Accident and Injury Coverage for Intercollegiate Sports Groups

Sports can be dangerous for anyone. It’s not just players who might get hurt, but also coaches, volunteers or even spectators. In these cases, it might be up to the team to help cover the costs of the injured party’s medical bills—not to mention other potential recovery costs. That’s why it’s important that the team carries appropriate insurance for such occurrences. The thing is, the right policies for your team might come in many shapes and sizes. What policies do you need in these cases?
Bene-Marc, Inc. offers professionally-designed injury insurance policies for those in the intercollegiate sports realm. We’ll take the time to work out the appropriate coverage for your team and organizational risks and liabilities.
Understanding Intercollegiate Sports Teams
Intercollegiate sports are those played between colleges, junior colleges or universities. Various national associations work together to set standards of play and other rules for the conduct of both teams and their overarching departments and management.
Should an accident occur during play, it could harm not only players, but also the team’s management and other parties, even those watching the game. Furthermore, the injuries could cause not only the injured party a significant personal and financial challenge, but also harm the team and the college itself. With the appropriate insurance, teams can make sure they have a resource available to help those parties out.
Some of the policies you might need include:
Should someone get hurt during play, there’s a chance that they might not be able to cover 100% of their medical bills with just their standard health insurance—if they have any at all. A basic accident policy might help the team compensate this person for their injury costs.
If a severe accident occurs, and damages to the injured party cost thousands of dollars, then this coverage can help the person who gets hurt with their medical costs. Some groups, like the NCAA, provide this coverage for their associated teams. Other collegiate groups, however, don’t. It’s important to have this coverage, because it can cover people in significant cases where they might need help leading a normal life following their accident.
If a student gets killed in an accident, or sustains a significant, debilitating injury, this coverage can also help them with some of their recovery costs. However, it isn’t just players who could get hurt. A member of the team management might get hurt in a damaging accident. Or, even worse, an accident on the field might spread into the stand, accidentally injuring or killing a spectator. This coverage can help pay that person a settlement in case an accident occurs.
Accidental injury insurance is a good benefit to protect student athletes. However, it’s not a replacement for them having health insurance of their own. In many cases, colleges require nearly all students, particularly athletes, to have their own health insurance. Your team can invest in supplementary health insurance policies to insure both domestic and international students who don’t have health insurance of their own. However, you can usually adjust your policy to cover students either full-time or just during the playing season.
Who Policies Can Cover
Accidental medical insurance is an important piece of coverage for any sports team to carry. It can apply not only to players and coaches, but also:
- All athletics department employees
- Student managers
- Cheerleaders, dance or drill teams
- Team bands
- Team trainers
Essentially, it’s likely possible to insure anyone associated with both the athletics department and the team itself. Talk to your Bene-Marc agent about the best way to insure yourself appropriately.