The AAOCouncil on Insurance is currently working with Affinity InsuranceCompany to develop a cyber liability insurance coverage program for AAOmembers. The idea behind the coverage is to protect orthodonticpractices that fall victim to cyber attacks including viruses, phishing,and data theft, and to help offset the cost of repairing such damage.

According to the AAO, a product plan should be presented to the AAO Board of Trustees in 2012.

“Cyber liability is a relatively new insurance coverage that hasemerged as a result of the expansion of liabilities against companiesfor breach of private information and insurance for digital assets,”said Larson Keso, DDS, chair of the AAO Council on Insurance.

“Many orthodontic practices rely on electronic media to store patientand employee data, schedule appointments, track billing/paymentinformation, and more. Protecting the practice’s data from unauthorizedaccess is critical. Traditional insurance, i.e. professional liability,property, and general liability and casualty, typically exclude coveragefor cyber-related crimes. Since our members work with so much patientinformation, it is important to make available this insurance coverage.”

Potential coverage could help mitigate the impact of data breachassociated with credit card information, personal financial information,personal health information, and patient or employee data. Coveragewould also pay regulatory defense and penalties from privacy lawviolations, cover hiring forensic experts to investigate a breach,provide credit file monitoring to victims, secure legal counsel toadvise on incident response, and provide compliance with data-breachnotification laws.