insurance Cover?” The Hartford. Accessed May 31, 2018.
https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/what-does-business-insurance-cover.

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