Being a home care worker can be physically and emotionally demanding. Compared to other industries, occupational injury risk is high and the hazards are unique, so it’s important to ensure your organization has Workers’ Compensation for caregivers.
By ensuring caregivers are covered with workers’ compensation insurance, you can protect both your employees and your organization.
Importance of Workers’ Compensation for Caregivers
Workers’ compensation coverage is required by law for most employees. Without this protection, many businesses and employees would face financial challenges in the event of an injury sustained at work. Coverage helps protect your organization if an employee is injured on the job, by taking care of associated costs such as medical expenses and lost wages.
Policies typically offer both statutory benefits and liability coverage. Statutory benefits can cover the injured employee’s costs of treatment and rehabilitation as well as lost wages. Liability coverage benefits can help cover the employer’s costs, such as expenses and legal fees that may result from a claim brought by the injured employee or a third party.
Coverage is required by law in most jurisdictions, but due to the unique nature of home care work, finding quality, affordable coverage can be a challenge.
Risk of Injury for Home Care Occupations
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, home care workers are at risk of injury as they move and lift clients, deal frequently with difficult or violent behavior and are exposed to job hazards such as infections from communicable diseases.
Compared to rates of injury for the average U.S. worker, research from PHI has found the risk of injury is greatly elevated for home care workers:
- For personal care aides, overall injury rates average 116.4 per 10,000 workers.
- For home health aides, overall injury rates are 144.3 per 10,000.
- For nursing assistants in the home, injury rates are as high as 336.5 per 10,000.
- By comparison, the typical overall injury rates for all U.S. workers is 100.4 per 10,000.
Other facts include:
- Personal care and home health aides are 62% more likely to suffer overexertion injuries than the typical worker.
- Home health aides and home nursing assistants face 5x to 7x the risk of injury from violence on the job compared to the average worker.
Workers’ Compensation for Home Care Organizations
Due to the heightened risk, it can be a challenge for organizations to provide quality coverage to their home care employees at an affordable price. But obtaining the high quality, affordable coverage you need for your employees is possible with Lockton Affinity.
The Lockton Affinity Home Care Insurance Program was developed for providers like you. While quality workers’ compensation coverage at an affordable price can be difficult for caregivers to find, we offer this essential coverage as an option for the Home Care Insurance Program package.
Along with Workers’ Compensation, our package options include:
- General Liability + Professional Liability
- Hired and Non-Owned Auto
- Theft Coverage
- Sexual Misconduct Coverage
- Optional additional coverage including Employment Practices Liability, Business Auto, Property and more
With Workers’ Compensation for caregivers from Lockton Affinity, you can ensure your caregivers and your organization are covered with high quality and affordable protection. To learn more, visit our website or call (800) 723-9624.