"Help, My Workers' Compensation Costs Are Rising!

An employer who is hoping to control costs during this economic recession, needs two very basic tools to succeed.

First, they must personally investigate any time loss injury that occurs. Often, employers leave investigation to either the state fund adjuster or to the third party adjuster. Putting your faith and all your eggs in this basket is a prescription for failure. In addition, many of your line managers hold key information regarding the injured employee. Does the injured party have pre-existing conditions that may play into this injury? Did they complain of back pain two days before they claimed injury to their back on the job? Are they playing baseball, soccer, or did they clean out their garage on the weekend?
One client I worked with had someone who was prescribed total bed rest (not an accepted modality by most physicians) and two days later was hauling snowmobiles from his ex-wife's garage.

Second, once the claim is in play, the employer must develop a plan of action on how to resolve the claim complete with dates to review the claim. In my experience, an adjuster, whether they work for state funds or for third parties, rarely had a written plan of action. Most ran by the seat of their pants with little strategic planning on how to resolve the claim. Keep in mind, most third party adjusters are working on this claim for a fixed price. Once it reaches that threshold, less attention will be paid to the claim.

An employer must be sure the claim keeps moving to resolution. My most recent client that adopted these two recommendations, were on the path to saving over half of their developed losses for the year. This achievement took three dedicated people a little over 6 months to achieve. That was money back in that company's pocket in these very cost conscious times.