My insurance options are disappearing!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am re-posting an article I wrote two years ago because the market is hardening and these items are vitally important to the future profitability of your staffing firm.

WHEN ARE MY INSURANCE OPTIONS GOING TO DISAPPEAR - posted in 2010

Interestingly enough, as an expert in the staffing industry, I don't have an answer to the question posed above. The insurance industry can be a very finicky place. There are many forces at work influencing the CEO's in their ivory tower, deciding whether or not to turn their back on the entire staffing industry. I'm not by any means a high level insurance industry executive but if history is an indicator of the future, it quite simply it comes down to these points:
* IF INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE NOT MAKING A PROFIT OR SLOWLY MOVING TOWARD UNPROFITABILITY ON THE STAFFING INDUSTRY, IT RARELY MATTERS HOW MUCH PROFIT THEY GENERATED ON YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL CLIENT. THE INDUSTRY AS A WHOLE WILL INEVITIABLY SUFFER.
* IT' IS EASIER TO WALK AWAY FROM AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY WHEN IT GETS TO COMPEITIVE TO COMPETE, IT'S JUST EASIER TO JUST CUT AN INDUSTRY LOOSE.
* LASTLY, AND A LITTLE MORE TECHNICAL, HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY IS TRULY TAKING ON YOUR RISK? YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY IS BUYING INSURANCE FROM SOMEONE ELSE TO COVER LOSSES (OTHERWISE KNOW AS REINSURANCE)? WHAT IF THE REINSURANCE COMPANY FOR YOUR INSURANCE CARRIER DECIDES THEY DON'T LIKE STAFFING? WHAT HAPPENS THEN?
Some of the questions you need to ask yourself as a business owner are the following:
1. Am I prepared for the future, when insurance options start disappearing?
2. If I get a non-renewal notice, is my insurance broker qualified and strategic enough to find me an alternative? Are they being proactive?
3. Is my company a potential profitable venture for an insurance company? Do I deserve to be treated as a company that operates at the highest of standards?
4. Are my margins high enough to withstand a potential move back into the assigned risk market?
5. Am I prepared for the inevitable tightening of class code restrictions? What do I do if my insurance company starts to dictate what business I can and can't do, even if the business is immensely profitable to my organization?
These questions above are very important to focus on but I know as a business owner, your priorities are more likely leaning towards, cash flow, business growth, margin pressures and healthcare reform.
It's my recommendation to schedule some time to talk with your insurance broker and work out a 3 year plan.
A three year plan can be simple or complex but at the end of the day, it's comes down to something very simple.
WORKERS COMPENSATION CLAIMS EXPERIENCE !!!!!!
Be honest with yourself. Look at your experience and decide whether you've been lucky to have great experience (i.e. very low number of claims) or are you doing things that make your company successful. If your claims experience is poor, have you been unlucky? (99% of the time it's not because you are unlucky) or have you lost focus on the key aspects of controlling your workers compensation cost? Which are:
Who you hire!
How you pick your clients!
If a claims occurs, do you have the right process in place!
I have my own little saying on this and I call it the Theory of TWO!!!!!
What kind of people should I hire? Workers or Predators
What kind of clients can I do business with? Profitable ones or unprofitable ones
What should I do if I have a claim? Have a plan or don't have a plan

So to answer the original question. I don't know when the options are going to start disappearing. I just know it's an undeniable truth that they will, slightly behind the guarantee of death and taxes!
Talk to experts! Have a plan! Make a profit!
To see what some highly successful staffing companies decided to do 17 years ago in order to take control of thier insurance destiny, go to http://www.tempsinsurance.com/ to learn about the TSIL captive.