Texas Mutual Insurance Company announced that it has begun distributing $150 million in workers compensation dividends among approximately 40,000 qualifying policyholders.
“As a mutual insurance company, our responsibility is to our policyholders,” said Bob Barnes, chairman of Texas Mutual’s board of directors. “They own the company, and this money belongs to them. We are proud to share Texas Mutual’s success with those who have contributed to that success.”
When publicly traded corporations pay dividends, every stockholder gets a dividend based on the shares they own at that time. When Texas Mutual pays dividends, it rewards specific policyholders who focus on controlling workplace accidents and helping injured workers return to the job.
This marks the 14th consecutive year Texas Mutual has paid dividends to qualifying policyholder owners. By the end of 2012, the company will have paid $1.2 billion in dividends. The majority of that total – more than $1 billion – will have been paid since 2005.
Meantime, the company also reported the sentencing of a worker for workers comp fraud.
According to Texas Mutual, a Travis County court recently sentenced Henry Gomez of Lockhart, Texas on workers comp fraud-related charges. Gomez paid $1,155 in restitution to Texas Mutual and was sentenced to seven months’ deferred adjudication.
Gomez reported a job-related injury while working as a truck driver and supervisor for Wims Environmental, Inc. in Garland, Texas. He claimed he was unable to work as a result of the injury, and Texas Mutual began paying income benefits to him.
Meanwhile, Texas Mutual uncovered evidence that Gomez was working as a sales consultant for another employer while receiving income benefits.
Investigators call this type of scam double-dipping because the claimant collects benefits for being too injured to work when he or she is, in fact, gainfully employed. Texas law requires claimants to contact their workers comp carrier when they return to work. Left unchecked, double-dipping and other workers comp fraud can lead to higher premiums for all Texas employers.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
WORKERS COMP MANAGEMENT MANUAL: www.WCManual.com
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