Update to the Insurance Piece

Just when you think  you have all the information, someone informs you that you aren't quite there!

My blog about insurance on January 18 had some bad intel. Sorry about that.

In it, I mentioned that there may be a $1,000 deductible on General Liability with regard to damage to the facility. The good news is that I was mis-informed and there is NO DEDUCTIBLE. I went ahead and updated this in the post.

There is a component of the GL policy that has a $1,000 deductible, but that is with regard to personal property. For instance, if the flat-tow bringing you in flips your car over. Ouch! Believe it or not, it's happened before (which reminds me, don't let a flat tow hook something around your roll hoop that you can't release yourself!). What is not covered in the personal property section is if you wreck your car. This is only for something that is essentially negligence on the part of someone involved with the operations of the event. It's for that extreme circumstance that is rare, but does happen.

What does SCCA insurance really cover? - Updated 1/23/13

Could there be a more exciting way to start a Friday off than with an insurance discussion?

Well, in deference to my many SCCA member friends in that business, I think many of us could think of more intriguing banter, but it’s important to know what insurance we have as participants in SCCA—both from a medical standpoint and a property damage standpoint.

I’m not an insurance expert, so this is going to be a bit of a “for dummies” explanation, but I think that most of us in the Club fall into the same category. When I receive my automotive, my medical or my homeowner’s insurance policies, I’m not going to lie—I don’t read them cover to cover. I skim them for the highlights and generally call someone when something bad happens. I suspect that I’m not alone.

What I’m going to do here is provide everyone with some basic info that ever member should know about our insurance.

On our SCCA website in the “Downloads” www.scca.com/downloads section, there are a couple of documents that support what I’m about to discuss. This is an umbrella policy, meaning its one giant program that SCCA pays for and then charges back through each event sanction and/or entry, regardless of the program (Club, Solo, Rally, RallyCross, Pro, etc). The two primary things each member should have a basic understanding of are “Participant Accident” and “General Liability” coverage.

Participant Accident

Participant Accident, or PA, Insurance is what covers you from a medical injury standpoint. Any SCCA member that is part of an SCCA event is covered by this. Even non-members receive coverage, although at a lower benefit schedule.

The way PA insurance works is, if you have personal medical insurance, the SCCA coverage is considered “excess.” That means you use your personal insurance first for any medical bills and then submit any remaining to the SCCA carrier. If you or your family member is injured, it’s important to see the event’s medical representative or a safety steward to get an incident report. If the safety team responds to you, this should happen automatically. Also, make sure you get what is called a “Green Card.” This has the information regarding any medical bill submission. I just went through this at the end of 2012 with a family member that sustained a concussion at an event. Make sure there’s an incident report and you get the green card. The incident report should automatically be sent to both SCCA National and the insurance company, but it might not hurt to see if you can get a copy yourself, although that’s not technically necessary.

The coverage is top of the line in the motorsports industry--$1,000,000 of medical reimbursement coverage beyond what your personal health carrier covers. If you don’t have personal health insurance, the SCCA coverage becomes the primary. Again, more detail is in the “Summary of SCCA Participant Accident Coverage” found on the downloads page.

General Liability

What happens if you wreck your car into a guard rail at a race track or a part of the Solo site? Well, General Liability, or GL, Insurance covers our members here as well.

As an SCCA member participant, our insurance limits your potential financial exposure on anything that might happen to the facility through normal use. So if you are unfortunate enough to hit something solid with your car, necessitating repair to the wall or some other part of the facility, SCCA's insurance policy protects you and the Region from that financial liability. Fixing your car, unfortunately, is still up to your checkbook.

If someone gives you a bill for damage to the facility that you believe should be covered under SCCA’s policy, the best course of action is to call the National Office and speak to the department that sanctioned the event in question (Club, Solo, Rally, Pro, etc.). They can guide you from there.

The coverage details of the SCCA GL policy are available in the “Summary of SCCA Commercial General Liability Insurance” document found on the downloads page.

The Cost

When you think about it, the blanket SCCA Insurance policy is pretty incredible. The bulk of the insurance premium cost is funded through each car entry of each organized event. For Club Racing, there’s a blanket $1000 cost to the Region for liability and a per-car assessment of just over $20 to cover the balance. If there are 100 cars, that’s pretty incredible coverage for your body, your crew’s bodies, our workers and officials and anything you might hit on the track or damage in the paddock for less than $35. Ever seen an ER medical bill or what some of our nicest tracks charge for wall or asphalt damage? A $35 insurance fee is cheap in comparison.

Solo, Rally and RallyCross have separate per-car rates as well and the assessment is handled directly through the Regions for all SCCA events. If you’re curious what all the rates are, check out the link within the Insurance documentation page here. You’ll need to log in.

-Eric Prill, SCCA VP Marketing & Communications and racer