Does a Physical Therapy Practice Need Product Liability Insurance?

Physical therapy practices are usually associated with professional liability.

That makes sense. Physical therapists provide hands-on treatment, develop rehabilitation plans, evaluate patients, prescribe exercises, and make clinical decisions. If a patient alleges that treatment caused an injury, professional liability is often the first coverage people think about.

But what happens when the injury isn't caused by the treatment itself?

What if it's caused by a product?

Many physical therapy practices sell, supply, recommend, or provide products to their patients. Depending on the practice, that might include resistance bands, braces, TENS units, topical products, supplements, recovery products, rehabilitation equipment, or even private-label merchandise.

Once products become part of the business, there's another exposure worth considering: product liability.

And the important question isn't simply whether your physical therapy practice has professional liability insurance.

It's whether your insurance program is designed to respond appropriately when the allegation involves a product rather than, or in addition to, the professional services you provided.

Professional Liability and Product Liability Aren't the Same Thing

Consider two different scenarios.

In the first, a physical therapist evaluates a patient and develops an exercise program. The patient later alleges that the therapist selected an inappropriate exercise and caused an injury.

That's fundamentally an allegation involving professional judgment.

Now imagine the therapist sends the patient home with a resistance band supplied by the practice. The band allegedly fails during use and injures the patient.

The patient may still blame the physical therapy practice, but the allegation is different.

Instead of focusing primarily on the therapist's clinical decision, the claim may involve the product itself.

That's where the distinction between professional liability, general liability, and product liability becomes important.

Where Does General Liability Fit?

Commercial general liability insurance commonly provides protection for certain bodily injury and property damage claims arising from a business's operations.

General liability policies may also contain products-completed operations coverage.

But that doesn't mean every product-related claim is automatically covered.

Policy definitions, exclusions, endorsements, the nature of the product, and the practice's role in supplying or selling it can all matter.

For example, there's a meaningful difference between a therapist simply using a piece of rehabilitation equipment during treatment and a practice operating a substantial retail operation selling products directly to patients.

That's why I wouldn't answer the question, "Do we have product liability coverage?", by simply looking at the declarations page and seeing that the practice has general liability insurance.

I'd want to understand what the practice is actually doing.

Start With the Products Leaving Your Practice

If I were reviewing the risk for a physical therapy practice, one of the first things I'd ask is: what products are patients taking home with them?

That might include:

• Resistance bands
• Braces and supports
• TENS units
• Exercise or rehabilitation equipment
• Topical pain-relief or recovery products
• Supplements
• Recovery products
• Orthopedic or mobility products
• Private-label merchandise

The next question is how those products are being provided.

Are you giving them to patients as part of treatment? Selling them? Ordering them on behalf of patients? Recommending a third-party product? Putting your practice's name on them? Manufacturing or modifying anything yourself?

Those distinctions can change the exposure considerably.

Private-Label Products Deserve Particular Attention

A practice selling products carrying its own name or brand should pay especially close attention.

Suppose a physical therapy practice develops a branded recovery product and has a third party manufacture it.

To the patient, the product may appear to be the practice's product.

If someone alleges that the product caused an injury, the practice could find itself pulled into a product-liability claim even though it didn't physically manufacture the item.

That's an exposure I'd want discussed with the insurance carrier before the product ever goes on the shelf.

The same principle applies when a practice's retail activity grows over time.

Maybe the clinic originally sold a few resistance bands at the front desk. Three years later, it sells braces, supplements, recovery products, and branded merchandise through the clinic and its website.

Has the insurance program evolved with the business? That's the question.

What If the Product Was Recommended as Part of Treatment?

This is where the lines can become less obvious.

Suppose a physical therapist recommends a particular brace because of the patient's condition. The patient uses it and is injured.

What caused the alleged injury?

• Was the brace defective?
• Was it the wrong product for that patient?
• Was it fitted incorrectly?
• Were the instructions inadequate?
• Did the therapist's professional judgment contribute to the injury?

Potentially, a claim could contain allegations involving both a product and professional services.

That doesn't mean one particular policy will automatically respond.

It means the facts of the claim and the language in the practice's policies become extremely important.

That's why I think practices should understand these distinctions before there's an actual claim. The broader physical therapy insurance considerations I review with practice owners cover how professional liability and general liability work together, and where gaps can appear.

Supplements and Topical Products Can Change the Conversation

Some practices have expanded beyond traditional rehabilitation products.

Supplements, creams, topical products, and other wellness or recovery products may be offered alongside physical therapy services.

Those products deserve a separate insurance conversation.

I'd want the insurance carrier to know:

• What are you selling?
• Who manufactures it?
• Are you private-labeling it?
• What claims are being made about the product?
• How much revenue comes from product sales?
• Are products sold only to existing patients or to the general public as well?
• Are they sold online?

The larger and more complex the retail operation becomes, the less comfortable I'd be assuming that the insurance program designed for a traditional physical therapy clinic automatically addresses everything.

Don't Forget the Vendor Agreement

Insurance isn't the only risk-management consideration.

If a physical therapy practice sells or distributes products manufactured by someone else, I'd also want to understand the agreement with that manufacturer or supplier.

Among other things, the practice may want appropriate legal counsel to review issues such as indemnification, insurance requirements, and how responsibility is allocated if the product allegedly causes an injury.

The practice should also have a process for handling recalls and safety notices.

If a manufacturer recalls a brace or TENS unit tomorrow, can you determine which patients received one?

That's not an insurance question. That's good risk management.

Questions I'd Ask a Physical Therapy Practice

If your practice sells, supplies, or recommends products, I'd want answers to questions such as:

1. What products do patients take home?
2. Are those products sold or simply provided as part of treatment?
3. Does the practice private-label any products?
4. Does the practice manufacture, modify, repackage, or assemble anything?
5. Are supplements or topical products being sold?
6. Are products sold online or only at the clinic?
7. Does the insurance carrier know about the practice's product sales?
8. Does the general liability policy include appropriate products-completed operations coverage?
9. Are there exclusions or limitations relevant to the products being sold?
10. How would the professional liability policy respond if the allegation involves the therapist's recommendation, selection, fitting, or use of the product?

The answers will vary from one practice to another. That's exactly why I wouldn't treat product liability as a yes-or-no checklist item.

The Bottom Line

So, does a physical therapy practice need product liability insurance?

If your practice sells, supplies, distributes, private-labels, or regularly sends patients home with products, product liability is an exposure worth specifically reviewing.

That doesn't necessarily mean every practice needs to purchase a separate standalone product liability policy.

The appropriate protection may already exist within another policy, depending on the coverage and the practice's operations.

But don't assume professional liability covers every injury simply because a physical therapist was involved.

And don't assume general liability answers every product-related exposure simply because there's a liability limit on the declarations page.

Start with what your practice actually does. Then make sure the insurance program reflects it.

That's a much better approach than discovering the distinction after a patient is injured.

If you own a physical therapy practice and want to review whether your current insurance program accurately reflects the products you sell, supply, recommend, or distribute, I'm glad to take a look.

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This article is intended for general educational purposes and is not legal or insurance coverage advice. Coverage depends on the specific facts of a claim and the terms, conditions, definitions, exclusions, and endorsements of the applicable insurance policies.