Liability Insurance for Counselors

Your Practice Deserves Protection. Get Liability Coverage Today.

As a mental health counselor, you help people through troubling issues, like substance abuse, bullying, anger, depression, relationships, and much more. Your work is incredibly important—after all, you’re saving lives.

Every day you listen to other people and help them cope with life’s challenges. But while you’re busy helping others, don’t forget your own wellbeing. You deserve peace of mind too. Insuring your practice can help you feel a bit more at ease financially in case you face a lawsuit or accident.

At Simply Business, we can help you find the right policy, at the right price. We’re an online insurance brokerage that is quickly increasing in popularity across the nation. We offer easy access to comprehensive general liability and professional liability coverages. Best of all, we can help you find a policy in just 10 minutes or less.

Ready to get started? All you have to do is fill out our free quote form. We’ll ask you a few, quick questions and then recommend the best policies for you.

Liability Insurance for Mental Health Counselors:

• Professional liability insurance
• General liability insurance
• Workers compensation insurance (if you have employees)

Benefits:

• It can protect your practice from certain claims.
• It can cover damages caused by your negligence.
• Proof of insurance can help clients feel good about your work.
• It may be legally required where you’re located.

What Type of Insurance Do I Need for My Mental Health Counselor Practice?

Your private mental health practice deserves financial protection. After all, you’ve worked hard to build it on your own. To fully protect your livelihood, we recommend securing a few different types of business liability policies, like:

Professional Liability Insurance

Every day, you give people advice to help cope with major life challenges. As a result, you work with people who are in raw emotional states. Anything can happen. What if a patient accuses you of giving bad advice?

You’re at risk, even if you did your due diligence and offered the best treatment plan possible. That’s why you need professional liability insurance (PL). This policy can help protect you and your practice if a patient sues you for negligence in your services. Have employees? A professional liability insurance policy can help cover them too.

Let’s take a look at an example. Imagine you have a patient who is severely depressed. You suggest a treatment plan for depression and continue to follow up as needed. Several months later, your patient claims that your services made the depression worse. It was so bad that they could not go to work, and as a result, lost their job. The patient sues you for negligence and the cost of unemployment.

Fortunately, if you have a PL policy, your policy can potentially help cover you. It can help pay for the costs of hiring a lawyer, litigation fees, and the cost of damages up to your policy’s limit, should you have to pay. With coverage, you’re less likely to dip into your personal bank account.

Remember, situations like this can happen, especially in your profession. Even if you did nothing wrong, you may need to defend yourself.

But if you have a professional liability policy, it can help cover the costs associated with:

• Negligence or alleged negligence
• Legal defense costs
• Omissions or alleged omissions
• Claims and damages
• And more

However, PL insurance usually doesn’t cover:

• Intentional acts and omissions
• Property damage
• Medical expenses
• Bodily injury
• And more

Commercial General Liability Insurance

Most mental health counselors need a quiet space to work with patients. You may also visit patients in their homes. As a result, you need commercial general liability insurance (GL coverage). This policy can help financially protect you if there’s an accident, damage, or injury to a third-party while you’re on the job.

Because you meet in person with patients, this type of policy can be critical for your practice. In fact, a general liability policy is considered foundational for most mental health counselors. It can help cover you if a very expensive accident or injury claim arises. Most of these claims can average about $30,000!

If you don’t have a GL policy, you may have to dip into your own pocket to cover the costs of a claim. In fact, just one claim can put your practice at risk. Damage to property, either your patient’s property or yours, can set you back too, even if it's just a mistake.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine you’re conducting a home visit with a patient. While you’re there, you accidentally knock over your patient’s new laptop and completely shatter the glass. Your patient gets infuriated and sues you for the cost of a laptop. Without general liability coverage, you may have to pay for the cost of a new laptop on your own—plus, any legal expenses associated with the lawsuit.

Fortunately, with general liability insurance, your policy may help cover costs associated with:

• Bodily injury to another person
• Third-party property damage
• Personal and advertising injury
• Medical expenses
• And more

Keep in mind, most GL policies don’t cover:

• Damage to your own property
• Professional services
• Workers compensation or injury to your employees
• Damage to your work
• Automobiles while in business use
• Expected or intentional injury or damage
• And more

Workers Compensation Insurance

If your practice is growing, you might have hired at least one employee. Whether you have part-time or full-time employees, you’ll want to consider getting workers compensation insurance. This policy is designed to help cover the costs if an employee gets injured or sick while on the job.

It’s important to know that not all states require businesses to carry workers compensation policies. You should always check your state’s specific laws first.

Whether your state requires workers compensation or not, at Simply Business, we think it’s a good idea to get this policy if you have employees. That’s because work injury costs can be incredibly expensive. Did you know the average work injury cost is $41,000? These types of claims are common too. In 2018 alone, Americans reported $170.8 billion in workers compensation claims.

That’s a big chunk of change!

Even if you have just one person working for you, we recommend getting a workers compensation policy. It can help cover the costs of:

• Medical Payments
• Lost Wages
• Rehabilitation expenses
• Death Benefits

Why Should I Get Coverage for My Practice?

Whether you’re just starting your practice, or you’ve been running it for a while, it can be hard to invest in business liability coverage. After all, it’s tempting to keep costs as low as possible.

But here’s the truth. Without liability coverage, your practice is at risk. You meet with patients, either in your space or in their homes, and your treatments can greatly impact their health. As a result, you could easily get sued or involved in an accident. In just minutes, your practice and everything you’ve worked hard for, could potentially fall apart.

Business insurance can be critical in your profession. Without liability coverage, you’re at tremendous risk. Just imagine if one of the following claims is brought against you:

• Reputational Harm — $50,000
• Client Injury or Damage — $30,000
• Client Slip and Fall — $20,000

Can you pay for these claims out of your own pocket? Many mental health counselors can’t. But if you have general liability and professional liability policies, you can enjoy some peace of mind.

Think a lawsuit won’t happen to you? Unfortunately, the odds aren’t in your favor. Sadly, 43% of small business owners say they’ve come face-to-face with a lawsuit, either as a threat or an actual civil case. It’s very easy for a patient to sue you for negligence even if you did nothing wrong. And if a lawsuit is brought against you, you will probably need to pay a lawyer.

Protect yourself today by getting business liability coverage. After all, you’ve worked hard to build your livelihood. You don’t want to put it at risk. At Simply Business, we can make finding affordable coverage easy. It takes just 10 minutes or less to compare the costs of top policies.

All you have to do is answer a few questions online about your practice. Once you do, we’ll offer free quotes from liability policy providers across the nation. If you’d like, we can also give you a certificate of insurance (COI) to showcase to clients and vendors.

Getting a business liability policy doesn’t have to be complicated and time-consuming. We’re here to make it simple. If you’re ready to get started now, head to our free quote form today.

Mental Health Counselor Insurance FAQs

• Is insurance for counselors required by law?

  Every state operates differently, so it depends on where you live. Some states may require that you carry a workers compensation policy, while other states don’t.

  Fortunately, when you purchase a policy through Simply Business, you don’t need to know all the laws. We strive to recommend policies that are available in your state and help meet the needs of your business.

• Is liability coverage tax-deductible?

  Good news. In general, business liability coverage is a tax-deductible expense. This means your policy could actually help lower your tax-deductible income. It’s a nice perk!

  If you have questions about deducting your policy on your next tax return, we recommend talking to an accountant or another tax professional.

• How much mental health therapy insurance will I need?

  There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” answer. Every mental health counselor’s practice has different needs. Our online quote tool can help recommend coverage based on:

  • The size of your practice
  • Your practice’s location
  • Your annual revenue and payroll
  • And more

  Fortunately, you don’t need to know how much coverage you need. That’s what we’re here for. If you have more questions, you can always reach out to one of our licensed insurance agents. They’re here to help!

• What should I consider before buying mental health counselor liability coverage?

  We can help mental health counselors, like you, compare plans in just 10 minutes. To make this possible, we ask that you have these documents readily available:

  • Annual revenue estimates
  • Payroll estimates
  • Information on any previous claims
• Does counselor liability coverage differ by state?

  It can. Every state has different requirements. The good news is you don’t need to know your state’s laws. At Simply Business, our online quote tool is designed to show you policies that are available in your state.

• What does insurance for counselors cover?

  In general, we recommend full coverage for most mental health counselors. This usually includes a combination of general liability, professional liability, and workers compensation liability policies (if you have employees). Together, these policies can help cover the costs associated with:

  • Bodily injury
  • Accidents and damages
  • Employee injuries
  • Negligence or alleged negligence
  • And more
• How much does a liability policy for mental health counselors cost?

  The cost of policies can vary. That’s why we ask questions about your practice first. Then our online quote tool can show you affordable quotes based on your practice’s:

  • Payroll and revenue estimates
  • Location
  • Services
  • And more

  If you’d like to know how much business liability coverage may cost you, go to our online quote tool. Answer a few questions, and get quotes from the nation’s top insurers.

Why Choose Simply Business?

Buying business liability coverage isn’t an easy decision and understanding how your policy works can be confusing.

At Simply Business, it’s our goal to make getting a liability policy easy for you. That’s what makes our company stand out. We’re focused on helping mental health counselors, like you, navigate the insurance industry and protect their practices. We strive to clearly explain coverage, what it entails, and how policies work.

We can also help you compare affordable plans from top companies—in just 10 minutes or less.

If you’re not sold yet, here are a few other reasons mental health counselors love to work with us:

• We’re hands on. We’re an online insurance brokerage, but we’re only a phone call away. Our online quote form can make it easy to look at policies fast, but our in-house team can give you personalized service. When you call one of our licensed agents, you can expect outstanding support.

• We’re flexible. As a mental health counselor, your practice has unique needs. At Simply Business, we get it. Whether you need more coverage or want to keep costs down, we can help you find a policy that works for you.

• We understand mental health counselors. Your profession is incredibly important. Without your care, many people are at risk. We’ve taken time to understand your profession and its unique needs. When you work with Simply Business, you can expect us to recommend liability policies that truly meet your needs.

As you take care of other people, remember to take care of your practice too. Secure it today by getting affordable business insurance. It’s an investment you won’t regret.

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This content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not intended to provide legal, tax, accounting, investment, or any other form of professional advice.