{"id":98,"date":"2026-10-30T15:32:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T21:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/?p=98"},"modified":"2026-10-02T16:04:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T22:04:48","slug":"stop-gap-coverage-ohios-workers-comp-blind-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/stop-gap-coverage-ohios-workers-comp-blind-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Gap Coverage: Ohio&#8217;s Workers&#8217; Comp Blind Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio does workers&#8217; compensation a little differently than most of the country. Employers here buy coverage through the Ohio Bureau of Workers&#8217; Compensation instead of a private insurer, making Ohio one of only four monopolistic states, alongside North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. The state fund leaves out one piece many business owners assume came with it.<\/p>\n<h2>What the BWC Policy Does, and What It Skips<\/h2>\n<p>In most states, a workers&#8217; comp policy has two halves. Part one pays statutory benefits like medical care and lost wages. Part two, employers liability, defends the business when an injury turns into a lawsuit. Ohio&#8217;s state fund provides only the first half.<\/p>\n<h3>Claims That Can Land Outside the BWC<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Third-party-over actions:<\/strong> An injured worker sues another company, which then turns around and sues the employer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Family claims:<\/strong> A spouse or relative seeks damages, such as loss of consortium, tied to the worker&#8217;s injury.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dual capacity claims:<\/strong> The employer is sued in another role, like the maker of a product the employee used.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Employer intentional tort claims:<\/strong> Lawsuits under Ohio Revised Code 2745.01 alleging the employer intended the injury.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How Stop Gap Coverage Fills the Hole<\/h2>\n<p>Stop gap coverage restores that missing employers liability piece. It is usually added as an Ohio-specific endorsement to a general liability policy, or written as a standalone employers liability policy. One important caveat: Ohio public policy limits insuring deliberate intent to injure, so intentional tort protection often leans toward defense costs rather than full indemnity. Wording varies by carrier.<\/p>\n<h3>Questions to Bring to Your Renewal<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Does my general liability policy include an Ohio stop gap endorsement?<\/li>\n<li>What limits apply, and do they match my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/umbrella-insurance.html\" title=\"Umbrella Insurance\">umbrella coverage<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>How does the form treat intentional tort allegations?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Ferrell Agency in Columbus, OH helps employers line up their BWC coverage with the liability pieces around it. Our breakdown of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/general-liability-insurance-vs-professional-liability-what-columbus-businesses-need-to-know\/\" title=\"General Liability Insurance vs. Professional Liability\">general vs. professional liability<\/a> pairs well with this topic. For legal questions about a specific claim, an employment attorney is the right resource.<\/p>\n<p>Review our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/commercial-insurance.html\" title=\"Commercial Insurance\">commercial insurance options<\/a> or reach out to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\" title=\"Ferrell Agency Homepage\">Ferrell Agency<\/a>, serving businesses across Columbus, OH and Central Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio does workers&#8217; compensation a little differently than most of the country. Employers here buy coverage through the Ohio Bureau of Workers&#8217; Compensation instead of a private insurer, making Ohio one of only four monopolistic states, alongside North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. The state fund leaves out one piece many business owners assume came with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17,8,5,23,24],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial-insurance","tag-columbus","tag-commercial-insurance","tag-ferrell-agency","tag-stop-gap","tag-workers-compensation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ferrellagency.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}