Worksite Marketing
The Older We Get, the More Likely We Are To Be Disabled
by Kevin A. Roberts
The local headline read, “Six people were injured, one seriously, when an overcrowded golf cart crashed and flipped over at a local golf course.” Were these joyriding teenagers? Nope, the driver was 45 years old. All six people were employees of the golf course. While speeding down the hill, the driver hit the breaks and tried a sharp turn. The seriously injured em-ployee was 52 years old. Crazy, irresponsible Baby Boomers!
During the summer between 7th and 8th grade, I got a job as a golf caddy at the local country club. Before we were turned loose on the members, we had to memorize every yardage marker, the layout of every hole, the contour of every green, and know every pin placement. We were paid depending on the number of holes to which we carried the bag. We received tips from the member based on their perception of our skill level. I didn’t realize it then that I was in my first commission based sales job. One of the rules we learned was that a caddy was never, ever allowed to ride on a golf cart when a member decided to ride rather than walk. We ran behind the cart for 18 holes.
Since I was taught the risk involved with a motorized vehicle at that young age, I was shocked when I read in the paper that six adults who work around golf carts on a daily basis would put themselves in a potentially hazardous situation, for what? So they wouldn’t have to walk -- a grown up joyride?
With the large mass of Baby Boomers moving into older age, the temptation to recapture the fun of their youth will fuel an industry unto itself. Age will not stop the skiing, mountain biking, and the ever-dangerous golf cart excursions, for we all know that 50 is the new 40!
This potential for injury from our desire to turn back the hands of time will only add to the risk that disability insurers will be evaluating.
At the time that the article on the golf cart accident appeared, I was writing a continuing education class on the reasons why agents should pay more attention to disability as an ancillary necessity. So often, the focus is on medical and dental coverage.
In the larger group market, the broker can articulate the need for disability coverage. The human resource manager sees it as an integral part of a complete employee benefit package. But many agents in my class have said that employers with groups of fewer than 50 employees do not offer group long-term disability coverage. This tells me that, in the small case market, the owner and the person handling the benefits don’t understand the advantages of disability insurance and its low cost in relation to their overall benefit spending.
The door is open to these smaller cases if the disability savvy agent can show the employer the benefits of offering disability coverage. With smaller employers, more employees perform multiple job functions, making those companies more susceptible to a loss in productivity when an employee becomes disabled.
The definition of disability lists terms such as, “incapacity” or “disqualification,” “disadvantage” or “deficiency,” “physical” or “mental impairment”, and “prevents normal achievement.” The foremost function of group long-term disability is to give the disabled employee a solid financial footing to continue their lifestyle when their impairment prevents them from continuing their occupation.
The services offered by the disability insurers go far beyond paying claims. Disability insurers have nurse case managers communicate among the claimant, the employer, and the physician on expected duration and return to work potential.
Disability management now involves a cross-section of professionals, such as the following:
• Clinical case managers
• Vocational rehabilitation specialists
• Physicians
• Psychologists
• Social security consultants
• Financial consultants
Instead of having claim centers arranged geographically or by policy type, some insurers organize their claims units around the nature of the disability, similar to the way hospitals and treatment centers are grouped according to specialty.
Return–to-work support is an important part of claim management. Vocational rehabilitation professionals help claimants re-enter the workplace. An analysis of transferable skills analysis helps identify alternative occupations. The ability to return a valued worker to the job, even in an alternative capacity, is an important reason for an employer to give group long-term disability coverage a closer look.
As this swell of scuba diving, wilderness hiking Baby Boomers moves out of the large corporate environment and into the smaller entrepreneurial companies, they bring valuable work experiences to their employers. The loss of one of these well-trained individuals can have a big effect.
The Voluntary Coverage Option
If the employer cannot be persuaded to fund disability coverage, voluntary coverage is another option. It has the following advantages:
• Often group LTD is fully paid for by employees. Employee-paid benefits are not subject to income tax.
• There is convenient premium payment through payroll.
• The coverage is usually guarantee issue during the initial enrollment period.
• Coverage is for injury, sickness, or pregnancy.
• You have a team of claim experts to assist you.
• Coverage often includes survivor benefits.
There are ways to provide coverage even to non-traditional employer groups, such as my local golf course. In order to grow business, carriers are expanding into the under served blue collar and service industries. Basic long-term disability plans for high-risk industries offer scaled back benefits and simplified language. New disability products base eligibility on hospital confinement periods or impairment ratings from the American Medical Association.
The highway patrol had investigated the golf course accident since a motor vehicle was involved. The officer told a local reporter, “It looks like they might have been going too fast.” As I said, the older we get, the more likely we are to become disabled.
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Kevin A. Roberts has more than 20 years of group long term disability sales experience with CIGNA, Reliance Standard, Canada Life, AIG and is living in the San Francisco, California area. He can be reached at kar925@comcast.net.
