Restaurant Insurance – Use your Medical Payments Coverage to Keep Loss Costs Down

If you own a restaurant, then you have at least a passing understanding of your restaurant insurance policy. And hopefully you have purchased general liability protection as a part of your package policy. What you may not understand fully, is how the medical payments section of your policy can help you keep loss costs lower, which in turn can save you time and money on your restaurant insurance policies in the future. Here’s how it works.

Your general liability section of your restaurant insurance policy should have two components, one called medical payments coverage – which we refer to as med pay, and a second component which is called liability coverage. The liability coverage is designed to protect you against claims filed against your business for which you are legally liable. This could run the gamut from broken teeth to food poisoning to slip and fall claims. And I probably don’t have to tell you that there are plenty of scam artists out there who visit restaurants just to set them up to demand payment for some kind of questionable claim. But your med pay coverage on your policy is your first line of defense to keeping scam claims and even legitimate ones from ballooning out of control.

Med pay will pay for the medical bills associated with injury to your patrons while they are on your premises. And here’s the best part – it pays without regard to fault. So, while you may not be sure that it is your fault that your client claims he slipped in your rest room, you can initiate a claim using your med pay coverage to cover his medical bills right away. Often by taking quick and decisive action you can mollify the feelings and emotions of an injured patron and keep the claim from escalating out of control. Med pay is the vehicle to help accomplish this goal.

If you don’t have med pay on your policy, of if you feel you might want to increase that coverage, call your agent immediately. This coverage is pretty inexpensive and could save you a bundle in time and hassle by keeping a potentially devastating liability claim under control.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we specialize in helping restaurants all across North Carolina and South Carolina with their restaurant insurance needs. We have developed specialized insurance programs for different types of restaurants to keep you from buying coverages you don’t need and to help you get the ones that are needed for your type of establishment. So we have an insurance program that will fit your needs, whether you are casual dining, fine dining, fast food, bar and grill, or even a caterer. For more help with your restaurant insurance, please visit us online at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com or call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557.

Much of the source data for this article can be found on line at www.restaurantanswerguy.com.

Restaurant Workers Compensation Insurance – Protect Your Mod

Most restaurant owners 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 restaurant 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 restaurant 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 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 the mod.

So what can you, as a restaurant 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.

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 restaurant owners 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 restaurants are our specialty, we can help you with your restaurant insurance needs whether your restaurant is a fine dining establishment, a casual dining restaurant, a fast food restaurant, a bar and grill or tavern, or even a catering company. We have built special niche programs for almost every kind of restaurant out there and we encourage you to call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.TheRestaurantInsuranceStore.com.

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