If you're opening an optometry practice in Florida or already running one, you've probably realized that insurance requirements can feel like reading through a prescription in the dark. The good news? Florida doesn't mandate every type of business insurance under the sun. The reality? You still need several types of coverage to operate legally, protect your practice, and meet contractual obligations. Let's break down exactly what insurance your Florida optometry practice actually needs.
Workers' Compensation: The Four-Employee Threshold
Here's where Florida draws a clear line in the sand. If your optometry practice has four or more employees, workers' compensation insurance is legally required. This includes your opticians, front desk staff, optometric technicians, and any other team members on your payroll. The coverage protects employees who get injured on the job by covering their medical expenses and lost wages.
For 2025, Florida approved a 1.0% rate decrease for workers' compensation insurance, which is welcome news for practice owners. The average optometry practice pays about $638 annually for this coverage. If an employee suffers a workplace injury, they can receive temporary total disability benefits capped at $1,295 per week in 2025, which equals two-thirds of their average weekly wage.
What if you're a solo practitioner or have fewer than four employees? You're not legally required to carry workers' comp, but you might still want it. And if you're a corporate officer, you can file for an exemption from coverage. Since optometry is considered a non-construction industry, there's no limit to how many corporate officers can exempt themselves. Just know you'll need to complete an online compliance tutorial and renew your exemption certificate every two years.
General Liability Insurance: Your Landlord's Favorite Policy
Florida doesn't legally mandate general liability insurance for optometry practices. But before you celebrate, flip to the fine print in your commercial lease. Nearly every commercial landlord in Florida requires tenants to carry general liability coverage, usually with minimum limits of $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Your lease probably specifies these exact amounts.
This policy covers the classic slip-and-fall scenarios. A patient trips over your waiting room rug and breaks their wrist. A child knocks over a frame display and it damages another customer's designer handbag. Someone claims your staff member made a defamatory statement. General liability handles the legal defense costs and any settlements or judgments. For optometry practices, the average monthly premium runs about $42, or $500 annually. That's a small price for coverage that typically includes $2 million per occurrence and $4 million aggregate limits with a $500 deductible.
Think of general liability as the baseline protection that keeps your practice operating. Without it, you can't sign most commercial leases, which means you can't open your doors to patients.
Professional Liability: Protecting Your Clinical Decisions
Professional liability insurance—also called malpractice insurance or errors and omissions coverage—protects you when a patient claims you made a mistake in your professional services. Maybe you allegedly missed a sign of glaucoma during an exam. Perhaps a patient claims their new prescription caused headaches and car accidents. These aren't slip-and-fall issues. These are allegations about your professional judgment and care.
Florida doesn't explicitly require optometrists to carry professional liability insurance to maintain their license. But here's the catch: you need it to participate with vision insurance plans like VSP, EyeMed, and Davis Vision. These networks require proof of malpractice coverage before they'll credential you as an in-network provider. If you want to accept vision insurance—which most Florida practices do to remain competitive—professional liability insurance becomes a practical requirement.
The Florida Board of Optometry operates under Chapter 463 of Florida Statutes, which establishes licensing and practice standards but doesn't mandate specific insurance coverage amounts. However, if you're an out-of-state optometrist providing telehealth services to Florida patients, you must maintain liability coverage equal to or greater than what Florida requires for in-state health care practitioners. This ensures patients receive the same protection regardless of where their provider is physically located.
Professional liability policies typically cover legal defense costs, settlements, and judgments related to professional negligence claims. Given that defending even a frivolous malpractice claim can cost tens of thousands of dollars, this coverage is essential for protecting your personal assets and your practice's financial stability.
Business Owner's Policy: The Bundle That Makes Sense
Instead of buying general liability and commercial property insurance separately, many Florida optometry practices opt for a Business Owner's Policy, or BOP. This bundle combines general liability coverage with commercial property insurance (protecting your equipment, inventory, and furnishings) and business income insurance (replacing lost income if you're forced to close temporarily due to a covered event like a fire or hurricane).
For optometry practices, the average BOP costs around $97 per month and typically includes $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate liability limits. That's only about $55 more per month than standalone general liability, but you're getting property and business interruption coverage added in. If you're in Florida, where hurricanes pose real risks to commercial property, business income coverage becomes especially valuable.
Additional Coverage to Consider
Beyond the core policies, Florida optometry practices should consider a few other coverage types. If your practice owns vehicles for business use—say, a van for mobile eye exams at corporate offices or senior centers—you need commercial auto insurance. Florida requires this coverage for business-owned vehicles, and personal auto policies won't cover business use.
Cyber liability insurance has become increasingly important as optometry practices store more protected health information electronically. A data breach exposing patient records can result in notification costs, credit monitoring expenses, legal fees, and regulatory fines. HIPAA violations carry serious penalties, and cyber liability coverage helps manage these risks.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) protects against claims from employees or former employees alleging wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, or retaliation. As your practice grows and your team expands, EPLI provides an additional layer of protection beyond what general liability covers.
Compliance and Record-Keeping Requirements
Florida Statute 456.057 requires optometrists to maintain patient records for at least five years from the last patient contact. You must also protect the confidentiality and security of these records under HIPAA regulations. Keeping copies of your insurance certificates is equally important. Save your professional liability insurance certificates, workers' compensation policies, and general liability declarations pages. You'll need to provide these documents when credentialing with vision plans, signing commercial leases, or responding to board inquiries.
To practice optometry in Florida, you need to graduate from an accredited optometry program, pass the National Board of Examiners in Optometry examinations, complete a course on HIV and AIDS, and undergo background checks including fingerprinting. The application fee is $100, with an initial licensure fee of $300. While the Florida Board of Optometry doesn't mandate specific insurance coverage to maintain your license, having appropriate coverage demonstrates professional responsibility and protects your ability to practice.
Getting the Coverage You Need
Insurance requirements for Florida optometry practices come from multiple sources: state workers' compensation laws, commercial lease agreements, vision plan credentialing requirements, and practical risk management. While Florida doesn't impose blanket insurance mandates on optometrists like it does for some other professions, the combination of legal requirements and contractual obligations means most practices need workers' compensation (if they have four or more employees), general liability (to sign a lease), and professional liability (to accept vision insurance).
The best approach is to work with an insurance broker who specializes in healthcare or optometry practices. They can help you secure appropriate coverage limits, find competitive rates, and ensure you meet all the requirements from landlords, vision plans, and state regulations. Your practice is an investment in your community's eye health—protecting it with the right insurance keeps you focused on what you do best: helping your patients see clearly.
