Specialist insurer Beazley has launched its Virtual Care insurance policy in Canada, providing protection against risks associated with technology-enabled healthcare and lifestyle management services.
Beazley noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has sharply increased demand for telemedicine, and many providers are expanding or adding these services to meet demand and to protect patients as well as those providing healthcare.
By expanding Virtual Care to Canada, the insurer will be able to provide more customers with coverage for medical malpractice and professional indemnity, tech and media liability, public and products liability, cyber coverage and services through Beazley Breach Response Services.
Optional extensions also include mitigation costs, abuse and harassment liability, medical regulatory costs, and claims due to loss of documents or reputational damage costs; environmental liability costs.
Virtual Care caters to a range of organisations, including telehealth, which enables remote diagnosis and monitoring by professionals, and m-health, which permits self-monitoring of chronic conditions via apps and wearables.
The policy also caters to a range of lifestyle and wellness, supported by IT tools, analytics, software, platforms and portals.
“Advancements in technology are driving the evolution of healthcare provision as well as changing public attitudes around accessing care remotely and monitoring personal health and wellbeing,” said Evan Smith, Beazley’s global head of miscellaneous medical & life sciences.
“With this comes potential risks from the shortcomings of data or the health advice provided, or due to errors or malfunctions in the technologies themselves. Data privacy and security concerns are also top of mind for many providers,” Smith continued.
“Beazley Virtual Care addresses the complexity of these risks by providing healthcare and tech specialists with seamless cover in one policy that avoids policy gaps and ensures that, should they arise, claims are efficiently managed by one dedicated team of Virtual Care claims specialists.”
Also launching in the Canadian market is BioSecure, which is aimed at providing protection against exposures in the pharma, biotech and medical device sectors, as well as a refreshed miscellaneous medical suite, for small, mid and large-sized firms.
