Insurance for veterinary practices

Veterinary practices log 11.1 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, 383 percent above the private-industry figure of 2.3 and number 1 of the 54 trades on this site. That record is what an underwriter sees first, and it is why the checklist below leans on workers' compensation and liability limits.

Tailor the checklist

1Veterinary practices 11.1 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 54 #1

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 54 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

11.1

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

2.1

19% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

n/a

count not published

Workforce

344,572

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

Bites, scratches and lifting injuries to staff, and malpractice claims from owners over treatment; general liability forms often exclude animals in your care.

The checklist for veterinary practices

E&O
Professional liability (E&O)
Veterinary malpractice claims from owners.
Not required by federal law; some state licences and client contracts require it.
WC
Workers' compensation
Required once you have employees in nearly every state.
Required by state law in nearly every state once you have employees; the employee-count threshold and exemptions are set state by state and are not reproduced here.
GL
General liability
Injuries to clients in the waiting room and on the premises.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
Cyber
Cyber liability
Client records and card payments.
Not required by law; required by some health-care and corporate contracts.
HNOA
Hired and non-owned auto
Staff on farm and house calls in their own vehicles.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.

Red tags mark policy types that a law or licence usually requires; green tags are what contracts, landlords and clients ask for. Tailor the list for your situation (no employees, no vehicles, alcohol) with the checklist tool.

What the injury record means for the premium

Veterinary practices: total recordable cases, cases with days away/restriction/transfer (DART) and cases with days away from work, per 100 FTE, 2024, columns to scale.

Workers' compensation is rated on payroll and class, then adjusted by your own loss history, so a trade with 11.1 cases per 100 workers starts from a high base rate before an underwriter has looked at you. 19 percent of those cases involved days away, restriction or transfer, the ones that carry indemnity as well as medical cost. The practical consequence: a documented safety programme and a clean experience modifier are worth more here than shopping carriers.

The nearest trades by injury rate are local messengers and local delivery (8.5), couriers and express delivery services (7.9), nursing care facilities (6.3); the same payroll insured in those classes would start from a similar workers' comp base.

Legal, licence or contract?

Fixed by law

Workers' compensation once you have employees, in nearly every state (threshold and exemptions set by the state; not reproduced here).
State minimum auto liability on any vehicle the business operates.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes veterinary practices — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 11.1-per-100 class rate is doing to the workers' comp figure versus the liability lines. This site does not sell or quote insurance.

Sources: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table 1 (2024), incidence rates per 100 full-time workers; BLS SOII Table 3 (2024), hours worked by detailed industry; BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-1 (2024). Fatal rate per 100,000 FTE is derived (count ÷ hours × 200,000,000) and approximate. Checked 2026-10-24.