Tag: Professional Liability

6 Types of Insurance every Home Healthcare Small-Business needs.

Home Health Care is one of the fastest growing industries in the country. With the baby boomers moving up in age, the need for these services is growing larger every year. The need for proper insurance in these businesses is also becoming more important. For a business owner, most of the clients in this industry are nearing the end of their life. Most are not in good health. Many get hurt or are sick frequently. Protecting your business from mistakes or court costs is crucial in this industry. Below are 6 types of coverage every Home Health Care Business should carry.

Home Health Care

  • General Liability
  • Professional Liability
  • Business Personal Property
  • Hired and Non-Owned Auto
  • Workers Compensation
  • Commercial Crime/Employee Dishonesty

 

General Liability

General Liability (GL) Insurance, in most cases, is the most important insurance coverage a home health care business can obtain. In most states it is required by law and it is usually the first line of insurance purchased by a business. It protects your business from most liability exposures other than automobile and professional liability. Other coverages are usually added to this depending on the business needs, but all businesses need General Liability. Unlike Workers Compensation Insurance this coverage protects your business from liability to third parties.

 

Professional Liability

Professional Liability Insurance is coverage for professional businesses that give expert advice or provide technical services for a fee. It is designed to help protect a business against any claims of negligence. Therefore, professional liability insurance helps business owners defend themselves from lawsuits and helps pay the damages awarded in a civil lawsuit. Professional liability insurance is commonly referred to as errors and omissions (E&O) or medical malpractice.

 

Business Personal Property

Business Personal Property Insurance is usually an addition to a Commercial Property Insurance Policy. It protects your business from damages to your buildings and property of your business. The personal property of your employees and the personal property of others you might be responsible for. In most policies it also provides additional coverages including: debris removal, pollutant cleanup, preservation of property, fire department service charges, increased cost of construction, electronic data, newly acquired or constructed property, off-premises property, valuable papers and records, outdoor property, and nonowned detached trailers

 

Hired and Non-Owned Auto

This type of auto insurance coverage is for when employees of a home health care business use their own vehicle or a rented vehicle to do company business. This can be as simple as an employee running to the grocery store to buy snacks for a meeting, an employee using a rented vehicle while away at a conference or using a rented truck to transport your equipment.

 

Workers Compensation

Workers’ compensation insurance differs from most other forms of business liability insurance. That is because it is specifically designed to cover your employees and not third parties. Workers Comp covers insurance claims by employees in the event they are injured on the job. The function of workers compensation insurance is to insure a business is not liable for most accidents that occur on the job and employees have comfort knowing their doctors bills and some lost wages will be covered if they are hurt on the job.

 

Commercial Crime/Employee Dishonesty

This type of insurance coverage is mainly for employee theft of money, securities, or property. Most policies include some or all of the following types of employee crimes: forgery or alteration, computer fraud, funds transfer fraud, kidnap, ransom, extortion, and counterfeit money. It is usually written with a per loss limit, a per employee limit, or a per position limit.

Faulty Workmanship Coverage

Faulty Workmanship Coverage, offered by Builders and Tradesmen’s Insurance Services (BTIS)

One coverage that most carriers exclude is Faulty Workmanship Insurance. However, one carrier writing liability insurance is Builder & Tradesman Insurance Services (BTIS). Some might assume this would be a coverage included in Commercial General Liability (CGL), bnut many times it is not. Usually this is a standard exclusion from CGL policies. Faulty Workmanship Insurance is coverage for a contractor. It is coverage for property damage due to the contractor’s own faulty workmanship. Are you thinking why would this not be a standard coverage for CGL policies? Well, liability policies are designed to protect the insured when the contractors have defective materials or cause injury to property other that the insured’s own work or products.

Faulty workmanship can also fall under a design Errors and Omissions Policy. This can mean poor building or installation by the contractor. This could also be anything from a bad roof repair or install, to bad wiring done on a remodel. Most insurance policies do not cover the cost to repair or make the errors right. For $30 in additional annual premium BTIS is able to offer that coverage on the back of most CGL policies.

Three exclusions are known as the “your work” exclusions and are excluded coverage’s by the insurer. Damage that arises out of defective workmanship, damage to the defective work and damages incurred to replace the defective work. Business owners should generally absorb their own replacement and repair losses. After all, if you accidentally did damage to either the product you were installing or did damage to the property while installing the product, you typically want to show your client it was an error on your part and fix the damage.

The annual premium on this coverage is very modest for contractors. This is one of many reasons it pays to understand and know what coverage’s are included or excluded on your liability policy.

What is General Liability Insurance?

General Liability (GL) Insurance is the most important insurance coverage a business can obtain. It is frequently referred to as the first line of defense. GL Insurance protects policy holders from third party risks associated with lawsuits and other claims. It can cover things as simple someone slipping and falling when they come in to your building, to a fire in the basement of your property.  General Liability is required by law in most states. Businesses are often required to purchase coverage with most contracts for leases, loans, and work performed for others. More importantly, businesses need general liability in order to protect their business and personal assets.

Get the best answers to your questions about general liability insurance coverage at myinsurancequestion.com

In most cases a General Liability Insurance Policy is the first line of insurance purchased by a business. It is usually purchased in addition to other policies like Workers’ Compensation, Commercial Auto or Professional Liability Insurance. Most agents can easily package all of these policies in to one Business Owner’s Package (BOP). Purchasing insurance from one carrier in a BOP, is a good way to maximize savings. Dealing with one carriers also makes interactions much easier for business owner’s when they have to get certificates or when there is a need for a claim.

One part of a General Liability Policy that is confusing for many policy holders is, who is a Third Party? Third parties can include anyone from customer’s, to contractor’s, to anyone who may be injured as a result of an action taken by you, your employees or caused by the actions of your business in some manner. It does not protect your employees. That type of injury would be covered under a Workers’ Compensation Policy. In most states Workers’ Compensation is required by law.

Typically a General Liability Insurance Policy provides only specific types of coverage named within that policy. GL coverage is almost always related to third parties who suffer a loss caused by the insured as opposed to employees and the insured’s themselves. Generally speaking, covered losses must be unintentional. Intentional damage  is not covered by most liability insurance policies.

Some examples of incidents covered under a General Liability Insurance Policy are:

  • Personal Injury
  • Advertising Injury (The unintentional use of a competitors advertising material)
  • Medical expenses
  • Legal defense costs
  • Property Damage (third party property caused by company negligence)
  • Electronic Data Liability (Businesses that service computers and could cause damage to a server)

One common misconception about General Liability Coverage is that it is all encompassing.  There are many instances where an occurrence is not covered by a General Liability Policy and there are other types of insurance offered to fill those gaps. That is where the necessity for a BOP can be crucial. When all coverages are purchased from one carrier there is less risk of there being a gap in coverage. It also speeds up the time for a claim because there are not two insurance companies interacting to determine who is liable for the claim. Most Insurance agents can help a business owner determine any and all coverage your business needs. All businesses should start with a General Liability Policy.

What are the main benefits of a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP)?

A Business Owner’s Policy is a tailored insurance package for businesses in a particular industry. The package can be adjusted to fit the needs of each individual business, but they come in common packages specific to each industry. Insurance companies have found certain coverage’s common to each industry and attempt to get business owner’s as fully covered as possible. Most include General Liability, Professional Liability and Business Property Insurance. With a business owner’s policy insurance companies can make sure there are no gaps in coverage and make sure the business is not carrying too much or unnecessary coverage. Carrying a BOP benefits a business owner in three main ways.

Pricing is the main benefit that first attracts business owner’s to carrying a Business Owner’s Policy. Insurance companies are more likely to give businesses a break on price if they are selling that business multiple policies. Business Owner’s may be able to call around and get a better price on each individual policy, but that is time spent not working. With the help of a good insurance agent a business owner can allow the agent to shop the policy around to many insurance carriers. This allows the agent to negotiate the best price and the most complete coverage. For this reason it is important to choose an insurance agent who has relationships with many insurance providers, not just a select few. Many agencies work exclusively with just a few carriers and this does not allow the agent to shop around your policy if you are in a tough classification code or have a negative claims history.

Ensuring there are No Gaps in Coverage is the next benefit of a BOP. Shopping around for each individual policy takes lots of valuable time for business owner’s. In most cases it does not save the business as much as getting a quantity discount by combining coverage’s. A more important benefit of a BOP is making certain there are no gap’s in coverage. When businesses shop their policies around a la carte it can cause there to be grey area’s between exclusion’s that are not covered.  If all policies are bought from one carrier the insurance provider can guarantee you are fully insured.

For instance, businesses that get a general liability policy from one insurance carrier and a professional liability policy from another carrier may have an exclusion in both policies that make the occurrence not covered. This is where insurance has many grey areas. When an incident occurs the business will more than likely have to wait longer while the insurance companies determine who is liable for the incident or if anyone is liable for the occurrence at all. If you have a BOP with just one carrier typically there is General Liability, Professional Liability and an Umbrella Policy. In this case the insurance company just determines which policy is in effect and processes your claim.

Certificates are the final way businesses benefit from BOP’s. Certificates are needed when businesses are involved in projects they are contracted on. A certificate is legally required before work can start on that project. If you work on many projects with different general contractor’s than you will need this certificate for every general contractor you work with. If you have a BOP that is one phone call only.  For example, many artisan contractors do work for several general contractors. Take an electrician as an example. For each general contractor an electrician does a project for they need a certificate proving insurance coverage. If each coverage is with a different carrier that is an additional call the electrician has to make. If that electrician has a BOP they call one agent and can get a certificate for all of their policies.

Again, these are three of the many benefits of having a Business Owner’s Policy. The next time your business is up for renewal it is probably best for you to bring up a BOP with your agent. Insurance carriers are typically more aggressive with discounts when they are getting more of your business.

 

Insurance Help on Vacation

A while ago, I took a phone call from a client in need of help getting Errors & Omissions (E&O or professional liability) Coverage for a large contract he was working on.  However, my client was in Italy on vacation and the coverage needed to be in place before the job started in three days. To say he was in a panic would be an understatement.  I wrote his work comp insurance and our agency handled many endorsements on his policy for him.  However, it was a different agent here within our company who wrote his Liability Policy.  But he trusted me with his insurance needs, so I presented him with the following options:

  • I could write him a new Liability Policy with E&O Coverage included.
  • I could become his Agent with the current carrier, but it would take several days.
  • I could write a stand alone E&O Policy, but it would cost a little more since the liability would not be attached.

This actually was no problem at all. I just needed an Errors and Omissions application filled out, signed and returned to me. Thanks to technology the client had all of this information back to me by the next morning. All the way from Italy.

Liability Insurance help on a beach vacation.

When I presented the first quote, which was the stand-alone E&O policy, my client was shocked at the price of the coverage. In the past he had only had a liability policy. I explained the bulk of his company’s exposure was in the Errors and Omissions Liability and he should expect to pay more for this coverage.

The second quote was with a new carrier.  It was a Business Owners Package (BOP) with E&O as an added coverage. This was also the carrier I had his Workers’ Compensation Policy with. This was a great quote and made the most sense to me. However, the client did want to wait for the quote from the carrier he currently had for his liability coverage. This is the company I had taken over as the Agent of Record (AOR). In the end both carriers had great pricing and coverage. My client chose to go with the carrier that already had written his Work Comp and offered all of the endorsements he needed for the contract he was working on.

After discussing all of the projects his company had coming up in the next year I offered him a Commercial Umbrella Policy to extend his coverages. I explained that this would help protect his company if ever a claim went beyond the limits of his policy. The client thanked me for mentioning an umbrella policy and he agreed that his business needed this coverage.

We were able to get all the documents signed, the policy bound and all of the needed certificates of insurance out to the Holder by the deadline. It all got taken care of expediently. All while my client was on vacation.