Our Partner Hartford Insurance
In 2016, hundreds more Georgia dentists found competitive, comprehensive coverage thanks to GDA Plus+ Insurance/GDIS and our partner The Hartford. From business policies to worker’s compensation coverage, we can provide high quality, attentive service – and help you consolidate all your policies with one company, endorsed by your Georgia Dental Association.
For more than 30 years, The Hartford has had a team of small business insurance specialists dedicated to serving small businesses such as dental practices. A fortune 500 company, Hartford Insurance counts more than 1 million small business owners who trust them for their insurance needs. Hartford’s claims experience consistently earns industry leading ratings and reviews from our small business insurance customers and our middle and large business clients. In 2016, the Ethisphere® Institute named The Hartford a World’s Most Ethical Company® for the eighth time.
Business Owner's Policy
As practicing professionals and small business owners, many dentists require property and casualty coverage. Through The Hartford, GDIS agents can address your specific concerns, which might include patient records coverage, dental waste disposal, property/equipment coverage, income interruption and more.
At a minimum, most small medical and healthcare practices have a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP). Why? Because it helps protect your business in much the same way that a homeowner’s policy protects your home and personal possessions.
By combining some of the most important coverages small business owners need, including Business Liability, Business Property and Business Income, a BOP can save you money while helping to safeguard what you’ve worked hard to build. It also provides an easy way to purchase optional, additional coverage tailored to your business.
Here is a list of coverages that can be included or endorsed on your business owner's policy.
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Business Liability coverage
Business Liability coverage helps protect you, your practice and your employees for claims related to property damage, bodily injury and personal and advertising injury. Among other expenses, it helps cover defense costs and covered settlements or judgments you’re legally obligated to pay.
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Business Property coverage
Business Property coverage helps protect the property you lease, own or rent (i.e. office building and/or contents).
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Business Income coverage
Business Income coverage helps protect lost income if you’re forced to close due to direct physical loss or damage to your premises, or business property at your premises, resulting from an event covered by your policy.
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Data Breach
Medical and healthcare professionals often store information about their employees and clients, including sensitive personal health information, social security and debit and credit card numbers. If that information is lost or stolen, it could leave your business vulnerable to lawsuits, regulatory fines, penalties and a damaged reputation.
Contrary to popular belief, the risk of a data breach is not just a problem for big business and hacking isn’t the only way a breach can occur. Consider what could happen if:
- An employee’s car is broken into and a laptop containing clients’ personally identifiable information is stolen.
- An email containing sensitive employee or patient information is sent to the wrong person.
- Patient records containing health histories are taken during a break-in.
Many business owners aren’t aware of the costs associated with a data breach – or the actions they may need to take to address the liabilities they face when their paper or virtual records are lost or stolen. If you collect or store any personally identifiable information on employees or clients, you should consider data breach coverage.
The Hartford’s data breach program offers coverage to help pay for costs associated with notifying impacted individuals, managing public relations, good faith advertising and legal liability expenses. Customers also have access to services that can help reduce the likelihood of a breach and assistance to help navigate a breach if one occurs.
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Commercial Umbrella
Commercial Umbrella Insurance provides businesses with additional liability coverage to help protect them against the potentially ruinous costs of claims. Significant assets can be at risk when businesses are the target of lawsuits. If the cost of a claim exceeds the limits of a business’s underlying primary insurance policies, commercial umbrella insurance extends liability coverage for an additional layer of insurance to further protect business assets. Without commercial umbrella insurance, business owners could be obligated to pay out of pocket for legal fees, medical bills, and damage expenses that exceed the limits of their underlying primary business coverages.
Your commercial umbrella insurance can extend to cover your worker's compensation policy if policy limits are exhausted.
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ERISA Bonds
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) sets rules and standards of conduct for private sector employee benefit plans and those that invest and manage their assets. An ERISA fidelity bond is a type of insurance that protects the plan against losses caused by acts of fraud or dishonesty.
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EPLI
Employment practices liability insurance, known in the trade as EPL insurance or EPLI, provides coverage to employers against claims made by employees alleging discrimination based on sex, race, age or disability (i.e. wrongful termination or harassment).
Workers' Compensation
If you own a practice and have employees, you probably need workers' compensation ("workers' comp") insurance – most states require it. Without it, you may be held personally liable for the cost of your employees' medical care for a work-related injury or illness and even their wages while they’re recovering. Not to mention, some states have laws with fines for failing to purchase coverage.
The laws vary by state, but full-time and part-time employees are generally covered by workers' comp. In some states, business owners, partners and officers must be covered too. Also, keep in mind that the definition of "employee" can vary by state. If you use subcontractors, it’s important to find out whether they’re considered employees. If you've issued your sub, or anyone else, a 1099, they may be eligible for coverage under your workers' comp policy.
Workers' comp provides benefits to your employees for work-related injuries or illnesses. And depending on the state you do business in, it could include medical care, wages from lost work time, rehab, disability benefits and survivor or death benefits. And, if one of your workers gets hurt on the job and their family decides to sue you, workers' comp can help you with related legal fees and more.
Providing workers' comp coverage for more than a century, The Hartford's program sets the standard for value, innovation and injured worker care.
Lessor's Risk Policies
If you own property that is leased to others, whether one small office or a large complex, lessor's risk insurance is a must-have if you wish to adequately protect your investment from litigation as the result of an accident.
Lessor's Risk policies are designed to provide liability and property protection for building owners who lease their building or, in some cases, the policy provides liability and property coverage for building owners who occupy less than 75% of their building and lease out the remainder of the building.
Builder's Risk
Builder's risk insurance is coverage that protects a person's or organization's insurable interest in materials, fixtures and/or equipment being used in the construction or renovation of a building or structure should those items sustain physical loss or damage from a covered cause.
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