What is General Liability Insurance?

General Liability covers medical expenses and attorney fees which result from bodily injuries and property damage that your company or organization could be legally responsible for. General liability insurance can help cover medical expenses and attorney fees resulting from bodily injuries and property damage for which your company may be legally responsible.

What does general liability cover?

General liability policies typically cover you and your company for claims involving bodily injuries and property damage resulting from your products, services or operations. It may also cover you if you are held liable for damages to a landlord’s property.

Our general liability coverage program is the best in the industry, with “A” rated carriers, flexible packages and $10 million in excess capacity.

Every medical facility should have general liability insurance coverage in today’s climate of uncertainty.

Who needs general liability insurance?

Anybody who is operating a medical facility of any kind in the current climate should be covered with general liability. In today’s climate of uncertainty, with generous awards being handed out by juries to injured parties, your business could be wiped out through one unfortunate accident without General Liability coverage.

This is particularly true of aged care facilities, including: adult day care centers, assisted living facilities, residential care centers, skilled nursing facilities, nursing care centers, and continuing care retirement communities. The reason for this is that elderly people are much more prone to accidents and a small lapse in attention by a busy staff member could lead to an accident and a corresponding claim. Even other service providers for the elderly and disabled should absolutely be covered by general liability insurance.

But general liability is not only needed by those facilities dealing specifically with the elderly. Any medical facility, including physical therapy clinics, medical spas, diagnostic imaging and X-Ray centers and hospitals should have a good general liability insurance policy in place. So should centers providing alternative medicine, like massage centers including Swedish massage.

Even facilities who do not care for patients, like HMP medical supply centers can benefit from having a General liability policy in place.

Does general liability cover all costs?

General liability insurance should not be confused with Professional liability insurance, which covers professionals for mistakes they could make while carrying out their professional duties.

While General Liability covers all medical expenses and attorney fees awarded against you by the claiment, it does not cover your legal expenses defending the claim. To help clients overcome what can amount to serious charges, Westwood put together a Legal Defense Insurance package, incorporating general liability with legal defense and a third-party administrator to administer claims against you.

At the moment, this is only offered for Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living Facilities in Florida, but the program may be expanded in the future, depending on the availability of suitable carriers.

Other things not covered by General Liability include:

• Work-related injuries or illnesses for employees — these are covered by workers’ compensation insurance.
• Damage to business vehicles from an accident — these are covered by your commercial auto insurance policy.
• Sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination and other employment-related claims — These are covered by employment practices liability insurance.

How do I get general liability cover?

Click the contact button below and contact Westwood. We’ll pass your information to one of our agents in your area. Our agent will be able to advise you of the best amount of coverage for your business and help you put together an application that will prevent you overpaying premiums. 

We look forward to working with you. 

Our general liability coverage program is the best in the industry, with “A” rated carriers, flexible packages and $10 million in excess capacity.