One of North Carolina’s largest providers of long-term care for adults may not have the insurance required to pay workers hurt on the job and is being investigated for not paying employees on time.
The state Industrial Commission is trying to determine why cash-strapped Careamerica of Leland lost its workers’ compensation coverage Dec. 29 and whether it has been reinstated since then.
Failure to carry the insurance is punishable by up to $100 per day. The company also could be sued by employees injured at work.
The adult-care industry has more than twice the injury rate of other industries.
“If there’s no insurance or funds in the bank, the chance of an employee not getting anything – or just a small recovery – is pretty high,” said Terry Kilbride, a workers’ compensation attorney who represents a former Careamerica worker in Wilson County. “But most noninsured employers tend to be small employers. I’ve never handled a case that involved a company having this many employees.”
About 650 Careamerica employees provide care to nearly 1,000 elderly and mentally ill people in 17 facilities in eastern North Carolina.
Careamerica co-owner Michael Elliott said his company received a verbal promise from its insurer that its policy was renewed after it lapsed during the last three days of December.
“As far as I know, at the moment, we have coverage,” Elliott said.
Current state records show that the company lacks coverage, although it can take some time for a reinstated policy to reach regulators. The insurer is supposed to notify the state as soon as it reinstates coverage. A month after the policy lapsed, Careamerica was still not listed as having insurance for its employees.
The company has had to pay more than $42,000 since 2002 for two accidental deaths and other failures to deliver proper care in its facilities, according to state Department of Health and Human Services records.
Last week, employees at the company’s Wilson site walked out to protest delayed paychecks.
Elliott said his company has a perpetual cash flow problem because payments by Medicaid for services don’t cover expenses. About 83 percent of Careamerica’s residents are on Medicaid.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Scientists Concerned That a Bird Flu Pandemic Is ‘Unfolding in Slow Motion’ 
US Home Insurance Still Priced Too Low for Climate Risk, Says Swiss Re Chair 
Big ‘I’ Report: Independent Agency Channel Placed 62% of Premiums in 2023 
Cancer Victims Lose Bid to Block Proposed J&J Talc Bankruptcy 
