Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/68009
THE ABCS OF BUSINESS INSURANCE RISKS REALIZED Practicing massage since 1975 and working on more than 45,000 bodies, the 61-year-old Lundy had never received a formal complaint about her work. Instead, she was considered the "queen of nurturing," having built a practice catering to women dealing with cancer. So when she got a phone call last year saying she'd allegedly "hurt" a client nine months earlier, she was distraught, confused, and saddened. She doesn't remember the client— one of many she saw when working for a massage team for a major hotel chain in California—or the circumstances, but she recalls the phone call. Lundy remembers thinking a thousand thoughts when she first heard she had been named with 15 others in a lawsuit by this client. Denial was probably the first. "How could this be? This is not who I am. This is not what I do." Luckily, Lundy had professional liability insurance. The client claimed Lundy had adjusted her neck and that, as a result, she had tingling down her arm. Lundy was mortified. She was certain she had only applied the same neck protocol she gave to all her clients. In her heart, Lundy felt the case was trumped up, especially when she learned that in the suit the client had named just about everyone she'd come in contact with during her hotel stay. "Apparently she didn't like the room, the price, or the view," Lundy says. In the end, the hotel refunded all of the guest's money; yet nine months later, the woman resurfaced with a lawyer asking for more. Without professional liability insurance, Lundy says she would have had to pay at least $15,000 in legal fees to defend the case. If she had been found liable for the full extent of the claimant's injury, the result without insurance could easily have been financial ruin. Until this time, Lundy looked at business insurance expenses as just another Shopping for Insurance Questions to Ask About the Policy • Is this occurrence-form or claims-made coverage? • Is this a shared member aggregate or are the aggregates per member, per year? • What does the policy provide? Professional liability, general liability, product liability, or all of the above? • Is there a charge for adding additional insured endorsements (AIEs)? • Does it cover all the treatments and therapies I provide? • What is not covered? • Are defense costs included? • What other benefits does the association or insurance provider offer? set of fees required to work in the resort environment where she found herself. "The insurance was obligatory to work at these places," she says. "I never thought I would have to use it." Now, having gone through this experience, Lundy advises other therapists to never work without insurance. "The fee is nothing for the peace of mind," she says. "It's essential, given today, with the way people sue over nothing." And even more so during these desperate economic times. Though Lundy's client hadn't missed a day of work since the session in question and had previously been seeing a chiropractor for carpal tunnel syndrome, the case was settled for less than it would have taken to defend the suit in court. While disturbed by the claim, Lundy used the incident to reevaluate her business and how she approaches each new client. "The complaint came as a wake-up call for me," Lundy says. It prompted her to take another look at her intake 52 massage & bodywork july/august 2009 process and spurred her to be more conscious of how often she checks in with clients while they're on the table. She reestablished some boundary issues that had been weakened with time and reinvested herself in her own business. Now her code of ethics hangs prominently in her office and she's saying no to the business relationships that don't complement her own business and ethics standards. IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU Despite the best business ethics and hands-on practices, massage therapists and bodyworkers leave themselves open to financial disaster if they are not protected by professional liability insurance. "Even the most cautious and caring therapist has to understand that accidents can happen to anyone," says Katie Armitage, executive director at Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), the largest U.S. massage membership association (and publisher of Massage & Bodywork), which includes professional liability insurance as one of its many member benefits. Kendra Henderson, owner of LA Body Points in Los Angeles, California, illustrates the point. She took her mobile massage business to a senior health fair last year to market her chair massage services to a new clientele. It was the end of a long day and only one client remained. The 88-year-old "Edelyne" waited on the massage chair while one of Henderson's therapists was sanitizing her hands. Suddenly, through the corner of her eye, Henderson saw the petite woman falling backward off the chair. While initially appearing unscathed, Edelyne eventually asked for an ambulance, which arrived in short order and whisked her away. Henderson remembers the sense of dread coupled with concern. Her nightmares repeated the image of the little, elderly woman toppling backward. The only relief Henderson felt was in remembering she was protected by her professional liability insurance.