From the first kickoff of the football season to the last goal of the lacrosse season, we love our college sports. And when a student-athlete’s injured, we know what an accident can mean to their goals and dreams. But the situation becomes devastating when we hear about terrible medical costs not covered by student-athlete medical insurance (well-known examples include the injuries of Kyle Hardrick, Stanley Doughty, and Cal Schaefer). In some instances, they not only face an end to their career hopes and lose scholarships, but their recoveries are affected by worry about medical costs in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 A NJCAA college softball player in a yellow jersey swings the bat while covered by the best catastrophic insurance.

Of course, catastrophic accidents don’t just happen to student-athletes at NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) or NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes) member schools. Student-athletes at NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) schools have catastrophic injuries from sports accidents, too. But who is left paying treatment claims at schools like these that may not have the same financial resources as their NCAA cousins? The families and students? Fortunately, catastrophic accident insurance offers NJCAA schools a solid solution to the financial risk of accidents.

What NJCAA Colleges Can Expect From The Best Catastrophic Insurance Plans

The NCAA and NAIA provide catastrophic accident coverage to their member schools’ players as part of the institutions’ membership fees. The NCAA catastrophic injury insurance program for its member schools starts when a $90,000 deductible is met and picks up after the student-athletes personal primary health insurance and an institution’s base accident plan have exhausted benefits either through a dollar amount or benefit period. NJCAA schools have a unique choice of selecting catastrophic insurance either through an Association-sponsored program or on their own. Part of this selection process also involves selecting either a $25,000 or $35,000 deductible for its catastrophic accident insurance. But which deductible is better for a particular school? That’s where A-G can help institutions understand which deductible it should select and which benefits it should include in its catastrophic sports accident plan.

How The A-G Administrators’ Catastrophic Accident Insurance Plan Works

After a student-athlete is injured, the A-G Administrators’ catastrophic accident insurance plan kicks in once a deductible is met and all other forms of insurance have exhausted its benefits. (The student-athlete’s primary health insurance payments and any institution base accident insurance payments apply toward satisfying this deductible.)

NJCAA schools can design a flexible plan that best meets their needs and budget. A-G’s insurance offers a number of choices, including:

  • A flexible deductible amount
  • Choice of five-year, 10-year, or lifetime benefit options
  • Choice of catastrophic maximums from $1 million to $10 million
  • The choice to include benefits for:
    • Total and partial disability
    • Loss of income
    • Ongoing medical care
    • Family expenses
    • College education
    • Home adaptation remodeling
    • Vehicle adaptation

We made sure that our catastrophic accident insurance plan provides everything an injured junior college student-athlete needs to recover physically, emotionally, and financially.

Plus, A-G Helps With a Big Coverage Gap Others Overlook…and the Newest Risk to Student-Athletes

Today’s student-athletes do more than just practice and play games. Some may participate in sports activities the school doesn’t sponsor. Take cheerleading, for instance. If the cheerleaders go to a big event that is not school-sponsored, they would not be covered by most school accident coverages (although they might be covered at the event itself by the group that organized it). However, accidents that happen traveling to and from the event or while training for it would not be covered.

This gap is more common than schools may realize. For instance, if football players are asked to come to a pep rally and an accident happens, they wouldn’t be covered, either. A-G, however, does cover this serious gap with affordable adjunct coverages in addition to any other base coverage or as coverage on its own.

The recent NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) opportunity is the newest risk. This legislation allows student-athletes to profit from the use of their name and image at local and national events. Similar to the football players at the pep rally example, if a football player is injured at a non-school-sponsored event (such as coming to a restaurant opening, visiting a car dealer, playing in a fundraiser), there’s no benefit in place to protect them from financial costs if an accident happens. Again, A-G can design a solution that would offer coverage to the student-athlete for this type of event.

Protect Your Student-Athletes With A-G Administrators

If you’re a broker with NJCAA school clients, or you’re with a junior college and looking for the best catastrophic accident insurance solution for your student-athletes, check with A-G. Not only have we been a leader in student-athlete accident insurance for nearly 40 years, but we also protect close to 1,000 college and university sports programs across the United States.

EGBAR, our cutting-edge claims management system, removes the headaches of handling claims and removes practically all of the paperwork, so your department can do what it does best: run sports programs! Our network of 40+ providers lets us recommend the best treatments at the best price. Also, our risk management services can help reduce the probability of accidents occurring. Using the claims data allows us to lower premium costs, too. But you may find that the best thing about working with us at A-G is that we love sports as much as you do. In fact, most of our staff have sports backgrounds. You can relax knowing we talk your talk and walk your walk every day.

Find out more about how we can assist you with your junior college’s catastrophic accident insurance needs. Just request a quote to get the ball rolling, and we’ll be in touch soon for a no-obligation discussion on how we can help protect your student-athletes from the devastating consequences of unexpected accidents.

ACHIEVE GREATNESS!™

A-G has the experience to offer the best custom coverage for every program and the best customer service to ensure a worry-free process for every claim. The nation’s most competitive K-12, collegiate and youth programs Achieve Greatness with A-G!

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