Compulsory professional indemnity

Compulsory professional indemnity is the professional liability insurance that the law imposes on certain regulated professions as a condition of practice. Since the Kouchner Act of March 4, 2002, article L. 1142-2 of the French Public Health Code has required health professionals in private practice, health care establishments and producers, operators and suppliers of health products to insure their civil or administrative liability. Health care is only one of the professions where insurance is a condition of practice. Lawyers are bound by article 27 of the Act of December 31, 1971. Insurance intermediaries are bound by article L. 512-6 of the French Insurance Code, and ORIAS (the French single register of insurance, banking and finance intermediaries) will not register them without the certificate. Real estate agents, since the Hoguet Act of January 2, 1970, obtain their professional license only by showing insurance and, unless they declare that they hold no client funds, a financial guarantee. Chartered accountants come under the ordinance of September 19, 1945, and notaries are covered by insurance bought collectively by the profession, backed by a collective guarantee. The obligation changes underwriting. The insurer is still free to decline a risk, but an insured declined everywhere can no longer practice. In health care, the Bureau central de tarification (the French pricing board for compulsory insurance) then sets the premium at which the insurer the applicant approached must cover it. Group contracts are common, with bar associations and the notarial profession negotiating one policy for all members, who buy only excess cover individually. The statutes often set a minimum level of cover, and the primary layer is built on that floor; anything above is bought voluntarily, as excess.