Public entities are an easy and visible target for lawsuits due to a variety of factors and face a high risk of excessive costs without the proper insurance and risk management program. 

When it comes to managing risk, whether it be through risk transfer, buying insurance or self-insuring, having a plan and the essential mechanisms in place to protect an entity is crucial. Entities’ budgets can be severely impacted by claim liabilities, so they need to work with an expert they can trust who can guide the process to resolution. 

Here’s what you need to know and how to find the right provider.

Finding the Right Partner

Public entities usually serve large resident populations and employ a sizable workforce. This puts them in a unique position where exposures to risk are considerable, necessitating the need to work with an expert partner.

Four areas to consider when evaluating partners are experience, overall cost of risk, technology capabilities and effective risk mitigation tools or methods.

Experience: Claims and exposures can vary whether you are a municipality, county, school district or other type of entity. Having a claims team that is well-versed in handling the various types and entities and their associated exposures will make your job significantly easier.

Technology: Communication by all parties is critical in bringing complex claims to resolution. Partnering with a claims administrator that can provide your entity the latest claim technology that brings together analytic data to assist in identifying trends is essential.

Overall Cost of Risk: When it comes to the cost of exposures public entities face, there is significantly more that goes into it than just addressing the cost of the claim. Certainly, keeping the value of the claim low is important, but finding a partner that has the right tools and resources can have a major impact on soft costs.

This could include public relations for entities public officials or law enforcement activities, or outreach services that expedite the return to work for emergency personnel addressing overtime and shift coverage that can become costly. 

Risk Management Tools: New, innovative cost containment strategies are a must for long-term success. Providers need to be constantly looking for new ways to keep cost down by using effective risk management tools to prevent claims. Still, claims will happen and how they are managed is also a major cost driver. 

Entities that are not looking for providers that are on the cutting edge are losing out on ways to improve their bottom line. 

IPMG 

For more than 20 years, IPMG has been providing public entities the expertise and deep understanding of the complexities and difficulties that are unique to their exposures. With a team dedicated to developing new approaches to managing risk associated with public entities, you’re ensuring that your organization is in capable hands.

Our public entity services have been designed to serve: 

• Municipalities
• Counties
• School districts
• Public safety employees
• Public officials

You can count on the highest level of risk management and claims management resources with IPMG to help you navigate this challenging landscape. Click here to learn more and contact us.