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Aug 28, 2021

Marsh's Guide to Care Home Insurance During COVID

Care home insurance renewal can be a stressful topic, especially during a pandemic! Our team has collaborated with the folks at Marsh Commercial to take some of the burden off of you by creating this guide to renewing your insurance during COVID-19.

We know how stressful the past year has been. The changing regulations, visiting restrictions, and lack of certainty have been difficult to deal with. That’s why we partnered with Marsh Insurance to make sure that renewing your care home insurance during COVID-19 is as stress-free as possible.

One less concern for you means more time to do what you do best: deliver care. The good folks at Marsh Commercial put together a helpful guide on how to best prepare for your care home insurance renewal during a pandemic. Read on to find out how you can make the care home insurance renewal process feel like a total breeze.

Know your claims?

It is important you are aware of what your claims are. If you find a pattern emerging in your claims, with the same incidents happening multiple times, you need to understand why this is happening and be prepared to explain what measures you are taking to prevent these incidents from occurring again.

For example, slips and trips at the same location, employers liability claims for manual lifting and handling.

These types of claims are avoidable or can be mitigated with more robust risk assessments.

Share your plans

If you have received a rating of ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ from your CQC inspection, be ready to share comprehensive action plans that address any claims or repeat issues giving these a Red, Orange, Green (RAG) status to show progress. Keep all risk assessments up-to-date, include COVID-19 considerations and any additional training that you’re rolling out to your teams. This shows a responsibility toward the safeguarding of your people and residents or service users.

Keep on top of your care home insurance?

Don’t leave everything to renewal time. It’s a good idea to be in regular contact with your broker to make sure all of your information is up-to-date. Make your broker aware of any changes to your business, or future plans. Check sums insured are correct to ensure you are not under or over insured. Ensure you remain aware of how any claims are progressing and ask your broker to close any old claims that have been left open by an insurer.

What care home insurance changes are here to stay?

Many of us have experienced substantial changes to the way we work due to the COVID-29 pandemic. Are there a number of staff working from home? Is your business becoming more digitised? Update your broker on your ‘new normal’ so they can ensure there are no gaps in your cover.

Be ahead of the game?

Make sure you’re ready to go to market well in advance – at least three months before your renewal to give your broker the best possible chance of getting favourable terms. Brokers and insurers are dealing with a much more challenging market. This increases workloads and slows down the process of finding you the best cover to suit your needs.

Expect some changes

The market has changed substantially, reducing in capacity with fewer insurers in the market – especially for risks that present poor CQC reports and poor claims histories. Prepare for increased scrutiny on CQC inspections, and longer questionnaires to see how well you’re adhering to government guidelines. You may find changes in renewal terms and pricing, restrictions or exclusions for COVID-19.

If you have any questions about the changing marketplace or your care home insurance renewal, health and care insurance advisers at Marsh Commercial would be happy to help. You can reach them on 0113 350 8712 or get in touch by email at care@marshcommercial.co.uk.

Author: Marsh Commercial in conjunction with Covéa Insurance.

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