Home Healthcare Provider
The growth of the home health care industry over the last several years is due to a number of factors, including the desire of seniors to receive medical care in the comfort of their home coupled with the growing elderly population in the U.S. In fact, receiving health care at home represents a lifeline for millions of Americans, especially for the aging and chronically ill, who are looking for support and health care services throughout their continuum of life. Professional staff delivers home health care routinely, helping patients and their families manage preventive care as well as chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiac care, managing wounds and prescription medications, and administering essential therapies.
Companion Care and Support Services
Families across America are increasingly turning to companion care and support agencies to help them take care of their loved ones when they no longer can do it on their own. These companies provide non-medical home care assistance and support for daily living activities. With these services come inherent risks and responsibilities. Exposures can range from workers’ compensation injuries, to professional liability claims and automobile accidents, just to name a few. In addition, many states have specific licensure laws and regulations that govern companion care.At Manchester Specialty Programs, we deliver an insurance program specifically designed for companion care agencies, including franchises, one of the fastest-growing health care sectors in the country. Our comprehensive insurance program is designed to help these agencies continue to provide the important services they offer throughout our communities.
Visiting Nurse Associations
Visiting Nurse Associations (VNAs) are well-established licensed, non-profit, home health care agencies. Over 100 ago, they were the first social service agencies to provide care at home. Through a local VNA, residents receive quality nursing and rehabilitative services in the privacy and comfort of their own homes. A VNA works with the individual and his or her physician to develop a tailored treatment plan used to achieve care goals.The extent of the services provided by VNAs necessitates a comprehensive, specialized insurance program that addresses the unique and broad range of exposures an agency and its staff face on a daily basis. We’ve been insuring the home health care industry and its various segments for over 20 years. Our program is designed to respond to the various exposures VNAs face and to help mitigate and prevent losses.
Hospices
The hospice industry in the United States is rapidly growing, offering patients a better way to have a quality end of life experience supported by a staff committed to providing the medical services, and emotional support for those in the last stages of terminal illness. To ensure the hospice industry continues to provide its services, each organization must have a robust insurance program in place to safeguard its people, assets and reputation.
Medical Staffing Firms
Medical staffing firms are entities that provide health care facilities with highly trained staff support, such as nurses, physical therapists, medical technicians and others, on a permanent or temporary basis. To help ensure their success, a comprehensive and broad insurance program is required to protect the firm in the event of liability claims, property damage, injuries or accidents. This is particularly important as organizations have the combined challenges of employing medical professionals with all of the associated Workers’ Compensation and liability issues, along with the many issues that all staffing agencies face, such as co-employment.Manchester Specialty Programs, with its commitment to the health care and medical staffing industry for many years, provides an all-lines insurance solution that is designed to put into place the coverages needed to safeguard a firm’s people, property and financial assets.
Durable Medical Equipment Suppliers
At Manchester Specialty Programs, we’re known for providing an integrated comprehensive insurance solution for various home health care organizations. This includes providing General Liability & Products Liability, Professional Liability, Employment Practices, Owned Auto Coverage, Workers’ Compensation and Regulatory Audit Coverage for durable medical equipment suppliers (DMEs). Our all-lines product provided by a selection of top-rated insurers allows us to help you cover the various exposures faced by DMEs, eliminate coverage gaps and provide value for your insurance budget.Our program can offer insurance for medical equipment distributors, retailers and service contractors for home placement in order to facilitate rehabilitation, treatment and ongoing care.
Professional Liability
Professional Liability insurance, also known as Malpractice or Errors and Omissions insurance, is a critical coverage component of any comprehensive plan safeguarding health care organizations and the various professionals and paraprofessionals that they employ. A single mistake or oversight in treatment could lead to injury, illness or even death of a patient. Manchester Specialty Programs provides Entity Professional Liability coverage for each of the business risks we can cover – from home health care providers, personal care, companion care and support services and visiting nurse associations (VNAs), to hospices, medical staffing firms and durable medical equipment suppliers (DME).We can tailor a policy to address the specific exposures of each health care niche, depending on the types of services they offer and the location where care is provided.
Workers Compensation
Workers’ Compensation coverage for home health care providers, companion care and support services, Visiting Nurse Associations (VNAs), hospices, medical staffing firms and durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers represents a significant expense in addition to payroll. Losses are often inevitable in this industry, especially for those with employees lifting or transporting patients or working with medical devices on a regular basis.At Manchester Specialty Programs, as a result of our long-term commitment and experience in this area, we have numerous avenues available to us to secure Workers’ Compensation coverage for your firm. We hold the underwriting pen with many of our program partners for Workers’ Compensation. We can also access monoline Workers’ Compensation capacity on a placement basis if our standard program carriers are not available to write a particular risk.
General Liability / Package
General Liability insurance along with securing the proper limits for all health care organizations is essential to protect their assets and allow them to continue to keep their doors open and make their services available. Visitors and patients can get injured on the premises and property can be damaged while carrying out an agency’s services, just to name a couple of the liability risks that exist.We provide General Liability insurance as part our program for the home health care, hospice and medical staffing market to protect against third-party lawsuits in the event of bodily injury, property damage and personal injury claims. Our program can compensate an insured for lawyer’s fees, settlement or judgment costs, and other court expenses. We also offer Excess Liability coverage to extend the underlying coverage in the event of a catastrophic injury or accident.
Non-Owned & Hired Auto
Non-owned and Hired Auto Insurance Coverage will protect you from lawsuits brought against you from the actions of your employees while driving their vehicles in the scope of their business duties. Many home health care agencies allow caregivers to transport their clients in the caregiver’s vehicle. In other cases, healthcare professionals, such as a physical therapist or home health aide, use their own vehicles to travel to assist people in the home. There are even the routine work-related tasks that need to get done such as picking up office supplies or going to the bank to deposit checks.In each case, there is a certain amount of risk for agencies and organizations when employees use their own vehicles. The personal auto insurance of the employee should be “primary” to respond to a loss; the entity/business itself should also carry adequate non-owned and hired auto liability limits.
Management Liability (D&O/EPLI)
Today’s environment for those in health care is fraught with increased financial stress, tighter regulation and greater exposures, putting organizations and their patients at risk. Manchester Specialty Programs provides health care organizations with a flexible Management Liability insurance program to address this complex landscape. We offer Directors’ & Officers’ (D&O) Liability insurance as well as Employment Practices Liability (EPL) insurance including risk management services from our carrier partners to help with employment screening, verification and background checks and overall human resources management.
Regulatory Audit Coverage
The Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program was established by Congress to identify and recover overpayments in Medicare and Medicaid. Third-party contractors conduct billing audits and are paid on a contingency fee basis for overpayments found. These audits have the potential to open up a healthcare agency or facility to exposures involving many types of violations.The government has also hired Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPICs) to investigate fraud and abuse for all Medicare-related claims. This includes audits on providers and suppliers of Part A, Part B, Part C, the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D), durable medical equipment, prosthetics, and orthotics supplier (DMEPOS), home health and hospice, and Medicaid services. If a provider is selected for a ZPIC audit, the firm is either the subject of a fraud investigation or the contractor is reviewing claims information to determine whether an investigation should be open.
Cyber Liability
Cyber threats today are among the top risks for organizations of all types and sizes, with the health care industry and its diverse segments particularly vulnerable due to the high value placed on stolen patient records in the criminal market. In fact, the FBI estimates that one patient record goes for $50 on the black market, much more than the few dollars often obtained for credit card numbers.Moreover, according to a 2015 study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research organization on privacy, data protection and information security policy, data breaches could be costing the health care industry $6 billion. Despite this, many organizations have little or no confidence in their ability to detect all patient data loss or theft. They are also unprepared to meet the changing cyber threat environment with a comprehensive incident response plan comprised of forensics analysis,mandatory patient notification, identity theft protection, remediation and resolution services.
Healthcare Suite
Manchester Specialty offers a comprehensive suite of products for Miscellaneous Medical Facilities, coordinating different coverages to address key exposures and reduce coverage gaps. We partner with several financially strong, nationally recognized insurers that specialize in healthcare risks to provide best-in-class protection, risk management and claims servicing to insureds.We have a broad appetite for Miscellaneous Medical Facilities, including ambulatory surgery centers, blood/tissue banks, community health clinics, imaging/radiation centers, laboratories, outpatient rehab, treatment centers, and urgent care facilities, among others in addition to long term care facilities. Our full spectrum of coverage includes comprehensive Medical Malpractice and General Liability insurance that includes Professional Liability for medical staff including employed physicians.
Risk Management
Health care organizations face a wide range of exposures that require not only a comprehensive insurance program, but also robust risk management tools and loss control measures. Each of our carrier partners are committed to helping insureds mitigate their risk and take control over the frequency and severity of losses by providing tailored loss control and prevention services.
