Beazley enhances Virtual Care policy

Specialist insurer Beazley has added enhancements to its Virtual Care policy, which provides comprehensive protection against the risks facing digital health and wellness organizations.

Virtual Care was first launched in the US in 2017 to support the expanding telehealth sector. Demand for the coverage increased significantly during the pandemic as the public’s appetite for remote health and wellness services grew, Beazley said.

The insurer has introduced greater flexibility of coverage and more straightforward policy language to the policy to ensure clients can easily access the insurance they need and know exactly what they are covered for.

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

• Medical malpractice and professional liability
• Technology and media liability
• Cyber liability and breach response
• General and products liability

The policy now also provides more extensive choice over first- and third-party cyber coverage and risk services, including:

• Breach response services
• Third-party coverage, including information security and privacy, media liability, regulatory defense and payment cards
• First-party cyber coverage including business interruption and dependent business interruption in the event of a security breach or system failure
• Cyber extortion loss, data recovery loss, data and network liability
• eCrime and criminal reward

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For the first time, clinical trials financial injury liability coverage is also available. This coverage 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.”

Beazley’s recent research into attitudes to risk and insurance among health and wellness leaders found that one third didn’t know what kind of risks they needed coverage for, while 36% struggled to find the right insurance, Laudadio said.

“It’s important that as an industry we address this perceived lack of clarity around coverage,” he 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 coverage as clients’ needs change.”

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

Demand for its coverage has accelerated during COVID