Here's what surprises most medical spa owners when they're shopping for insurance: the general liability policy isn't really about your treatments. You've probably spent weeks researching malpractice insurance to cover Botox complications or laser burns—and yes, you absolutely need that. But general liability? That's your protection against everything else that can go wrong when you're running a business with clients walking through your door every day.
Think slip-and-falls in your lobby. A client's purse getting damaged when your equipment cart bumps into it. Water damage to the suite below you when a treatment room floods. These aren't medical mistakes—they're everyday business risks. And if you're leasing commercial space (which most med spas are), your landlord almost certainly won't let you open your doors without proof of general liability coverage.
What General Liability Actually Covers for Medical Spas
General liability insurance handles three main categories of claims: bodily injury, property damage, and personal/advertising injury. For a medical spa, here's what that looks like in practice.
Bodily injury coverage kicks in when someone gets hurt on your premises in a non-treatment situation. A client trips over a loose floor mat in your waiting room and breaks their ankle. A delivery driver slips on your wet floor and injures their back. Your front desk accidentally leaves a cabinet door open and a visitor walks into it, requiring stitches. These incidents have nothing to do with the medical services you provide, but you're still legally responsible.
Property damage protection covers damage you or your employees cause to someone else's property. This is especially relevant for med spas because you're working with equipment that uses water, heat, and electricity in close quarters. A laser machine overheats and damages the wall. A treatment room sink overflows and floods the dental office below you. You're moving equipment and accidentally knock a hole in the drywall. Your landlord will come after you for repairs—and this coverage pays for it.
Most policies also include medical payments coverage, typically $5,000 to $10,000. This is designed to handle minor injuries quickly without triggering a full liability claim. If someone trips and scrapes their knee in your reception area, you can offer to pay their urgent care visit directly. It keeps things friendly and often prevents a lawsuit from ever materializing.
Understanding Coverage Limits: Per Occurrence vs. Aggregate
When you're looking at general liability quotes, you'll see limits written as something like "$1M/$2M." Here's what that means and why it matters.
The first number—$1 million per occurrence—is the maximum your insurance will pay for any single incident. If a client falls in your facility and their medical bills, lost wages, and legal costs total $800,000, your policy covers it. If somehow the damages reach $1.3 million, your policy pays the first $1 million and you're personally responsible for the remaining $300,000.
The second number—$2 million aggregate—is the total your policy will pay across all claims during your policy year. You could have ten different $100,000 claims, or two $1 million claims, but once you hit that $2 million cap, you're on your own until your policy renews. This is why occurrence limits matter less than you might think—you need adequate aggregate coverage to handle multiple incidents.
For medical spas, the standard recommended limits are $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. This matches what most landlords require and what most small businesses carry. If you're running a larger operation with multiple treatment rooms and high daily client volume, you might consider $2 million per occurrence and $4 million aggregate. But for most single-location med spas, the standard limits are sufficient and keep premiums affordable.
Why Landlords Require This Coverage (And What They'll Ask For)
If you're leasing commercial space for your med spa, your landlord isn't going to take your word that you'll be careful. They want a Certificate of Insurance—a one-page document from your insurance company proving you have coverage. Most commercial leases specify minimum limits, typically $1 million to $2 million, and require the landlord to be named as an additional insured on your policy.
Why do landlords care so much about med spa insurance specifically? Because your business presents higher risks than, say, an accountant's office. You're using electrical equipment—lasers, IPL devices, cryotherapy machines—that can malfunction or overheat. You're working with water for facials, hydrafacials, and cleanup, which means potential for leaks and flooding. You're storing chemicals and skincare products that could spill. All of this creates real risk of damage to the building or neighboring tenants.
Adding your landlord as an additional insured costs you nothing—most insurers include it automatically—and it gives them direct coverage if someone sues both you and the property owner over an incident. It also satisfies the lease requirement and lets you actually sign your lease and open your doors. Without this certificate, most landlords won't let you move in, period.
What You'll Actually Pay for Coverage
The average medical spa pays about $52 per month—$624 per year—for general liability insurance with $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate limits. That's based on current industry data for 2025, and it's remarkably affordable compared to what you're paying for professional liability coverage (which typically runs $3,500 to $12,000 annually).
Your actual premium depends on several factors. Location matters—a med spa in Manhattan pays more than one in rural Tennessee because lawsuit judgments and medical costs are higher in expensive cities. Your square footage affects pricing because more space means more area where someone could get injured. Revenue matters too, since higher sales typically mean more clients and more potential for claims.
Most med spas bundle general liability with other coverages in a Business Owner's Policy (BOP), which typically costs around $102 per month or $1,219 annually. The BOP adds property insurance for your equipment and supplies, plus business interruption coverage if you have to close temporarily. It's usually a better deal than buying coverages separately, and it simplifies your insurance management into one policy.
How to Get Started and What to Watch For
Before you start getting quotes, pull out your commercial lease and check what coverage your landlord actually requires. Look for language specifying minimum limits, additional insured requirements, and whether they need to be named as certificate holders. Having this information ready speeds up the process and ensures you get the right coverage from day one.
When comparing quotes, pay attention to what's excluded. Most general liability policies don't cover professional services—that's what your malpractice insurance is for. They also typically exclude employee injuries (covered by workers' comp), damage to your own property (covered by property insurance), and cyber incidents (need separate cyber insurance). Make sure you understand what gaps exist so you can fill them with appropriate coverage.
Work with an insurance broker who specializes in medical spas or healthcare businesses. They understand your unique risks—the equipment you use, the products you sell, the services you offer—and can package coverage appropriately. They'll also know which insurers actually want to cover med spas, since some carriers avoid the space entirely due to the medical component.
General liability insurance isn't the most exciting part of launching or running your medical spa, but it's non-negotiable. It protects your business from everyday risks that have nothing to do with your clinical expertise, satisfies your landlord's requirements, and costs less than what most med spas spend on skincare inventory in a month. Get it in place before you open your doors, review it annually to make sure your limits still make sense, and focus your energy on what you do best—helping clients look and feel their best.
