As Australia is one of the most litigious countries in the world, with our widening scope of practice, complex patients and time pressures, how protected are you?
Membership with Optometry Australia means you are automatically covered under our premium Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII). This insurance is provided by Australia’s largest medical indemnity insurer Avant, is tailored to our profession and created with input from optometrists. Not only can members access Optometry Australia for clinico-legal advice, but also Avant’s medico-legal experts when you need them, 24/7 in emergencies.
From 1 July 2025, your Optometry Australia membership includes public liability insurance (PLI) for eligible members—at no additional cost to you.
Avant hotline for Optometry Australia members
Tel: 1800 128 268 (press #2 to select medico-legal option)
Email: nca@avant.org.au
This is a complimentary and confidential hotline.
Download Avant incident notification form
OA’s PII policy meets (and exceeds) Ahpra registration requirements for PII: under our policy, you are covered in any role, clinical or non-clinical, paid or unpaid, employee/employer or locum, where you use your skills and knowledge as an optometrist to:
This is a highlights summary only and not a legal document. For details, please read the full policy.
 | Peace of mind you have a premium level of coverage | Up to $20 million in professional indemnity insurance for every OA member (this is not pooled/shared with other members). |
| Excess | $nil |
| Medico-legal lawyer, 24/7, 365 days | Our legal assistance is not time-limited. |
| Cover for legal fees for disciplinary, regulatory (e.g. Ahpra, HCCC) and criminal investigations | Up to $2 million to fight work-related complaints that could result in deregistration (or even imprisonment). |
| Cover for your practice entity and practice staff | Automatic cover for your practice and staff. Your practice, along with staff conducting pretesting or contact lens teaching under your direction and supervision, are covered under your policy (saving you from needing additional policies). |
| Cover for privacy breaches | Automatic cover for unintentional breaches of patient confidentiality or privacy legislation; e.g. if a patient’s information was accidentally emailed to the wrong person or published online. |
| Overseas charity or aid work | Covers you for up to 120 days of overseas charity and aid work. |
| Locums | Are you a locum? OA's policy automatically covers you, wherever you work in Australia. The policy travels with you and is not limited to one employer. |
| Unlimited years of retroactive cover | For the ultimate peace of mind, if you’ve had a PII policy in place for the last 12 months, OA’s policy provides you with unlimited years of retroactive cover for past events that you weren’t aware of. Other insurers may not provide retroactive cover, or may limit retroactivity to, for example, two years only. |
| Unlimited years of run-off cover | Are you retiring, taking parental leave or taking a career break? OA's policy provides peace of mind with unlimited years of run-off cover, protecting you after you stop working. Unlimited run-off cover is rare. Without it, you would need to purchase additional annual run-off cover yourself after you stop work. Note, this unlimited run-off cover becomes void if you begin practising again or change to a new PII policy that isn’t under Optometry Australia. E.g. Kira has been retired for two years. During her retirement, she received an AHPRA patient complaint regarding an incident that occurred four years ago. OA's policy will still cover her, even though she is retired. |
| Cover for working in the United Kingdom and New Zealand | Many members work between these countries. OA's policy can be extended for a small additional fee to provide full coverage to those members wishing to work in the UK and/or NZ. |
| Court attendance costs | OA's policy also covers you up to $50,000, at a maximum daily rate of $500, for your personal expenses (e.g., travel, accommodation), if you are compelled or requested to attend, a court, tribunal, inquiry or inquest. |
| Telehealth services | Yes. OA's policy covers you in relation to providing optometry services via telehealth within Australia. |
| Risk advisory service | Identify and mitigate medico-legal risks with one-on-one advice. |
| Loss of documents or data | OA's policy will cover you up to $250,000 for costs incurred to replace or restore documents. This includes lack of access to electronic data (including cyber-attack and/or extortion demand). |
PII, which is included in your OA membership, is a form of insurance that protects you from bearing the full cost of damages in any claim of negligence relating to your professional work, as an optometrist, paid or unpaid.
OA’s PII policy includes, but is not limited to claims resulting from the:
OA’s PII policy protects you, the optometrist, against civil liability incurred by, or loss arising from, a claim made as a result of a negligent act, error or omission made by you. Scenarios which may give rise to a negligence claim can include:
It is mandatory for all registered optometrists in Australia to have PII, as stipulated by Ahpra. Annual registration renewal requires you to make a declaration that you are covered for all aspects of your practice. Optometrists who are not members of OA should ask for and retain a copy of their policy documents from their own provider to ensure the cover is appropriate, meets Ahpra’s minimum requirements and meets their needs.
When you work in Optometry, you may be covered for certain claims by your employer.
Your OA policy underwritten by Avant, accompanied by its free confidential legal assistance, is designed to protect you, independent from your employer. If you have cover across your OA policy and your employer’s policy, you will have the flexibility to choose which policy is best to respond to the incident or claim.
As an OA member, you are covered throughout the year, so there is less risk of uninsured incidents if you change practices or work across multiple sites. You will also have access to speak independently with a lawyer 24/7 via the free medico-legal helpline for OA members. Legal assistance is not time limited. You have $20m individual cover (not shared or pooled with other policy holders) with zero excess.
Read Avant’s full policy benefits (product disclosure)
A reminder that each year in November when you renew your registration, Ahpra asks you to declare, by ticking a box, that you meet the Optometry Board of Australia’s registration standard for PII.
Ahpra states:
” Your PII cover must include:
If you are covered by a third party PII arrangement, it must meet this standard. If you are in any doubt about whether the third-party cover meets this standard, you should always ask what is covered by the third party PII arrangement. If the third-party cover does not meet the standard you must take out additional cover to ensure this standard is met.
If your PII arrangements are provided by your employer, and you intend to practise outside your stated employment, you must have individual PII arrangements in place to cover that practice. “
Definitions:
Retroactive cover means PII arrangements which cover the insured against claims arising out of or in consequence of activities that were undertaken in the course of the practitioner’s professional practice, prior to the date of the commencement of the insurance
Automatic reinstatement is a provision in policies which allows for the limit of indemnity (amount insured) to be reinstated for new, unrelated claims, after one or more claims has been paid to the limit of the indemnity. Most National Boards have included a requirement for automatic reinstatement in their revised PII arrangements registration standard to ensure that a health practitioner’s cover would not be exhausted if there was a single large claim
PII provided by Optometry Australia meets and exceeds Ahpra’s requirements.
You can request documentation to certify your cover (e.g. for employers) via our Optometry Advisor Help Desk
This content is restricted to Optometry Australia members. If you are not a member, and would like to access our site’s wealth of information supporting members in their practice, clinical care and professional development, join our organisation today.
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In the spirit of reconciliation Optometry Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
