Pharmacist Insurance: Cost, Overview & Quotes From $5

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Pharmacist insurance is a specialized protection program for pharmacists. Eligible professionals are self-employed pharmacists, retail pharmacists, clinical pharmacists, pharmacy consultants, and long-term care pharmacists. Policies available are general liability, malpractice, workers' compensation, and more. 

Malpractice Insurance for Pharmacists

Malpractice is a very common exposure when working as a pharmacist. Patients can sue if they experience harm due to errors and oversights. Here are some examples:

• A pharmacists working for a famous grocery store chain was sued for malpractice and fined $250,000.2 for not noticing the excessive dose of medicine given by the physician to a patient (Source: Lovecchio vs Romain and Rosenthal)

• A pharmacist had to settle for $1 million after failing to evaluate the contraindication of escitalopram and methadone given to a patient (Source: Anton vs Brown)

You can get malpractice insurance as a protection. Also called referred as professional liability insurance, malpractice insurance provides $2 million-$3 million you can use to cover settlements, defense costs, and court judgments if you face a claim for:

• Medical negligence

• Misinterpreting the prescription of the physician

• Giving the wrong medicine

• Giving the wrong dosage of medicine

Pharmacist professional liability insurance is highly specialized. And so, it will also provide these benefits:

• $25,000-$30,000 coverage for costs involving alleged and actual HIPAA violations

• $5,000-$10,000 cost reimbursement for claims and investigations that professional regulatory boards file against you

• $5,000-$10,000 for deposition expenses

• $500-$850 lost income reimbursement if you can’t work to attend a trial

• $25,000-$50,000 for settlements, defense costs, and court judgments if a patient accuses you of committing molestation or sexual abuse

General Liability Insurance for Pharmacists 

As a pharmacist, you might also be liable for the bodily injuries or property damage of patients, vendors, independent contractors, and other third parties. 

General liability insurance provides $1 million-$2 million each time a third party files a claim for bodily injury or property damage. Use this to:

• Cover the medical treatment of the claimant

• Reimburse the damaged property of the claimant

• Pay attorney fees, investigation fees, and other defense costs

• Cover court judgments

You get general liability insurance as a broad-form policy. And so, this pharmacist liability insurance grants additional benefits, particularly

• $2 million coverage for your liability to products and completed operations

• $1 million coverage for slander, libel, breach of confidentiality, invasion of privacy, and copyright infringement claims

• $300,000 indemnification to the landlord if a space you’re renting gets damaged by fire

Short-Term General Liability Insurance for Pharmacists 

You might be eligible for a short-term general liability policy. Short-term general liability insurance provides coverage for hours, days, weeks, or months. You get to choose how long the policy provides protection. This is recommended for pharmacy students looking for a quick coverage during their internship. Options for short-term general liability insurance are Hiscox, Thimble, and The Hartford. 

Commercial Auto Insurance for Pharmacists 

If you own a car and use it occasionally for business purposes, then consider replacing your personal auto insurance with commercial auto insurance. 

Commercial auto insurance grants protection while you’re driving a vehicle to join a conference on behalf of your employer or your business, meet clients, haul supplies and materials, or attend work. 

The features of commercial auto insurance vary. Nonetheless, these are its common uses:

• Provide $300,000 minimum coverage for bodily injuries or property damage you cause while driving a car for commercial purposes

• Cover parts repair or replacement and labor costs if your car gets damaged by fire, theft, vandalism, civil commotion, riot, collision, and other covered perils

• Reimburse vehicle rental expenses and public transportation costs. You get $30-$50 per day capped at $900-$1,500

• Provide coverage in accidents that an underinsured/uninsured car caused and cover your medical treatment and the passenger’s medical treatment

Temporary Car Insurance for Pharmacists

Temporary car insurance is useful during days when you need to borrow the car of a friend, parent, or colleague. This insurance grants protection for 1-28 days. Coverage applies regardless if you’re using the vehicle for commercial or personal purposes and a covered peril happens. 

Employment Practices Liability Insurance for Pharmacists 

Malpractice insurance only covers sexual harassment claims filed by patients. Coverage doesn’t apply if associates sue you for it.

Employment practices liability insurance grants protection against sexual harassment claims filed by employees. In fact, other violations of employee rights are also covered such as:

• Wrongful termination

• Discrimination

• Failure to promote

• Retaliation

• Supervisory negligence

• Failure to hire 

Employment practices liability insurance grants a minimum $25,000-$100,000 you can use to cover settlements, defense costs, and court judgments each time an employee files a claim for the reasons we stated above. Higher limits are available upon your underwriter’s discretion. 

Workers Compensation Insurance for Pharmacists 

Workers' compensation insurance is useful if you’re a self-employed pharmacist or a solo consultant pharmacist with one or more associates. 

This insurance isn’t very important if you’re employed as your employer already grants this coverage. Nonetheless, there’s no problem if you decide to get workers' compensation insurance for yourself. 

Workers' compensation insurance applies if you or your full-time and part-time employees sustain an occupational disease or injury. Purchasing this insurance allows you to cover the following costs without using company or personal funds:

• Surgeries, therapies, EMT service fees, and other costs for medical treatment 

• Hospital bills for laboratory, nursing, food, lodging, imaging, etc. 

• Prescription medicines 

• After-hospital visits

• Expenses for rehabilitation and retraining 

• Lost wages

• Funeral expenses and allowance to dependents. 

Workers' compensation insurance has no set limits. The worker's comp law of your state determines how much money you can get from workers comp. 

Employer’s Liability Insurance for Pharmacists

Associates can sue you for work-related injury or disease. They might cite your negligence and failure to provide adequate training or a safe working environment. 

You can include an employer’s liability coverage to workers' compensation insurance. Use this to cover settlements, defense costs, and court judgments if employees hold you liable for their occupational injury or disease. 

The limits of employer’s liability insurance are reflected in your worker's compensation insurance quote. The minimum amount of coverage you get is $100,000 per employee injury by accident, $500,000 per employee injury by disease, and $500,000 for all claims. 

Commercial Property Insurance for Pharmacists

Though not included in pharmacist liability insurance packages, commercial property insurance is available as a stand-alone policy. Consider getting this if you run a pharmacy and pharmacist’s consultation office. 

Commercial property insurance will cover the replacement cost of the building you  own, rent, or lease to provide services, store, and sell medicines. The minimum coverage you get is $10,000-$25,000. Commercial property insurance applies when building destruction or damage is caused by:

• Fire

• Theft

• Vandalism

• Malicious mischief

• Civil commotion

• Riot 

• Sprinkler leakage

• Volcanic action

• Sinkhole collapse

• Lightning

• Hail

• Winds

• Snow

• Rain

You can also use commercial property insurance to recover losses if credit cards, computers, patient medical records, and other valuables inside the building get damaged or lost due to the perils above. 

Business Interruption Insurance for Pharmacists 

Most of the time, commercial property insurance will come with a business interruption floater. 

Business interruption insurance supplements lost revenues if you need to relocate, renovate a damaged building, and wait for an economic crisis to pass. 

The insurance money you receive from business interruption insurance can be used to cover employee wages, utility services, loans, mortgage, rent, lease, and other operational costs. 

Business interruption insurance doesn’t cover pandemics and epidemics. However, it’s sometimes possible to use this insurance in such situations if you contest in a court of law.

Equipment Breakdown Insurance for Pharmacists 

You can also add an equipment breakdown floater to commercial property insurance. Equipment breakdown insurance provides $2,500-$10,000 coverage you can use to repair or replace pharmacy equipment and tools that get damaged or lost due to:

• Electrical surge

• Electrical shorts

• Mechanical breakdown

• Operator error

• Impact

• Electrical breakdown

Equipment breakdown insurance is sometimes offered as a floater to general liability insurance. If you get it this way, you only enjoy $2,500-$5,000 coverage. 

Business Owner’s Policy for Pharmacists 

A business owner’s policy is a combination of general liability and commercial property insurance. Get this if you’re looking for a quick coverage against liabilities and business property damage or loss. 

So why get a business owner’s policy? One advantage is that its cost is cheaper than buying general liability insurance and commercial property insurance separately. Moreover, a business owner’s policy might offer floaters for additional protection. 

Pharmacist Liability Insurance Cost

There’s no fixed rate for the pharmacist liability insurance cost. Insurance companies consider many factors when determining how much you can expect to pay for insurance coverage.

One of the first things that insurance companies will look at is your range of qualifications as a pharmacist. Insurance companies don’t know you well enough to determine how good of a job you do as a pharmacist, so they look at things like qualifications so they can have at least some idea of that.

If you’re just getting started in your pharmaceutical career, then you can bet that your insurance premiums will be a lot higher than a veteran pharmacist who has a proven track record.

If you have a history of making mistakes and filing claims, then you can expect to pay more for your insurance coverage. On the other hand, if your record is spotless, an insurer will be more inclined to trust you.

To gather the numbers up above, we made sure to use the credentials of a pharmacist who has made no prior claims or caused any issues before.

The average cost of pharmacist insurance is about $69.50 per month or $834 per year for a $1 million general liability coverage.

Compare quotes before getting covered. Start by clicking the “Get Quotes” button on this page. Also, consider doing these things to decrease your premiums:

• Pay a deductible of $1,500 for general liability insurance, $2,000 for professional liability insurance, and $3,000 for commercial property insurance

• Become a member of pharmacist organizations that are partners of reputable insurance companies

• Buy two or more insurance products from the same company to get a 5%-10% discount