Why and How are Kinesiologists insured professionally?

 

Importance of Professional Insurance

Maintaining professional insurance provides peace of mind, whether it be for your home, your car, or your professional work. Legal actions often come as a result of someone being harmed, either through bodily injury or damage to their property. Even if the allegations are frivolous, you are still required to respond with a defence. Lawsuits often name anyone involved in and/or connected to a particular situation regardless of how minuscule that involvement may have been. Good advice for mounting a defence can be expensive. Considering that the average hourly rate for a lawyer in Canada is upwards of $350, professional insurance coverage such as the products offered by the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance can help a great deal. The CKA highly recommends that professional insurance be kept up to date regardless of practice area. In Ontario, the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario (CKO) requires that all Registered Kinesiologists maintain errors and omissions liability coverage. As of 2014, the minimum required coverage is $1M limit per occurrence with a $3M aggregate limit per year. 

MANDATORY PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY

As a condition of becoming and continuing as a practising member/affiliate, every member/affiliate must have and maintain professional liability insurance covering the scope of practice of kinesiology as defined by the CKA and the PKAs. The insurance may be held through the CKA national insurance program from PROLINK or your employer. You must submit your mandatory professional liability Insurance within 10 days, otherwise we will have to invalidate your membership. Attach your PROLINK insurance certificate or your workplace professional liability certificate. 

1. National Insurance Program by PROLINK
For 2023, the national insurance program through PROLINK is offered at significantly low rates thanks to reaching over 5,000 members in this program. For example, professional liability insurance begins at $59/yr.

Since 2021, professional liability Insurance can be purchased directly from PROLINK during your renewal process. Once purchased, all insurance documents will be emailed to you by PROLINK, and your certificate of insurance will be automatically uploaded to your CKA profile to be validated.

Should you have any questions, please contact Leona Petersen or Lindsay Fish by email at cka@prolink.insure.

You will need your membership number. 

2. Workplace Professional Liability Insurance

If you have insurance through your employer – that is, you are already covered by professional liability insurance, covering your acts as a Kinesiologist, under the term Kinesiologist – you must attach your proof of insurability (or evidence of employment at an institution [e.g., hospital]) and the signed consent form provided in the registration process. These two documents will be requested upon accession/renewal. If you have coverage through your employer, you must verify that the policy covers the full scope of practice for kinesiology as defined by the CKA and the PKAs and meets the requirements outlined below. If you carry professional liability insurance through your employer, you agree that you will not provide kinesiology services external to the business operations of the employer – thus, no private practice.

Note: The CKA does not accept professional liability insurance outside of the CKA national insurance program/PROLINK unless the policy includes an endorsement (rider) that covers the entire scope of practice of kinesiology as defined by a kinesiology governing body, identifies you as the insured person, and the policy is consistent with CKA insurance requirements.

To be approved by the CKA, your workplace professional insurance must include the following:

1. Policy wording covering the entire scope of practice for kinesiology as defined by the CKA/PKA. 
2. Limits of liability are of not less than $2,000,000/loss and $3,000,000/policy term.
3. Policy coverage includes errors and omissions made by the insured member/employee.
4. Policy wording does not restrict coverage to working with healthy or uninjured persons whether in these specific terms or others synonymous with good health.
5. If you carry professional liability insurance through your employer, you confirm by having signed this document that you will not provide kinesiology services external to the business operations of the employer – thus, no private practice.
6. You confirm having signed that you have reviewed the coverage provided under the policy and confirm it meets all the listed requirements.

Professional Insurance Coverage as Valuable Protection

Canada is becoming more litigious. In Canada, the value of court settlements has risen sharply in recent years. Increasingly, people are showing a willingness to turn to the courts and/or regulatory bodies when they believe the services they received were substandard. The fact is, even if a professional is not at fault, defending against a legal action can be very expensive, threatening personal financial security. Errors and omissions insurance provides some measure of protection, helping you cover legal defence costs and damages that may be awarded. 

 

Insurance Coverage Inclusions

The Canadian Kinesiology Alliance professional errors and omissions insurance policy covers the full scope of kinesiology services including those outlined by regulatory bodies like the College of Kinesiologists of Ontario. The policy also covers the following types of health care services: sports therapy, massage therapy, physiotherapy, homeopathy, osteopathy, and psychotherapy. The policy requires that the fees earned for these additional services be less than $5,000 per patient and less than $25,000 for all patients during any one (1) policy year.

Not all professional insurance policies are equal. The Canadian Kinesiology Alliance spends a lot of time ensuring it can offer industry-leading products and services. 

 

Errors and Omissions and Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance

You are not required to hold commercial general liability insurance (CGL) in any jurisdiction in Canada, including Ontario. However, the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance suggests that you consider purchasing this important product in order to avoid any possible gaps in insurance coverage. Our commercial general liability insurance offers protection in the event you are involved in a legal action by a third party who sustained a bodily injury or property damage unrelated to professional advice they may have been given. In contrast, errors and omissions (E&O) insurance helps protect you against bodily injury claims sustained by a patient as a possible result of the professional advice and services given. CGL is important if any of the following apply to you:

1. You own or lease your own clinic location.

2. You provide advice and services in a clinic location that is not owned/operated by you.

3. You provide services to patients from your home.

In order to purchase the commercial general liability insurance products offered by the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance, you must have purchased one of our errors and omissions (E&O) products.

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Statement of Claim Procedure

Working with our insurance industry experts, the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance is here to help! If you receive a statement of claim or threatening comments from a client, do not admit to any liability or fault to anyone; contact us immediately at info@cka.ca.

 

Protection When Stopping Practice

Legal action can be taken months or years after the advice and/or service is provided to a client, perhaps even after you are no longer in practice. Our industry-leading professional errors and omissions (E&O) insurance products give purchasers up to six (6) years of coverage after they stop practising. This benefit of the policies provided by the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance is known as extended reporting period coverage. Many policies do not offer this feature. Indeed, other providers may well add additional fees if extended reporting period coverage is requested.

When retiring, the insured Affiliated Kinesiologist with this retirement coverage must send an email to PROLINK (cka@prolink.insure) indicating they are ceasing practice as a Kinesiologist, and in the case of Ontario, no longer registered with the CKO. This email to PROLINK will trigger the automatic extended reporting period coverage for six years.

Download the insurance program brochure.