Insurance Requirements Brochure
How Do I Get Workers’ Compensation Insurance?
When starting a business in Colorado, you should learn about the several types of insurance you may need, including workers' compensation. You can get workers’ compensation coverage in one of two ways. The first is commercial insurance and the second is self-insurance.
Insurance Carriers
Many employers purchase insurance from an insurance carrier just like they would buy auto insurance and other liability insurance. When buying insurance in the insurance market, most employers buy a policy from an insurance agent who writes the policy through an insurance company the agent represents. All workers’ compensation insurance in Colorado is sold by private insurance carriers; there is no state fund. Pinnacol Assurance is required to provide workers’ compensation coverage for any Colorado employer; however, there are more than 500 licensed insurance companies that can provide coverage.
Find a Workers' Compensation Carrier
When using the insurance carrier search tool, make sure to select "Colorado" from the "State" dropdown, select "Company" from the "Entity Type" portion, select "Workers' Compensation" from the "Authorized Line Type" and press "Submit" to see alphabetized results.
Self-Insurance
View more information on self insurance.
For some employers, the option of self-insuring their workers’ compensation obligations is available. There are two kinds of self-insurance, individual and pooled.
Individual Self-Insurance
For an individual employer to become self-insured in Colorado, the employer must meet the following requirements:
- The employer needs to have been in business for at least 5 years or be a subsidiary of a company that has been in business for at least 5 years.
- The employer needs to have at least 300 full-time employees working in Colorado or have assets of at least $100 million. This condition can be met if the employer's parent company has assets of at least $100 million.
All employers wishing to become self-insured must have an exemplary financial position and provide the following:
- Excess insurance coverage
- Security such as a surety bond
- Claims adjusting either internally or through use of a third-party administrator
If your company is interested in becoming individually self-insured, please contact the Division of Workers’ Compensation at 303-318-8700 or toll-free at 1-888-390-7936.
Self-Insurance Pools
If your business does not meet the requirements to be individually self-insured but is interested in joining or forming a self-insurance pool, please contact the Division of Insurance in the Department of Regulatory Agencies at 303-894-7499 or toll-free at 1-800-930-3745.
Workers’ Compensation Compliance Verification
If you would like to see whether a company has workers’ compensation insurance coverage, you can view the workers' compensation insurance verification database.
To see if a company has rejected coverage, please view the real-time Rejection of Coverage database.
Contact Us
Division of Workers' Compensation
633 17th Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80202
303-318-8700
1-888-390-7936 (Toll-Free)
cdle_wccustomer_service@state.co.us