Small Business Insurance
Small Business Insurance : Claims Management
Having a claim, let alone managing it is something that very few small business owners would want to think about when buying a policy, but it is an area that could make a real difference to how you approach your insurance needs.
Most people buy insurance at an emotional level, rather than at a practical level.
What that means is that most people just want the security of thinking every thing will be ok if something goes wrong, rather than looking at the legal specifics of a contract to see what is and isn’t covered.
As a small business owner that is an illusion that you cannot afford to live with.
Knowing the specifics of risk management is crucial to your business in order to allow you to decide what to self insure and what to buy an insurance policy for.
Either way, it is an essential part of risk management of your business to think about and plan in advance how you are going to manage claims that may arise.
The reason is pretty simple : that you don’t want to have to start planning around it when something goes wrong.
If you plan in advance, it will give you a structure around which to move the incident along, and plan for contingencies in advance.
Having a plan allows you to do the right things quickly, which means you can focus on resolving and dealing with the incident that gave rise to the claim more efficiently.
It also means you are less likely to mis doing something that is important at the time. Developing a claims handling strategy at time of doing risk assessment is actually a very significant part of your business planning.
Claims Handling Plan and Preparation
Here are a few practical tips that should be included in any advance planning for a claims handling policy.
Have a written down plan that specifies what needs to be done, and by whom.
Have back up people allocated in case others aren’t there for some reason.
Go through any emergency planning or drills with them in advance, and make sure they know their roles and responsibilities.
Make sure all of that is documented and dated.
When an incident is reported that might necessitate a claim, make sure all reasonable steps are taken to contact emergency services, get any one to hospital if necessary, and administer first aid where appropriate.
Always have at least one if not two fully trained and qualified first aiders available.
Check your state/national legislation as to what the regulations are with regard to first aid, and make sure you follow them.
Make sure you document everything you can about the incident, and date it, ideally witnessed by other people as well and keep notes of what you did and didn’t do.
Note reasons of why you didn’t do certain things that could be questioned later – Its not about making right/wrong decisions as such, although that matters, its more about showing your thought process and being accountable for that.
Take photos if you can, even cell phone quality help. and note diagrams.
All this can help when you make a claim, both in terms of expediting payment, also being able to challenge any refusal to pay or compromised payments by your insurers.
It also gives you valuable feedback as to what went wrong, allowing you to make adjustments so that any such incidents can hopefully be avoided or minimized in the future.
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