Self Insurance

Self Insurance for Workers Compensation. What is Self Insurance?

Self Insurance is an administrative licensing arrangement put in place by a regulator to exempt organisations from having to comply with specific statutory requirements regarding their workers compensation policy coverage for their workers. (The default statutory requirement is that in lieu of self insurance, employers are obliged to provide appropriate insurance cover for workers compensation purposes.)

An organisationr with a self insurer's licence does not pay workers compensation premiums for their workers to a licensed insurer. They carry their own underwriting risk and control their own employee’s workers compensation claims and administration costs.

Why Self Insure for Workers Compensation

There are a number of benefits in self-insurance. Considerable cost savings are achieved by organisations on a continuing annual basis in comparison to the costs that are incurred through a licensed insurer.

A second, very important advantage for businesses is that organisations are able to respond to and attend to any workers compensation claims and associated matters in a manner suited to individual business needs. Self insurance management systems are very efficient internal administrative functions able to deal with managing incident in-house.

Perhaps most important of all considerations, there is no need for reliance on a third party to deal with these issues on an operational basis. External insurance can be expensive, and in some cases uncooperative and difficult when dealing with claims.

How we help Self Insurers

There are stringent criteria that an employer must meet before a regulator will approve a self insurer's licence for an organisation. These criteria all relate to practical management and financial issues, and provide a valuable working operational structure for self insurers. However, they can be complex, and there’s a definite learning curve involved in creating and setting up these systems.

We assist potential self insurers with the following;

• Feasibility studies - We undertake feasibility studies to determine the cost effectiveness of becoming a self insurer and the continuing costs and resources required to maintaining a self-insurance licence in accordance with the National Self-Insurer OHS Audit Tool. This is fundamental analyses, and extremely worthwhile for organisational management purposes.
• Systems development - We undertake the development and implementation work health and safety management systems in accordance with the National Self Insurer OHS Audit Tool, regulators requirements for self insurers. These are also areas of practical administration, and provide a very useful integrated management system at all levels of the organisation, including reporting, documentation and financial management.
• Licence processing - We advise, assist and provide support with the application for a self insurers licence with the regulator using our detailed knowledge and experience on the process.
• Preparation for regulator audits - We assist organisations in preparing for their first regulator  National Self Insurer OHS Audit Tool audits. (These audits are essential licensing procedures, and the preparation process provides thorough, effective monitoring of all aspects of safety management systems in preparation for the audit.)

Current Self Insurers

We assist current self insurers in maintaining their self-insurance licence through the following activities;

• Auditing - We provide comprehensive auditing to the regulatory National Self Insurer OHS Audit Tool.
• Gap Analysis - We undertake analyses to identify any gaps in a self insurers systems or operational activities in comparison to the regulators requirements as described within the  National Self Insurer OHS Audit Tool. (Important note:Gap analysis is very valuable in its own right, finding any possible weak spots in coverage.)
• Self-insurance annual returns - We assist organisations in the formulation and reporting processes in accordance with regulator mandated requirements. We also assist with data management and reporting issues.
• Governance programs - We undertake independent audits of an organisation’s safety management systems as an integral part of an organisations’ corporate governance program at strategic and operational levels.
• Safety Management systems - We modify current safety management systems or design and facilitate implementation of new safety management systems in accordance with the regulators requirements described within the  National Self Insurer OHS Audit Tool and organisational needs with guaranteed results. 
• Preparation for regulator audits - We assist organisations in preparing for a regulator audits. Our comprehensive audit preparation process ensures an organisation is able to demonstrate complete compliance to the regulators requirements. This audit preparation also provides useful onsite checks on related processes and administrative functions.
• Work Health and Safety - We review your current safety management system to identify and assess the implications for compliance to the Work Health and  Safety legislation and provided realistic solutions.

Our Experience with Self Insurers

Lane Safety Systems has widespread experience in working with self-insurers including new applicants to the self-insurance scheme. Our clients include national and state based self insurers varying in size from 1000 employees to 20,00 employees.

We have worked with over twenty different self-insurers to assist in the development and maintenance of their safety management systems for gaining (and retaining) their self-insurance licence.   

Success in our Case Studies

Examples of how we’ve successfully assisted organisations with their self-insurance needs are described in brief case studies highlighting the knowledge, practical solutions and experience we’ve provided for our clients.

If you need assistance, want advice on starting up your own self insurance or would like to find out more about our self insurance services contact us during business hours by telephoning 02 9025 3909 or click here to arrange a meeting.

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