Early Return To Work in Workers Comp: The MaxCo Success Story Part V

Steps in a Well-Designed Plan Early Return-to-Work The concept of transitional duty  (TD) where an injured employee returns to work as soon as medically able is a key cost containment driver.  At MaxCo's* facilities, modified jobs were developed for injured employees who cannot return to work at 100 percent capacity.  (*Name changed for privacy.) No employee is allowed  to lose time from work without diagnosis and treatment by the division doctor. The division doctor is fully aware of MaxCo's desire to offer modified-duty jobs to injured employees. In almost all cases the division doctor visits MaxCo's facilities and is familiar with each job or job classification. Once a facility  has the medical restrictions from the doctor, it offers the employee a modified-duty job within those medical restrictions. The key to modified-duty is to limit the duration of the job to the period of time when it is medically necessary. In some cases, MaxCo has faxed the doctor a revised job description to review and authorize so the division can be certain the job offered to the employee matches medical restrictions. Then, the supervisors monitor the situation closely to ensure the employee does not attempt to exceed medically-approved limitations. Once an employee leaves work  on workers' compensation it is likely "psychologically disemployed" may set in and the employee may attempt to extend the duration of the absence. For this reason, MaxCo does everything possible to assist employees in returning rapidly to work. On the other hand, MaxCo does not hesitate to move to discontinue an employee's workers' (workersxzcompxzkit) compensation benefits if an offer of a suitable modified-duty job is rejected by employee. Rejection is a signal to MaxCo the employee does not want to return to work. An excellent tool for employers to track return-to-work data is to make use of the Return to Work Tracker and the RTW Ratio History found on our website along with the associated forms.  (A future blog will discuss this tool in more detail!) Author: Robert Elliott, J.D. Click on these links to try it for yourself. WC Calculator www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/calculator.php TD Calculator www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/transitional-duty-cost-calculator.php WC 101 www.ReduceYourWorkersComp.com/workers_comp.php 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