Just because someone needs medical transportation doesn’t necessarily mean they need it immediately. Countless Americans, including those with disabilities, might need special transportation arrangements to get around. However, this doesn’t mean they need an ambulance. Rather, it means they might need unique vehicles staffed by trained professionals. It is in these cases that non-emergency medical transportation is often necessary. All of these businesses, however, need insurance coverage. Here’s why.
Insurance Risks for Non-Emergency Medical Transport Groups
A non-emergency medical transport business is one that handles a lot of precious cargo.
First, the businesses often have to operate specially-designed vehicles. That’s because the passengers within might have special needs, or assistance getting in and out of the vehicle. For example, it is common for these vehicles to have wheelchair ramps and special seating arrangements installed within.
These vehicles often have a significant cost, along with unique operating risks not faced by other drivers. Therefore, they need auto insurance simply because of the cost risk they pose to the drivers and business operators.
Furthermore, these vehicles likely carry passengers with special medical needs. Some might be wheelchair-bound. Others might have to carry medical equipment with them. Still others might have medical needs that make it impossible for them to drive themselves. Therefore, they will rely on your driving services to get them from place to place.
Because of the passengers and equipment you will carry, you owe them the security of carrying insurance. Your vehicle service is a business, and you therefore need to offer your clients the satisfaction of feeling secure. By carrying insurance for your vehicle and your business, you will be able to help your clients out in case accidents happen.
Finally, by insuring the vehicles, you do your business a favor. Your vehicles and services are critical parts of your operation’s success. Therefore, by carrying non-emergency medical transport insurance, you’ll be able to protect your business’s security and growth prospects over the years.
Understanding Insurance for Your Business
A non-emergency medical transport vehicle service occupies something of a unique space in the insurance world. It needs business insurance, primarily commercial auto coverage or trucking coverage, in order to protect its on-road operations.
All the same, you might also need additional business insurance options, based on the structure of your operation itself.
You must start your coverage portfolio with the critical elements of commercial vehicle insurance that will protect drivers, passengers and other parties on the road. These options usually include:
- Liability insurance: Coverage will pay for the injuries or property damage you cause to third parties if you are at-fault for a car wreck when driving your vans.
- Collision insurance: Damage your trucks sustain in wrecks will receive coverage for their repairs or replacements.
- Comprehensive damage coverage: Hazards like theft, vandalism, severe weather or other occurrences might damage your vehicles. This coverage can pay for your losses.
- Uninsured/underinsured protection: In case another at-fault driver cannot pay for your own losses, this coverage will help you do so.
- Policies might also offer coverage for medical payments that drivers or passengers sustain because of accidents. Coverage can often apply regardless of the fault you might have in the loss.
Your policy might also include various other perks, depending on the plan you choose. Keep in mind, you’ll also be able to work with one of our insurance agents to determine a policy that offers you favorable rates and affordable coverage.
However, these are only the commercial auto insurance elements that you might need. As a business, your transport company might need various types of business insurance, proper.
Other Commercial Coverage Options
Depending on the size and structure of your transportation business, you might need a few other types of insurance. Common policies might include:
- Property coverage: This will insure your business premises, office space, along with the contents inside the business.
- Workers’ compensation: If you hire employee drivers, you might have to offer them workers’ compensation. Workers’ comp provides a business’s employees with supplementary income in case they get hurt on the job. For example, if an employee gets hurt in a wreck, they might qualify for assistance under this coverage.
- General liability insurance: Property damage or bodily injuries you cause to third parties, like your clients, might have coverage under these policies. Keep in mind, this coverage is separate from commercial auto liability insurance.
- Directors & officers liability coverage: In case the business owner becomes the personal target of a lawsuit, this coverage might help them protect themselves and their families.
- Inland marine insurance: If you have to transport medical equipment in your vehicles, this coverage can ensure that items have coverage.
It’s important to talk to your Georgia insurance agent about other policy options that might benefit your operation. Because your non-emergency medical transport service is very unique, you will likely need a number of policies tailored expressly to your operation.