AI-assisted research summary: Insurance policies for covered employers must include full compensation liability coverage, an optional deductible, and a clause allowing employees to enforce the carrier’s liability; nonstandard policy forms cannot be approved by the director.
Every policy of insurance issued by an insurer of an employer referred to in section 386-1 which covers the liability of the employer for compensation shall cover the entire liability of the employer to the employer's employees covered by the policy or contract, and provide for the deductible under section 386-100, at the option of the insured. The policy also shall contain a provision setting forth the right of the employees to enforce in their own names either by filing a separate claim or by making the insurance carrier a party to the original claim, the liability of the insurance carrier in whole or in part for the payment of the compensation. Payment in whole or in part of compensation by either the employer or the insurance carrier shall, to the extent thereof, be a bar to the recovery against the other of the amount so paid. All insurance policies shall be of a standard form, the form to be designated and approved by the insurance commissioner. No policy of insurance different in form from the designated and approved form shall be approved by the director. [L 1963, c 116, pt of §1; Supp, §97-123; HRS ; am L 1985, c 296, §19; gen ch 1985] Attorney General Opinions Forbids policy insuring employers only at project site or in related operations. Att. Gen. Op. 86-11. Case Notes Insurance carrier may be made party defendant, when. 27 H. 476 (1923). Insurer may not make itself a party to proceedings of its own accord. 32 H. 162 (1931). In the context of the Hawaii workers' compensation scheme, a physician is an incidental beneficiary rather than an intended third-party beneficiary of the employer's workers' compensation insurance policy; thus, as physician was not an intended third-party beneficiary of insurer's insurance policy, physician did not have a cause of action in tort for bad faith against insurer. 114 H. 122 (App.), 157 P.3d 561 (2007). Cited: 31 H. 638, 650 (1930); 33 H. 545, 546 (1935).