The Key Gaps Ancillary Insurance Fills for School Clients

As an agent or broker, you want to make sure that your K-12 school and collegiate clients have a comprehensive plan in place for all potential risks they may face. But when your clients review their insurance policies, they may not be aware of ancillary insurance and how it can protect them from serious risk.

What is ancillary insurance, and what does it do for you and your school clients? Check out these top answers to find out why it’s such an important niche insurance coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ancillary Insurance

Q: What is ancillary insurance?

A: Ancillary insurance coverage provides extra or secondary benefits in addition to what a primary health plan covers. Insureds would use ancillary insurance like participant accident plans offered by A-G Specialty Insurance to pay uncovered medical costs for the treatment of student and student-athletes’ accidental injuries. (Note: General Liability insurance, which schools already have, doesn’t cover this risk.)

Q: What accidents are covered?

A: These are accidents that happen to students every day while on the school grounds (including the bus and pick-up zones) or in the school’s care (such as on field trips), including slips and falls, cuts, burns, and other unexpected injuries. Or for college students, it covers them for accidents that happen on campus and in dormitories. They also include accidents that happen to K-12 and intercollegiate student-athletes while practicing, training, playing school sports, and traveling.

Q: Do that many accidents really happen?

A: When you consider that more than 200,000 children are injured on the playground every year, and over 9 million are seen in an emergency room for sports injuries, the chance of an accident happening is fairly significant.

Q: What are the uncovered medical costs?

A: If a family has health insurance, it will apply to the treatment costs for the injury. However, the primary health insurance will leave out-of-pocket costs for the family to pay, including deductible and copayments.

These out-of-pocket costs can add up to a serious amount. For 2022, it could be as much as $17,400.00 for a family. With an amount due like that, it may not surprise you to learn that medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. And if a family doesn’t have primary medical insurance, they’ll be facing the entire amount due themselves. However, ancillary coverage helps them cover at least some of the treatment costs.

With ancillary coverage, a family can concentrate on their child’s recovery instead of worrying about financial devastation. For college student-athletes, the situation is similar with one difference:

• In order to participate in collegiate athletics, the NCAA requires all participating institutions to ensure student-athletes have no gap in coverage up to the NCAA’s catastrophic insurance deductible of $90,000 per claim. The NCAA will step in with catastrophic coverage if expenses exceed $90,000. Before that, the family will still need to cover the out-of-pocket expenses. Many institutions use ancillary coverage to pay for those expenses not covered under the student-athlete’s personal primary health insurance plan.

Q: Is this something the school has to pay for?

A: It depends on the kind of plan your client chooses. A-G’s insurance specialists work with you to understand your client’s unique situation and can recommend what type of plan would best meet their needs.

The school can choose to make the coverage mandatory so that all students or student-athletes must have the plan. But the school can choose whether it pays the premiums (as is often the case with college and university sports programs) or if the parents will.

Or, the school can choose to make the coverage voluntary. In that situation, the family would pay the premiums, at no cost to the school, if they choose the coverage.

Participant accident ancillary coverage is very flexible, and A-G has provided personalized solutions to meet the needs of thousands of K-12 schools and collegiate programs.

Q: Are there any other benefits to ancillary insurance?

A: Yes. A-G now offers new student-group travel insurance as part of our ancillary coverage.

At home or around the world, this custom coverage provides students and athlete travel groups with financial help for unexpected medical costs from accidents, reimbursements for canceled trips, lost luggage, missed flights, and other travel services.

Two other less tangible but equally invaluable benefits of ancillary insurance are:

• Helping ensure that families have the means to pay for their injured child’s medical costs to reduce the risk of families suing the school or college for damages.

• Protecting your school client’s reputation because it shows that they have the same holistic priorities as their students’ families to keep everyone safe from risk. Because in addition to the physical safeguards and practices the school or athletic department uses to reduce accident risk, they’re also looking out for the entire wellbeing of those in their care.

Q: How do I bring ancillary coverage like accident insurance to my school clients?

A: How to sell accident insurance to your school clients is pretty straightforward when you can show them the unexpected risks they face versus this solution:

• Chances of injury to their students and student-athletes while in their care

• High medical costs that need to be covered

• Low or no-cost coverage is available

An A-G insurance specialist is happy to connect with you to talk further.

Q: How does offering ancillary insurance help me?

A: As an agent or broker who offers niche insurance solutions, you provide more value to your clients and show that you are fully committed to finding the best insurance protection they should have. By being able to offer more products, your reputation grows, and you can also increase your book of business.

Ancillary Insurance with A-G Specialty Insurance

A-G Specialty Insurance has been a leading presence in the student accident medical expense field for nearly 40 years. Over 3,200 K-12 schools and 675 colleges and universities trust us to protect them and make their lives easier. It’s a trust we don’t take lightly, and we work every day to make it even stronger.

Talk to us today and find out more about how we can help you and your clients with ancillary insurance.

• Visit here for K-12 school clients
• Visit here for collegiate clients
• Learn more about being an agent or broker with us or start here to get a quote

We look forward to speaking with you soon.