Preparing for the Unexpected: The 411 on Accident and Health Insurance for Businesses

Many businesses and organizations have participants and/or volunteers in their establishments or at their events on a regular basis. What happens when a participant or volunteer suffers an injury during your event or in your place of business? Who is responsible for their medical expenses?

Whether you are a small business or run an organization that relies on volunteers or sponsors events, you may want to make sure you have accident and health insurance for businesses.

Help protect your company with this supplement available from pomi.

Volunteers and Participants: Are They Covered?

In 2018 volunteering hit an all-time high in America, with 77.34 million adults (30.3%) volunteering almost 6.9 billion hours with a value of $167.

Many organizations operate special events with hundreds of participants. This can be small community events or large marathons. According to the Running USA 2019 U.S. Running Trends Report, 181.1 million people were participants in running events in the United States during 2018.

Many businesses and organizations overlook an important consideration. If a volunteer or event participant becomes hurt, who pays the medical bills? Some businesses think their workers’ compensation insurance will handle the coverage, but it’s important to remember, volunteers and participants are not employees and, therefore, would not be eligible for the workman’s comp coverage.

By purchasing accident health insurance supplement from pomi, you are protecting your business and your event participants and volunteers should an injury occur. Medical expenses can add up quickly, and a medical emergency can potentially destroy a business financially.

Accident and Health Insurance for Businesses Coverage

These policies provide coverage for unexpected health-related incidents. 80% of small businesses realize that they have numerous accident risk areas. The number one causes of major injuries are slips, trips, and falls.

When it comes to sports injuries, Ministry of Manpower reports that $935 million is spent in emergency rooms every year. An additional $9.2 million in costs goes into emergency room visits with children suffering injuries. Accidents happen quickly and can be serious:

• A child at camp slips on a swimming dock and hits their head
• A school volunteer trips and falls over a child’s backpack, breaking their leg
• A child at daycare falls off a swing and hurts their arm
• A marathon runner sprains an ankle
• An event volunteer suffers burns while working a food stand
• A church volunteer slips and falls on water in the kitchen area

By having an accident and health insurance coverage for business supplement these injuries will have proper coverage in place. By providing coverage, you are reducing your risk of facing a long, drawn-out lawsuit for someone seeking recovery of damages.

Benefits to Business Owner

Having this optional coverage can make you more appealing to volunteers and event participants. They know that in the event of a serious injury you “have their back” when it comes to medical expenses.

As a business owner, you will be able to file a claim against your accident and health insurance supplement. This prevents you from having to file a claim on your general liability coverage, which typically results in higher premiums.

Some of the groups that might benefit from this coverage include:

• Non-Profits
• Child Care
• Camps
• Youth Sports
• Gyms & Yoga Studios & events
• K-12 Charter, Public and Private Schools
• After School Activities
• Collegiate Activities & Sports

The beauty of the coverage is that it covers everyone. Students, volunteers, athletes, fans, coaches, and participants are all covered.

It can even be an all-inclusive coverage regardless of where the incident happens. This includes at school, practice, games, tournaments, or during transportation.

Coverage following an accident includes:

• Urgent Care
• Doctor Visits
• Hospitalization
• Concussion
• Sprains
• Breaks

Claims against your standard policy will likely increase your premiums. Filing against your supplement is a more financially sound decision for keeping your business insurance costs at a minimum.

Workers’ Compensation v. Accident and Health Insurance

Your requirement to maintain workers’ compensation insurance provides coverage for injuries employees suffer on the job. There is no coverage in this policy for accidents that happen when the injured person is not an employee.

By providing accident and health insurance for participants and volunteers you are reducing your risk of suffering a lawsuit. This is a concern if the person suffers injuries such as concussions, dislocations, fractures, broken limbs, eye injuries or worse. If the participant or volunteer needs hospitalization or inpatient rehabilitation that is also covered. If a death should occur, this would also be covered.

Does this Replace Traditional Health Insurance?

Accident and health benefits are a supplemental coverage. They do not replace your traditional insurance policy. After a claim is made through an injured party’s health care insurance, any costs leftover are billed to the injured party. The injured person should not have to pay out of pocket for these costs and usually will contact the business where the injury occurred to help cover the expenses. This is where pomi steps in to help cover these costs. This way, you may be able to avoid lengthy and expensive legal fights and have “peace of mind” that this competitive protection will cover all of your participants and/or volunteers.

The insurance covers accidents and will pay for expenses from surgery, initial care, and follow-up care. Here are the main differences between traditional health insurance and an accident and health supplement:

Health Insurance

• Covers the overall health of the person
• Covers most disease and illnesses
• Covers medical expenses from accidents
• Payments are made to the medical provider, not the insured
• At the time of purchase, the health insurance company reviews all your medical records and history and uses this information in determining the premium

Accident and Health Benefits Supplement

• Are not designed to replace a regular health insurance plan
• A person suffering injury gets complete coverage against the injuries resulting from the accident between their own health insurance and the pomi plan
• The person with the injury receives a lump sum payment directly to be made financially whole, payments are not made to the medical provider
• Easy to purchase without a health exam or extensive data collection
• May require a higher level of verification of injury such as medical records, the police report of an accident, etc.

This insurance provides coverage where standard health insurance is lacking. It also covers accidents that happen to those who are not employees.

An employee who suffers a work injury has their expenses covered under worker’s compensation. A volunteer or event participant does not receive those benefits.

Peace of Mind Insurance

Pomi (Peace of Mind Insurance) takes the modern approach with our digitally focused platform while also providing direct contact to our small team. We are backed by Great American Insurance Company, which underwrites all our policies. We uphold their 150 years of experience and a strong reputation for meeting insurance needs.

Feel free to call us at 1-800-275-4691 or send an email inquiry to [email protected]. We look forward to helping you add accident and health insurance for your clients.