Workers Compensation Needs for Home Health Care Companies
Home Health Care Companies have some of the most unique workers compensation risks that make the industry difficult to protect from the insurance carriers perspective and is difficult to provide a safe workplace from a business owner and managers perspective. Taking additional time to determine what risks apply to each individual business can go a long way towards the long term health of the organization. Here are TKTKTK risks most home health care companies face.
Remoteness
Many home health care companies have employees who travel to one or more locations through out the day. This can dramatically impact the amount businesses pay for home health care workers comp. Working in someones’ home brings about a lot of risks that are out of the business owners hands. The condition of the home can be all over the place depending upon the customer. Doing a walk through of the location prior to taking on a client is a good idea to get an idea of the condition of the remote site. Unsanitary conditions are a concern because of the health of many of the clients the company serves. The spread of infectious disease is higher than other industries. In addition to the risks of your employees health is the fact that employees are working inside another persons home. When something goes missing, your business and your employees are an easy target to blame for theft. Having a plan for when this occurs will make a big difference in how your business deals with a situation when an employee actually steals something and when your employees are falsely accused of theft.
Driving
A lot of home health care agencies have employees that drive to a remote location or to a number of remote locations throughout the day. The time during which your employees are on the road driving from location to location is a time when your business is liable for accidents that happen while employees are out on the road. This increases the frequency and severity of accidents that occur for home health care businesses. This can impact what a business pays for Workers Compensation Coverage, but also for all Commercial Insurance overall.
Lifting
Because of the health condition of the clients businesses work with in this industry; slips, trips, and falls are more common. This can cause an increase in the frequency of injuries to employees due to lifting the patients. Providing back belts may be something you provide for some or all of your employees. If your business finds an uptick in the frequency of injuries your employees experience, you may need to require employees to wear belts or other protective equipment.
High Turnover
Home Health Care Companies tend to have a high turnover rate when it comes to their workforce. For this reason, it is important to come up with creative ways to keep your employees happy when you do find an employee who is reliable. A high turnover rate can cause a business to spend extra time training employees and less time using an experienced staff to serve your customers. If turnover gets too high, the business owner may need to determine how many customers the business can actually serve. One accident to a customer can cost your business immensely. Sometimes having less patients who are taken care of properly is better than spreading your staff too thin resulting in additional problems for your risk management efforts.
Increasing Demand
Here in America we are experiencing an increasingly aging population. By 2020, 17% of the entire population will be 65 or older. That will results in 50 million people who will need help from the home health care industry. As the population grows, it may be tempting for a business owner to take on as many customers as possible, but in the health care industry quality control is of the utmost importance. Keeping adequate staffing levels and keeping those staff properly trained is crucial in this industry.