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HS Financial Services - Insurance Buyers Guide for Practice Owners
Insurance guide for practice owners

Insurance Buyers Guide for Dental Practice Owners



Protecting Your Business
When purchasing your dental practice you need to ensure that it is as comprehensively protected as possible. In the event of a major incident the very existence of your business could be under serious threat. You will typically need to ensure that you are covered for the following:

Buildings/Tenants Improvements (depending on whether the practice is freehold or leasehold)
Contents
Computers
Loss of gross revenue (known as Business Interruption cover)

Insured events should include (but not be limited to):

Flooding
Escape of water
Subsidence
Storm
Theft
Accidental Damage
Fire

 

Statutory & Regulatory Insurance Requirements

There are several key areas of cover that are statutory requirements and as such, these are also CQC requirements and often the Care Quality Commission will want to ensure these covers are in force or will be in force upon completion of the practice purchase. These include:

Public Liability
Employers Liability
Pressure Vessel Inspection Cover

It is often possible to incorporate most of these covers within a single, specially tailored Practice Insurance policy.



Business Dental Indemnity Insurance

If you are in the process of buying a limited company have you considered that clinical negligence claims could be brought against the limited company for treatment undertaken prior to your purchase completing? It is common to see clinical negligence lawyers bring claims against the practice as well as the dentist who provided the treatment and this would mean you being legally liable to pay any legal costs and compensation, even after the completion of the practice purchase. Having an “entity” dental indemnity policy in force provides a vital cover to ensure that such circumstances do not put the business at risk.



Lenders/Banks Insurance Requirements

It is often very common to see a lender insisting that a number of insurance policies are taken out when purchasing a new dental practice. These can range from life insurance, buildings insurance and permanent health insurance. Lenders also sometimes request that a locum policy is taken out. A locum policy covers the dentist against accident and sickness and pays a monetary benefit to the practice to cover the cost of hiring a locum in the event that the dentist is unable to work. This is different to income protection, which covers your own personal income should you be unable to work. If you own an NHS practice you will have to consider your UDA requirements and the impact of you being unable to practice due to a serious injury. Furthermore, the practice will have ongoing liabilities such as staff wages, rent/mortgage, business rates and equipment leasing expenses – not to mention the necessity to retain your patient goodwill. Having a locum policy will provide a real safety net at what would already be a difficult situation as it will give the business the capacity to continue generating revenue to meet these liabilities.



Additional Insurances Available:

 

Practice Insurance (buildings, contents, public & employers liability)
Practice Overheads/Locum Cover
Pressure Vessel Inspection Cover
Property Owners Insurance (buy-to-let, holiday home, unoccupied)
Home Insurance
Medical Indemnity Insurance (individuals and vicarious entity cover)

Hands & Eyes Insurance
Directors & Officers Liability Insurance
Dental Laboratories (including products liability)
Aesthetics Medical Indemnity Insurance
Private Medical Insurance
Travel Insurance

For above services we act as introducers only.

General Buyer Terms

This agreement is in relation to MediEstates Limited whose registered office is at 1st Floor, Pacific House, Stanier Way, Wyvern Business Park, Derby, DE21 6BF acting for and on behalf of our clients ("the Vendors"); and yourself (Buyer's Name) in relation for an introduction to a prospective sale of a business as a going concern. By registering through this agreement I agree to all terms set out below:

  1. Definitions
    In this Agreement the following terms and phrases shall have the following meaning unless the context otherwise requires:

    Business
    Dental Practice business providing dental care. This business is under the MediEstates Ltd sale terms.
    Confidential Information
    Means the actual Vendors identity and all confidential information in respect of the Business, including, but not limited to, any ideas, business methods, prices, accounts, finance, marketing, research, development, manpower plans, processes, market opportunities, intentions, design rights, product information, customer lists or details, employees’ details, trade secrets, computer systems and software, and other matters connected with the products or services manufactured, marketed, provided or obtained by the Vendor, and information concerning the Vendor’s relationships with actual or potential clients or customers and the needs and requirements of such clients’ or customers’ operations.
  2. Obligation of Confidentiality
    The Prospective Purchaser agrees to treat as confidential, information supplied by or on behalf of the Vendor in connection with the sale of the Business.
  3. Exclusions
    The obligation of confidentiality set out in clause 2 does not apply to:
    1. any information received from a third party who was legally free at the time of disclosure to disclose it;
    2. any information which was already lawfully in the Prospective Purchaser’s possession prior to receiving it from MediEstates Ltd on behalf of the Vendor; and
    3. any information which is in its entirety already in the public domain.
  4. Duties of Prospective Purchaser
    1. The Prospective Purchaser shall take such a reasonable security measures to protect the Confidential Information and trade secrets.
    2. The Prospective Purchaser shall not, without the prior written consent of the Vendor, permit any of the Confidential Information:
      1. to be disclosed, other than in confidence to its legal or professional advisors;
      2. to be copied or reproduced;
      3. to be commercially exploited in any way;
      4. to be used for any purpose other than in connection with the prospective purchase of the Business;
      5. MediEstates is registered under the Data Protection Act 2018. Upon Signing this agreement you agree to follow the legal obligations of this act to protect the details of the information supplied to you, with it no to be passed outside of the control of you the prospective purchaser.
    3. The Prospective Purchaser agrees to keep a record of Confidential Information received.
    4. The Prospective Purchaser will return to MediEstates or the Vendor all documents containing Confidential Information and all copies of those documents on demand at any time which are in its possession or under its control, and for this purpose the term “documents” includes computer discs and all other materials capable of storing data and information. The Prospective Purchaser agrees that such documents remain the property of the MediEstates on behalf of the Vendor.
    5. The Prospective Purchaser must not jeopardise or re-direct the sale under any circumstances.
    6. The Prospective Purchaser must not contact the Local Area Team or CCG regarding any practice sale, by any means of media unless written permission is granted from the Vendor.
    7. To carry out own due diligence on practice purchases and accepts that any information MediEstates has supplied is information provided by the vendor and is not responsible for its accuracy or completeness.
  5. This Agreement
    The existence of this Agreement and its terms are confidential and neither MediEstates nor the Purchaser may disclose anything about this Agreement or its subject matter or implementation to any person other than in confidence to their legal or professional advisers.
  6. Duties of Prospective Purchaser
    When buying Dental practices, finance is normally needed. Our organisation operated over more than one of the MediHoldings brand, by completing this from you agree that the information can be shared to our other organisations to avoid the need to register independently and provide the best possible service.

    MediEstates will refer you to the specialist dental lending team and MediFinancial who will contact the necessary banks, whom have preferential healthcare lending rates in some cases, to ascertain which funding is available to you.
    By signing this agreement you do not have to use any of the banks MediFinancial contact, it is just another service which we provide.
  7. Deposit for Dental Practice
    If you are interested in putting forward a formal offer in for a practice, once the offer is accepted there will be a deposit required to secure the practice sale which is dependant of the practice size. This deposit is held in a client account and will be returned to the buyer on completion of the practice sale. You the buyer, will be required to sign a deposit schedule which will cover the buyer and the seller in the event that the practice sale does not proceed.
  8. Changes to this Agreement
    Any changes made to this agreement must be authorised and signed by one of MediEstates Ltd Directors.
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