What Sports Massage Insurance Do You Need?

In this article, we will guide you through the insurance requirements for sports massage professionals by exploring the following topics:

• Do Sports Massage Therapists Need Insurance?
• Minimum Insurance Requirements For A Sports Massage Practice
• What Other Insurance Does A Sports Massage Therapist Need?
• Can You Combine Personal Training and Sports Massage Insurance?
• How Much Does Sports Massage Therapist Insurance Cost?
• Sports Massage Insurance Cover Comparison Sites Can Help You Find The Best Insurance Provider

Before we begin, you can expand your SMT business and boost your income & sports massage therapist career opportunities with our Level 3 Sports Massage Course. Download OriGym's course prospectus to learn more and see what else we offer.

Do Sports Massage Therapists Need Insurance?

Regardless of the employment you’ve undertaken, be it freelancing, part-time or full-time work, having sports massage therapist insurance (UK) is essential to protect yourself as a professional.

If you decide to apply for a position with a sports massage company, you will notice that most companies will ask for therapists to have a valid form of insurance.

A quick Google search for ‘Sports Massage Therapist jobs’ will inform you what positions are currently available and their insurance requirements.

This Sports Massage Therapist job at Crosby Chiropractic & Sports Injury Clinic, for instance, requires you to have your insurance up to date:

In any profession, things can go wrong. However, they’re taken seriously when it results in: 

• Injury or harm to a client
• Damage to a client’s or your property
• Injury to your employees
• Injury to yourself

If any of these scenarios should happen, having insurance coverage can help you deal with the financial and legal repercussions when a claim may be made against you.   

It’s important to have SMT insurance when working as a sports therapist since you will be working directly with clients recovering from injuries or preparing for competitions.

In the event an accident does occur, having the correct insurance coverage will prevent you from paying large costs for legal fees and compensation.

Let’s take a deeper look at some of the insurance requirements you need to operate safely as a sports massage therapist. 

Minimum Insurance Requirements For A Sports Massage Practice  

Operating professionally requires you to have the correct coverage. You should begin by securing two types of insurance for sports massage therapists, these are:

• Public Liability Insurance
• Professional Indemnity Insurance

To help you understand what each of these insurance policies includes and why they’re essential for your business, we’ll now explore them in more detail.

What Does Public Liability Insurance Sports Massage Cover For A Therapist?

Sports massage public liability insurance covers any accidents that your client experiences at your place of business, resulting in injury or damage to their property.

This makes it one of the most essential types of insurance for you to secure for yourself as a sports therapist.

Public liability insurance should cover you in the event your client:

• Trips on the floor, resulting in injury
• Has their property damaged during an appointment with you
• Suffers an injury or property damage during a home appointment

The coverage will help with costs in the event you’re found responsible for your client’s injury or damage, including final costs for payouts.

You may suffer damaging consequences if you don’t have public liability insurance because you will then be responsible for all costs associated with the claim.

If you’re wondering how your payment for liability insurance will manifest into real-term cover, Markel UK provides an insight into what you’re entitled to: 

Whilst it may be distressing to think about what accidents your clients could encounter, it’s best to put your mind at ease with liability insurance for your line of work.

What does Professional Indemnity Insurance cover for a Sports Therapist?

You may ask “What insurance does a sports massage therapist need after public liability?”. The next form of insurance you need is professional indemnity coverage.

To help you understand the definition of this insurance, Hiscox defines public indemnity insurance as: 

A commercial policy designed to protect business owners, freelancers and the self-employed if clients claim service is inadequate.

Public indemnity can also be known as treatment liability insurance, which provides coverage for medical procedures such as sports massage.

To help further your understanding of indemnity insurance, we’re going to take a look at what these two forms of insurance can cover you for.

You’ll need Public Indemnity Insurance in case you deliver poor service to clients

Public indemnity insurance for sports massage therapists protects you from claims of negligence relating to the services and advice you provide.

Claims of professional negligence can come from several areas, including: 

• Poor advice that leads to a client’s injury with SMT aftercare treatment
• Data breaches
• Damage to the client’s property

Protectivity provides a more detailed overview of what public indemnity insurance should cover for you:

Just as accidents can happen at work, poor advice or even infringement of copyrighted material can happen too.

A public indemnity policy will help you cover any legal costs associated with your defence if you are found liable for professional negligence.

Now that you understand public indemnity covers, let's take a deeper look at the coverage treatment liability insurance can cover. 

If you decide to purchase a treatment liability insurance policy, this will help you cover any legal defence costs and any compensation you have to pay out to claimants.

After you get informed consent from your client, they can still claim from you, should:

• They experienced an allergic reaction to the oils you’ve used.
• They develop a painful bruise from the therapy you administered.
• The client suffers an injury from the post-care advice you gave.

So if you want to reduce the financial risk of having a claim of professional negligence made against you, it’s best to get treatment liability insurance.

You may decide to go with Hiscox as an insurance provider and as a result, you would receive the following coverage with their treatment and professional liability insurance: 

Obtaining treatment liability insurance will provide you with financial security should a client decide to claim against you following the advice you gave them.  

What Other Insurance Does A Sports Massage Therapist Need?

So far, we’ve looked at two forms of insurance that will provide you with substantial cover whilst working as a sports massage therapist.

However, there are other forms of insurance for sports massage therapists you may need coverage for, including:

• Loss Of Earnings Insurance
• Equipment Insurance
• Personal Accident Insurance
• Employer’s Liability Insurance

As we work through this list, you’ll discover that some of these forms of insurance will provide you with additional coverage, relative to the type of work you carry out.

Loss Of Earnings Insurance Can Help Your Finances If You’re Unable To Work

Loss of earnings insurance for sports massage is a form of insurance that can help protect your income.

Insuranceopedia, explains that this type of insurance assists with: 

The policyholder's financial needs when they are unable to work because of a disability. If it is temporary, the insurer will provide insurance money until the insured can resume working. If it is a permanent disability, however, the insurer will provide not only for daily expenses but also for medical needs.

A broken leg, for instance, may prevent you from working and would be classed as a temporary disability.

Due to this injury, you’ll receive a percentage of your normal income back if you’re unable to earn a normal wage.

Insure4sport provides further insight into what an insurer can provide a sports massage therapist, due to a loss of earnings. Within their policy, they’ll be able to:

• Provide you with 52 weeks of cover
• Offer three weekly payment options £250, £500 or £750 (with personal accident coverage).

When you purchase loss of earnings insurance, you may discover it’s secured as an optional cover, sometimes included with your purchase of personal accidental coverage.

Loss of earnings insurance is essential to provide you with financial security, should you be unable to work with clients and earn a normal wage.

It will provide you with financial security to help cover your basic amenities such as food, bills and rent.

However, you may not need this insurance type if you can survive on your benefit payments or if you have coverage with your employee benefits.

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Equipment Insurance Can Cover You From Any Loss, Theft Or Damage To Your Property

Another way to protect yourself from financial loss is through the purchase of sports massage therapist insurance to cover any potential problems with your equipment.

This is known as equipment insurance, which Insure4sport states will protect you in the event:

the equipment you use to train is stolen or damaged. This cover applies whether you’re practising your sport or not at the time of the incident.

This form of insurance can also extend to when you’re travelling to a client’s home and are transporting your equipment to their address and is damaged or lost en route.  

Fitness Industry Insurance provides you with insight into what their equipment insurance will cover, including coverage for items valued up to £2,500:

When researching equipment insurance coverage, it’s important to understand the maximum value insurance providers will cover as this can vary between insurers.

It’s also important to make sure that insurance providers can cover the type of equipment you use as a sports massage therapist.

You may not need this form of insurance if you're employed by a company that already provides you with the equipment that you need. 

Personal Accident Insurance Can Provide Financial Stability If You’re Involved In An Accident

It's equally important to get personal accident insurance to cover yourself, even if you're mainly concerned with protecting your clients and equipment.

This sports massage therapy insurance will be beneficial to you, particularly if you experience an accident whilst working; resulting in the following: 

• Visual impairment
• Hearing damage
• Disablement

You can twist an ankle while moving around the client's bed, preventing you from applying pressure to that foot. Under this insurance, this would be covered.

If you want to understand how this insurance translates into real-term cover, UK Coaching details the payouts they issue to policyholders.

Depending on the severity of the accident, they can issue payouts of up to £50,000 for permanent disablement if:

You may feel confident carrying out the relevant risk assessments to protect you and your client. 

However, with your different roles as an SMT, accidents can occur from events you couldn’t anticipate.

This is why personal accident insurance can provide you with financial security should an accident seriously impact the way you work.

Employer’s Liability Insurance Can Protect You From Claims From Staff

Employment liability insurance applies to any business that employs more than one person, who is not part of their immediate family.

If this applies to you, securing employment liability insurance is a legal requirement. If your business does not have this insurance, you could be fined £2,500.

This form of insurance provides you with coverage, should any of your employees experience an injury or illness whilst in your employment.

A member of staff, for instance, may experience a fall and injure themselves on a wet surface at your business. As a result, have filed a claim against you.

Depending on the insurer you receive your policy from, it should cover a wide range of employment types for your employees. 

AXA’s employer's liability insurance, for instance, covers the following employment types:

Employer’s liability insurance would provide you with coverage, should you be found liable for any payouts to a member of your staff.

AXA provides you with further information on what their employer’s liability insurance covers, should you decide to go with them:

If you forgo your employer's liability insurance and are found liable for injuries sustained by your employees, you are responsible for all legal fees and damages.

This can become a costly exercise that could affect your business's finances, which is why having employer’s liability insurance can help you both legally and financially.

Can You Combine Personal Training and Sports Massage Insurance?

Fitness professionals often work in multiple roles at once. The combination of working as a sports massage therapist and a physical therapist is not uncommon. 

You might even be considering becoming a personal trainer alongside your sports massage career, which is why it’s worth enrolling on Origym’s level 3 PT course.

If you’re employed in multiple professions, you wonder if it’s possible to combine your insurance payments.

The great news is that you can! However, you need to research how this is offered by insurers and your eligibility to purchase combined insurance.

To be eligible to secure this type of insurance, you’ll need to hold approved qualifications for both SMT and PT.

UK Coaching, for instance, states that their insurance policy for Fitness and Sports Massage Insurance only covers approved qualifications for SMT and PT. 

Once you’ve confirmed your eligibility with an insurance provider, you’ll also be able to enjoy a wide range of coverage for both professions.

UK Coaching for example can cover public liability, indemnity and personal accidents for you: 

In addition to reducing your insurance payments, a combined policy can maximise your coverage by combining all your insurance commitments into one comprehensive policy.

How Much Does Sports Massage Therapist Insurance Cost?

When it comes to calculating what your monthly or yearly insurance commitments are, it’s important to anticipate what might influence those payments. 

There are several factors you should consider when calculating your sports massage insurance (UK) costs, including:

• The number of claims you’ve made in the past- if you’ve made claims in the past, this could result in you being charged more for your insurance coverage.
• The kind of business you run- if you plan to run your own business with a large workforce this will increase the amount you pay monthly or yearly. If you run PT sessions, alongside SMT treatments, this will also increase your insurance payments.
• The amount of coverage you need if you require coverage for several areas including public indemnity, liability and personal accidents, you’ll be subject to higher insurance costs.
• The length of the insurance policy- if you commit to a couple of years on your insurance plan, this will cost less on the whole compared to an insurance policy that only lasts several months.
• The frequency of your payments you pay yearly for your insurance compared to monthly, this will cost less as the fee is more manageable for the insurance providers, who incentivise annual payments with overall cheaper rates.
• Excess cover-if you have higher voluntary excess coverage, and you’ll pay less on your insurance policy.

These factors will determine the rate you pay on a monthly or yearly basis to provide you with coverage whilst working as a sports massage therapist. 

Sports Massage Insurance Cover Comparison Sites Can Help You Find The Best Insurance Provider

Before purchasing your insurance, it’s important to make sure you research to find a suitable insurer for you as a sports massage therapist.

One of the ways you can research the insurers you’re considering is by analysing the ratings they’ve received online.

There are different online locations for you to understand how well customers rate insurance providers by visiting the insurers: 

• Google Business Profile
• Facebook page
• Trustpilot page

To help you get an understanding of how this could look, we visited the Trustpilot pages of several insurance companies to see how well they’ve been rated by their customers.

This information has now been compiled into a table below, we’ve included the review score, along with the number of reviews they’ve received to indicate how accurate their score is:

As you can see from the data we’ve collected, AXA and Insure4sport have the highest ratings and the number of reviews.

This data can help you feel confident that you’re getting an insurance policy from a reputable insurance firm.

Alongside comparing reviews to get an indication of which insurance provider has the best reputation, you can also use websites to find price comparisons.

For example, we used Compare The Market to get a quote for an independent sports massage therapist, who required the following coverage:

• Public liability: coverage of up to £2,000,000
• Employer’s liability: not required
• Legal Expenses: £100,000
• Personal Accident: Covered
• Excess Protection: £5,000

Once we entered these details, we were recommended several insurance providers to purchase our policy from:

If we were budget-conscious, securing insurance with Chiswell Insurance would make financial sense. 

However, if we wanted to go with a more recognised insurance provider to offer a sense of security, then AXA Insurance might be worth our consideration.

Should you decide to use a price comparison website, it’s also important to read any details that are associated with your coverage. 

This will help you understand what your monthly or yearly payments will be, along with what each form of coverage offers you.

Before You Go!

After reading this article, we hope you’ve got all the information you require to secure the correct sports massage insurance for your situation.

Don’t forget, you can enrol on our Level 3 Sports Massage Course to further aid clients in their recovery and become the ultimate SMT. Learn about the full range of OriGym courses we have available by downloading our FREE course prospectus.