Medical Malpractice Insurance

What does medical malpractice insurance cover?

Medical malpractice insurance responds when a patient alleges that professional care caused them harm. The policy funds the defence as well as any settlement or judgment, which matters because defence costs arrive even when the care was flawless. Typical coverage includes:

• Legal defence costs, including lawyers and expert witnesses
• Settlements and judgments up to the policy limits
• Coverage for the clinic entity as well as individual practitioners
• Regulatory and college complaint defence expense
• Related exposures packaged alongside: premises liability, abuse coverage, and privacy breach response

This is an overview. All coverages, limits, and exclusions can only be confirmed by a licensed MyBrokers broker on a quote tailored to your specific policy.

Does the CMPA cover my clinic or my staff?

Generally no, and this is the most common gap in Canadian healthcare coverage. The CMPA is a defence association for individual physicians, not an insurance company, and its protection does not extend to the business around the physician. Left uncovered are typically:

• The clinic corporation itself, which gets named in lawsuits alongside the physician
• Employed and contracted staff, including nurses and allied health professionals
• Clinics with non-physician owners or investors
• Many private-pay and aesthetic services that fall outside CMPA assistance

This is an overview. All coverages, limits, and exclusions can only be confirmed by a licensed MyBrokers broker on a quote tailored to your specific policy.

Who needs malpractice insurance in Canada?

Most regulated health professionals are required by their college to carry professional liability coverage as a condition of registration, and clinic owners need entity coverage regardless of what their practitioners carry individually. In practice that means:

• Regulated professionals meeting college minimum coverage requirements
• Clinic owners, including physician-owned and investor-owned clinics
• Practitioners whose association coverage excludes their private or aesthetic work
• Anyone delivering care under contract to a facility that demands proof of coverage

How much does medical malpractice insurance cost?

Premiums track the invasiveness of the care. Individual allied health practitioners often pay modest annual premiums, while clinics performing injections, procedures, or high patient volumes pay meaningfully more. The main levers underwriters price on:

• Scope of practice, with aesthetic and invasive procedures at the high end
• Number of practitioners and total patient volume
• Limits required by your college, landlord, or facility contracts
• Claims and complaint history, and the strength of your documentation practices

What is claims-made coverage, and do I need tail insurance?

Most malpractice policies in Canada are written claims-made: the policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made, not when the care happened. That structure has two consequences worth understanding:

• Your retroactive date must reach back to when you started practising, or older work is uncovered
• When a policy ends, extended reporting (tail) coverage keeps protection alive for claims that surface later
• Patients can bring claims years after treatment, so continuity matters more than price when switching insurers
• A broker can check both dates before you change policies, which is when most gaps are created

This is an overview. All coverages, limits, and exclusions can only be confirmed by a licensed MyBrokers broker on a quote tailored to your specific policy.