When patient data is breached, the bills start right away.
A dental office keeps health records, Social Security numbers, and card numbers for every patient. Cyber liability insurance helps pay for what follows a breach or ransomware attack: forensic investigation, data recovery, patient notifications, legal costs, and fines.
Built for dental offices. We place cyber coverage alongside your malpractice and business owners policy, so you know which policy answers which problem.
Why dental offices are targets
Attackers go after data they can sell or hold for ransom, and a dental practice has a lot of it in one place.
- Health records Charts, treatment history, and imaging
- Social Security numbers Collected for insurance and billing
- Insurance member IDs For every patient who files a claim
- Credit card numbers Cards on file and payment plans
Costs to your practice
What it takes to respond and get back to seeing patients.
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Forensic investigation
Specialists find how attackers got in, what they reached, and whether they are still in your systems.
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Data recovery
Restoring patient records and getting your schedule, imaging, and billing running again.
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Ransom payments
Payments to regain access to encrypted data, where the policy and the law allow it.
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Patient notifications
Letters to every affected patient, which the law requires after many breaches.
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Incident management and PR
Help managing the response and talking to patients and your community.
Claims and penalties
What can follow once patient information is exposed.
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Legal fees and costs
Breach counsel and defense if patients or others take action against the practice.
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Fines
Regulatory fines and penalties that follow a breach, where insurable.
Coverage, limits, and exclusions vary by policy. Your advisor will walk through exactly what yours includes.
What carriers look for
Cyber carriers ask about your security before they quote. These basics come up most, and they also make an attack less likely to succeed.
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Multi-factor authentication
On email, remote access, and your practice management software.
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Backups kept separate
Copies of your data that ransomware on the office network cannot reach.
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Endpoint protection
Security software on every computer in the office.
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Staff training
Teaching the front desk and clinical team to spot phishing emails.
Cyber insurance questions from dentists
Isn’t my practice management or IT vendor responsible for a breach?
Not entirely. Under HIPAA your practice is the covered entity, and vendors that handle patient data are business associates. Even when a vendor is at fault, the practice often still has to investigate, notify patients, and answer to regulators. Your contracts with vendors matter, but they rarely cover all of it.
What does HIPAA require after a breach?
Affected patients must be notified without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after the breach is discovered. Breaches affecting 500 or more people must also be reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and, in most cases, to local media. Smaller breaches are reported to HHS once a year. Many states add their own notification rules on top.
Doesn’t my business owners policy or malpractice insurance cover this?
Usually not in a meaningful way. Malpractice insurance covers claims about patient care, and business owners policies often exclude or tightly limit cyber losses. A dedicated cyber policy is built for breach response, data recovery, and the liability that follows.
Will cyber insurance pay a ransom?
Many cyber policies can cover ransom payments to regain access to your data, subject to the policy’s terms and limits and to federal sanctions rules that bar payments to certain groups. Coverage for restoring data and the investigation usually matters as much as the ransom itself.
What about wire fraud or a fake invoice from a vendor?
Losing money to a spoofed email or a fake payment request is often treated separately from a data breach. Some cyber policies include it, some offer it as an add-on, and some exclude it. Ask your advisor whether your policy covers it.
What will a carrier ask before quoting?
Expect questions about your security basics, such as multi-factor authentication, backups, security software, and staff training, plus how many patient records you hold. Better answers can mean better terms, so it helps to have your IT provider on hand.
Find out where your practice stands
Tell us about your practice and the systems you use. Your advisor will check what your current policies already cover and quote cyber coverage that fills the gaps.
