Top 6 Providers of Optometry Malpractice Insurance

Thang Truong
Thang Truong
Updated on:

Now that you’ve set up your practice, bought all of your equipment, and hired the best people to help you launch your business, don’t overlook the importance of malpractice insurance. Malpractice insurance, otherwise known as professional liability insurance, will protect you and your license if a client sues you. Where can you get malpractice insurance? What companies offer the best rates? We’ve done the research for you and these are the top five companies for malpractice insurance for optometrists. 

Top 6 Providers of Optometry Malpractice Insurance 

We have shopped around with 10 different companies and here are the top 6 companies that we recommend for optometry malpractice insurance.

  • CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes
  • MedPro Group: Good win rate if you get sued
  • Berxi: Strong parent company and you can pay in installments
  • HPSO: Cover legal expenses in addition to liability limit
  • Lockton Affinity: Endorsed by American Optometrists Association
  • Proliability: The best and fastest shopping experience

CoverWallet: Best for comparing online quotes

CoverWallet is a digital broker. They work with several leading business insurance companies. They operate 100% digitally: from providing online quotes from their partner companies to selling and servicing final policies. You always have access to their agents who are actually very knowledgeable, but if you don’t like to spend time on the phone and prefer doing everything digitally, you don’t need to speak to anyone to manage your malpractice insurance policy with CoverWallet.

After you buy a policy through CoverWallet, you will have access to their digital dashboard to manage all of your business insurance polices in one place. The dashboard offers great features such as downloading the certificate of insurance, filing a claim, or renewing your policy.

MedPro Group: Good win rate if you get sued

MedPro Group offers both occurrence and claims-made insurance policies. They win 95% of the healthcare trials they represent, and they will never settle a case without your permission. The only thing is, they don’t have online quoting—you have to fill out a form and they’ll get back to you in day or so. Another drawback is that they are not available in Louisiana, Vermont, or Maryland. 

>>MORE: The 5 Best Providers of Medical Malpractice Insurance

Berxi: Strong parent company and you can pay in installments

As a Berkshire Hathaway company (think Warren Buffet) you certainly can’t get better financial strength than Berxi—they earn an A+ from A.M. Best. Also, the online quote process is both easy and fast. Coverage can start the same day. You can choose from a number of different coverage options, and you can pay in installments. This quote is for a claims-made policy. 

Graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

Description automatically generated

HPSO stands for Healthcare Providers Service Organization. You can get either professional liability insurance or general liability insurance through them, or both. They pay legal expenses in addition to your liability limit, and they offer both claims-made and occurrence policies. The most common policy is $1 million per claim and a $3 million aggregate, but you can choose higher limits if you need them. If you’re an optometrist, you’ll fill out a form and they’ll get back to you with a quote (other health care professionals can get immediate quotes). 

Lockton Affinity: Endorsed by American Optometrists Association

Lockton Affinity is the only insurance company officially endorsed by the AOA (American Optometrists Association). If you’re a recent graduate or have been practicing for less than two years, you get a discount, up to 50% off. Getting a quote online is easy, but since you have to provide your AOA number, we were unable to get a quote. They also offer cyber liability insurance and business owner’s insurance.

Proliability: The best and fastest shopping experience

If you dread the whole insurance shopping experience and just want to get it done as quickly as possible, Proliability is an excellent choice. You can get a quote, confirm your policy, and be on your way in less than ten minutes. They also have excellent customer service reviews. $1 million per claim and a $3 million aggregate are the most common, but higher limits are available. 

Graphical user interface, application

Description automatically generated

>>MORE: Top 10 Malpractice Insurance Companies

What Factors Affect How Much You’ll Pay for Malpractice Insurance?

Quotes can differ by several hundred dollars depending on things like:

  • What state your practice is in
  • How long you’ve been in business
  • Coverage levels 
  • Claim history

The state you practice is has a big effect on rates. Some states have tort laws that cap the amount clients can sue for, and these states have less expensive malpractice insurance rates. Also, some states have fewer malpractice claims, and this can also lower rates. 

How Much does Optometry Malpractice Insurance Cost?

Several factors affect the cost of optometry malpractice insurance as listed above. Based on the 10 companies we researched and obtained quotes from, the optometry malpractice insurance cost is in the range of $500-$2,000 per annum.

Different companies will offer you different prices, so make sure you shop around with at least 3 companies to find your best quote.

>>MORE: Malpractice Insurance Costs for Different Professions

What’s the Difference Between Claims-Made and Occurrence Policies?

Claims-made policies are less expensive, but also slightly more limited. A claims-made policy covers you only while the policy is in effect—once your policy expires, you no longer have insurance. 

Occurrence policies cover more because they provide coverage for anything that happens while the policy is active. 

Let’s look at an example. Susan is an optometrist in Colorado. She has malpractice insurance from March 2018 to March 2019. A patient named Mary saw Sue in June of 2018. Later, Sue is diagnosed with an eye disease and says Susan should have caught it. She files a lawsuit in May of 2019. If Susan had claims-made insurance, she would not be covered in this scenario because the policy had expired by the time Mary filed her lawsuit. If she had an occurrence policy, she would be covered, because the policy was in force when the incident occurred. 

Occurrence policies are more expensive but are probably worth it. Many patients think things over before filing a claim, filing many months or even years after they saw the optometrist. 

You could also get tail coverage, which is kind of like a rider for malpractice insurance. This will protect you for claims that are filed after the policy was canceled, if the original incident took place while you had insurance. 

>>MORE: Top 10 Malpractice Insurance Companies

Why are Optometrists Sued?

Some of the most common reasons optometrists are sued, according to Modern Optometry:

  • Not performing a dilated exam
  • Poorly explaining blurred vision
  • Not obtaining informed consent
  • Failure to diagnose a disease 
  • Failure to adequately treat a disease

The most common reason is failing to diagnose a disease that resulted in vision loss. And of course, you don’t have to have done anything wrong for a lawsuit to be filed. Even the lawsuit is dismissed later, it still results in extra time, money and stress. If you have malpractice insurance, at least you know you’re covered.

>>MORE: Professional Liability vs. Malpractice vs. E&O Insurance: How Are They Different?

Last Thoughts

Now that you’ve graduated from school and earned your license, take a few more minutes to protect yourself from lawsuits. Getting malpractice insurance is pretty easy and can take as little as ten minutes. Be sure to shop around and compare policy limits so that you get the best policy for you and your practice. 

Thang Truong

Thang Truong covers small business insurance and small business success at BravoPolicy. He is a licensed P&C insurance agent. Previously, he held product leadership positions at realtor.com, Capital One, NerdWallet, and Mulberry Technology. He holds a MBA degree from UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business.

More Stories

6 Best Malpractice Insurance for Nurse Practitioners for 2023

Nurse practitioners have a great deal of responsibility when it comes to patient care. Many nurse practitioners assume that because they work under a doctor and their employer provides some level of malpractice insurance, they’re covered. It may be worth it to purchase your own policy, however. Employer malpractice insurance is to protect the employer, […]

6 Best Malpractice Insurance Companies for Nursing Students

You’re looking forward to graduation. You’re doing your clinical rotation in some different departments, and you’re glad you’ve chosen nursing. If you’re only a student, why do you need malpractice insurance? You don’t even have your own patients yet! Sadly, as society gets more and more litigious, nursing students may find themselves held accountable for […]

6 Best Malpractice Insurance for Physician Assistants for 2023

You’ve worked hard to graduate and become a Physician’s Assistant. Naturally, you’ll want to protect yourself from mistakes and malpractice claims, which seem to multiply every year. What companies are worth getting a quote from? Who are the best providers of malpractice insurance?  The 6 Best Providers of Malpractice Insurance for Physician Assistants We gathered […]

7 Best Malpractice Insurance for Physical Therapists in 2023

Physical therapists are responsible for helping injured or ill people recover their mobility and ease their pain. It’s a lot of responsibility, especially with your hands on the patients some of the time. Accidents can happen, and sometimes physical therapists can get sued. Should you carry your own malpractice insurance? With the average cost of […]

6 Best Social Work Malpractice Insurance Companies for 2023

Social work isn’t one of those professions most people associate with lawsuits. After all, social workers are there to help people, so it seems unlikely on the surface that they’d be sued. However, malpractice lawsuits can happen to social workers, too. So below we’ll look at the scenarios where social work malpractice insurance comes into […]

6 Best Legal Malpractice Insurance Companies for 2023

It seems counterintuitive that lawyers would need to source their own malpractice insurance.  After all, do the people filing the malpractice suits really get sued themselves? Lawyers themselves can actually be sued for a number of reasons: claims of negligence, breach of confidentiality, administrative errors, missing filing deadlines, and professional misconduct. And as any lawyer […]

6 Best Providers for Cheap Chiropractic Malpractice Insurance in 2023

According to the American Chiropractic Association, more than 35 million people visit chiropractors every year. These people come from all walks of life and all age groups for treatment of neuromuscular disorders, primarily through adjustments. While chiropractors are highly trained and careful in their application of therapeutic treatments, there can still be accidents and injuries […]

Top 10 Malpractice Insurance Companies for 2023

You have many options when it comes to finding malpractice insurance. A type of professional liability insurance, most major small business insurers offer some sort of malpractice insurance coverage. To help you find the best options, we’ve outlined the 10 best malpractice insurance companies below. 1) Proliability: Best for buying process  Proliability has been in […]

Malpractice Insurance Costs by Specialty (2023 Rates)

Malpractice insurance is a type of professional liability insurance. Malpractice insurance most often applies to healthcare workers and lawyers. This type of insurance protects you if you are sued to have made any mistakes that harm a client or a patient.  Different professions might cause different types of risks in their work, therefore malpractice insurance […]

Top 5 Professional Liability Insurance for Federal Employees

The Federal government is the nation’s largest employer. Federal employees include anyone from law enforcement to working for the forest service. Federal Employees have the same risk of being accused of misconduct or mistakes as their peers in the private sector do.  There is a special kind of professional liability insurance, or sometimes called malpractice […]