Outpatient psychology practices insurance checklist: what a psychology practice should carry

The psychology practice insurance checklist

QUICK ANSWER

Outpatient psychology practices usually carry professional liability (e&o), cyber liability and general liability. Psychology practices diagnose, test and treat, write reports that courts, schools and employers act on, supervise trainees, and hold assessments whose confidentiality is governed by rules stricter than ordinary health records. Your landlord and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a psychology practice for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Grant funders & government contracts	General liability, professional and abuse coverage at stated limits, directors and officers, and a crime bond over any funds held

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Abuse and molestation. A separate limit, not a sublimit of general liability; whether it is occurrence or claims-made; and whether the organisation and the individual are both covered.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.

What usually goes wrong for outpatient psychology practices

Forensic and custody evaluations, which generate complaints and lawsuits from the losing side.
Trainees and postdoctoral fellows supervised under a policy that never named them.
Telehealth across state lines without the licence or the coverage to match.
Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
Property values set when the doors opened and never raised.
Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.

What underwriters will ask a psychology practice

Providers and trainees, testing and forensic share, telehealth, and record systems
Licence types, telehealth share and whether minors are treated
Whether any residential, crisis or substance-use services are provided
Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers
Replacement cost of the equipment, fixtures and stock on site
Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.

Questions people actually ask

Is forensic work covered under our malpractice policy?

Only when declared; custody and forensic evaluations carry a complaint rate many times that of therapy, and some policies exclude or rate them separately. Tell the carrier the share of forensic work before the first report.

Are trainees covered under the practice's policy?

Only when named or included by endorsement. Supervised trainees practise under the supervisor's licence, and the supervisor's exposure is the claim; the policy should list every trainee and supervisor.

Does professional liability cover a licensing-board complaint?

Good policies include licensing-board defence as a separate limit, because the complaint costs legal fees even when it seeks no damages. Check that the limit exists and how large it is; it is the most used part of the policy for many clinicians.

Doesn't my landlord's insurance cover my psychology practice?

It covers the building. The lease almost always makes you responsible for your own improvements, equipment and stock, for injuries inside your space, and for naming the landlord as additional insured on your liability policy. Read the insurance clause; the contract checker in the wallet will pull it out for you.

Does cyber insurance cover a fraudulent wire transfer?

Only under a social-engineering or funds-transfer-fraud insuring agreement, and often at a sublimit well below the policy limit. Ask for the sublimit before you buy; it is the claim small businesses actually have.