Insurance might not sound the sexiest subject, but please read this through. It might save you months of stress. It will certainly ensure that your patients are protected in the unlikely event of an injury.

This post, I should add, is targeted at osteopaths registered with the General Osteopathic Council in the UK. While it might be somewhat relevant to other professions/countries, it will be most directly relevant to the 5000 or so osteopaths registered with the GOSC.

I have meant to post about this for years, as there is a depressing frequency with which the Professional Conduct Committee has to deal with osteopaths who have failed to have adequate insurance in place. Most times, this is an administrative oversight, unintentional in pretty much all cases, however the danger and consequences are huge. So here we go with a list of misconceptions I need to clear up for you:

“My insurance is on a direct debit so it automatically renews“

No, no, no, no, no. Every other subscription in your life – from motor insurance to Spotify premium to your organic veg box – might decimate your bank account with a monotonous, inevitable, regularity. But if you haven’t filled out certain renewal forms, your osteopathy insurance will stop dead at the end of the insurance year.

Somewhat confusingly, there are some times it might continue on autopilot every other year. However you cannot expect this. You have to check!

Every. single. year.

“I don’t have to remember the date of my insurance policy renewal“

Try this now – if I say to you, when does your insurance renew? – you should be able to respond immediately with the date. If you can’t do this right now – look it up, and practise. Over and over over again.

This date is possibly the most important date in your calendar. Circle it in red. Stick stars on it. Set a reminder on your phone for a week prior. Then set another reminder for 5 days prior, and another, and another. Tattoo it on your arm if you must. YOU MUST NOT MISS THIS DATE.

This date is more important than your mother’s birthday or your wedding anniversary: I’ll explain….

Missed birthday? Chances are you can make it up with an appropriately impressive bouquet and a Sunday lunch out.

Missed Wedding anniversary? Let’s face it, if you forget to give your husband a card, he will probably be secretly gratified that you haven’t wasted money on something which is only going to end up in the bin. He also now has a lifelong Get Out of Jail Free card to forget the anniversary himself. In fact, you have done him a kindness!

If it’s the wife, well, a certain amount of grovelling, dozens of references to the incomparable nature of her beauty and an overnight stay in a country hotel will probably suffice. Lawyers will only be involved if the incident exposes serious, pre-existing cracks.

But forgetting your insurance IS probably going to involve lawyers at some point, and you will not be able to make it go away with a box of Ferrero Rocher.

“They will understand that I was going through a bad time“

Ok, life can get messy. Storms blow up. Sometimes it’s hard just to make it through the day, or have a moment to think. Emails get ignored, admin goes by-the-bye. People get ill, get divorced, die. Families have problems. Chaos happens; it’s hard.

The committee will understand that. They are all human. In many of these cases there is a background of struggle, and an atmosphere of sympathy in the committee room. But, despite this, it will probably still be viewed as serious enough to go to a Professional Conduct Committee hearing. Because when it comes down to it, the protection of patients is paramount. In fact, if you are not healthy enough to be on top of this, you should logically question whether you are in a fit state to be working at all.

At the PCC stage, any mitigating circumstances will be assessed and might affect the sanction. But either way, being referred to the PCC is one process you don’t want. If you are already on the back foot, this will be one more major stress you don’t need on top of everything else.

This is why I say, set your reminder now. Checking a date, setting an alarm, then renewing your policy literally takes 5 minutes – 5 fiddly, tedious minutes, maybe – but it can save you months of worry and unnecessary admin.

If you are battling too hard with the slings and arrows of life to even do this, maybe ask a trusted friend to help out somehow.

“I was on holiday, so I didn’t need insurance for that month“

This is misunderstood by many osteopaths. Tell this to every osteopath you know. Even if you are not treating a single patient, you still must be insured, as a condition of registration. It might seem counterintuitive, but the fact still stands. If you’re registered, you have to be insured.

If you are taking a break, you can ask GOSC to class you as a non-practising registrant, and then ask them for advice on insurance.

“It was only an administrative error. An honest mistake.“

Yes, it nearly always is, sadly. However, as a professional you are expected to be on top of this. The legal definition of integrity used in the Fitness to Practise committees says that professionals are “held to a higher standard” and must be “scrupulous about accuracy”.

Would you drive your car without insurance, knowing that you could potentially cause a serious injury? (I am hoping the answer is no.) And, even though injuries from osteopathy are rare, they are still possible, so the severity of the harm goes well beyond the slight, unintentional nature of the mistake.

Check your emails, check your insurance policy, make that phone call if you’re unsure about anything. It’s boring but important.

“All the policies are the same“

Make sure you have a policy which insures you for PII (Professional Indemnity) for £5million. That’s stated in the Practice Standards (D:3, if you are interested).

The most common insurers that osteopaths use are pretty much relied on to be valid. iO and Balen’s spring to mind. But there have been cases where people have gone to a different provider because they offer better rates. Most of them will also be fine, but do check. Useful rule of thumb – if you’re only paying £120 a year for insurance it might not fulfil the requirement. There have been cases where osteopaths thought they’d found a great deal, but the policy hasn’t included the necessary £5million figure for PII.

“I can just change the date, they won’t know“

Don’t falsify documents. Aside from being plain wrong, it will probably make things much, much worse.

There might be a temptation to just go into your documents and somehow change the date on your policy. But during the investigation process there will be numerous communications between GOSC and the insurance company and dates will be confirmed by them. The deception will almost certainly become evident.

Trying to cover things up opens you up to further concerns. It could mean that rather than emerging sheepishly from the whole sorry business with an admonishment, you could even be removed from the register. A life-changing difference.

“The insurance company will not let my insurance lapse – they know how important it is and will alert me“

Well, some do , some don’t,

iO seem to be excellent at warnings. When I was moving from iO to Balen’s, I was positively inundated with emails from the iO, pursuing me more and more persistently as the end date approached. They were rightly concerned that my insurance was not renewed and I would face this exact, catastrophic situation. They even left at least one answerphone message. But I don’t think that is typical of insurers in general. There’s also a chance you could have moved or changed email addresses and they might not even have your current contact details. So don’t rely on it!

If you see emails in your inbox from iO or your insurer with anything to do with insurance in the title, OPEN THEM, READ THEM, DEAL WITH THEM. Avert the crisis.

“GOSC won’t realise I’ve had this uninsured period.”

They probably will.

They do spot checks every once in a while. I have had to submit my insurance policy in the past, and how relieved was I to send it off, knowing it was all aboveboard and I was properly covered!

If you contact an insurer and they become aware of a gap in your insurance, they will have an obligation to be honest with GOSC. Not only might they advise you that you must inform GOSC, they might even inform GOSC themselves.

“If I discover a gap, I’ll just keep quiet“

You must inform GOSC, even if retrospectively, of any gap. In some circumstances you can get insurance backdated. That is certainly worth exploring. To be on the safe side, however, always inform GOSC as soon as you realize that there has been any uninsured period at all.

If it is later found out that you KNEW you had this gap and DIDN’T inform GOSC, that is a further problem. Don’t compound things.

“I’ll only get an admonishment“

You can’t be sure about this.

The complaint will probably go to the Professional Conduct Committee, which is still not a pleasant place to be, even if the ultimate sanction is not severe. You might get an admonishment, but that still doesn’t feel, or look, good.

And it could be even worse. If there’s anything to compound the complaint, from falsification to failure to inform in time, to belligerent, arsey emails to the regulator, the sanction could be more serious. And if it’s a significant period of time that you were uninsured, you could even be suspended. That has happened in the past, and people have been suspended for months.

“The guidance from GOSC on insurance is not clear enough“

Ok, I admit, I’ve never actually heard anyone say this, and maybe nobody has ever even thought it, but it gives me a good excuse to use this address –

C:/Users/osteo/Downloads/pii-guidance2020-04-change.pdf

and you can check out the actual guidance yourself.

“What I say to the insurance company is between me and them“

No. What you say on your phone calls to the insurance company will be noted down and copied as transcripts and read by numerous people, and may be used as evidence. This can go in your favour or not, so be aware what you say and how you come across. It might have a minor effect at a later stage. Avoid reference to “those b*&^%$ds at the GOsC”, for example. Similarly, emails and phone calls to the GOsC are noted and reproduced. Everything will be made public. Consider carefully what you say and be clear and honest at every stage.

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So, please make sure you and your colleagues don’t end up on the wrong side of the Fitness to Practise process through a minor administration error.

If this post made you even slightly unsure about your cover, pause whatever you’re doing, and check it now.

The five minutes you spend now could save you five months of stress and a possible sanction.

Thanks for reading and here’s hoping fewer osteopaths end up with gaps in their insurance.