Reform from Within; Employers Take Control - 2

Sunday, July 6, 2003 | 0

This is part 2 of a 5 part series for employers on taking charge of workers' compensation reform. In Part 1 we identified the many problems contributing to the national workers' compensation crisis: who is taking responsibility, and who is suffering most. In Part 2, we explore some of the ways employers can, and should, take charge of their own workers' compensation cases and enact reform from within.

The Problem - Employer Passes Responsibility To The Carrier

Employers, what do you do when one of your employees has an injury?

Who in your company is empowered to handle the administrative details: one of your greatest business expenses? Does this individual have previous training in workers' compensation, save what your insurance adjuster has taught them? Does this person wear two or three hats? Do you or your agent simply send the employee to the doctor, call the adjuster, and go on about your business annoyed about the high cost of workers' compensation, privately blaming the injured workers for the mess? If the employee has, for example, strained their back or hurt their knee, are you already thinking about the problem of finding someone else to fill the position?

If you answered in the affirmative, you are the norm. This is the time-honored employer-employee work injury dynamic. Employee has injury; supervisor treats him like he just dinged his new car; relationship becomes adversarial.

In the more "civilized" relationships, the parties behave very well for a while, but the employer does what the employer does, which is to turn the case over to the carrier. After all, isn't that what he pays all that money for? The carrier does what the carrier does, which is too often to investigate, delay, and frustrate the injured worker.

The injured worker, who may genuinely like his or her employer, is still injured and in pain. He or she is usually getting a little short on cash by this time, as well. Finally, a letter arrives from an insurance examiner informing the employee that there will be a check coming soon.

So far, so good, except that the next thing our worker knows, he receives a phone call from yet another examiner, who now wants to come to his house to talk to him about the accident. He asks the person to call back the next day.

Our worker immediately contacts the people at work because he trusts they will know what he should do, but by now, his employer doesn't know anything else because he has always entrusted work injuries to the experts at the insurance company since they are the ones that really know the details about workers' compensation. The power has just been shifted to the carrier.

The next day the phone rings and the insurance examiner is calling, right on schedule, to set the interview "right after the next physical therapy appointment?" Our worker feels the panic start to rise. He has a vague sense that he is in trouble and he doesn't know what he did wrong. He hangs up, reaches for the Yellow Pages and looks under "A". You can bet it isn't for acupuncturists.

We're off and running, less than two weeks into an injury. What is wrong with this picture?

Article series by employer's workers'compensation consultant Linda Benoit. Linda has been in the Work Comp field for 20 years as a paralegal, in medical administration and as a Work Comp Coordinator and has worked as a consultant since 1989. Contact Linda at lindaraeb@earthlink.net, or by phone at (530)432-4397.