Regulated Healthcare Professionals and Non-Regulated Healthcare Practitioners: What Brokers Need to Know

Sep 2019

There are approximately 25 regulated healthcare professionals and over 350 non-regulated healthcare practitioners. With the healthcare industry rapidly changing and expanding, professionals and practitioners need comprehensive insurance coverage that can account for the many complicated risks involved in this industry. This presents an amazing business opportunity to brokers interested in healthcare. Knowing the unique requirements and vulnerabilities for professionals in healthcare, both regulated professionals and non-regulated practitioners, is the first step to building a book of business in this growing market. Regulated Health Professionals vs. Non-Regulated Health Practitioners The expanding scope of practice amongst the regulated healthcare professionals is the biggest exposure to the market place from an insurance standpoint. As the government pushes care down into the community from the hospital, healthcare staff are getting more of the patient load and doing more and more of what the doctor did, therefore requiring more and specific coverage as time goes on. Regulated healthcare professionals consist of:

  • Nurses
  • Pharmacists
  • Medical radiation technologists
  • Optometrists

Non-regulated healthcare practitioners work in modalities such as:

  • Iridology
  • Lymphatic drainage
  • Reflexology
  • Reiki
  • Pilates just to name a few.

(Full lists of regulated professionals and non-regulated practitioners can be found at http://medthreeinsurance.com/products/healthcare.html.) Regulated health professionals are put into place from a legislative standpoint. These professionals are regulated by their colleges, such as the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO). Colleges are the protectors of the public, because they have the authority to say that an injured party will have a financial recourse against any negligence within that profession. They also regulate the profession and set the scope of practice and controlled acts, which includes the purchase of mandatory liability coverage.

Regulated Health Professionals: Liability Coverage

For example, twenty years ago, the CNO suggested that nurses have professional liability coverage. Since that time, that suggestion has become a requirement. And that requirement has developed mandatory limits, which may include prescribed policy forms (claims vs. occurrence) and a requirement that nurses purchase policy from their list of vetted vendors. Some colleges, however, are not as prescriptive in their regulations and liability requirements. In fact, further down the hierarchy of risk from an independent professional to that of a professional employee of a health institution, employers will have coverage for their employees, except in cases where the college may require the professional to have additional personal liability coverage as well.

What MedThree Can Offer Regulated Health Professionals

MedThree Insurance Group are specialists in healthcare and keep abreast of the nuances and constantly changing regulations and guidelines within the healthcare industry and the colleges. By contrast, general underwriters may simplify the process and refer to a general list and rate the coverage based on a lack of understanding of the colleges prescriptions, leaving the professionals at risk with insufficient coverage.

Non-Regulated Healthcare Practitioners: A Unique Position of Risk

Most non-regulated healthcare practitioners have no regulatory colleges or legislation governing how and what they can do. The story here is simple. Without regulation, the risks for both the practitioner and the client/patient are huge. There is no protector of the people as there is with regulated healthcare professionals, which leaves the patient in a vulnerable position if they are treated by a practitioner who has no governing scope of practice or controlled acts. The risk to the practitioner is just as great. Without liability coverage, they are at great personal risk from their mistakes, as well as from the mal intentions of their clients/patients.

What MedThree Can Offer Non-Regulated Health Practitioners

MedThree Insurance Group provides an easy way for non-regulated healthcare practitioners to purchase professional liability coverage. Their online technical platform instantly manages an entire insurance policy from application to document issuance. This automated technology helps brokers administer high-volume (slot-rated), low-cost policies effortlessly and profitably, with virtually no paperwork. This leaves them time to concentrate on more complex policies. For the client/insured, this means they can apply and purchase insurance online, at their convenience, and receive instant coverage and documentation right to their inbox within minutes.

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