Lowering Your Health Insurance and Worker's Comp Rates

You're always looking for ways to save money. Now, the beginning of the year is a great time to review two of the biggest expenditures you have, your workers comp and health insurance policies.

If you do a review of policies, you'll find they are probably your two biggest costs in your insurance portfolio. So, anything you do to lower costs or to prevent unnecessary increases in your premiums is going to help you.

Lowering Your Health Insurance Costs
Honestly, it's difficult to lower premiums on your health insurance.  The reason is that so many factors go into assessing your premium and are out of your control.

First, you have no control over how future changes to the Affordable Care Act are going to affect your yearly premium. Second, you simply can't predict the future health of your employees. People get sick and injured, and sometimes it results in many visits to the doctor.

The best way to keep costs down on your health insurance is to focus on health and wellness programs in your workplace. These programs are controversial because, initially, they begin with a lot of employee participation and taper off as they go on. Furthermore, there is little evidence to suggest the programs help people lose weight.

However, that doesn't mean they aren't helpful. If you offer employees the opportunity to get their blood work and other vitals checked at work, and evaluated by a health professional, they could learn about potential health problems, and they might go to their doctor and avoid a major medical problem.

Also, periodic classes about nutrition and the benefits of exercise could inspire employees to lead healthier lifestyles.

Even if only a few people change their behavior, it could make a difference in keeping your costs down if you can prevent major medical problems.

Worker's Compensation Insurance
Fortunately, you can be more proactive steps to lower your worker's compensation costs.

The key to lower these costs is to prevent accidents. There are a number of ways to do this:

• First, examine your worker's comp policy and make sure your business is properly classified.
• Have a formal training program for any position that requires an employee to use any type of machinery or equipment.
• Develop a safety program that includes regular inspections of equipment and safety training sessions.
• Stress from harassment can be filed as a worker's comp claim. So, make sure you have an anti-harassment policy and training for your company.
• Create a maintenance schedule for all of your vehicles and buildings. Look for and correct any potential problems.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to keep your expenses low. Everybody, staff, and management benefit when the company keeps costs low.

Sometimes, it helps to get an outside opinion of your company to find areas that could use improvement. This is why you should have a strong relationship with your insurance company.

Culture Insurance wants to help you grow and succeed. We would be more than happy to sit down with you for a comprehensive review of your portfolio.

Culture Insurance is located in San Diego County and specializes in commercial insurance and risk management. Contact us to learn how we can help your company get the best benefits from your insurance program and save you money.