Veterinary Business Insurance for Vets: Cost & Quotes From $11

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Fur parents love to pamper their pets. As most can’t bear with the thought of losing their fur babies, veterinarians help diagnose animal diseases and provide the appropriate treatment. 

Your clients have pet insurance that pays for your services. But how about you? Do you have comprehensive coverage against the risks common in your profession?

Veterinarian insurance will protect you against lawsuits, business property damage, employee injuries, and other unexpected occurrences. Read this guide to know how each inclusion works, the cost of premiums, and the best companies

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Veterinary Liability Insurance

Insurance programs for veterinarians always come with liability coverage. Veterinary liability insurance grants protection against lawsuits. The most common types of vet liability insurance are general liability and professional liability policies. 

Veterinary Professional Liability Insurance

Clients expect you to observe a high degree of care and expertise when dealing with their pets. Licensing bodies are also always on the lookout to ensure that your methods are ethically compliant with veterinary practice.  

Accusations of malpractice are the biggest problem when working as a veterinarian. Third parties can hold you liable for malpractice due to these reasons:

• A pet died because you’re not attending to it well enough

• You misdiagnosed a pet’s disease

• You administered the wrong drugs or the incorrect dosage

• You failed to disclose important information

• You set the expectations too high and failed to meet them

Veterinary professional liability insurance grants comprehensive coverage against malpractice claims. Also called veterinary malpractice insurance or professional indemnity insurance, you can use this to cover the following:

• Reimbursement for financial losses

• Settlements

• Defense costs

• Court judgments

Note that malpractice isn’t the only peril covered by vet malpractice insurance. Other exposures included in its language are:

• Inaccurate advice

• Violation of fair dealing

• Violation of good faith

• Breach of contract

• Missed deadlines

Some insurance companies underwrite a professional liability policy with a veterinary license defense insurance coverage and grants $50,000-$100,000 for lawsuits filed by state licensing boards against you. 

Veterinary indemnity insurance is available as a claims-made policy or occurrence policy. So what’s the difference? The first one only provides coverage when you notify a company at the moment a covered peril happened. The second, on the other hand, grants protection regardless of when you report a covered peril. 

Another thing you need to know is that while vet indemnity insurance is available as a stand-alone policy, some insurance companies offer this as an optional add-on to general liability insurance. 

Veterinary General Liability Insurance 

Accidents can happen within your veterinary clinic from time to time. In connection, general liability insurance for veterinarians can help if third parties get involved and sustain bodily injuries or property damage. Here are some situations where this policy is useful:

• A client came to fetch his pet. He tripped over an unkept leash and fell flat on the floor, sustaining bruises on the knees and elbows

• One of the pet’s admitted in your clinic broke loose and attacked other pets

• Kids came over to visit your clinic. They got scratched by a cat that’s getting treated by an employee

We’ll explain how the general liability insurance for veterinarians works. Each time clients, visitors, and other third parties hold your business liable for bodily injuries or property damage, this veterinarian insurance will cover expenses for:

• Medical treatment

• Reimbursement for property damage

• Legal defense costs

• Court judgments

Use the table above to compare the general liability insurance of companies we recommend. 

By the way, your general liability insurance automatically comes with an advertising injury coverage. This type of vet insurance covers costs if another vet clinic, pet shop, or pet sitting business accuses you of using their intellectual properties for commercial purposes. Coverage also applies for claims filed because of slander and libel. 

Other add-ons that’s automatically included in a veterinarian’s general liability insurance policy are:

• Rented premises liability coverage

• Non-owned/hired auto liability coverage

Commercial Property Insurance For Veterinarians

Similar to the insurance package for guard dog service, the insurance package for vet service offers a commercial property policy. 

Commercial property insurance helps your business survive when tragedies strike. With this veterinary business insurance, you can cover repair or reconstruction expenses easily if the clinic gets damaged or destroyed because of:

• Fire

• Theft

• Vandalism

• Malicious mischief

• Lightning

• Weather

• Volcanic action

• Sinkhole collapse

• Aircraft

• Vehicle

• Falling objects

The coverage of commercial property insurance doesn’t only apply to your clinic but also to what’s inside it. Commercial property insurance for vet clinics can also reimburse your financial losses if medical equipment gets lost or damaged. Common items covered are:

• Cauterizing machine

• Lighting systems

• Ultrasounds

• X-ray imaging devices

• IV pumps

• Ophthalmic and aural examination kits

• Weighing scales

• Telemetry systems

Business Owner’s Policy For Veterinarians

Ask the insurance company if its veterinary insurance plan allows you to bundle general liability insurance and commercial property insurance into a business owner’s policy. Use the table above to compare the business owner’s policy of companies we recommend. 

Since it’s made out of general liability and commercial property insurance, a business owner’s policy protects your veterinary clinic’s property and takes care of bodily injury and property damage claims filed by third parties. 

Consider buying a business owner’s policy rather than having general liability and commercial property insurance as stand-alone policies because you’ll save money on premiums. Most insurance companies offer a 5%-10% discount on their business owner’s policy.

Veterinary Disability Insurance

It’s common for animals to retaliate when sick, afraid, and unfamiliar of their surroundings. Work-related injuries are very prevalent in veterinary services. While the death rate is low, the severity of injuries is alarming as some don’t only end up with wounds but broken noses, blackened eyes, and infections. 

That said, a day will come where you’ll have to take off work because of an injury. In connection, veterinary disability insurance can help. While your resting to heal, this insurance will cover the expenses for:

• Weekly living expenses

• Medication

• Rent, mortgage, and house utility bills

Workers Compensation Insurance For Veterinarians 

Another way of getting covered against common work-related injuries or diseases in vet service is by purchasing workers' compensation insurance. 

Unlike disability insurance, workers compensation insurance is a requirement. You need to get this as soon as your vet clinic has one or more employees. 

By default, workers' compensation insurance only covers employees. However, insurance companies give you the option of naming yourself as an insured in the terms of this policy. 

Workers' compensation insurance will cover the following costs if you or an employee sustains a work-related injury or disease:

• EMT service

• Hospitalization

• Medication

• Rehabilitation

• Lost wages

• Death benefits and allowance to dependents in case of death 

Employment Practices Liability Insurance For Veterinarians

Employment practices liability is a vet business insurance that’s surely helpful if you have assistants or any other employees. Sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and workplace discrimination are problems you’ll face regarding employees. And these are what employment practices liability insurance covers. With this policy, you can pay for attorney fees, other legal costs, and compensation to aggrieved parties. 

Employer’s Liability Insurance For Veterinarians

Injured employees might file a lawsuit, accusing you of committing negligence. Lawsuits resulting from the occurrence of workplace accidents fall out of the scope of employment practices liability insurance. Instead, this is the job of employer’s liability insurance. Employer’s liability insurance’s function is the same. It provides money so that you can pay for lawyer fees, other legal costs, and settlements. 

Commercial Auto Insurance For Veterinarians

Does your veterinary clinic have its own pet ambulance? If so, consider getting commercial auto insurance. You can’t cover that vehicle using personal car insurance. And even if you manage to do so, know that premiums will be very expensive. 

Insuring a vehicle used for business purposes is better with commercial auto insurance because it’s cheaper and more comprehensive. The following are the coverages included in commercial auto insurance for vet:

• Auto liability coverage

• Physical damage coverage

• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage

• Emergency roadside assistance

It’s common for your vet clinic’s pet ambulance to rush. And while driving fast, the driver might get involved in an accident and cause injuries to third parties as well as property damage. Auto liability insurance covers medical costs if a claim is filed.

The underinsured/uninsured motorist coverage of commercial auto insurance will cover the medical expenses of the driver and passengers if your vet clinic’s pet ambulance gets involved in an accident caused by an uninsured/underinsured driver. 

Physical damage coverage comes in two types - collision and comprehensive. Collision physical damage coverage can be claimed if your vet clinic’s pet ambulance got damaged after colliding with another vehicle or object on the road. 

The second type-comprehensive physical damage coverage-can be claimed if your clinic’s pet ambulance got damaged because of extreme weather, fire, theft, vandalism, and other named perils. 

The pet ambulance might experience issues on the road. And so, don’t think twice about including emergency roadside assistance in your commercial auto insurance. Emergency roadside assistance coverage shoulders the cost of battery jump start, towing, and other types of services needed to get the pet ambulance running once again. 

Business Interruption Insurance For Veterinarians

You might need to stop business operations for a while to move to a new location. It’s also possible for you to stop doing business because the clinic needs to be renovated. 

Temporary business closure isn’t an excuse for you to stop paying bills.  And so, consider getting business interruption insurance. 

Business interruption insurance will provide money while your veterinary clinic isn’t generating income. The amount you’ll receive will be equal to a portion of or the total value of your business’s projected revenue. You can use the insurance money from business interruption insurance to pay employee wages, electricity and water bills, taxes, loans, rent, and other operational costs. 

Cyber Liability Insurance For Veterinarians

Consider getting cyber liability insurance if your veterinary clinic is running a system that collects payments from clients via credit card, bank transfer, or e-wallets. Hackers can breach your system and cyber liability insurance will protect you from the costs. 

A data breach will steal sensitive client data such as credit card numbers, phone numbers, addresses, etc. As a result, concerned parties might file a lawsuit. One job of cyber liability insurance is to pay for defense costs and settlements if such a thing happens. 

Of course, you’ll have to notify customers about the breach. And so, the second job of cyber liability insurance is to pay for public relations expenses. 

Note that cyber liability insurance is just an optional policy. You don’t really need this except if your vet clinic has a website or any other similar platform to collect payments and market services. 

Veterinary Insurance Cost

The average cost of veterinary malpractice insurance is $96.66 per month or  $1,159.92 a year for a $1 million coverage. Factors that affect veterinary malpractice insurance cost are location, policy limits, deductibles, and claims history. 

Animal care professionals incur varied veterinary liability insurance cost because the rates vary based on the coverage limit you choose and the type of animals your practice cares for. But on average, the cost of general liability insurance for veterinarians is $92 a month or $1,104 a year.

Here’s another table providing a more idea of the overall veterinary insurance cost by showing the best companies and their pricing: