8 Best Workers’ Compensation Insurance Companies

The best workers’ compensation insurance companies provide more than just excellent coverage. They seek to train employers on safety and make the process of buying and paying for workers’ compensation insurance easy. We reviewed several top-rated workers’ compensation carriers and selected the best eight:

• The Hartford: Best overall for worker’s comp
• Travelers: Best for businesses with travel and dealings outside the United States
• biBERK: Best for quick online coverage
• Chubb: Best in providing return-to-work program assistance
• Liberty Mutual: Best for one-stop shopping
• CyberPolicy: Best for time-strapped business owners who want comparison shopping
• AmTrust Financial: Best for providing workers’ compensation coverages tailored to small businesses regardless of industry
• EMPLOYERS: Best for businesses with fluctuating payrolls

The Hartford: Best Overall Workers’ Compensation Insurance Company

The Hartford is an industry leader for workers’ compensation insurance that integrates its services with payroll providers to create accurate premiums with its pay-as-you-go options XactPAY® and the SmartPay Reporting Service (SPRS). This means you’re less likely to pay more than you need to throughout the year. Pricing is contingent on the industry, location, and size of your business and can be incorporated into a pay-as-you-go plan. Additionally, The Hartford has an exceptional claims approach that moves the business and injured employees forward quickly.

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Coverage Highlights

The Hartford automatically adds the following features that usually cost extra with other carriers:

• Stop gap coverage: Extends coverage to employees when they travel to states where coverage must be purchased through a state fund; note that stop gap coverage may not be included in monopolistic states, such as North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, and Wyoming
• Voluntary compensation: Offers coverage to employees who employers aren’t required to cover
• Extended cancellation notice: Provides 15 days advance notice of policy cancellation when the industry standard is only 10 days
• Cross-state coverage policies: Provides extended coverage to employees working in another state if you provide notification within 30 days

A company that cares enough to include what many business owners need for their employees is rare. The fact that it doesn’t directly translate into higher overall premium costs is a bonus. The Hartford offers a 10% discount on workers’ compensation insurance when it’s bundled with a business owner’s policy (BOP). Additionally, the carrier has programs that can help both employees and businesses stay healthy, like a weight-loss program and discounts on ergonomic office furniture.

Additionally, The Hartford’s workers’ compensation insurance comes with access to:

• Prescription drug features: Choose from more than 65,000 pharmacies to fill prescriptions, typically with no out-of-pocket fees and mail order service as an option
• Needle stick reimbursement program: Pays for initial testing and reimbursement for additional testing in some cases
• Nursed back to health program: Help from nurse case managers with coordinating care and treatment of employees
• Preferred Medical Provider Network: Employees can tap into The Hartford’s network of over one million providers in treating workplace injuries

Other Features

The Hartford has been offering workers’ comp to business owners for more than 100 years. Small business owners have been able to get quotes from the carrier online for some time now, but The Hartford recently introduced an online purchasing option for workers’ comp coverage—a rarity in the industry. You can edit your policy limits and get quotes for general liability and professional liability. At the moment, you can only purchase workers’ comp online—other commercial policies require a phone call.

Travelers: Best Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Businesses With Travel and Dealings Outside the US

Travelers is the best choice for workers’ compensation insurance if you have a mobile workforce, out-of-state offices, or travel overseas. The company’s national presence and large network of healthcare providers give it a leg up on understanding workers’ comp for other multistate businesses.

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Coverage Highlights

The size and broad experience in industries allow Travelers to offer:

• Global Companion Plus+: A package policy designed for US firms with foreign exposures that want to ensure local protection is consistent with US standards
• Largest network of nurses and medical providers: Gives access to Travelers’ network of healthcare providers so injured workers can get medical attention quickly, reducing the impact of injuries and keeping costs down
• ConciergeCLAIM Nurse: Connects injured employees with a Travelers ConciergeCLAIM nurse nearest to your area after filling out an application form
• MyTravelers® for injured employees: Access for employees to a portal with information about their workers’ comp claim
• Request for mileage reimbursement: Can submit mileage reimbursement requests

Additionally, Travelers offers TravPay, a pay-as-you-go workers’ comp insurance plan designed to keep insurance costs manageable and accurate. What makes TravPay unique is that it’s available for businesses of all sizes, doesn’t need any down payment, and provides real-time workers’ compensation premium calculations and automatic premium deductions.

Other Features

Travelers offers all policyholders access to their policies through MyTravelers®. For small business owners, this is a convenient way to manage their policies all in one location. You have easy access to bill payment, claim reporting and management, certificate of insurance requests, and risk management resources.

While Travelers writes just about every type of business insurance possible, don’t expect to get a quick quote online. Travelers chooses to rely on its network of independent agents and brokers to underwrite risk, and its website is designed to help you find a great agent, not to get the quote. Coverage options may not be available in all states.

biBERK: Best Workers’ Comp Insurance for Quick Online Coverage

biBERK, backed by parent company Berkshire Hathaway, offers quick, excellent workers’ comp insurance policies in most locations across the U.S. A primary objective of biBERK is to take the strength of an insurance powerhouse and distill it into a simple process of buying and administering insurance online. biBERK offers fast workers’ comp coverage to business owners who need to cover new hires to meet legal requirements.

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Coverage Highlights

biBERK strives to make buying workers’ compensation insurance easy for business owners with:

• Three-step coverage: Most business policies, including workers’ compensation, can be obtained in three simple steps through the biBERK online system.
• Online purchase discount: Purchasing insurance online with biBERK saves small business owners 20%.
• Loss control services: Policyholders enjoy access to Training Network NOW, an online safety training library with 350-plus training modules, videos, and instructional materials.

Other Features

biBERK offers instant quotes and readily available coverage for many industries but due to the nature of its simplified approach, it’s currently unable to handle writing every type of commercial insurance. For example, it outsources commercial auto insurance policies to GEICO, which means you can’t manage all of your policies in one place. However, biBERK is transparent about its partnerships.

biBERK has one of the easiest, no-fuss online applications to complete, requiring simple details about your business. It’s one of the few carriers that can bind a policy instantly online. Other features online from biBERK include automatic payments, claims management, and paperless communications.

Chubb: Best in Providing Return-to-Work Program Assistance

Chubb is a large national carrier offering personal and commercial lines of insurance. The company offers excellent return-to-work program assistance, helping small business owners manage medical and disability benefits for injured employees who can either return to work or stay at work using technology to effectively track, trend, and manage absences. Chubb can write policies for businesses of nearly any size, but it’s known for treating every account the same when it comes to customer service and claims.

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Coverage Highlights

Some of the features for workers’ comp that Chubb offers small business owners include:

• Medical and disability management: Chubb offers access to nurse consultants to assist with medical management and your employee’s timely return to work
• Preferred provider networks: In many states, policyholders can help injured employees receive high-quality care with affiliated preferred providers at a reasonable cost
• Litigation and Recovery Management: As Chubb uses Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as its avenue to resolve litigation issues, business owners can control costs and get assistance from workers’ compensation defense specialists on fraudulent claim cases
• Fraud prevention: Chubb has fraud and recovery specialists to identify and investigate fraudulent or exaggerated claims via its fraud hotline at (800) 35-CHUBB
• Loss Reporting System: CHUBBFirst helps business owners file claims at any time of the day; once the claim has been lodged online, Chubb makes sure to respond within 48 hours and will issue the first disability payment within 14 days of notification

Previously, Chubb didn’t provide quotes online, so you had to find a local agent or office. However, the carrier recently launched a small business insurance microsite that does offer online quotes. The application for workers’ comp is user-friendly, but it requires more information than other carriers. While lengthy, a thorough application means you’ll have a more accurate quote to select the coverage you need.

Other Features

For workers’ comp policyholders, Chubb offers a pharmacy benefit management program focusing on patient safety, allowing only those drugs appropriate for the injury to be dispensed to the injured worker. Chubb also allows for easy claims reporting and management online.

Liberty Mutual: Best Workers’ Comp Insurance for One-stop Shopping

Liberty Mutual* is a household name for personal insurance, but it’s also a top-10 provider of business insurance—making it a convenient one-stop-shop for all your insurance needs. This carrier focuses on a positive customer experience, making everything from getting quotes to filing claims as straightforward as possible.

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*Liberty Mutual quote provided by our partner Commercialinsurance.net.

Coverage Highlights

A few of the features Liberty Mutual offers include:

• Risk control services: The company offers an array of safety resources and risk management programs to help keep employees safe, like Liberty Mutual SafetyNet™ and Liberty Mutual’s Industrial Hygiene Lab.
• Combined business and personal policy management: Keep all your insurance information at your fingertips so that you can manage payments, claims, and coverage options.
• Local agents: As your business grows, your insurance needs change. Liberty Mutual’s local account managers partner with you to manage your personal and commercial coverage.
• Sole proprietor options: Even sole proprietors with no staff may want self-employed workers’ compensation insurance to protect themselves if they work in high-risk injury industries.

The company’s appetite for commercial business is growing, and it’s expanding coverage options. Customers can use a dynamic online account manager or call their local agent for convenient service and policy claims.

Other Features

Workers’ comp policyholders’ employees have access to the Liberty Mutual Injured Worker Toolkit—a self-service portal allowing injured workers to view claim data, enroll in electronic deposit, and search for in-network medical providers.

Liberty Mutual doesn’t offer direct-to-consumer sales for business insurance. Additionally, like many insurers, Liberty Mutual does not offer pricing information online. However, Liberty Mutual is a consumer-friendly insurance company, and having a local agent to meet with and have questions answered is a nice option.

CyberPolicy: Best Workers’ Comp Insurance for Comparison Shopping

CyberPolicy uses technology to make it easier to buy workers’ comp insurance as well as other commercial policies. As a broker, CyberPolicy works with multiple top-rated carriers, allowing business owners to compare prices with a single online application. CyberPolicy also provides educational resources for businesses to help mitigate their risks and reduce costs.

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Coverage Highlights

Don’t be misled by its name—CyberPolicy does specialize in cyber liability insurance, but it also offers the gamut of other business policies, including workers’ compensation insurance. It also offers a few policies you don’t see everywhere, like lessor’s risk, liquor liability, and surety bonds.

CyberPolicy is a broker working with more than 15 top-rated business insurance carriers, including BCS, biBERK, Chubb, and Nationwide. Fill out CyberPolicy’s simple online application, and you can get multiple workers’ comp quotes to compare. Some policies are even available for immediate online purchase, depending on your state, industry, and risks.

Other Features

CyberPolicy doesn’t charge a broker’s fee, which can keep costs down compared to other business insurance brokers. Available workers’ comp resources will be dependent on the carrier you ultimately buy your coverage from. Other benefits of CyberPolicy come from its educational tools and cybersecurity resources, including:

• CyberCheckup: Free tool offering expert advice based on your business’s cyber risks
• Learning Center: Hub with articles on cybersecurity best practices
• Cyber Glossary: A place to learn about cybersecurity terminology
• InsuranceGuru: Another free tool to help assess your other business insurance needs

CyberPolicy offers discounts for bundling multiple policies, whether with the same carrier or cross-carrier.

AmTrust Financial: Best in Providing Workers’ Compensation Policies Tailored to Small Businesses

As one of the nation’s largest providers of workers’ compensation for small businesses across multiple industries and professions, AmTrust Financial offers top-tier services for underwriting workers’ compensation. So it’s no surprise that it’s among the top 10 workers’ compensation insurers in the country in terms of direct premiums written and direct premiums earned.

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Coverage Highlights

In terms of claims processing, AmTrust Financial prides itself on offering multiple ways to file and report a claim. In the case of an employee being severely injured, the AmTrust Complex Claims team will handle the claim to ensure that the employee receives the best care, with plans that are tailored to their immediate and specific needs.

There are two ways for policyowners to file the first report of injury (FROI):

• Via AmTrust Online: AmTrust Financial’s online platform, where policyowners can access their policies and manage the status of their claims and payments.
• Via Fax and Phone: AmTrust Financial can be contacted by fax and phone 24/7

In addition, AmTrust Financial also offers several ways for its policyowners to pay their premiums:

• Easy Pay: A simple way for policyowners to pay their insurance premiums either via credit card or electronic check
• AmTrust AOMobile app: Policyowners can make a payment on the app using Apple Pay, e-check, or credit card.
• AmTrust AutoPay: Premium payments will be automatically withdrawn from an identified bank account via AmTrust Online. Note that AmTrust AutoPay requires a minimum premium of $600
• Pay-As-You-Owe (PAYO): Designed to make workers’ compensation payments seamless by working with approved payroll companies to calculate premium payments per pay period.
• Check
• Credit card: Can be done online or by phone using the following cards: MasterCard, Discover, VISA, and American Express
• Electronic check: Can be done online or by phone
• Monthly self-reporting: Only applicable for workers’ compensation policies

Other Features

There are other services and features that AmTrust Financial provides for its policyowners:

• AmTrust North America Online Medical Provider Listing: An online platform where policyowners can search for providers and specialties either based on address search, name search, region search, or provider nomination
• Resource Center: Library of information to equip policyowners with information that’s relevant to their businesses
• Loss Control Services: Providing information on loss prevention and risk management solutions that can help improve employees’ safety.
• AmTrust Online: Aside from accessing existing insurance policies and managing claims and payments, policyowners can also conduct online audits on AmTrust Online.

EMPLOYERS: Best Workers’ Comp Insurance for Fluctuating Payroll

EMPLOYERS is a specialty small business insurance company founded on making workers’ compensation policies affordable and easy to obtain for small business owners. EMPLOYERS offers workers’ compensation insurance in 46 states and the District of Columbia—these are all states where private insurers can sell workers’ comp. It also has pay-as-you-go options that can help business owners with fluctuating payroll manage their workers’ comp premiums better.

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Coverage Highlights

EMPLOYERS’ focus is solely on workers’ compensation with unique proprietary platforms that include:

• PrecisePay: EMPLOYERS’ proprietary pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation solution is designed to help small business owners improve cash flow.
• Efficient claim handling: Businesses may need to file claims at any hour of the day. EMPLOYERS’ 24/7 multilingual claims center lets you start the process as soon as an incident happens.
• In-house fraud prevention: EMPLOYERS’ fraud specialists are trained to spot and reduce fraudulent claims to keep insurance costs down.
• InsurCard®: Employees can receive workers’ compensation benefit payments through EMPLOYERS’ debit card. There are no enrollment or usage fees, and cards aren’t tied to any particular bank branch. Thus, InsurCard can be used anywhere MasterCard debit cards are accepted.
• EACCESS: An online policy management platform where policyowners can manage existing workers’ compensation policies, pay bills, monitor the status of claims, and extract claims history reports. It should be noted that policyowners cannot report or file their claims via EACCESS.

A company that chooses to focus on one line of insurance is choosing to be the leader in that arena. EMPLOYERS could use its book of business to expand its product lines easily but instead chooses to improve its online portal and help businesses reduce claims and fraud.

Other Features

As mentioned, EMPLOYERS sells one product: workers’ compensation insurance. This means small business owners will need to find general liability, commercial property, and all other policies elsewhere. The carrier also has a comprehensive return-to-work program and dedicated resources for injured workers. For employers, EMPLOYERS also offers loss control services and premium audit services.

With no online application, EMPLOYERS does a disservice to busy business owners that need workers’ compensation insurance. But with its focus on only workers’ comp, any questions you have about coverage will likely be answered by an expert agent.

How We Evaluated the Best Workers’ Comp Insurance Companies

The criteria we used to evaluate the best workers’ compensation insurance carriers include:

• Financial strength: Insurance companies receive credit ratings from third-party rating agencies. These ratings consider the ability of an insurance company to pay claims. All the workers’ comp insurance companies included in this list have above-average credit ratings.
• Audit simplicity: Some insurance carriers offer pay-as-you-go workers’ compensation plans that simplify the audit process and alleviate unexpected audit premium bills.
• Cross-state coverage: Each state regulates workers’ comp insurance policies, so having an insurance carrier that offers coverage in multiple states may be important.
• Premiums and discounts: Companies that offer favorable premiums based on loss history and discounts for bundling policies help offset the cost of workers’ comp insurance.
• Loss mitigation: An insurance company that views itself as a risk mitigation partner offers secondary benefits that help small businesses adopt procedures that reduce risk.
• Claims process: Workers’ comp claims are time-consuming, and carriers have different ways of handling the volume of information that moves the claim forward.
• Customer reviews: While there will always be negative feedback, a wide body of positive customer reviews suggests customers like the company enough to leave a review.

Because our audience is national, we didn’t evaluate state insurance funds for this article—even those that compete against private insurers.

Alternatives to Workers’ Comp Insurance Companies

Business owners who cannot find workers’ compensation insurance from a private carrier typically have a couple of choices, depending on their state. The first is the state-run fund, an organization often run by the state’s commerce or labor department that provides workers’ comp to businesses in high-risk industries or with large losses.

Business owners who cannot find coverage in the private market or the state fund can usually turn to an assigned risk plan. This is sometimes called a market of last resort. In monopolistic states, Ohio, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Washington, employers are required to use the state insurance fund to ensure that all coverage meets state labor requirements.

Bottom Line

Not having the right workers’ compensation insurance carrier can result in claims lasting longer and costing more than they should. You can mitigate risk at work, but you can’t eliminate it. Getting coverage from a financially strong company like The Hartford that combines worker’s compensation insurance with other commercial policies is the best protection against business risk.

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