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Employees and cars

Posted by: Robert Markette
August 15, 2006

I read an interesting article that appeared in Private Duty Insider a week or two ago.  The article was about strategies agencies employ to limit their liability for transporting patients.  It was rather interesting and touched on all o the possibilities.  An agency has three options for dealing with transporting patients – do it, do not do it, contract with somebody else to do it.

The article also mentioned the need for non-owned automobile coverage if you are going to allow your employees to drive your patients.  That is a good point, but you need non-owned automobile coverage regardless of whether or not you allow employees to transport your patients.  Your employees can create liability for you by having a car accident without a patient in the car.

This is because of employer liability.  If your employee is traveling to a patient’s home or between patients’ homes, and has a car accident, in most jurisdictions, you could be liable as well.  If you are named as a defendant or a claim is made against you as the result of an employee’s car accident, general business liability will not cover you.  You will need to have the same non-owned automobile rider.  Many home health agencies have overlooked this, to their regret.  The premiums for the additional rider are quite low when compared to the potential liability.

If you have insurance, you also need to be sure to notify your insurance agency if a claim is made.  Most policies require you to make a claim within a certain period of time.  If you fail to make a claim within the required time frame, it is the same as if you did not have insurance.   Some insured’s have failed to make a claim, thinking it would be cheaper to pay the claim themselves rather than have their premiums go up.  While this may be true, you take a very large risk by failing to timely notify your insurance company.   You may find that the plaintiff claims much larger injuries after you have missed your claims deadline.



 

        

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