Average Cost for NEMT Insurance
What is the average cost for NEMT insurance? Of course, we will try answer the question for everyone but there are many factors that go into it. The easiest answer is between $2000-$12,000 per year per vehicle. Now, for the hard part of getting the correct pricing for your company. Next, 9 categories cause your non-emergency medical transportation insurance to be lower or on the higher end of the spectrum.
Factors affecting your average cost for NEMT Insurance
State Regulations
Depending on the state you operate in, your average NEMT insurance cost will be partially determined by your state’s requirements. For example, Arizona requires non-emergency medical transportation insurance companies to have auto liability combined with single limits of $300,000 and uninsured and uninsured limits of $300,000. Meanwhile, Colorado has requirements for NEMT insurance of $500,000 combined single limits and $25,000/$50,000 for uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. Generally, the higher the liability limits for your nonemergency medical transportation business, the higher the premiums. Some states have requirements of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 for auto liability coverage.
Types of Cars you use for non-emergency medical transportation
The types of cars you have in your fleet will impact your premiums. If you are using sedans for your NEMT company versus vans, you can expect your insurance premiums to be less. Also, you can expect your average NEMT insurance cost to be higher if you use newer vehicles. Try use vehicles that are five to 10 years old. Lastly, if you use wheelchair vans for your company, the NEMT insurance premiums will usually be higher.
Limit of Commercial Auto Liability Limits
As we stated before, the more liability you have or are required to have, the higher your commercial auto insurance premiums will be. Furthermore, there isn’t a huge difference between the $500,000 and $1,00,0000 combined single limit for one vehicle, but it can add up if you have multiple cars and vans.
Drivers can affect your Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Insurance Premiums
First, you should have a solid hiring plan to make sure you are hiring and retaining the best drivers available. Next, you should train your drivers to learn how to load and unload passengers, drive defensively, etc. Non-emergency medical transportation insurance companies will surcharge your premiums for bad drivers. Furthermore, they will give credit to good drivers. Bad drivers will have accidents eventually. Along with hiring the right drivers, you should ensure a fleet safety plan and additional driver training are available and ongoing.
NEMT New Ventures
NEMT Insurance companies want to insure companies with a proven track record. If you have been in business for less than three years, you can expect that your NEMT insurance premiums will be higher. Also, having an erratic policy history will affect insurance premiums.
Loss History for NEMT Companies
One of the things we usually have issues with when we quote a new risk is getting a complete loss history. For the most part, this is the most critical thing to have if your company has been operating for any amount of time. Non-emergency medical transportation insurance companies will look at this before anything else. It shows your prior policies, any accidents, and what was paid out.
Next, you should ask your previous carrier for new loss runs each year. It is possible you could have switched insurance carriers, and a claim will pop up after the new policy has been renewed. The date on the loss runs will be within 30 days of submitting your quote to a new carrier, no matter how long ago you had the company. Usually, insurance companies will ask for five years of history. Finally, having claims isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing it depends on what you did to diminish the chance of it happening again. This can be accomplished by training, accident reviews, and using additional safety measures or equipment.
Radius of Operations-
Next, how far your radius of operations is from your garaging location will affect your NEMT premiums. If you want a 500-mile radius, an insurance carrier might not want to write your policy. If they do, they will surcharge the policy. Adding a satellite office to areas that are not easy to service from your home base might be better.
Garaging Location affects average cost for non-emergency medical transportation-
For the most part, if your main location is in a major city like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Boston, Houston, Seattle, New York, etc., you can expect your premiums to be more expensive than those in outlying areas. Likewise, non-emergency medical transportation insurance premiums can even be based on different zip codes within a major metropolitan area.
Contracts you sign can affect your Non Emergency Medical Transportation Insurance Premiums
Next, if you are working with a broker or a company that has you sign a contract to refer business to you make sure you read through it to look at the NEMT insurance requirements. Their limits often are above and beyond what your state regulations may require. Also, you will want to ensure all of this coverage is quoted before signing the contract. We have a lot of people that have signed contracts and have to come up with a lot of money for NEMT insurance premiums without knowing how much work they will receive from this contract.
As you can see, many factors go into these non-emergency medical transportation insurance premiums, and the average cost for NEMT insurance is hard to guess. However, if you follow this plan, you should be able to put yourself in a great position to find the best policy.
