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Insurance Program

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The OVMA Insurance Program (OIP) provides practice owners and non-owner members with the best insurance coverage options available to veterinarians.
 

Find out how much you could save, get a no obligation quote today.

Call 1.888.681.2862 or email ovma@brokerlink.ca.

If you have questions about a certain type of coverage, contact any of these account representatives:

Are you looking for pet insurance?


For your practice:

  • Property (building and contents, including your leased or owned equipment such as x-ray, dental and laser equipment)
  • Coverage for clients' animals on your premises
  • Voluntary compensation
  • Liability and malpractice coverage
  • Legal expenses to cover civil suits or CVO complaints
  • Commercial automobile
     

For you, your family and staff:

  • Liability and malpractice coverage
  • Term life
  • Whole and universal life
  • Corporate life
  • Short and long-term disability
  • Business overhead expense protection
  • Critical illness
  • Long-term care
  • Personal health and dental
  • Employee group benefits
  • Extended health
  • Group life
  • Accidental death and dismemberment
  • Dependent life
  • Vision care
  • Orthodontics
  • Paramedical services
  • Travel insurance
     

For your home and auto:

  • Building and contents replacement
  • Fire
  • Theft
  • Home-based business coverage 
  • MyExtras for high value homes
  • Identity theft
  • Auto collision-related health care
  • 'Student away from home' auto coverage
  • Responsible driver guarantee
  • Water coverage including flood, overland water and sewer back up
  • Lifestyle advantage
     

OIP is tailored to meet your needs as a veterinarian with:

  • The most competitive rates in the industry.
  • The best insurance coverage options to suit all stages of your career and personal life.
  • Dedicated account representatives who understand the needs of veterinarians and their families.
  • Prompt responses to any questions or concerns you may have about premiums, coverage or claims with friendly help from OVMA staff and OIP administrators.
     

The OVMA Insurance Program is administered by:

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Common Insurance Questions

I practice as a Locum, what are my insurance options?          

Locum veterinarians aren't always covered by a practice’s commercial liability insurance policy. If you're working as a locum, make sure you ask the veterinary hospital about the coverage they provide. 

To make sure you have adequate malpractice and liability coverage regardless of where you're working, you might consider purchasing an individual “Locum” insurance policy.

The benefits are:

  • The absence of a locum policy means defense and payment begins and ends with the practice’s insurance. Any sum or cost attributed to the locum’s actions that are not paid by the practice’s policy are the responsibility of the locum. 
  • As amounts paid out in damages continue to increase, there's peace of mind in knowing you’re adequately covered. 
  • Insurance coverage is one way to help demonstrate to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that you are an independent contractor (vs. an employee).
     

What should I do in the event of a claim?

Hopefully you’ll never experience circumstances that will cause a claim. But if you do, here are the essentials to ensure a smooth process. 

Before the claim:

  • Don't discuss a potential claim with anyone involved.
  • Contact OIP and outline your situation.
  • Your OIP representative will advise you per your policy's terms.

Making the claim:

  • Contact your OIP representative as soon as possible.
  • Ensure that all evidence is left untouched.
  • Ensure that you have made complete notes on all details while they're fresh in your mind.
     

What are the benefits of group and extended health plans?

An employee group survey undertaken by Sanofi-Aventis showed respondents preferred benefits over an extra week of holiday. Increasingly, benefits are a prerequisite for employment.

The advantages of benefit programs to employers include: 

  • Increased probability of hiring the best among candidates.
  • Increased retention, improving staff experience and service factors.
  • Reduced training time and costs associated with new hires.
  • Reduced stress for staff in the knowledge that they and their family are covered.
  • Premiums paid by the employer are tax-deductible (in Ontario).
     

Do I need cyber insurance to protect my practice?

Unfortunately, conventional insurance policies (property, liability, crime) do not adequately respond to digital/cyber risks, leaving your clinic vulnerable to a host of financial risks: these include loss of business income or increased expenses following a network compromise, business email compromise from phishing and malware, expenses and legal actions resulting from privacy breaches, and loss of reputation.

Every business that hosts, stores, shares or transmits proprietary and confidential data has cyber exposure. While cyber attacks are almost impossible for you to predict, you can protect your business in the event of an exposure. The OVMA Insurance Program is pleased to announce the launch of its Cyber, Privacy, and Media Risks (CPM) policy. 

The CPM policy was designed to protect your practice from these kinds of unfortunate situations.
 

What kind of benefits do I get for being a good driver?

The OVMA Insurance Program saves members hundreds of dollars a year in premiums, and there are even more savings for drivers with clean driving records and those who practice safe driving behaviours (including monitoring speeding, hard braking, acceleration patterns).

You're eligible for special auto insurance coverage if you have:

  • Held a valid driver’s license in Canada or the U.S. for the past nine years.
  • No at-fault accidents within the past nine years (applies to all drivers of the vehicle).
  • No driver of the vehicle having been convicted in the past three years of any serious or major driving conviction, or more than one minor driving conviction.
  • Been a named insured or a listed driver on an automobile insurance policy.
  • Not had a policy cancelled for non-payment within the past three years.

These programs, available for a small fee, can help you save hundreds of dollars in possible premium increases in the years following an accident. 

 

 

Phone: 905.875.0756 / (toll free) 1.800.670.1702

Email: info@ovma.org

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© 2023 Ontario Veterinary Medical Association

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