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Best In-Class Business Insurance for Technology Firms & IT Consultants
Workers’ compensation insurance, commonly called workers’ or workman’s comp, is a mandate whereby businesses are required to purchase insurance for employees who are injured during their normal course of duties while on a job or acquire an illness or condition directly attributed to the workplace.
Each state sets its own guidelines, therefore the legal requirements for workers’ compensation for companies can vary slightly depending on where the business is located. For example, it’s required in the state of New Jersey. The structure and procedures, however, are generally the same throughout the United States, and are subject to each state’s specific laws. Businesses that work for the federal government are covered under a separate set of rules regardless of the state in which they are located.
The workers’ compensation system is theoretically a compromise between a business and its employees, as workers receive insurance coverage at no cost to themselves no matter who is at fault if injuries or illnesses occur either on the job or as a result of repetitive circumstances or possibly harmful environments.
In exchange, workers’ compensation insurance protects businesses from lawsuits seeking monetary damages for medical bills and related pain and suffering.
Illnesses and injuries do not necessarily have to occur in the primary workplace. For example, if an employee becomes injured or ill while traveling on work-related business, that employee would receive compensation under the system.
On-the-job accidents involving machinery, unexpected mishaps, and similar situations are what most individuals think of when they hear the term “workers’ compensation,” but the legal reality encompasses much more.
Repetitive stress injuries, cumulative trauma disorder, occupational overuse syndrome, and regional musculoskeletal disorder involving the upper and lower back and other joints in the body due to manual tasks performed on the job are also covered. Examples include carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff syndrome, Reynaud’s disease, medial epicondylitis (golfer’s elbow), and lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow).
Employers must also cover conditions that develop over time. Many result for regular exposure to chemicals or simply an unhealthy work environment. Examples include various types of cancers, lung diseases, and stress-related conditions.
Monetary compensation is perhaps the largest component, covering items such as:
When injuries result in permanent disability, businesses also must provide long-term disability benefits to help workers pay for ongoing medical treatments and maintain their quality of life.
All business must clearly post notices regarding worker’s compensation in an area frequented by employees during their work day. In addition, all newly hired employees should receive written information about the company’s worker’s compensation policy that also includes information on how to file a claim.
This information must include:
Employers should provide injured workers with an appropriate claim form within 24 hours after notification of the injury. Employers are also responsible for making sure that their staff complete accident reports in a timely manner. Injured employees should receive assistance in completing claims forms and in working with the company’s insurance agent, if needed.
It’s simply not enough, however, to make sure that claim forms are properly completed. Businesses need to work closely with their insurance companies to make sure that fraudulent claims are not filed.
For more information on how you can properly protect your business and employees, contact us at InsureYourCompany.com to learn about our custom business insurance solutions.
Sometimes accidents are impossible to avoid. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t precautions that you, as a business owner, can take to ensure the safety of your employees.
When thinking about workplace safety, there are a number of things you can do to prevent accidents at your business. It is also important to make sure you have adequate insurance in case an injury happens in spite of everything you do to prevent accidents.
Here are nine things you can do to prevent your employees or clients who are on-site from getting injured:
In case an accident does happen despite the best efforts of everyone in your company to prevent it, there are some types of insurance you should have. Here is how they can protect you:
This policy will pay for medical expenses, damages you are legally responsible for, and attorney fees. It can even protect you against something that may happen you have not even thought of—for example, a professional liability lawsuit, in case of damage to a business from bad advice, a poor recommendation, or using your product.
The business liability coverage can also protect you if someone slips and falls on your premises. Such things can happen because of torn carpeting, poor lighting, a wet floor, narrow stairs, ice, or a pothole in the parking lot.
Of course, if you work in a niche industry, there may be other types of insurance that are specific to your line of work and will need to be considered as well. But with these basic policies related to the physical space your business occupies, combined with smart safety procedures and rules, you can run your business knowing that all of your bases are covered when it comes to accidents.
Recent reports show that medical staffing agencies will soon experience a major boom in business through this year and beyond. The reason is due to medical facilities facing a shortage of registered nurses and other healthcare professionals. In turn, they now have to use staffing agencies to fill these medical roles, or maybe out of a money-saving effort.
If you run a medical staffing agency, you’re perhaps experiencing a major upturn in business now. And that’s great! But risks that medical staffing agencies face are more tremendous than ever. Because medical care is becoming overcrowded due to aging Baby Boomers, more patients means more potential for accidents.
All of these risks can get covered if you have the proper insurance. The important thing is to look at the most probable risks within the medical facilities you work with regularly.
While you can’t always guess what kind of accidents might occur with your clients, it’s still smart to think of the potentials. You can base this on past track record to help you better decide what kind of insurance you’ll need.
When you start working with a new medical facility, you have to know everything about them to scope out potential hazards. Look into their general business operations and see what they do for safety. Do they have an overly structured way of doing things? Are they regularly experiencing chaotic situations behind the scenes?
A less organized medical clinic could spell trouble in potential accidents. Noisy and overcrowded work conditions could also lead to major mistakes that harm patients.
Having liability insurance for these situations is essential. Don’t forget that medical professional liability insurance is a separate policy covering more thorough accident scenarios.
The medical staff you hire will all have different needs in their job descriptions. By studying what a client’s exact role is in their job, you can find what brings the most risk.
In this case, look at what kind of personal protective equipment your client uses, what the safety requirements are, and potential on-site hazards.
Malpractice insurance and workers’ compensation cover a lot of the above. Workers comp has different coverage based on what state you’re in, so find out early what your benefits are.
You have a right to ask the medical facilities you work with to show their safety manuals so you know what their environment is. Better proof comes in looking at OSHA reports for each facility. If the clinic was ever cited by OSHA in the past for violating safety procedures, you may want to avoid working with them.
Don’t just assume a medical facility will automatically adhere to all expected safety measures. Most do, though it takes only one to end up causing a major accident that falls on your shoulders.
Thorough vetting is important for anything nowadays, and you still have some risk assessment to do with your facility clients. One of those is looking at accreditation of the clinic and what their ratings are from past agencies or patients. Ratings from others can easily be found online, sometimes through Yelp or similar sites.
The clinic may have past litigation with other agencies, and this can become a red flag. Their contract may even have you assuming unnecessary liability, which is the last you want when staffing medical personnel.
Still not sure to start with making sure that your medical staffing agency is properly insured? Get a quote from InsureYourCompany.com. Our business insurance specialists can help you determine the right types of insurance for your specific business needs and get you started on the path to protecting your assets.
Have you ever wondered why your business needs technology business insurance? You might need it to protect against claims of negligence or financial loss from a client, for workers’ compensation, against claims of copyright infringement, against data breaches or other security issues, or even damage to commercial property.
A businessperson just has to look at the suit by the state of New York in 2007 against Dell to see that any business dealing with technology—whether a major computer manufacturer or an individual who creates websites for businesses—needs insurance protection.
In the suit, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo claimed the company, the number two computer manufacturer in the country, engaged in fraudulent, illegal, and deceptive business practices. He claimed the company promised “award-winning service” seven days a week, 24 hours a day, but created obstacles to those seeking help and technical service for computers.
Here are some of the kinds of business insurance your technology company may need:
This insurance will protect your company against claims that your professional work or negligence caused a financial loss for a client. This coverage is also called E&O insurance.
This is the kind of complaint the state of New York had against Dell, as Cuomo claimed the company used “ultra-restrictive underwriting guidelines” that kept most consumers, even those with excellent credit records, from qualifying for no interest financing, as reported by cnbc.com.
E&O insurance covers actual and alleged negligence by a company, independent contractors, or temporary staff; claims arising from previous service; damages and claims; worldwide omissions and errors; copyright infringement; and personal injury.
This insurance is similar to E&O, but it also covers cyber liability and protects against claims of software copyright. The coverage is vital for IT/technology consultants, business consultants, and marketing consultants. This is because such businesses are often sued even when there is no legitimate mistake. In addition, failure to perform professional services or incorrect advice often brings a lawsuit.
This covers your company from losses caused by unauthorized access to your data. This might include breaches, denial of service attacks, data theft, unauthorized e-commerce transactions, viruses, and more.
The law requires most businesses from all industries to have workers’ compensation; it protects you when your employees are injured while working for you. It will also provide protection for costs arising from work-related illnesses. You can learn more about it here.
This insurance covers commercial property, including printers, phones, computers, desks and other items. It also protects your business against physical damage from vandalism, fire, theft, and more.
This can protect you if crucial business data is lost or your identity is stolen.
This would protect you if a power surge destroyed your computer system. Your property insurance would not protect you because it only protects against “external” problems, such as a fire, while a power surge is often an internal problem.
Of course, this list is not comprehensive, but here is an idea of the type of industries that do:
Some technology businesses purchase a common business policy and add optional coverages and add additional coverage, including technology errors and omissions coverage, cyber liability coverage, identity recovery insurance, crisis response, crime, or equipment breakdown, and other coverages deemed necessary.
There are other types of coverage available that some companies need. If you would like more information about technology business insurance, or anything else, feel free to contact us.
The open enrollment period for HealthCare.gov is the yearly period when anyone can enroll in a health care plan through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It’s designed to help people get insured if they happened to miss getting insurance during the regular enrollment period.
On a general basis, this enrollment period occurs at the beginning of the year after the initial enrollment time frame occurs. However, HealthCare.org gives some other options under special circumstances. If you don’t offer a group health insurance plan, this can help your employees who may have missed the initial deadline to enroll for 2016.
Thanks to ACA rules, you or your employees could still enroll throughout the year based on certain life events. In an unpredictable world, you never know when one of your employees may suddenly need insurance if they didn’t have it before now.
If you have a small business, it’s possible you let your employees obtain their own insurance. Or, you may reimburse their premiums through a health care reimbursement plan.
Whatever the situation, it’s worth knowing more details about open enrollment and the special cases available to protect against risk.
The beginning of open enrollment for 2016 plans began last November 1. That initial period ended on December 17, though the month of January provided another opportunity to sign up. This last January 15, an extension lasted until January 31 to get coverage for the new year.
Late January was the last chance for those who aren’t qualified for a special enrollment period. Fortunately, it doesn’t knock everyone out of contention.
In the above arrangement, you or an employee could still get insured during any month. Take a look and see if your staff can take part in the special enrollment period, plus the rules applied toward businesses.
Since your employees could face penalties for not obtaining insurance this year, they may still get coverage, depending on life circumstances. These life changes don’t necessarily have to involve something unfortunate like major health events.
If an employee is about to get married or about to give birth to a child, this can entitle them to take part in special enrollment. Or, if your employee suddenly loses health insurance due to being unable to pay premiums, they can quickly recover with this enrollment offer.
For normal households, a person has to wait 60 days after the above life events occur. In a job-based plan, it’s a requirement to give 30 days for employees. Any of your staff could quickly get covered within a month if they happened to lose their health insurance policy 30 days before.
Just like an employee would during open enrollment, signing up simply involves going to HealthCare.gov. They make it easy to start a marketplace account in a matter of minutes. Even if someone already has an account, it’s kept active with a password.
The site takes a user through simplified steps to make sure they’re completely qualified for a specialized enrollment option. After signing up, the site lets an employee know exactly when coverage starts. ACA rules provide a new option for expectant mothers where coverage can begin the day the child is born.
As a variation on open and special enrollment, those with overly low incomes, pregnant women, and those with disabilities can qualify for Medicaid. This usually goes with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is useful if an employee wants to buy coverage for their children. When an employee uses these programs, they can get coverage the day they sign up.
Of course, when you provide health insurance benefits to your employees through a group plan, no one has to worry about enrollment periods for the health care marketplace. But if you either can’t afford to offer such benefits or simply don’t have enough employees to justify the cost, the information above can help you and your employees find suitable options while avoiding penalties.
In a time when small businesses are hurting due to health insurance rate hikes, many want to start looking for alternative affordable health care plans. You’re probably feeling this pinch yourself, no matter how many employees you have in your small business.
When the Affordable Care Act went into law, small businesses with under 50 employees didn’t have to buy insurance if they didn’t want it. Those with over 50 employees had to, yet received affordable options. You’ve perhaps found this favorable if you’re out of the running getting traditional group health insurance.
Of course, times have changed and thus the government’s requirements for small businesses have too. But with these changes have also come different options for group health insurance.
Thanks to these new opportunities, you can finally offer more affordable health plans to employees who want it. Basically, you have three good options that work well for most small businesses. The choice you make depends on what your employees want and how much money you want to spend.
You’ll discover all these choices have some creative ways to get around paying more.
The Affordable Care Act offered one great angle to small businesses: Health plans made exclusively for small employers. Through the SHOP Marketplace (which stands for Small Business Health Options Program), you can find alternative plans priced cheaper than traditional group health plans.
While SHOP plans still have room to grow in terms of being widely adopted, they could offer the chance to save money. Currently, three different types of plans exist in this marketplace.
The first plan is “Employer Choice,” where you choose the plan for your employees. The second is “Hybrid Choice,” where you offer various plans through a specific level, then employees choose from those options. The third is “Employee Choice,” where you give complete freedom to your employees to choose the plan they want.
As of last year, every US state has to offer the “Employee Choice,” giving small business employees more options than ever. Nevertheless, it’s important to stay circumspect. In some states, you have to enroll a certain percentage of employees, depending on how many employees you have in your business.
For this option, you have a little creative maneuvering at play to help save on premium costs. This works by setting up a Healthcare Reimbursement Plan through a healthcare professional or via health reimbursement software. It allows you to set up a monthly healthcare allowance to all your employees.
Afterward, your employees have freedom to go out and get the health care plan of their choice. Then you simply reimburse the amount of their premium up to their particular balance amount.
Doing this is popular since it avoids paying larger premiums to group plans. Plus, some of your eligible employees can get tax benefits off their premiums.
The better news is that healthcare reimbursement plans are tax-free. Employees can also reduce the costs of insurance by up to 50%. If an employee leaves you, they can keep the same insurance plan for as long as they continue to pay for it.
It’s tempting to believe that offering a health plan with benefits doesn’t make sense at this stage of your business. Many small businesses end up putting the responsibility of finding insurance on their employees and try to stay out of the process if they can.
The truth is, there are more benefits to offering your employees coverage than you’d expect, and ways to go about offering it without tanking your business’s finances. Businesses who offer health insurance benefits have less trouble retaining valued employees because they won’t be tempted away by another company with better benefits. Plus, if you’re looking to recruit great talent, you can make your business more appealing to jobseekers by offering health insurance.
By working with an insurance broker to assess your business’s needs and find a policy that fits your budget, you can continue to offer great benefits and keep your employees happy.
No matter what option you take, we’re here to help you choose wisely. Schedule a free, 30-minute consultation with one of our experience insurance experts, and we’ll help you assess which path makes the most sense for your business.
As health care becomes more complicated and expensive for businesses (especially small businesses), are health care reimbursement plans the way to go?
If you’ve never heard of these reimbursement plans, it’s time to learn about potential maximum savings on premium costs. Abbreviated as HRA (for Health Care Reimbursement Arrangement), this plan has ways to help you and your employees save on taxes as well as health care.
Basically, you set aside a fund that your employees use for their own health care expenses. It’s only possible if the plan gets funded exclusively by you. Reducing salary to make this happen isn’t allowed, though it’s more beneficial financially than you think.
Another stipulation is that funds go only toward health care expenses. While this may sound like there are too many restrictions, it’s really one of the most flexible health care plans in existence.
When you see the details behind the benefits, you’ll see why both employers and employees are using HRA’s more often to escape rising health insurance premiums.
A common occurrence is an employer using a HRA with a high-deductible health plan. Abbreviated as HDHP, these plans are self-explanatory in having higher deductibles, though resulting in lower premiums.
If you decide to use one of these plans, using a HRA becomes more beneficial. You’ll have more money saved from premium savings to place into your HRA fund.
This helps you bridge the gap between the high deductible and the expenditures for employee health care coverage. It’s something you should look into as proof it’s not entirely impossible to save in business health care costs.
The flexibility on HRA’s mentioned above extends to giving you freedom on what the funds cover. You can make the HRA more comprehensive and cover all medical expenses, or you can limit this to certain health care events like visiting the ER or perhaps general illnesses.
You could decide this based on past track records of your employees and the illnesses they typically get in a year. While you can’t predict all illnesses, covering common medical problems (perhaps associated with their job) can give your employees more peace of mind.
Your employees benefit from a HRA equally as much as you do. Along with the reduced premium after using the HDHP, your staff has access to medical funds before reaching their health care plan deductible.
Workers are also able to pay other health care expenses that don’t relate directly to medical treatments. Things like co-pays continue to become more expensive every year. A HRA can pay those, plus co-insurance, or sideline treatments like dental and vision.
All funds aren’t taxable to the employee either, giving them major tax savings along with your tax deductibles.
When you start a HRA plan, you have some other things to think about pertaining to rules and regulations. HIPAA compliance is mandatory to keep all employee medical data private. This additionally centers in on non-discrimination with all of your employees.
One open rule you’ll appreciate is you can carry over all HRA funds from year to year, which isn’t possible with flexible savings accounts. Ultimately, you have the freedom to determine how much of the funds you want to carry over for employees.
You can get full reimbursement for medical expenses when turning in the EOB (explanation of benefits) from an employee’s health care provider.
Here at InsureYourCompany.com, we have reliable data and experts available to help you get set up properly with a HRA. Contact us so we can help your business find proper insurance coverage and documentation.
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