Employers can require employees to stay home from work if they have signs or symptoms of a communicable disease that poses a credible threat of transmission in the workplace, or if they have traveled to high-risk geographic areas, such as those with widespread or sustained community transmission of the illness. When possible, employers can consider allowing employees to work remotely. Employers may require employees to provide medical documentation that they can return to work.

Employers can consider canceling business travel to affected geographic areas and may request that employees notify them if they are traveling to these areas for personal reasons. Employees who travel to China should be informed that they may be quarantined or otherwise required to stay away from work until they can provide medical documentation that they are free of symptoms.

If your premium is billed directly by one of our insurance company partners, they offer multiple payment options such as pay by phone or online with a check and credit or debit card.  These options that reduce social contact are best to minimize spread of virus.  If you need the website or additional information, please call your insurance representative at our office.

If your premium bill comes from Trustpoint, we offer convenient online payment options on our website at https://trustpointins.com/pay-premium/

Some insurance companies are working with insureds on the payment of premiums.  If you have been financially affected by COVID19 or the related response and think you may not be able to make a payment on time, please call the company directly or call your Trustpoint representative to discuss.

Each health insurer is taking a specialized approach to managing policy changes and coverage directives related to the employee benefits insurance policy.  If you have questions we urge you to call us and we will discuss the unique circumstances related to your business and employees.

Our major health insurance partners have also created specific pages to address questions related to COVID19 those links are provided here for your convenience.

Aetna

Anthem

Optima

United Healthcare

Property related coverage is triggered by direct physical damage at the insured premises.  Accordingly, unless your property has been specifically shut down due to contamination it is unlikely that coverage will be found here.  If you or your supply chain are directly shut down by the government, there is case law that considers that direct physical damage.  However, most policies have exclusions related to communicable disease, virus or pollutants that still restrict recovery under the policy.

Workers compensation insurance covers occupational diseases and injuries, i.e., those that: (1) are due to causes and conditions that are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation, or employment; and (2) are not an ordinary disease to which the general public is equally exposed outside of employment.

However, there are exceptions, if an employee can show that they contracted a disease while in the active performance of their job.  In such cases they will be covered under your workers compensation insurance policy.

Liability coverage is designed to defend and pay claims from third parties for bodily injury resulting from your negligence or an accident at your premises or from your work/product.

Outside parties that allege contracting the virus due to your failure to exercise reasonable care in guarding against the risk of exposure to the virus should be covered here.  However, every policy is different, and some have exclusions for epidemic or pandemic.

Directors and officer’s liability insurance is a broad coverage that could be triggered if shareholder litigation alleging a company’s failure to develop adequate contingency plans, to observe recommended or required protocols resulted in devaluation or failure to disclose the related risks to financial performance.  Employment practice liability insurance also may  come into play if employees allege that they were mistreated when suspected of being infected.

Specific questions or concerns should be addressed with your insurance professional and if you have suffered a loss, file the claim regardless of expectations of coverage.  Allow the insurance company to make its determination of possible coverage.  Most insurance companies are aware of the public perceptions and will work with you to determine if there is any available coverage in the policy  for your loss based on the unique circumstances.

In the meantime, we recommend you have in place a process in place for responding to a loss, which could include:

•                 Detailing how the loss occurred and the impact the loss had on your operations
•                 Tracking all losses and expenses associated with the claim
•                 Highlighting how the claim could impact third parties, like suppliers and consumers

Claims may be placed online at https://trustpointins.com/claim-reporting/ or in many cases directly on the insurance company website.  You may also email us at [email protected] .