Page 7 - 1 One Simple Question

Here are six things that should be considered as part of being a qualified contractor for workers
compensation:

1. The contractor should hold the appropriate license (if required) for the type of builder they
claim to be

2. The contractor should have comprehensive insurances for themselves and their workers
with the carrier listed as an additional insured
3. The contractor should have a clean history free of criminal charges or ethical concerns

4. Experience with accessibility work, or under the management of someone that has the
appropriate experience
5. The contractor should have experience with projects in the workers compensation system

or fall under the management of a company that will be responsible to ensure their
compliance with common workers’ compensation practices
6. The contractor should have the financial resources to ensure corporate stability

While understanding what makes a contractor qualified is important, the survey response was not
about what a qualified contractor is, but rather knowing where to find one. In workers’

compensation, contractors are assigned claims in one of two ways, either directly from the carrier,
or through a third-party management company.

The typical workers’ compensation model is to assign the claim to one of the large network

services companies. The responsibility to ensure the contractor is qualified becomes the
responsibility of the network provider, thus transferring the risk as well. For the transfer of

responsibility and risk, there is an associated cost usually calculated by a markup, or a percentage
of the bottom-line cost of the project. Third party networks handle the bulk of the home
modification projects. They all have vetting processes in place that ensure to one extent or the

other, they meet the basic qualifications and agree to certain field practice guidelines.

If a carrier chooses to contain their cost, they might decide to bypass the network, and work
directly with the contractor. Carriers with limited territories might find this advantageous and easy

to manage with a local preferred vendor list. Larger carriers might find developing and managing
their own contractor list to be time consuming, expensive, and labor intensive.

Over the last 20 years it has been my experience that the challenge has not been finding a good

contractor. The challenge has been finding one that really understands the nuances of workers’
compensation. When I began to develop our home modification services company, I soon realized

that our biggest challenge was the void between the carrier’s expectations and the contractor’s

5