What is the Chilean Safety Association?
ACHS defines itself as a non-profit, private corporation. It is not a commercial insurer: it is a mutual insurance company for employers, a structure specific to the Chilean system in which affiliated companies are also the mutual insurance providers that support the entity. It was founded in 1958.
Its activity is organized around the social insurance created by Law 16.744, on work accidents and occupational diseases, and is deployed in three axes declared by the entity itself: risk prevention, health care and economic benefits.
Social insurance under Law 16.744: the Chilean mutual model
Law 16.744 establishes mandatory social insurance in Chile against workplace accidents and occupational diseases, covering both accidents occurring during or as a result of work, as well as commuting accidents. All employers must enroll their employees in an organization that administers this insurance.
The distinctive feature of the Chilean system is that this administration does not fall to a single state entity or to commercial insurers in open competition, but to a small set of administrative bodies expressly authorized by law, with the Superintendency of Social Security (SUSESO) as the supervisor of the whole.
Insurance administering bodies
Along with ACHS, the same insurance is administered by two other employer mutuals, the Mutual de Seguridad de la Cámara Chilena de la Construcción and the Instituto de Seguridad del Trabajo, and a public body, the Instituto de Seguridad Laboral, which acts as the state administrator of the insurance for workers not affiliated with a mutual.
An employer can choose to join any of the mutual insurance companies or remain under the administration of the Institute of Occupational Safety. The mutual insurance companies do not compete with each other through free market pricing: their financing is governed by the contribution rate established by Law 16.744 itself.
ACHS functions and benefits
Within that legal framework, ACHS develops three lines of activity.
- Prevention. Technical advice and training to affiliated companies to reduce accidents, including the identification of risks in the workplace.
- Health care. Comprehensive medical coverage for workers affected by work accidents, commuting accidents or occupational diseases, until their recovery or while disabling symptoms persist.
- Financial benefits. Subsidies for temporary incapacity, compensation and disability or survivor pensions arising from the covered contingency.
Financing: basic and risk-based additional contributions
The insurance under Law 16.744 is financed through a basic contribution, common to all affiliated employers, and a differentiated additional contribution, calculated based on the activity and actual claims experience of each company. This mechanism incorporates an economic incentive into the cost of the insurance to improve preventative management: a company with a lower claims experience can access a lower additional contribution.
This differentiated pricing design is one of the elements that distinguishes the Chilean system from other occupational risk insurance models in the region, in which the premium is negotiated commercially between the company and the insurer.
Contribution to safety and health at work
The ACHS’s contribution lies in the role assigned to managing bodies by Law 16.744: to finance and provide medical and financial coverage for covered contingencies, and to develop prevention activities among its member companies. Its status as a non-profit entity, characteristic of mutual insurance companies, distinguishes it from a commercial insurance model.
This contribution coexists with the responsibility that Chilean legislation itself maintains on the part of the employer regarding the safety conditions of the workplace: affiliation with ACHS does not replace the business obligation to manage risk prevention in its own organization.
Practical application
For a Chilean company, understanding the differentiated additional quotation mechanism allows it to anticipate how the evolution of its claims experience impacts the cost of insurance, which makes preventive management a variable with a direct economic impact and not just a regulatory one.
For a prevention professional, distinguishing between mutual insurance companies and the Institute of Occupational Safety, and knowing the supervisory role of the SUSESO, helps to accurately identify who to address a technical query, a claim or a request regarding insurance under Law 16.744.
