The AAO Council on Insurance is currently working with Affinity Insurance Company to develop a cyber liability insurance coverage program for AAO members. The idea behind the coverage is to protect orthodontic practices 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 has emerged as a result of the expansion of liabilities against companies for 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 patient and employee data, schedule appointments, track billing/payment information, and more. Protecting the practice’s data from unauthorized access is critical. Traditional insurance, i.e. professional liability, property, and general liability and casualty, typically exclude coverage for cyber-related crimes. Since our members work with so much patient information, it is important to make available this insurance coverage.”

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