BDA Indemnity: Important documents and FAQs
About BDA Indemnity
By taking out BDA Indemnity, you'll get advisory, case management and indemnity support from the BDA. You'll have access to our dento-legal support, plus professional liability insurance from Intact Insurance UK Ltd.
It's a unique service offering comprehensive, contractual and bespoke cover for members. Contractual certainty means a legally-binding right to cover.
You have a contractual right to cover under the policy. With that, you’ll have peace of mind that when an incident occurs under the policy, you’re covered forever
Our service
- We won’t just give in to pressure to settle and make cases go away: we’ll do what’s right in each and every case
- There’s no limit on how often you can speak to our Indemnity Team, and calling won’t penalise premiums
- It’s a bespoke policy and service, designed with fairness at its heart, to protect members from the wide-ranging issues they may face
- We have a flexible category structure so you only pay for what you do. That means dentists won’t be subsidising the risks of other dentists or medical colleagues, or peers in other countries.
Key documents
Regulation
We chose Intact Insurance UK Ltd to underwrite our policy and it’s brokered by long-standing partner Lloyd & Whyte, with independent regulation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Learn more about the regulation of BDA Indemnity.
BDA Indemnity: FAQs
About the policy
With occurrence-based cover, as long as you are paying the right subscription rate at the time the incident occurred that later gave rise to a claim, you will be covered in perpetuity. This means that if you did something negligent but retired the next day and stopped your payments, even if the complaint and legal claim is made against you three years later, your policy will respond. Len D'Cruz covers this in more detail in his blog The difference between occurrence-based and claims-based cover.
Ours is insurance-based indemnity which operates on the same basis as other forms of insurance. The policy wording specifies what is covered by this agreement as well as being transparent about the term, conditions and policy exclusions. If you are declined cover, you can complain to the BDA in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the final response from BDA, you can then refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). That same legal protection does not exist with discretionary cover: the organisation can exercise its absolute discretion not to assist you, even if you are in the right subscription category, have paid the correct fees and the matter is within the scope of cover – and there is no independent source of adjudication. Whilst it rarely happens, as a mutual fund, a refusal to assist an individual member can be argued to be justified on the basis that incurring the costs of the case would not be in the interests of other members.
It's a unique policy designed for dentists and dentistry. It's specifically designed for UK dentists and the wide range of work they do. The cover is for all the things that dentists generally do, including tooth whitening and dental implants (including sinus lifts and bone grafts), the dental specialty of oral surgery and the use of cosmetic injectable procedures throughout the face.
Because this is a policy for dentists who are delivering dentistry, the medical specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery is not covered. Procedures in the neck or other parts of the body are not included, and certain types of specialised cosmetic facial procedures (even when used in the face) are similarly excluded.
See our flowchart to assess whether or not the surgical procedures you carry out are covered.
When a patient makes a claim, they may pursue a company (or owners), as well as an individual dentist. A Limited Company (or PLC/LLP) is a legal entity in its own right and could face legal action itself. In addition, NHS contracts may require such cover to be in place. You therefore need to ensure that your business has indemnity cover itself. This is referred to by different providers as entity cover, corporate indemnity, corporate medical malpractice or contingent liability.
Eligibility and application process
Our pricing takes into account the resources that come with your membership.
The range of services available to dentists with Extra or Expert membership is second to none and highly regarded. Our one-to-one advisory and support services guide members through tricky times, and the template policies available to Expert members make compliance with national standards straightforward.
Access to this support before things go wrong decreases the risk profile, and because of this, we’ve been able to price the indemnity cover fairly.
Any GDC-registered dentist can get an indicative quote and we'd encourage you to do so. If you decide to apply after receiving the quote, you are required you to become a BDA member on the tier relevant to your situation.
Our step-by-step guide sets out the entire process from indicative quote to final offer.
Once you have an indicative quote, use the link within the email to apply, as it connects your quote and application in our system.
This application information is what you'll need to gather in order to apply.
Many dentists working in various branches of the salaried services are oblivious to the variety of ways that gaps can exist in their professional protection. Our cover for salaried dentists is designed to 'wrap around' the employer-provided indemnity, giving the member extra peace of mind.
If you join the BDA to take advantage of the indemnity cover but your application is unsuccessful, we will refund your membership fee. If you upgrade from one package to another to be eligible to purchase the cover then we will refund the difference and revert your membership to the original package.
Pricing and payments
The cover has been arranged putting members at the heart of it. It's unique to dentistry and we've worked hard to price it so it's fair and accessible. There will be members for whom our price isn't cheaper than their current provider, but hopefully the combined package of membership plus indemnity over is worth more than the sum of its parts.
Remember, not all policies and scope of cover are the same.
Your premium is calculated using this information. Any incorrect or incomplete information could invalidate all or part of your policy and cause any claims to be rejected or not fully paid.
You have not:
- been declared bankrupt or insolvent either as a private individual or in connection with any business
- been the subject of a county court judgement in respect of debt either as a private individual or in connection with any business
- been an officer of a company that has been declared insolvent, or had a receiver or liquidator appointed, or entered into arrangements with creditors in accordance with the Insolvency Act 1986 or any subsequent legislation
- been disqualified under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or any subsequent legislation
- been convicted of or charged with but not yet tried for a criminal offence other than a motoring offence
- had an insurance contract cancelled or declared void or a claim repudiated or renewal refused due to breach of a policy condition or due to non-disclosure or mis-description or misrepresentation of a material circumstance
- had insurance cover restricted or cancelled or renewal refused due to noncompliance with risk improvement requirements.
- If you don’t agree with any of the relevant statements above, please contact us on 020 7535 5858 to speak to a member of the team who can help with your specific needs. Please note that calls will be recorded for regulatory compliance, training and monitoring purposes.