ATHENS, Pa. — Worker’s compensation insurance is a federally mandated, state-regulated program that protects your business if an employee gets injured or becomes ill as a result of work-related activities. Farming is a dangerous profession, according to the CDC, every day about 167 agricultural workers suffer a lost-time injury. Medical and disability costs can be overwhelming and quickly reach levels that could threaten your farm or business if not appropriately covered with workers’ compensation insurance. Not all states require that you carry workers’ comp insurance but even if a state doesn’t require that you carry coverage, it’s very important to know that you are still responsible for costs if an employee sustains a work-related injury. When your business is covered correctly, workers compensation insurance will pay for employee medical bills, lost wages, rehabilitation and more.
As important as it can be to carry worker’s compensation insurance, it is equally important to work with the right partner. You want to find someone who knows farming and workers’ compensation coverage and can provide more than just insurance. There are a number of other services you should expect from you agent:
- Risk Analysis and Loss Control – You should have access to an OSHA certified loss control team that will visit your farm to identify hazards, review procedures, offer corrective actions and help implement effective controls to minimize the risk of injury to your employees.
- Safety Training – You should be offered a safety training program to help develop a strong culture of on-farm safety. These programs help improve employee safety and worker retention as well as show increases in efficiency and productivity.
- Claims Management – You should expect your agent to help manage your claims activity with the goal of keeping the overall cost of your claim down and resolve cases quickly. Additionally, they should provide a medical bill review, to ensure that you are not double billed, procedures are coded correctly, etc.
- Regulatory Compliance Assistance – You should be kept up to date. You need a specialist in workers’ compensation with a focus on agriculture that will stay on top of regulations that may affect you. It’s essential that you have someone monitoring changes and ensuring that you remain compliant and protected.
- Customer Service – You should have access to live customer service – 24/7. When you need help, you want to talk to a live person not an automated service.
- Agriculture Focus: Your business in agriculture, you want someone understands that, someone that focuses solely on the agriculture industry. It’s important that your agent is committed to supporting your values. When your agent is focused on agriculture, they understand the risks involved with your business and can make sure you are covered correctly at a competitive price.
Agri-Services Agency provides each of these services, at no cost, to our customers. If you’d like to know more about how workers’ compensation insurance can protect your business or learn about what ASA has to offer, don’t hesitate to give us a call. You can call our service center at 877-466-9089 or contact our regional specialist, Kara Argetsinger. You can e-mail Kara at kara.sweet@agri-servicesagency.com or call her at 607-857-9780. You can also click here to visit our website and fill out a form to have Kara give you a call.
–Agri-Services Agency