As an optician, you assist your clients in choosing eyeglasses that are suitable for their face shape, usage and needs. Whether your clients are prescribed bi-focal lenses or progressive multi-focal lenses to ensure they can read up close or from afar. They may want to select from the latest designer frames, sunglass options or simply need reading glasses to help them get through their busy day, you help them find the perfect pair of eyeglass frames.
As a result, your shop has a number of glass display cases for all the frame options and you offer a number of services (eye examinations, vision tests, color blindness, etc.). You also have inventory, supplies, expensive instruments and equipment that are susceptible to damage. When it comes to picking your optician insurance, these are the types of items that you will want covered.
Why Do Opticians Need Insurance?
It is important to have general liability for your practice. This will shield you against those slip and fall accidents at your office, if a client is injured while visiting your offices. To protect you from lawsuits stemming from bodily injuries or property damage liability, a general liability policy is needed.
Your professional liability insurance policy should cover you for your professional acts in providing optician services. But in addition to your general and professional liability, you should look at what other items your insurance should cover. As mentioned above, you must have invested quite a bit of money in your office space, equipment, furniture, inventory and supplies. Property coverage should be a definite inclusion in your optician insurance program.
What Type of Insurance Do Opticians Need?
Property Insurance
In the event of office damage, this insurance will cover your owned building as well as its contents. If a pipe bursts and water damages your business property, if a storm blows the roof off and your store's contents is blown all over, or if a fire occurs, this insurance will reimburse you’re for the covered damage. You can protect your expensive eye testing implements, equipment, and designer frames.
As a business owner, it is crucial for you to have property insurance with replacement cost and business interruption insurance in place to ensure your company’s survival in the event of catastrophic loss. If you are located in a 100 year flood zone, make sure you also get this important policy since flood is not covered under most property policies.
Malpractice Insurance
This insurance covers professional liability, errors, and omissions regarding your work as a skilled optician. If you're responsible for performing a harmful or incorrect eye exam or providing eye drops or other drugs which cause damage to your customer’s eyes or sight, having optician malpractice insurance protects you from these sorts of situations.
Clients can sue you for nearly anything, and most basically as it pertains to their vision, if you make a mistake, it may incite expensive lawsuits and claims. With malpractice insurance, you defend the practice that you've built, if ever there is a professional liability claim or lawsuit.
Business Owner's Policy
A business owner's policy (BOP) includes general liability that will safeguard your practice against bodily injury and property damage liability claims. It also includes property insurance on your building and other owned assets.
Furthermore, loss of business income, also called business interruption coverage is typically included on a BOP. This coverage provides replacement income if your building is damaged by a covered peril making normal business operations impossible to conduct. Like mentioned, if a fire destroys everything and it will take a while to rebuild or relocate operations, this revenue assists in paying your ongoing expenses until normal operations can be resumed.
Cyber Insurance:
Whether you own an online site, where clients can purchase glasses, order frames, or make purchases online, or not, you should consider including a cyber-policy to add to your optician insurance program, as well. Even if you do not have an online presence, just the nature of health care and client confidentiality is enough reason to look into this coverage.
The ever-increasing number of cyber-crimes worldwide including ransomware attacks, fraudulent money transfer, denial of service and security breaches (such as credit card numbers, addresses, and other private information) incurred by any business makes this coverage a necessity. With cyber security insurance coverage, you're able to survive these types of occurrences.
Commercial Umbrella:
Umbrella coverage offers an extra layer of protection to your holdings from third-party liability. If your liability limits for general, auto or employers liability limits are exhausted because of large paid claims, or the limits aren’t sufficient to pay awarded judgements, this policy provides additional limits of liability, in excess of the underlying policies.
Optician Insurance - The Bottom Line
As an optical technician, it's essential that you find means of protecting your business from claims and law suits. You do not wish to see your carefully developed business disrupted by a single lawsuit, which is why you need effective optician insurance coverage.