Falls Aren't Funny by Kendzior Russell J.;

Author:Kendzior, Russell J.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Government Institutes
Published: 2010-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

6

The Insurance

Industry and Fraud

Slip-and-fall accidents are preventable and should not be seen as simply a cost of doing business. The property owner who accepts slip-and-fall accidents as a course of business will be forever plagued. The insurance industry, specifically those companies that underwrite the property and casualty polices for business owners, is both the recipient of much of the cost of slips, trips, and falls as well as the very reason many such accidents continue to go unchecked. It’s not to say that insurers are the problem, but they are enablers.

One thing the insurance industry is good at is keeping track of losses and their financial costs. However, in the case of fall prevention, they rarely, if ever, take a decisive and proactive approach to prevention. That is, insurers and the insurance brokers simply pay the cost of falls and turn around and pass the cost along to their policyholders, who in turn pass the cost to their customers.

Why is it that the insurance industry has not tried to reduce the growing rate of slips, trips, and falls? Certainly they are aware of the growing frequency and severity of slips and falls. So why don’t insurers take a leadership role in rewarding those companies that have developed a proven prevention plan and punish those who haven’t? Why not offer a premium discount as an incentive to reward those policyholders who do a good job of reducing losses and in turn increase premiums for those property owners who are habitual safety offenders? As long as the insurance industry continues to pick up the tab for such claims, the problem will only get worse. After all, there is only so much elasticity in the market, and as the nation’s recession expands, many business owners will either be forced to drop their coverage or go out of business. Ask any business owner the question, “Do you have a problem with slips and falls?” You will most likely hear, “Sure, that’s why we have insurance.” Imagine if you asked someone, “Do you have cancer?” I doubt they would answer, “You bet, that’s why I have health insurance.” Prevention appears to be an alien concept to the nation’s insurers, so we continue to accept the ever-mounting cost. It’s simply a matter of time before the status quo of increasing insurance premiums will collapse.

In my nearly 20 years in the safety industry, I have collected the top 10 reasons insurers and brokers aren’t more aggressive in reducing the number of slips and falls:

1. The market is soft, and we can’t do anything at this time.

2. The industry doesn’t work that way.

3. That would be up to the broker to do.

4. We don’t sell to the client directly; therefore, we can’t.

5. It’s against our policy to recommend specific products.

6. We offer our policyholders voluntary training classes (note the word “voluntary”).

7. None of our competitors are doing it, so why should we?

8. That would have to be done through the (fill in the blank) department.

9. We would if there were a national standard that required us to.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.