Sports Insurance Blog

http://www.sadlersports.com/blog Sports Insurance Risk Management Advice and Commentary on Current Topics of Interest Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:06:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Excess vs Primary Coverage For Sports Accident Insurance http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/18/excess-vs-primary-coverage-for-sports-accident-insurance/ http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/18/excess-vs-primary-coverage-for-sports-accident-insurance/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:26:07 +0000 admin http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/?p=393 Excess Accident insurance is superior to primary insurance for Accident insurance policies for sports and recreation organizations such as teams, leagues, camps, and recreation departments. This is especially true if the purpose of the Accident policy is to cover moderate to serious injuries.

Excess Accident insurance is also known as secondary insurance. Excess Accident insurance requires other collectible insurance such as family health insurance to respond first. As a result, the typical case involves initial payment by the family health carrier less any deductible and coinsurance. The Excess Accident policy should provide payment for such deductible or coinsurance so that the injured participant or parent incurs no out of pocket expenses.

There should be a coordination of benefits between the two policies so that the injured party does not owe a debt to the medical service providers. If a debt is not owed, there will be no dunning letters or calls from collection agencies and as a result there will be little need for the injured party to visit an attorney.

Also, due to the coordination with existing family health insurance, an Excess Accident policy will be much less expensive than a Primary Accident policy.

On the other hand, Primary Accident insurance pays without regard to other collectible insurance. For this reason, Primary Accident insurance is generally unaffordable. In order to make it more affordable, the insurance carriers that sell Primary Accident insurance will water down the payout by either selling medical limits less than $25,000 or by inserting internal payout limitations which are also known as allocated benefits or sublimits. See prior blog posting on Internal Payout Limitations under Accident Insurance for a description of how they significantly reduce payouts.

The use of either reduced medical limits under $25,000 or internal payout limitations under Primary Accident insurance will result in only a partial payment in the event of a moderate to serious injury.

Partial payouts can result in lawsuits by injured parties in search of a deep pocket. This is bad news for sports organizations and their directors, officers, employees and volunteers. Therefore, high limit Excess Accident insurance that does not contain internal payout limitations is far superior to low limit Primary Accident insurance that contains internal payout limitations.

Source: John Sadler

]]> http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/18/excess-vs-primary-coverage-for-sports-accident-insurance/feed/ 0 Excess Accident Insurance: First Line Of Defense Against Lawsuits http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/08/excess-accident-insurance-first-line-of-defense-against-lawsuits/ http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/08/excess-accident-insurance-first-line-of-defense-against-lawsuits/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:04:39 +0000 admin http://www.sadlersports.com/blog/?p=279 Sports Accident insurance pays covered medical expenses on behalf of injured participants such as players, coaches, managers, umpires, etc.

Coverage is normally excess or secondary, which requires other collectible insurance such as family health insurance to respond first. There are three basic scenarios that can arise under excess Accident insurance:

1. If existing family insurance pays for 100% of all medical bills, the excess Accident policy will not make payment for any benefits.

2. If existing family insurance pays for only 80% of all medical bills (due to its deductible or coinsurance provisions), the excess Accident policy will pay for the remaining 20% less any deductible or other policy limitations.

3. If existing family insurance in not in existence, the excess Accident policy becomes primary and pays covered benefits less any deductible or other policy limitations.

The existence of excess Accident insurance on all participants is the first line of defense against lawsuits arising from injuries to sports participants. Much of the incentive for an injured participant or parent to file a lawsuit is removed if either existing family health insurance or the excess Accident policy will guarantee that no out of pocket medical bills will be incurred.

Uncovered medical bills will ultimately result in nasty dunning letters and collection phone calls being made to the responsible party. This will usually lead to a visit to an attorney to discuss what options are available. Of course, the attorney will recommend that a lawsuit is filed against a deep pocket: the sports organization and its directors, officers, and volunteers.

This is the reason why the few General Liability carriers that are willing to insure sports organizations require the existence of Accident insurance as a pre condition of coverage.

Source: John Sadler

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