Happy New Year to all our valued Hamilton Fraser Cosmetic Insurance clients and partners

The Hamilton Fraser Cosmetic Insurance team would like to wish our valued customers a very Happy New Year. We hope that you were able to enjoy a festive break with your friends and family, albeit in very different circumstances to those we are all used to.

As we enter 2021, the cloud of COVID-19 still unfortunately hangs over us. Despite this, there appears to be hopeful light at the end of the tunnel with two vaccines being rolled out across the country. 2020 was an extremely difficult year both financially and emotionally for us all, however we must look forward to a more positive 2021 and a return to some form of normality. The team at Hamilton Fraser Cosmetic Insurance are here to support you wherever we can. We therefore wanted to send this update in response to the announcement that the UK is to enter a new national lockdown from 5 January 2021.

This announcement will once again ask people to stay at home and non-essential businesses asked to close. Like all of you, we find these constant lockdowns incredibly frustrating and damaging to our physical and mental wellbeing. It is however all our duty to honour them and comply with the restrictions. We hope that the Government uses the opportunity to rapidly increase the vaccination programme over the coming weeks giving us all a vision of life returning to normal in the spring and beyond.

From an insurance point of view, we want to bring your attention to two areas that were the central points of discussion in 2020 together with our thoughts on the sector and your coverage during the lockdown period.

The ‘Medical Model’ – This is something we have supported the JCCP, and the wider sector associations and groups, on throughout 2020 and will continue to do so with reference to previous notifications from them. This model has the full support of your insurance policy.

Please refer to the following link for further details.

Insurance ‘Claims Made’ Process – We want to restate the fact that all medical malpractice insurance policies are written on this basis. The ‘Claims Made’ clause states that your insurance policy must be live at the time any claim is submitted even if the policy was live at the time of the treatment procedure. Your customers have up to three years and four months to submit a claim. It is therefore extremely important to maintain your insurance in case previous procedures you performed in 2020 (or before) show signs of complication and claims are submitted for review. While we understand the frustration caused by another national lockdown that prevents you from being able to fully support your customers, we strongly recommend keeping your insurance in force to protect you and them.

As previously advised to you throughout 2020, any claim relating to COVID-19 and its’ variants are specifically excluded from malpractice and wider surgery and salon policies.

Despite the ongoing disruption to the aesthetics and wider cosmetic sector, many high-profile practitioners and commentators are reporting increased interest in procedures in 2021.  This could perhaps be attributed to the extended lockdowns and the want of people to start to make themselves feel good.  At Hamilton Fraser we are seeing increased activity in the marketplace with more enquiries for cosmetic insurance from new entrants to the market than this time last year, and many of our existing practitioners are reporting a higher level of bookings especially for the spring onwards.  So, it is not all doom and gloom and we predict a ‘mini-boom’ in treatments, especially toxins, fillers and weight control treatments towards the summer 2021.

As always, our team are always available to answer any question you have throughout this difficult time. If you would like to discuss any of the points above, or anything else that is on your mind, please don’t hesitate to contact us through the familiar channels.

At such a difficult time it is important that we all stick together, adhere to the rules, stay safe and together we can all look forward to a more positive 2021.

Thank you to all our practitioners for your support in 2020. We look forward to being your cosmetic insurance partner throughout 2021 and beyond.