As a membership-driven organization that exists solely to serve our members’ recovery and resolution needs, AF constantly monitors changes in the market for opportunities that our products can help with. One such area is Occupational Accident Policies.

Occupational Accident Policies provide limited medical and lost wage coverage for independent contractors involved in covered accidents. The independent contractors are not themselves policyholders, but are insured people covered under the policy.

An Occupational Accident Policy is not an ERISA-based plan, a Workers’ Compensation policy, or an Automobile Policy (it does not provide coverage for Automobile Medical Payments, Personal Injury Protection, or Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage). As such, claims arising from payments made under these policies do not fall under a current intercompany arbitration agreement administered by AF. This makes the non-compulsory provision of Special Arbitration Agreement (Article Fourth [d]) an attractive option should the parties agree to arbitrate the dispute.

The injury claims generally arise out of automobile accidents and premise liability, with a dispute over negligence being the primary issue to resolve. Most of the disputed claims are not cost effective to litigate, making Special Arbitration the most economical and appropriate place to resolve these claim disputes.