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Who will compensate an in-home caregiver if they are injured?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those in the healthcare industry face considerable risk for workplace injury.  The risk for injury makes sense as healthcare professionals, such as nurses and in-home caregivers, are tasked with repetitive physical activity and are regularly exposed to illness, chemicals, and drugs.  While nurses and other medical professionals who work in a hospital setting have workers compensation coverage through their employer, who provides coverage for in-home caregivers?  Here is what you need to know about workers compensation for home healthcare.

• Agency Employment

If you are employed through an agency, then your employer will offer you workers compensation insurance coverage.  This coverage should meet your state’s legal minimums and will offer coverage for your lost wages, medical treatment, and rehabilitation costs in the event that you sustain injury or become ill while on the job.  Oftentimes, in-home caregivers are safer working for a professional agency because they are guaranteed workers comp coverage and are afforded more protections.

• Household Employment

If you are an independent contractor or self-employed and a family has hired you directly to care for their loved one, then the homeowners will be liable for the injuries you sustain while working.  Many families assume that their homeowners insurance will cover the cost of an injured caregiver’s medical bills, rehabilitation, and lost wages.  Unfortunately, homeowners insurance coverage is limited at best.  While some policies will cover a small portion of workers compensation costs, many will deny coverage completely.  If families wish to hire an independent in-home caregiver, they will need to secure specialty coverage for their injury costs.  Before you agree to work as an independent contractor, make sure the family has the right insurance to offer you the protection that you need.

This is what you need to know about in-home caregiver injury liability and workers compensation for home healthcare.  Do you have additional questions regarding your unique workers compensation coverage needs?  If so, then contact the experts at PMC Insurance Group.  Our highly-trained professionals are eager to assist you with all your commercial coverage needs today.

• Tags protecting in-home caregivers, workers comp coverage for in-home caregivers

Since 1996, PMC Insurance Group has worked to help independent agents grow their client base by offering workers' compensation solutions for a wide array of businesses. As one of the most distinguished workers' compensation wholesalers in the country, we have the tools and resources to help you create coverage programs for both small businesses and large accounts.

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By Jill Scott, Manager of Member Services

I was talking with David Dickie, the owner of The Solutions Group, last week and asked if there were any questions that he’s recently received or any burning issues in the home care insurance industry.  After our discussion, he sent me the following discussion that he thought would be important to pass along to our readers.  As many of you know David and his company are long-time Resource Partners and friends of ours.

Here’s what David had to say:

Our most common question recently (with summer upon us) is something similar to this: “Will my insurance follow my caregiver if she goes on vacation to another state?” It’s a good question, and the answer will depend on the particulars of your insurance policies. Discussion:

Almost all liability/bonding package policies contain a coverage territory of at least the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada (and often worldwide) that looks something like this:

So no real worries about the liability/bonding side of things. Workers compensation is more complicated, as each state has their own workers compensation rules and regulations, and each insurance company might or might not offer coverage in a particular state. Here are the basics:

If a caregiver (your employee) travels with a client, will workers compensation provide coverage?

• If the duration of travel is temporary (thirty days at most) then coverage almost certainly extends to that employee, as long as they are NOT traveling to Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming (more on these states below). Or,
• If the destination state is scheduled on the home state workers compensation policy, coverage applies in that state.

For example, if your employee works in Maryland and serves a client in Maryland, and goes on vacation with the client to North Carolina for two weeks, there is workers compensation coverage in North Carolina through the home state policy because the duration of the work is temporary.

However, if the client moves to North Carolina for half the year, and the caregiver goes with, we fail the duration test and North Carolina would need to be scheduled on the home state workers compensation policy. If the home state workers compensation policy will not schedule North Carolina (say because they are not admitted to write business in NC) then a separate policy must be taken. Here’s what to look for on your workers compensation declarations page:

So in our example above, because NC is covered under section 3.C Other States Insurance, you would not need an additional workers compensation policy for that state. BUT, if your caregiver were travelling to any of the listed states (note it says ALL STATES EXCEPT), and the travel was longer than 30 days, a workers compensation policy for that state would need to be arranged.

Please hang in with me and note one more detail. In the ‘Other States Insurance’ section of the policy wording, this gem in included:

So when you renew your workers comp policy, let your insurer know if you have exposure in other states. If you don’t, then ‘Other States Insurance’ will not apply past 30 days.

What about Ohio, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming? These are the monopolistic states, which use the old Soviet model for workers comp – you must buy it from the State. If your employees are travelling to any of these states, you must contact the workers compensation bureau in the respective state to make arrangements.

We hope that this information helps you navigate some less commonly talked about issues in home care.

If you are looking for insurance for your company or are interested in seeing what The Solutions Group has to offer, check out their website and give them a call at 800-866-2682.