Ohio Business Insurance: Practices, properties and Main Street, shopped for you.

Ohio is a monopolistic workers' comp state. That means Ohio employers get workers' comp coverage through the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC), not from private insurance companies.

So we don't sell a private workers' comp policy for your Ohio operations, and nobody else can either. What we can do is help you understand your BWC coverage, review it alongside the rest of your program, and coordinate the coverage that sits around it, like stop-gap employer's liability.

Workers' comp through the BWC pays benefits to injured employees. In a monopolistic state, it generally doesn't include the employer's liability coverage that private workers' comp policies carry in most other states.

Stop-gap coverage, usually added as an endorsement to your general liability policy, can help fill that gap if you're sued over an employee injury that falls outside the BWC system. Ask us whether your current policy includes it. This is general information, not legal advice.

Most dental offices start with a Business Owners Policy or a commercial property and general liability package that covers the space, the equipment and the income you lose if you have to close for a covered repair.

From there, practices usually look at professional liability, cyber liability for patient records, employment practices liability for the team, and coverage for high-value equipment like imaging systems and chairs. We'll walk through it with you and coordinate the pieces so they fit together.

The core is similar to any office: property, general liability and business income. What changes is the exposure that comes with treating patients and holding their records.

That's where professional liability and cyber liability come in, along with EPLI if you have staff and group benefits if you want to offer them. Tell us how your practice is set up and we'll help you build the program around it.

We call it professional liability, and yes, it's part of the conversation for every medical and dental office we work with.

It's a specialized coverage, so the details matter: who is covered, which services, and how it lines up with the practice's other policies. Let us coordinate it with your property, general liability and cyber coverage so there are no gaps or overlaps between them.

Make sure your professional liability matches the treatments you actually offer and the people who perform them. Some policies limit or exclude certain procedures.

Add new services or providers? Tell us before you start offering them, so we can check the coverage still fits. Beyond that, a med spa needs the same foundation as any office: property, general liability, business income, cyber for client records, and EPLI if you have staff.

It depends on the property. One- to four-unit rentals are often written on a landlord policy, which we cover on our landlord insurance page.

Larger apartment buildings and multifamily properties are usually insured on a commercial property and general liability package, often with a commercial umbrella on top. Depending on your portfolio, it may be possible to schedule several properties on one commercial policy. We'll compare the options across our carriers.

If you hold patient or customer records, take cards, or run your business through email and cloud software, you have cyber exposure.

For a medical, dental or aesthetic office, a breach of patient data can bring forensic investigation, patient notification, legal help and, depending on the policy, some HIPAA-related regulatory response costs. Cyber liability can help pay for many of those costs. It doesn't replace your own HIPAA compliance work, and what it covers varies by policy, so we'll go through it with you.

A Business Owners Policy bundles general liability, commercial property and business income into one package built for small businesses, often for less than buying the pieces separately.

For many Ohio offices and shops, a BOP is the core of the program. It isn't enough by itself if you give professional advice, hold patient or customer data, have employees, drive for work, or need flood coverage.

Generally not. Personal auto policies typically exclude most business use, like deliveries, hauling equipment between sites or driving clients.

If the vehicle belongs to the business, it needs commercial auto. If employees drive their own cars on your errands, ask about hired and non-owned auto coverage, because their accident on your errand can become your claim.

Mostly no. Homeowners policies usually carry a small limit for business property and generally exclude business liability.

The fix is often simple: an endorsement or a small business policy. We'll tell you honestly which one fits.

Property coverage repairs the building. Business income helps pay your rent, payroll and lost profit while that happens, after a covered loss.

In Ohio, think about spring and summer storms, hail and straight-line winds, and winter pipe freezes. Flood is excluded from most business property coverage, so if you operate near the Olentangy or Scioto River or a creek that rises in heavy rain, ask us about flood coverage too.

A certificate of insurance is proof of your coverage. Naming someone as an additional insured extends your liability policy to protect them for work you do for them.

Leases, lenders, property managers and larger clients ask for them all the time. Send us the request and the contract language, and we'll work to turn it around quickly.

It ranges too widely for one honest number. A two-person consulting office and a multi-provider medical practice are very different risks.

What you do, your payroll, your building, your equipment, your vehicles and your claims history all move the price. Because we're an independent agency, we shop your coverage across several carriers and compare. Call us and we'll quote your actual operation.

We represent multiple insurance companies, so we can compare options instead of offering one company's policy.

We work for you, not an insurance company. Mark Goodwin has been a licensed insurance professional since 1990, and we stay with you from the first quote through renewals as your business and the insurance market change.