• Menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Search
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
 
CHOOSE BROADSPIRE

Amaxx Workers Comp Blog

Reduce Workers Compensation Costs By 20-50%

Header Right

  • Home
    • Training Center
  • Get Started
    • Newcomers Class for WC Professionals
    • Subscribe to Free Newsletter
    • Free Training Center Account
    • Return to Work Resources
    • WC Claims Mgmt. Resources
    • Insurance Advisor Resources
  • Membership
    • Insider (free account)
    • WC Mastery
    • Teams & Managers Mastery
    • Training Partners
  • Products
    • On-Demand Courses
    • Specialty Courses
    • Certifications & Mastery Courses
    • Ultimate Guidebooks
  • Blog
    • Video Blogs
    • COVID-19 / Coronavirus Pandemic
  • Login

Mobile Menu

Choose Broadspire

CHOOSE BROADSPIREBroadspire Delivers Meaningful Results to Our Clients and Their Claimants
  • Home
    • Training Center
  • Get Started
    • Newcomers Class for WC Professionals
    • Subscribe to Free Newsletter
    • Free Training Center Account
    • Return to Work Resources
    • WC Claims Mgmt. Resources
    • Insurance Advisor Resources
  • Membership
    • Insider (free account)
    • WC Mastery
    • Teams & Managers Mastery
    • Training Partners
  • Products
    • On-Demand Courses
    • Specialty Courses
    • Certifications & Mastery Courses
    • Ultimate Guidebooks
  • Blog
    • Video Blogs
    • COVID-19 / Coronavirus Pandemic
  • Login
  • Search
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
You are here: Home / Employment Law Issues / Employers, Work Comp, And “Diligent Over-Compliance”

Employers, Work Comp, And “Diligent Over-Compliance”

May 8, 2014 By //  by Attorney Theodore Ronca Leave a Comment

A website recently published a list of fifteen federal and state laws with which most employers must comply. Surprisingly, however, almost nothing has been written about how those laws interact with each other. But careful searching through laws yields undiscovered advantages for employers. What might be called “diligent over-compliance” yields unsuspected favorable results, especially on work comp cost reduction.

 

 

All Laws Operate In “The Seemless Web”

 

How does compliance with one law produce results in another law? That is due to the fact that all laws operate in what has been called “the seamless web”. Laws seem to operate as independent operations but, in fact, have consequences which affect all other laws.

 

 

Federal DOT Regulations & Workers Compensation

 

Consider, for example, federal DOT regulations for heavy trucking, especially regs for medical exams. The regs make virtually no reference to compensation claims but the DOT provisions for employer directed medical exams , anytime the ability to drive might have changed, in fact have a profound effect on shortening lost time.  The fact that few employers are aware that they can schedule such exams leads to unnecessarily extended lost time on work comp claims.

 

Few employers search for ways in which they can extend their compliance activities, which is why the phrase “diligent over-compliance” is used in this article. But laws are filled with similar opportunities for the pro-active. What is especially gratifying is reaping the harvest of rewards from voluntarily extending compliance activity.

 

 

Short Term Disability in NY State

 

Another example of “super compliance” can be found in the short term disability law of New York State. NY is one of only four states that have mandatory short term disability, which was passed in 1947. Contained in that law (NY WCL Sect 217(1)) is a nearly totally ignored provision that gives the employer the right to schedule an independent medical exam once a week for the 26 weeks of the claim (which is statutorily limited to 26 weeks). But short term disability benefits are usually paid while a contested comp claim is in progress. Therefore, the employer has a powerful tool for obtaining examination results far above what the workers compensation claim has.

 

(One HR manager, years ago, knew of the provisions and successfully used them to win a NY workers compensation claim, but he may have been the only person ever to do so.)

 

Another example is the lien that long term disability plans have in the NY work comp law. Again, this is different than the short term disability benefit lien contained in a different section and most long term disability companies do not realize it exists, much less use it. Yet the discovery and use of the section would lower claim costs on large contested comp claims.

 

 

Diligent Over-Compliance

 

How many “undiscovered” laws and regs exist which effect workers compensation claims? The number seems to be dozens in a state like NY, and at least hundreds, if not more, nationwide. So “diligent over-compliance” may be the claims strategy of the future.       Author: Attorney Theodore Ronca is a practicing lawyer from Aquebogue, NY. He is a frequent writer and speaker, and has represented employers in the areas of workers’ compensation, Social Security disability, employee disability plans and subrogation for over 30 years.

 

 

Attorney Ronca can be reached at 631-722-2100. medsearch7@optonline.net   ©2014 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law.

 

 

WORK COMP CALCULATOR:   http://www.LowerWC.com/calculator.php

MODIFIED DUTY CALCULATOR:   http://www.LowerWC.com/transitional-duty-cost-calculator.php

WC GROUP:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?homeNewMember=&gid=1922050/

SUBSCRIBE: Workers Comp Resource Center Newsletter

 

Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker, attorney, or qualified professional.

Filed Under: Employment Law Issues

Related Articles

Deny Work Comp Claims From Disallowed Unemployment

Deny Work Comp Claims From Disallowed Unemployment

Reducing Workers’ Compensation Costs Through Baseline Testing

Reducing Workers’ Compensation Costs Through Baseline Testing

Independent Contractors: Are You an Employee?

Independent Contractors: Are You an Employee?

Don’t Hire Your Next Workers Compensation Claim

Don’t Hire Your Next Workers Compensation Claim

Reminder of a NY Decision on Illegals and Workers Comp

Reminder of a NY Decision on Illegals and Workers Comp

Employer Involvement in Work Comp Claims Can Not Be Delegated

Employer Involvement in Work Comp Claims Can Not Be Delegated

Workers Compensation, Employment, and Disability Laws

Workers Compensation, Employment, and Disability Laws

When an Employee Dies

When an Employee Dies

Health Care Workers in the Netherlands Feel the Pressure of Poor Working Conditions

Health Care Workers in the Netherlands Feel the Pressure of Poor Working Conditions

Apple Computer Supplier Gets Audit of Labor Practices

Apple Computer Supplier Gets Audit of Labor Practices

New Toolkit for Workplace Health Programs Unveiled by U.S. Chamber of Commerce

New Toolkit for Workplace Health Programs Unveiled by U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Bands of the RMS Titanic – A Workers Comp Tragedy

Bands of the RMS Titanic – A Workers Comp Tragedy

Free Download

5-Step Sequence to Coordinate Return-to-Work with ADA Compliance - FREE Download Click Here Now!

Train to Succeed

BECOME CERTIFIED IN WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

Proven Course Catalog & WC Toolbox Give You The Power To Achieve Lower Costs and Better Injured Worker Outcomes

VISIT WORKERS' COMP TRAINING CENTER

Previous Post: « Aflac Survey: 42% of Businesses Offering Accident, Disability Insurance See Drop in Comp Claims
Next Post: Employer Cited After Fatality at Kansas Site »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

FREE DOWNLOAD

5-Step Sequence to Coordinate Return-to-Work with ADA Compliance - FREE Download Click Here Now!

Our Sponsors

Broadspire

Workers’ Comp 3rd-Party Administrator
 

Catastrophic Care Management, Complex Care, and Specialty Networks
 

Ametros

Post-Settlement Administration
 

Medicare Secondary Payer Services
 

Medcor

Injury Triage, Onsite Clinics

Read Our Award-Winning Blog

Blog Categories

Search Our Archive

Subscribe to Our FREE Newsletter

Footer

Search Our Archive

Search our continually growing archive of over 2500 articles about Workers' Comp issues.

Quiclinks

  • Calculators
  • Terms & Abbreviations
  • Glossary of WC Premium Terms
  • WC Resources
  • Best Practices
  • Industries

RSS Recent Blog Posts

  • Big Employer Mistake In Work Comp is No Employee Rapport
  • 20 Unfair Claim Practices For Your Adjuster To Avoid
  • Use Vocational Coordination When Employees Are Unable To Return to Work
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEE NEWSLETTER
Let Us Help You Stomp Down the High Cost of Workers' Comp!
Top of Page ↑
  • Home
  • Training Center
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Products
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Login
Copyright © 2021 Amaxx, LLC. All Rights Reserved. · Privacy Policy / Legal Notice