Insurance for Medical Equipment Providers

Medical equipment can malfunction, break, or fail, causing serious patient injuries. Even when you didn’t manufacture the equipment, as the supplier you face product liability claims. Hospital beds collapse, wheelchair brakes fail, patient lifts drop patients, oxygen equipment malfunctions, CPAP machines fail, and walkers break. These equipment failures result in falls, injuries, and sometimes death, leading to catastrophic liability claims.

Real Scenario: DME supplier provided hospital bed to elderly patient recovering at home. Bed side rail failed three weeks later, causing patient to fall from bed and fracture hip and shoulder. Required surgery and extended rehabilitation. Family sued DME company claiming defective equipment and inadequate maintenance. General liability with product liability coverage defended case and settled for $650,000 plus $125,000 legal costs.

Your delivery staff transport, set up, and install equipment in patients’ homes. During delivery and installation, employees can cause property damage, injure themselves or patients, damage walls or doorways, drop equipment, or improperly install devices leading to later failures. You’re responsible for your employees’ actions during delivery and installation.

Real Scenario: Delivery team installing patient lift in bedroom. During installation, employee dropped portion of lift, damaging hardwood floor and breaking through ceiling into room below, causing $18,000 damage. Additionally, patient’s family member was struck by equipment, causing minor injuries. General liability covered property damage and bodily injury totaling $28,000 plus defense costs.

Your vehicles are constantly on the road delivering equipment, picking up returns, and making service calls. Commercial delivery drivers have higher accident rates than typical commuters. If your delivery driver causes an accident, you face liability for injuries and damages, which can easily exceed $500,000 in serious accidents.

Real Scenario: DME delivery van driver making late afternoon delivery ran red light and caused multi-vehicle accident, injuring three people. Total damages exceeded $850,000 for medical expenses, lost wages, vehicle damage, and pain and suffering. Commercial auto insurance covered full amount plus $95,000 legal defense costs.

As a healthcare provider, you’re subject to HIPAA regulations. You maintain patient medical records, insurance information, physician prescriptions, and diagnoses in electronic systems. Data breaches, stolen laptops, hacked systems, lost patient files, or improper disposal of records result in HIPAA violations, breach notification obligations, and OCR penalties averaging $50,000-$250,000 per incident.

Real Scenario: DME company laptop stolen from employee vehicle contained unencrypted patient information for 1,200 patients including names, addresses, diagnoses, insurance information, and Social Security numbers. Required breach notification, OCR investigation, and credit monitoring. Cyber liability insurance covered $185,000 in breach response costs, $75,000 OCR settlement, and $65,000 legal fees. Total claim: $325,000.