There's No Place Like Home: Workers' Compensation for Healthcare Residences

As people age, they may need to reevaluate their current living environments and reassess their new needs, such as assistance with household tasks to full-time medical care at a nursing home facility. Professionals in these residential environments are exposed to a number of risks daily. In order to care for their patients, these healthcare employees need the certainty of knowing they will be taken care of in their time of need with excellent Workers' Compensation coverage.

With high-level carrier status and exclusive access to many markets, our team of Workers’ Compensation specialists can assist retail insurance agents and brokers navigate the WC marketplace for home healthcare workers, skilled professionals at group homes, CCRCs, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Excellent Workers’ Compensation coverage mutually benefits both the employee and the employer. This coverage can include payment of lost wages, medical care, death benefits and legal defense costs to the employer.

The RT Specialty Workers' Compensation team has developed special market relationships for hard-to-place classes such as Home Health, Group Homes, and Nursing Homes. With exclusive access to financially sound carrier programs and aggressive rates and pricing, our brokers can offer competitive commissions and budget-friendly payment plans, including monthly self-reporting.

Home Healthcare Employees:
Home healthcare occupations typically include two different types of employees: home health caregivers and home healthcare nurses. Both types of home healthcare employees work in households with varying environments and are therefore subjected to widely different safety and health hazards, encompassing biological risks, such as exposure to bloodborne pathogens and ergonomic risk exposures that can stem from patient lifting tasks. Safety risks can also include slips and falls, unsanitary conditions, hostile pets, car accidents, and many others.

Because insurance carriers are unable to conduct a loss control inspection at a patient’s home, many will classify the operations as more hazardous than others. Home healthcare can be considered an underserved niche, as many carriers hesitate from writing Workers' Compensation for these types of operations. RT Specialty is a predominate writer of home healthcare Workers’ Compensation and has recently gained access to new home healthcare markets with lower minimum premiums.

Eligible Home Healthcare Class Codes:

Group Home Employees:
Group Home employees oversee and serve a variety of residents, ranging from the elderly to children to the mentally disabled. The group home worker is responsible for a number of duties and at least one caregiver is on-site 24 hours a day.

These employees assist residents in a range of duties from clerical services and counseling, to riskier situations such as subduing a hostile occupant or mediating a dispute. These risks, coupled with the possibility of contracting an infectious disease, has insurance carriers deeming these operations as hazardous. RT Specialty can provide excellent Workers’ Compensation coverage for your group home clients. We have access to several new carriers with low minimum premiums and the ability to write new ventures.

Eligible Group Home Class Codes:

Nursing Home/Assisted Living Employees:
Job positions at nursing homes and assisted living facilities range in risk level, from low-hazard, non-medical employees to higher hazard occupations, including nursing assistants and registered nurses. High-hazard workers face daily risks from the spread of disease and infection to physical injury. Exposures to contaminated blood, inadvertent needle pricks, muscle strains or injuries from lifting, are just a few of the risks threatening the well-being of these healthcare professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic over the past several months has greatly affected the ability to place nursing home and assisted living operations, as the majority of markets ceased to write this class of business. Fortunately, RT Specialty has gained access to new markets with the ability to write nursing homes and assisted living facilities provided such facilities have been in business for at least one year and the ability to implement and comply with COVID-19 protocols, which are designed to apply practical solutions to manage risks and improve worker safety.

Eligible Nursing Home/Assisted Living Class Codes:

Some healthcare operations may hire independent contractors. Today, technology platforms can provide on-demand shift workers for nurse staffing and other healthcare positions. In instances like this, where a traditional Workers’ Compensation policy may not be a fit, RT Specialty may be able to provide an alternate coverage, such as Occupational Accident. With Occupational Accident insurance, your independent contractor clients can potentially save costs while securing coverage for medical expenses and death benefits as well as protect themselves with legal defense costs.

Effective September 1, 2020, All Risks became part of the Ryan Specialty Group, LLC (RSG) family of companies. Combining with RSG has brought tremendous opportunities in all lines of insurance, including Workers' Compensation, additional resources and exciting changes to our group home, home healthcare, nursing home and assisted living products.

Contact our Workers’ Compensation experts for more information about Workers' Compensation Specialty Programs and other hard-to-place Workers' Comp. classes.

The descriptions of these programs are only a summary of available coverage. Actual policy language will dictate the scope of coverage in the event of a claim. We encourage policyholders and their agents to read the full policy form and any applicable endorsements for full terms and conditions. Financial strength and size ratings can change and should be reevaluated before coverage is bound.

All Risks Specialty, LLC (f/k/a All Risks, Ltd.) (hereafter “All Risks”), a subsidiary of Ryan Specialty Group, LLC (RSG), provides wholesale insurance brokerage and other services to agents and brokers. All Risks is a Maryland limited liability company based in Maryland. As a wholesale broker, All Risks does not solicit insurance from the public. Some products may only be available in certain states, and some products may only be available from surplus lines insurers. In California: All Risks of California Insurance Services, Ltd. License # 0B84526.

R-T Specialty, LLC (RT), a subsidiary of Ryan Specialty Group, LLC (RSG), provides wholesale insurance brokerage and other services to agents and brokers. RT is a Delaware limited liability company based in Illinois. As a wholesale broker, RT does not solicit insurance from the public. Some products may only be available in certain states, and some products may only be available from surplus lines insurers. In California: R-T Specialty Insurance Services, LLC License # 0G97516. © 2020 Ryan Specialty Group, LLC © 2020 Ryan Specialty Group, LLC