Psychology Board of Australia - Professional Indemnity Requirements
From 1 July 2010, a registration standard was effected for registered psychologists. The Standard requires professional indemnity cover to include:
a) civil liability cover;
b) unlimited retroactive cover;
c) run-off cover; and
d) two automatic reinstatements during the period of cover
The Unimutual protections comply with (a) to (c) but, for the majority of Members, the professional liability protection does not comply with the requirement for two automatic reinstatements.
Unimutual wrote to the Psychology Board of Australia, asking it to reconsider the requirement for two automatic reinstatements, since universities have sufficiently high limits to ensure that adequate protection is available.
The Psychology Board of Australia then reconsidered the position of the two reinstatements and issued a document clarifying the requirement. The clarification states that:
"The requirement for two automatic reinstatements during the period of cover is intended to ensure that the PII cover is adequate to cover any claims during the relevant period. Clearly it is possible to have a higher amount of aggregate cover, with one or no reinstatements, and achieve a similar amount of coverage. Accordingly, provided an employer's PII provides adequate coverage for the type of practice, the Board will not require two automatic reinstatements."
We are pleased to have been able to facilitate a common-sense resolution of this problem for those Members who were unable to meet the original requirements.
