Chiropractic Premium FAQs

Once renewed, in addition to your professional indemnity and public and product liability cover, you will also benefit from:

• Trauma counselling cover: Cover up to $2,500 for any one claim and $5,000 in the aggregate for any one period of insurance as part of the Good Samaritan Act.
• Inquiries and proceedings: Cover up to $100,000 for inquiry legal costs. Cover includes National Disability Insurance Scheme inquiries.
• Statutory liability cover: Broadened to provide cover for breaches of any Australian law in the provision of Professional Services.
• Retroactive cover: Unlimited coverage for past chiropractic work, including work performed in a prior professional practice considering that you have contacted us to let us know.
• Policy excesses: Nil excess for most claims.
• Abuse and/or molestation defence costs: Cover up to $75,000 for defence costs and inquiry legal costs to the extent permitted at law.
• Vicarious liability cover: Optional cover for vicarious liability for the acts, errors, omissions, or conduct of your locum tenens, student practitioners, voluntary workers, agents, consultants, or contractors.
• Court attendance costs: Cover up to $25,000 sub-limit with daily cover limits of $500 for each principal, partner, or director; and $250 for each employee, locum tenens, student practitioner, or voluntary worker.

Please refer to the policy wording and policy schedule for full details.

Premiums are set based on the projected rate of claims made within the chiropractic profession. These projections are informed by our historical claims experience and are continuously reviewed over time. When we experience increasing numbers of claims or increasing settlement costs, we must increase our premiums to ensure we have an adequate pool of funds to pay claims as they are settled. Sometimes this means that premium must increase over multiple years.

While the rising cost of living continues to contribute to higher premiums, it’s the types of claims we are seeing and their increasing costs that are driving up premium rates.

Other factors include:

• Chiropractors who employ additional practitioners, which increases the likelihood of a claim being made against their policy
• The transition from 1st-year graduate to 2nd year, 2nd to 3rd year, 3rd year to 4th year, and 4th year to full time practice employment categories
• Premium loading due to adverse claims history

You can help to reduce the need for future premium increases by exercising some of the following best practice tips.

• Record keeping: The greater the detail you capture in your clinical records, the stronger the legal defence should a claim arise. Your records should include information such as patient details and presentation, examination, diagnosis, risks discussed, treatment provided and response to treatment.
• Informed consent: For a patient to give informed consent – a professional obligation that must be met before treatment commences – they need to have their treatment options and associated risks explained in a manner they understand; it’s a continual conversation between practitioners and their patients.
• Appropriate touching: Before providing any hands-on treatment where you’ll touch the patient’s body, be sure you explain where on their body you propose to treat them, the reason why, and then seek their informed consent. This will lessen the likelihood of patients thinking they’ve been touched inappropriately.
• Appropriate conversations: Unprofessional and personal communications during consultations can leave patients questioning the professional behaviour of their practitioner, leading to accusations of wrongdoings. Avoid having your professional conduct questioned by maintaining appropriate communication with your patients constantly throughout your sessions.
• Managing difficult chiropractic situations: Chiropractors will often face challenging situations with patients which require difficult decision making. Thinking about and planning for these situations before they occur can assist in managing them appropriately. 

There are several options that you can consider to help reduce your premium:

• Join the Australian Chiropractors Association (ACA) to gain access to member pricing and access to our members-only risk managed offer premium discount.
• Review your cover to ensure you are only paying for what you need
• Pay your premium by the month, at no extra cost, so you don't need to pay in one lump sum.