Self-evaluation questionnaires are a common method to gather information necessary to assess your workers comp programs if you have multiple locations. Questionnaires can be sent to each location. Questionnaires can be prepared for claim handlers, treatment providers, and attorneys retained to handle workers' compensation cases. Using open-ended questions will encourage more complete responses, but responses are not easily quantified. Advantages: Gathers more information than yes/no questions. Questionnaires can be provided to multiple people at once. Disadvantages: Requires more time for personnel to complete, requires more time to compile results. Nearly impossible to quantify responses. Because of the complexity of responses, there will likely be a lower response rate. Written responses may not be candid since no rapport can be developed with the questioner. Tip: If you are developing your own questionnaires have someone else edit it. You will only ask questions about techniques you already know about, and obviously won't ask questions about techniques that may be used by other companies if you aren't aware of them. So have several peers offer feedback on your questionnaires, if possible. Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Learn more about Assessments & Scoring. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
Delaware employers should remember to do the following when making an offer of transitional or modified duty employment:
1. Identify the health-care provider who has certified the employee to return to work.
2. List the limitations that the health-care provider has imposed on the employee’s ability to return to work.
3. Extend an offer to return to work in a capacity that satisfies the restrictions noted above.
4. State the rate of pay will remain the same, regardless of the identified limitations and restrictions.
5. Describe the position and the functions and duties it involves.
6. Explain that the employee will be monitored to make sure the job requirements do not exceed the identified limits.
7. State that the offered positions is a temporary one and is designed to assist the employee to transition back to his or her regular job assignment when able.
8. Explain how the employee can accept the position if desired (in writing, via U.S. mail or hand delivery, for example).
9. Explain the consequences of a failure to respond (i.e., will constitute a refusal of the offer and may jeopardize future receipt of workers’ compensation benefits or eligibility for other benefits sponsored by the organization).
The offer letter should specifically identify the following:
1. The start date of the position (approximately two weeks from the date of the letter);
2. The hours of work;
3. Name and title of the person to whom the employee will report;
4. Job site or location;
5. Deadline for employee’s acceptance (no less than 7 days from the date of mailing).
6. Name and contact information of the person to whom any questions or the acceptance should be directed.
7. Space for employee’s printed name, signature, and date.
8. Area or check box where the employee can indicate that he accepts or denies the offer.
Keep a daily or weekly log of modified assignments and success at handling them. This could become key evidence of wage-earning capacity.
Remember, employees’ attorneys are traditionally hostile to return to work as it destroys the lump-sum settlements which account for most fees.
Many thanks to Guest Contributor, employment law authority, Attorney Margaret DiBianca of Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, LLP. The firm takes a proactive approach to counseling its clients by trying to prevent problems before they occur during workplace issues such as hiring, firing, promotions and layoffs.
Attorney DiBianca can be reached at mdibianca@ycst.com or by phone 302-571-5008.
Read more tips at: http://delawareemploymentlawblog.com
Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp.
Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp.
Workers’ Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch.
Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs.
©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
Senior management needs to be kept abreast of major workers’ comp problems and situations. The degree of information needed depends on preferences and jobs of each senior executive. In general, senior managers such as division presidents, regional managers need to know the generalities of what benefits are available and under what conditions. 1-2 paragraph about the topic is all that is needed. General managers in charge of operations may need to have more detail since they handle day-to-day operational issues.
In addition, you want to have the dollars at the tip of your tongue because THAT is what senior management relates best to. Be able to tell senior managers how much the annual cost of workers’ comp is, and how much in sales it takes to replace the money spent on workers’ comp. Break that down to the average weekly costs or the average per office/operation cost. You should know how much of that cost is retained loss and how much is premium. Reductions in retained loss can be made immediately. Know how many employees are out of work. This is an important number because for every employee out of work there are replacement labor costs and lost benefits costs.
Also, make sure senior management knows that workers’ comp is a CONTROLLABLE expense and you intend to begin the cost control process immediately. Let them know you will keep them informed of all major operational changes and of course you will seek approval for all such changes in the appropriate chain of command within your organization. Ask for support for your workers comp cost control program.
Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp.
Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp.
Workers’ Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch.
Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs.
©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com�
If you are a new Workers' Comp Coordinator, you may following up on open, existing claims during your first week on the job. The claims are likely Lost Time Claims. You will want to develop a form asking questions similar to these: 1. Employees' name and accident date of loss 2. What is employee's current work status 3. Are there any written reports 4. What is the current medical treatment 5. How was the employee transported to medical treatment and did anyone accompany the employee 6. Did the employee come back to work immediately, the day of the injury 7. Were medical restrictions provided during the initial medical visit and if not, why not 8. Was transitional duty assigned and if not why not 9. What is the estimated return to work date and what is the medical duration in the guidelines. If not, how was the estimated return to work date established. 10. What additional efforts have been made to get employee back to work. 11. What contacts with employee have occurred including weekly meetings and nurse field case manager visits. 12. What is the next step in their Plan of Action (POA). These are just a few of the questions you'll want to ask the adjuster. Schedule another call about each employee at the time of the first call. This is not intended to be a complete or exhaustive list, but it should be enough to give you an idea of the flow of the call. Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com�
If your company has a large, decentralized workforce, you may need a dedicated person responsible for coordinating injured employees return to work efforts. It's probably not enough to have a Transitional Duty Policy, you may need personnel to coach employees, support local management and and follow through with other actions in your workers' compensation program. The RTW Coordinator or WC Coordinator can play the central role of coordination. Here are 8 things a WC Coordinator or RTW Coordinator can do: 1-Contact Local Management or HR to help them bring every injured employee back to work. 2-Assist the General Manager (GM) determine suitable transitional duty jobs for every injured employee. 3-Make sure the TPA or claims administrator has all the documentation needed for claim processing and return to work placement. 4-Make sure the TPA or claims administrator know about your workers' compensation cost containment process. 5-Inform the payroll department when an employee is receiving indemnity payments (lost wages) so regular pay can be discontinued. Make sure the employee has not filed for unemployment. 6-Assist the GM with maintaining frequent contact with the injured employee, including attend weekly meeting with the employee and GM. 7-Familiarize local management with the new WC Cost Control Process. 8-Follow up on each step of the claim until the employee is back to work full duty in their original job by removing EVERY obstacles that gets in the way of a complete return to work. Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
Managing chronic absence through team building
Team building is a critical step to building the pressure needed to create change. Either employees choose teams or are assigned to teams by the absence management facilitator. Most employees choose their own teams, generally representing the existing social groups within the workplace. Interestingly, employees not chosen by other employees for a team and who are assigned by the absence management facilitator often are employees experiencing chronic absenteeism. Peer pressure from the teams profoundly reinforces the message the company wants to send. Employees may hear messages about corporate standards for absence, but the pressure exerted by teammates to conform greatly increase the likelihood the employees' behavior will more closely conform to corporate and team standards. Each team is assigned to a contest group. Monthly contests include themes, special perks such as wearing jeans for the following week, and lucrative prizes. Each team with no absences for the month participates in the monthly contest raffle. If an employee is absent, however, the entire team becomes ineligible to participate in the raffle, resulting in a tremendous amount of peer pressure from team members and creating a strong deterrent to future absences. Communicating the immediate negative consequences is an important element of a successful absence management program. Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
Tom Robinson, J.D., a legal expert from Lexis Nexis, reported on a case in which the exclusivity defense did not prevent the employee from filing a negligence action against the employer. Two workers were employed as film inspectors on the overnight shift. One of them, Streng, was suspended for three days without pay because the other worker, Duffy, repeated to various others Streng's excuse for returning late from a meal break: Streng had fallen asleep in his car.
Streng allegedly told Duffy he was going to "get" him. Streng asked for and received a transfer, but several weeks later, the two again encountered one another in a courtyard outside the office and Streng allegedly renewed his threat, saying, "I know where you live." Faced with conflicting stories about the altercation, a supervisor sent both workers home for the day. Streng was held by security personnel until Duffy left the premises. Nonetheless, Streng arrived at Duffy's house first and assaulted him.
Duffy filed a tort claim against the employer and others, contending it was liable for the physical injuries and other damages he had sustained. The employer contended that the tort action was barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the state's workers' compensation law. In Duffy v. Technicolor Entertainment Servs., Inc., 2009 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 837 (January 29, 2009), a California appellate court, in an unpublished decision, refused to throw out the tort case on exclusivity grounds, found unconvincing the employer's argument that Duffy's injuries grew out of a workplace dispute, and determined instead that there were issues of fact as to the employer's negligent retention of Streng.
According to the court, reasonable people could infer from Streng's prior conduct that he might be a real, present, and apparent threat of harm to Duffy and others. The negligence claims were appropriately left for the jury. The court, therefore, let stand a $1 million verdict in the case. See Larson's Workers' Compensation Law, Ch. 103, § 103.07 for more information or go to LexisNexis Workers' Compensation Law Center. This entry was written for Workers' Comp Kit Blog, and we appreciate the helpful insight this brings to our readers.
Tom Robinson, J.D. is the primary upkeep writer for Larson's Workers' Compensation Law (LexisNexis) and Larson's Workers' Compensation, Desk Edition(LexisNexis). He is a contributing writer for California Compensation Cases(LexisNexis) and Benefits Review Board – Longshore Reporter (LexisNexis), and is a contributing author to New York Workers' Compensation Handbook(LexisNexis). Attorney Robinson is an authority in the area of workers' compensation and we are happy to have him as a Guest Contributor to Workers' Comp Kit Blog. Tom can be reached at: compwriter@gmail.com. Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
One of the initial issues a risk manager with high workers' comp costs is WHO should do the assessment and what are the benefits of each option. There are many resources available to assess your workers' comp program and tell you why your costs have skyrocketed. Several consididerations are: the cost of each, the availability and timeline of each, the impartiality of each, and the experience level of each. This is one area where you must have experience, and it's best to have experience in several industries. A resource with narrow experience will generally examine a narrow range of issues and options for correction, so a resource with a broader range of experience is generally best. You can discuss having these resources provide an assessment: 1-broker's staff – if your broker has post-loss consulting resources, they may have the type of experience that will be helpful because they may have serviced many types of companies 2- independent consultants – pre-loss, post-loss and experience modification professionals 3- automated systems – online web-based assessment provide uniform assessments across many business units (this is how Workers' Comp Kit operates) 4- medical doctors – MDs can review injury treatment protocol, over treatment/under treatment, effective use of nurse case managers, and IME process efficiency, among other issues Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
One part of the assessment process which is often overlooked is determining what to do AFTER you've written the assessment report. You've written your report containing numerous recommendations and suggestions. Writing the report is only the first step of the cost containment solution. What is the next step? 1-Prioritize the findings and address low cost/no cost solutions first 2-Assign team lead or WC Manager to manage the cost containment process 3-Use project management tools to move the process forward and to gain momentum 4-Design project tools such as forms, templates, workbooks, pre-work, exercises, etc. 5-Some of the options: class-room training programs, one-on-one mentoring, conferences and webinars Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
What methods can be used to assess a company's workers' compensation process? There are many methods to assess a program, however, the automated approach provides the most uniform diagnostic across multiple business units. 1- automated assessments 2- self-assessment questionnaires 3- physical review of current processes 4- data analysis – data tells whether a company's costs are high, but does not tell why the costs are high 5- claim file reviews and medical process reviews in a file review 6- telephone interviews of all parties involved in process 7- on-site interviews/focus groups Try the WC Cost Calculator to show the REAL COST of work comp. Look at WC 101 for the basics about workers comp. Workers' Comp Kit® is a web-based online Assessment, Benchmarking and Cost Containment system for employers. It provides all the materials needed to reduce your costs significantly in 85% less time than if you designed a program from scratch. Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws are different. Consult with your corporate legal counsel before implementing any cost containment programs. ©2008 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com
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