Other States Workers’ Compensation Coverage

Is an employee covered with workers compensation when she travels to a different state?  It depends!

• If the duration of travel is temporary (a week or two at most) then coverage almost certainly extends to that employee, as long as they are NOT traveling to Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, or Wyoming (more on these states below).
• If the destination state is scheduled on the home state workers compensation policy, coverage applies in that state.

For example, if your employee works in Maryland and serves a client in Maryland, and goes on vacation with the client to North Carolina for two weeks, there is workers compensation coverage in North Carolina through the home state policy because the duration of the work is temporary.

However, if the client moves to North Carolina for half the year, and the caregiver goes with, we fail the duration test and North Carolina would need to be scheduled on the home state workers compensation policy. If the home state workers compensation policy will not schedule North Carolina (say because they are not admitted to write business in NC) then a separate policy must be taken.

What about the four states listed above, Ohio, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming? These are the monopolistic states, which use the old Soviet model for workers comp – you must buy it from the State. If your employees are travelling to any of these states, you must contact the workers compensation bureau in the respective state to make arrangements.