Reform from Within; Employers Take Control - 5

Saturday, August 16, 2003 | 0

Reform From Within: Placing Control of Work Comp in the Hands of the Employers - Where it Belongs - Part 5

This is part 5 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. In Part 3, we examined some of the causes that contribute to escalating work comp fees and what employers can to take back control. In Part 4, we explored how untrained and overworked carriers add to the problem of escalating workers' comp payouts and what employers can do to manage cases from within. In this last installment, we explore what happens when employers utilize qualified, in-house staff or consultants to better manage their workers' comp cases and enhance employer-employee relationships.

Results of Reform From Within - Maintenance of Employer-Employee Relationship

To recap our scenario with a work comp coordinator in place: Our injured worker was provided immediate and excellent medical care. His communication was primarily with a person from his employer whom he trusts and secondarily from an insurance carrier who sent his checks during his time off work. He liked his doctor and the lines of communication were always open between himself, his doctor and his employer. If there were any problems he could call his employer and they took care of things for him. In time he was able to return to modified duty, then to full duty. Despite some lost time, he was not sent back to work before he was ready, and when he did go back, there was no re-injury. Most of all there was no attorney, no double medicals, no excessive lost time. There was maintenance of a positive employer-employee relationship, cost containment and a work comp coordinator who earned their pay.

I have used a large company as an illustration. Small and mid-sized companies have just as great a need for in-house control of work comp as do larger companies, but are not usually in a position to have one dedicated employee. It would be pretty impractical to have a full time employee to handle ten injuries a year. On the other hand, ten injuries a year could make a significant difference in your insurance costs if even one or two of them were attorney cases that didn't need to be, or mishandled at the carrier level and over-reserved or open reserves on closed cases.

There are a number of ways to take more control of your work comp: you can take basic classes in work comp; you can have a consultant train either you or a trusted employee and set a system in place for your company; you can retain a consultant firm to represent your company so that when one of your employees is injured, the consultant functions as your work comp coordinator.

The bottom line is that you must begin to become pro-active as employers and pay more attention to detail within your work comp arena. It is, I remind you, one of your biggest expenses and getting bigger every year. We all want to see that come down. That money could be put to much better use somewhere else.

No Time Like The Present

Employers, it is time to start the reform from within. You need to take charge and stop doing things the same way over and over and expecting a different result. As long as you keep turning your work injuries over to overworked, under-trained insurance adjusters, we are going to continue to pay outrageous premiums to an increasingly more broken system. Everybody has had a hand in making this mess, primarily because so many people and groups have so many agendas, but employers are culpable too in the same way absentee landlords are culpable while the plumbing rusts until the pipes burst in their buildings. Eventually they have to step up and change the darn pipes themselves.

I have touched on the value of having an advocate within your company to keep a watchful eye on your work comp. We have yet to discuss safety committees and programs or rate classifications, both of which have significant money saving potential.

It is my belief that every company needs an employee with work comp expertise or needs to be associated with a work comp consultant that is advocating for them. I understand that in smaller companies their key person would be wearing a number of hats, but I would argue that work comp experience be a necessary qualification for the employee in this position, or consider sending key employees to classes so they will have a working knowledge of work comp. Last, but not least, call a consultant in to get your people trained so that you are back in charge of the insane system you are now paying for.

We no longer need to passively, grumpily accept work comp as a necessary evil and one of the downsides of doing business in California. Let's start by looking at it as a valuable asset that is protecting our work force. Employers, take charge as of now. Since you are going to have to bear the cost of the system, it is time to start taking responsibility for how it works!

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.