888-900-0205Professional Services Workers Comp Insurance
Doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and other people who provide professional services all have one thing in common: they are expected to take great care of not only their clients, but also any employees they have. No matter what kind of professional service you provide, it’s important to protect your employees and your business at the same time with professional services workers comp insurance. Here’s how this type of policy works.
Lost Wages And Medical Care
If an employee becomes ill or injured as a result of working for you, your professional services workers comp insurance policy will pay for the medical bills. These include any doctor’s visits, hospital stays, medications, medical procedures, ambulance rides, or physical therapy appointments. Depending on the severity of the illness or injury, your employee may have to miss work for days, weeks, or months, which is why workers comp covers lost wages. Your employees deserve to feel safe at work, and ensuring their bills are paid for after a work-related illness or injury is one way to help.
Business Travel Protection
Many professional offices require employees to travel at some point, whether it’s to offer services to people at their home or to provide employees with continued education through conferences. If this describes your office, you need to include business travel protection in your professional services workers comp insurance policy. This way, your employees will be covered if they get injured or sick while outside of the office.
Employer’s Liability
The first part of workers comp insurance involves paying for lost wages and medical bills, and the second part, which is called employer’s liability, pays for lawsuits for work-related injuries and illnesses. One type of lawsuit it will cover is consequential bodily injury, which occurs whenthe injured or ill employee’s loved one also becomes injured or ill. If the family member can prove that it’s a result of the work injury, the employer’s liability part of professional services workers comp insurance will kick in. Another type of lawsuit you might face is loss of consortium, which occurs when the employee’s injuries keep him or her fromhaving marital relations with his or her spouse, causing the spouse to sue you.
Employer’s liability will also cover a dual-capacity lawsuit, which could name your business as both the employer and provider of the product that injured the employee at work. Additionally, employer’s liability coverage will extend to a third party over action, which means that if your injured or ill employee sues a third party, that third party can sue you to recover the damages.
Employer’s Liability In Monopolistic States
If your business is in Ohio, Wyoming, North Dakota, or Washington, employer’s liability is not part of your professional services workers comp insurance. These are monopolistic states that require you to buy stop-gap insurance if you want any lawsuits paid for after a work-related injury.
Legal Expenses
The fact that professional services workers comp insurance pays for legal expenses is crucial, since you will likely face a lot of legal costs if your employee sues. For example, you need to pay an attorney to defend your business against legal charges. If the case goes to court and you lose, you will need to pay for the judgment against you. Even if you manage to stay out of court, you will have a settlement to pay. Fortunately, professional services workers comp insurance will cover those costs.
Third-Party Suits
In some cases, the employee decides to sue a third party that was partially responsible for the work injury. When this occurs, there is a chance that the third party will come after your business with a lawsuit. For instance, if your employee was injured by a chemical in your office and sued the manufacturer, that business could then sue you for not properly storing or labeling the chemical, leading to your employee’s injury. If this ever occurs, professional services workers comp insurance can protect your business by paying the related legal expenses.