Beazley Enhances ‘Virtual Care’ Coverage for Growing Telehealth and Wellness Sector

Specialist insurer Beazley has enhanced its pioneering Virtual Care policy, which provides comprehensive protection against the interconnected risks facing digital health and wellness organizations.

First launched in the U.S. in 2017 for the telehealth sector, demand for Virtual Care coverage has increased significantly during the pandemic in line with the public’s growing appetite for remote tech-enabled health and wellness services, Beazley said when announcing the policy’s enhanced coverage options.

All Virtual Care policies now include affirmative bodily injury coverage as standard across all four core modules:

• Medical Malpractice & Professional Liability;
• Technology & Media Liability;
• Cyber Liability & Breach Response; and
• General & Products Liability.

In addition, the policy provides more choice over first and third-party cyber coverage and risk services. These include:

• Breach Response Services to support in the event of an incident;
• Third-party coverage including information security & privacy, media liability, regulatory defense and payment cards;
• First-party cyber coverage including business interruption (BI) and dependent BI in the event of a security breach or system failure;
• Cyber extortion loss, data recovery loss, data and network liability; and
• eCrime and criminal reward.

Also now available is Clinical Trials Financial Injury liability coverage, which protects against negligence, errors, omissions or failure during a clinical investigation and evaluation work.

“These enhancements aim to provide even more robust coverage for clients all under one comprehensive policy,” said Kyle Laudadio, Beazley Virtual Care Underwriter. “In particular, the introduction of affirmative bodily injury across all coverage modules ensures clients can avoid the worrying gaps in coverage that can result from having a patchwork of policies.”

A survey commissioned by Beazley of more than 350 executives from established telehealth and telemedicine companies found that one-third of respondents didn’t know what types of risk they need to be covered for, while 36% have struggled to find the right insurance.

“It’s important that as an industry we address this perceived lack of clarity around coverage,” Laudadio said. “We have designed a clearer policy format with simple wording to enable policyholders and brokers to quickly review and understand the coverage they need. As the digital sector evolves, the modular format means we can continue to adapt our coverage as clients’ needs change.”

Brokers also have access to a wide range of risk management tools and services via Beazley’s Virtual Care portal, the announcement said. This includes a new interactive digital map that provides detailed information on state laws governing the provision of telehealth services in the US.

Source: Beazley