Landscapers Insurance Help – How To File A Workers Compensation Claim

Savvy landscaping contractors buy workers compensation insurance as part of their landscapers insurance program. If you don’t and you are paying someone to work for you, whether you consider them a subcontractor or not, then you shouldn’t go a day more without a policy. But assuming you already have a workers compensation policy, how exactly do you file a claim?

Filing a workers compensation claim is easy and simple. You want to do this as soon after the employee injury as possible. In NC the claim form states that you must file the claim within 5 days of the injury. To do so, you must complete a Form 19 claim form and mail, fax, or email it to your insurance company claims department. The Form 19 is a standardized claim form to be used for all workers compensation claims in North Carolina. The reason for this is that the policy and claims payments are all overseen by the NC Industrial Commission.

If you don’t have a form 19 on hand, check your policy as most insurance companies will insert a few blank ones in the policy that they send to you. It’s ok to make copies of this form when you run out. You can also get one in pdf form from the NC Industrial Commission website.

The Form 19 will ask for contact information for you and for your injured employee. They will also need to know the details of the injury, how and when and where it occurred. This information usually comes from the injured employee’s supervisor. Next you will need to fill in the occupation of injured person and information about how many hours they work each week and what their wagers are per hour and per day. This information will help settle the disability portion of the claim.

The rules require that you provide a copy of the completed Form 19 to the injured employee or the employee’s representative (read lawyer) at the same time that the Form 19 is submitted to the insurance company. Last of all, you must give your injured employee a blank Form 18 which is a form they can use should they wish to contest the claim settlement. You can obtain blank Form 18 copies the same way you got the form 19, by clicking here, or you may call the NC Industrial Commission at 800-688-8349.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help all of our clients become informed insurance consumers. Understanding how to file a workers compensation claim for your landscaping company is important as you will want to move fast in the event of an accident or injury and spending time trying to figure out how to file a claim will only slow you down.

Should you need help with your landscapers insurance policies, from workers compensation to your general liability, commercial auto and equipment insurance, please consider us as we specialize in insuring landscapers of all types and sizes all across North Carolina and South Carolina. We can put our extensive knowledge to work for you with one quick phone call. Call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.LowRatesForLandscapers.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found in their entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Landscaper Work Comp Insurance – Pay As You Go, Saves The Cash Flow

Landscaping insurance plans should all include a workers compensation policy for landscapers unless of course you work alone and have no employees. And work comp policies can tear a whole in your cash flow if not handled correctly. For more information on this, read my blog on the audit trap. In addition, many landscapers suffer a slow season in the winter as there is less work to be done. This slower season creates a cash flow bottom. What if you could time your workers compensation policy to match the slower cash flow in this down season?

In fact you can. With a little understood tool called pay as you go. Now understand that not every company the writes workers compensation policies for landscapers can or will offer this feature, but if you can find one that does and their price is right, this can be a nice benefit for landscape contracting companies.

So how does it work? Well, plans vary but the very best of them will send you an email or a mail reminder each month. You then log on to their web site and enter the payroll totals for the past month. The web site will then calculate your premium for that month and you can pay your bill on line right then and there with a credit card. What this means for you is that now your workers compensation expense tracks your payroll with only a 30 day delay. And this short delay means that your workers compensation expenses will more nearly track your revenue and mean less wild swings in your monthly cash flow.

Now, there are a few things to watch out for here. First of all, there are some payroll service companies out there offering pay as you go workers compensation to go with their payroll service. On the surface this sounds great but there is a problem with this approach. One huge factor in your workers compensation insurance costs is your experience modification factor. And you need to work proactively to protect that mod to keep future costs lower. Companies that specialize in payroll services and sell work comp as a sideline are rarely as good at keeping claims costs low as companies whose prime mission is workers compensation insurance. These companies will often have nurses and case managers on staff to help reduce your overall claims costs. And keeping your claims costs low will keep your rates low over time. To learn more about this read my blog on protecting your experience mod.

One last thing to mention here is that the pay as you go feature offered by some companies is often only available to landscapers whose premium exceeds a certain level, often as high as $5000. There are a few companies out there who can offer this feature at a much lower premium level, but you will need to find an agent who specializes in landscapers insurance to find them.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we are the landscaper insurance specialists. We have companies that can write pay as you go workers compensation policies for landscapers with annual premiums as low as $1000. If we can help you with any of your landscaper insurance policy questions, please call us, toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit us on line at our landscapers’ insurance program policy page.

Some of the source material for this article was drawn from other blog articles which can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Landscaper’s Insurance – Don’t Forget The Workers Compensation Policy

Landscaping insurance can be found in many different forms. One coverage that every landscaper with employees should have is workers compensation. In North Carolina, the law states that if you have fewer than 3 employees you don’t have to purchase workers compensation insurance. But what this rule doesn’t tell you is that not buying a policy could put your business assets at risk.

In NC, the workers compensation law does give you an out if you have less than 3 employees. In fact, there are no real teeth in the law that will catch and find employers who have 3 or more employees who also don’t purchase a workers compensation insurance policy. So, yeah, you could go years without purchasing a workers compensation policy for your landscaping business. But that would be a very dangerous choice. Here’s why:

Although the law may not require that you actually purchase a workers compensation insurance policy, it will require that you pay all of the claims yourself just as if you were the insurance company. Workers compensation benefits in North Carolina are statutory. That means that exactly how much gets paid for each type of illness or injury has already been determined by state law. This means if you are paying out of your own pocket for a claim, you will not have the opportunity to determine how much you are going to pay.

So, using the loophole in the law to avoid buying a workers compensation policy only gets you out of paying the policy premium. It does not get you out of paying the costs of any and all claims. And these claim costs can be enormous. Imagine coming up with $100,000 to pay for injuries that resulted in permanent disability, then paying disability payments for years after that for one of your employees. Pretty scary huh? So even if work comp insurance seems expensive, you should realize that purchasing it is a no brainer because going bare means you are pretending to have the assets of an insurance company. For most landscapers, that just isn’t the case.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping landscapers with their insurance needs. If you have any questions about your general liability insurance, your workers compensation insurance, your business auto insurance or any other insurance policies, please call us toll free at 877-687-7557 or visit our landscaper insurance web page.

The source data for this blog can be found at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Contractors Workers Compensation Insurance – Protect Your Mod

Most contractors have at least a general knowledge of workers compensation insurance. They know that they need it and they know it can cost a lot of money. But only a few really understand the experience modification factor and what it could mean for their future construction company insurance policy costs. This little primer will help you understand just how important it is to protect your mod and how to do it.

The experience modification factor of workers compensation policies, referred to as the experience mod or just mod for short, is the insurance industry’s way of assigning higher rates to businesses with poor loss experience and lower rates to those who have had more favorable loss experience. Each business has its own unique experience modification factor and this factor is applied to the rates on their policy. For example, if you have had a lot of losses, or perhaps a few large losses, you might find yourself with a mod of say, 1.35. If this is the case, then your workers compensation insurance policy premium will be adjusted upward by 35% to reflect your bad experience. Likewise, if your company hasn’t has a work comp loss for several years, your mod might drop as low as .80 and this would mean a 20% reduction in your overall workers compensation policy premium.

So how is this mod calculated? Well, the first thing you need to know is that the mod is calculated based on past experience. That means what happens today will take several years to come back and bite you. Also, the experience period for the mod in North Carolina is 3 years, so once you get some losses in your mod calculation, they will stay there for a while. I want to leave a more detailed explanation of how the mod is calculated to a later blog, but for now, understand that it is not only the number of losses (called frequency) that plays a part, but also the amount paid out (called severity) that impacts the mod calculation. And a little of both, frequency and severity can really run up your mod.

So what can you, as a business owner, do to protect your mod? A lot of how your mod will affect you, both good or bad will be determined by which insurance company you choose for your workers compensation policy. I say this, because, although you may be as careful as you can to avoid injuries among your workers, there is no substitute for an insurance company that is actively working for you to help you prevent claims and reduce the severity of existing claims. So when evaluating which workers compensation policy to purchase, you should consider more than just the premium on the first policy. Find out what that insurance company and that agent are going to do to keep your costs low over the long term.

Choose a workers compensation insurance company that will work with you to help you with both prevention and severity reduction. Prevention can come in the form of safety inspections, and loss control techniques that the insurance company can share with you. Reduction can come in the form of programs that help your injured workers get back to work more quickly. Some of the best workers compensation insurance companies even have their own nurses and doctors. Also, you want to purchase your workers comp coverage from a company that assigns case managers to each claim to stay on top of all the medical bills and the disability payments to keep the payout as small as possible.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping the owners of small contracting companies navigate the complex waters of insurance policy and insurance company selection. We can help you find a pro-active insurance company that will help you reduce the number of work comp claims and keep the claims that happen from spiraling out of control. Because contractors insurance is our specialty, we can help you with your insurance needs whether you need help with carpentry insurance, carpet cleaner insurance, electricians insurance, flooring insurance, HVAC insurance, grading and excavating insurance, insulation insurance, landscaping or lawn care insurance, masonry insurance, painters insurance, plumbers insurance, siding insurance or even guttering insurance . We have built special niche programs for many different types of contractors and we encourage you to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheContractorsHelper.com.

The source information for this article was taken from other articles which can be found in their entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.

Construction Insurance in NC – small contractors, don’t forget your work comp insurance

I hear it so often with artisan contractors, they don’t think they need workers compensation insurance because they have too few employees or the general contractor that they work under provides that coverage. While these are reasons that allow them to legally avoid buying a policy, in both cases they leave the artisan contractor’s destiny in the hands of others and may ultimately cost the small contractor his or her business. Here’s the real scoop on workers compensation insurance in North Carolina for small contractors.

It doesn’t matter which area you work in, whether you are hunting for painter insurance, plumbing insurance, lawn care insurance, carpenter insurance, landscaping insurance, grading insurance or even insulation or flooring insurance, you really will do better to always purchase a work comp policy for your small contractor business. Let’s take a look at the three reasons people don’t purchase workers comp insurance for their small business.

Reason #1 - Less than 3 employees. While it is true that in North Carolina, if you have less than 3 employees, then the state will not require you to purchase a workers compensation insurance policy, what is seldom said in the next sentence is that whether or not you buy insurance, you are still on the hook for the claims. The workers compensation insurance policy was created as a compromise. Workers gave up their rights to sue their employers in most cases and the trade off for them was that employers agreed to pay the benefits associated with injuries and sicknesses on the job according to the statutory payouts required by each state. So, as the employer, you will have to pay for your employees job related injuries, sicknesses and time out of work in accordance with the NC workers compensation statutes. If they are permanently disabled or even out of work for several months, these costs could run into the tens of thousands and possibly close your business. Many small contractors are choosing not to buy workers compensation insurance based on their number of employees and this could have a devastating effect on their business.

Reason #2 - It costs too much. Let’s face it, workers comp insurance can be expensive. But if you have an agent that specializes in your type of business, then you will have a much better chance of getting your policy set up in a way that saves you the most money while still protecting you from financial ruin. And really while the short term costs may seem high what is your entire business worth?

Reason #3 - The general contractor covers it. While for some small contractors, this may be true, there are several reasons why this is a poor choice. First of all, if the general contractor were to go out of business, or let their insurance cancel through some error, then you are back on the hook and if the claim is large enough, then there goes your company. Also, if you do work not associated with that contractor then you are back to going bare. Secondly, most general contractors add a large premium to the rate that they are charged to carry you on their policy so you will probably find you are paying more than you should to be covered this way.

In almost every case, it is a better choice for small, artisan construction companies to purchase their own workers compensation insurance policy directly. The risks associated with going bare, or riding on the general contractor’s coat tails are just too high.

At Clinard Insurance Group in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping small artisan contractors of all types with their insurance needs. We have special insurance programs designed for carpenters, carpet cleaners, concrete and masonry construction, electricians, flooring installation companies, grading and excavating contractors, guttering and siding installation companies, HVAC companies, landscapers and lawn maintenance companies, painters and plumbers. We work hard to help all of our clients become informed insurance buyers. If we can help you with your business insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.TheContractorsHelper.com.

The source information for this blog article was pulled from information which can be found on line at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com