You pride yourself on operating a safe, secure work environment where your employees can perform to the best of their ability while helping your business grow. Even in the most ideal circumstances, the reality is that accidents and illness still happen.
If one of your employees does suffer an injury, workers compensation coverage provides you and your employees with important protection.
In most states, work comp insurance is required.
The benefit to you, as the employer, is that this coverage can help to prevent losses from employee lawsuits.
Yes, you have great employees and have very structured safety procedures and protocols, but let’s face it, life happens. Let’s discuss why it is a good idea to protect your business and employees by carrying workers compensation insurance.
What Does Workers Compensation Insurance Cover?
Workers compensation coverage is a state-mandated insurance program that covers lost wages and medical treatment resulting from an employee’s work-related injury or illness. It also covers services needed to help an employee recover and return to work.
Here are some examples of workers compensation in action:
Medical costs for immediate treatment
At care facilities, one of the most common workers compensation claims is back strain. Let’s say, one of your employees is helping a patient out of bed and suffers from a spinal injury.
Your employee is going to need medical attention and those costs are your responsibility because your employee was injured on the job.
This is where workers compensation insurance comes into play. In this case the policy can pay for the ambulance ride, emergency room visit, medication, and the follow-up treatment
Lost wages or loss of income
In addition, this employee may have to miss work to treat and heal their injuries. The workers compensation policy can also cover the employee’s missed wages/lost income.
As a result of this employee missing work, you may have to find a temporary replacement and endure training expenses to get that person up to speed. Workers compensation insurance can help relieve those burdens as well.
Future medical or treatment expenses
The ongoing care that the injured employee will need to receive may include; physical therapy, surgery, rehabilitation, and treatment from specialist.
Even if that employee never returns to work, you may still be responsible for their ongoing care because the injury happened on your site while that person was your employee.
Funeral and Death Benefits
In the worst of cases, funeral and death, workers compensation may cover funeral expenses as well as death benefits such as support payments to the employee’s’ dependents.
Legal Costs
If the employee files a lawsuit against your business, you workers compensation has employer’s liability coverage. This covers the liability aspect of the situation and can help pay attorney fees, court costs, and settlements.
Next Step
Not all policies are the same and requirements vary state to state. Contact us today to get your questions answered on how to handle your workers compensation coverage for your business. Let us worry about building the best protection so that you can focus on your business.
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