Risk & Business

Image via Wikipedia Based upon an article in www.insurancenewsnet.com it seems that between what individual states have done to bring down workers compensation premiums and the current recession , insurance companies are being forced to be more selective when writing coverage.  Due to the consistent decline in premiums many companies are being even choosier by geographic region and by classification.  Many states seem to have forgotten that insurance companies are in the business to make a buck and if the profit motive is constantly being whittled away then many insurance companies will have no choice but to pull back in order to protect themselves and their financial position.  Of course this will mean more business heading to the various state funds but these funds are heading for trouble themselves due to their constant rate reductions.  Sounds like a recipe for a heck of a mess.

In the past I have spoken to clients regarding a particular workers compensation claim affecting them and have asked if they have brought the employee back to work yet. Too many times the answer is no, they have nothing for that employee to do since said employee is not 100% and unable to perform their specific job prior to their workers compensation injury/claim. The problem with this is that too often employers miss the point that even though an employee can't perform in the position they were in prior to their injury, it behooves the employer to create some type of alternative task/job the employee can do until such time they are able to resume their normal duties. Bringing that employee back to work means that work comp benefits /payments in that particular claim are being curtailed, thereby saving the employer potentially more being paid out, while adding to their experience mod and driving their overall work comp expenses up.

Image via Wikipedia Recently an official with the Virginia workers compensation commission rescinded a $200.00 a day fine against Facebook . It seems an employer in the state requested photos from Facebook of an employee who was collecting workers compensation. Apparently the photos revealed the employee on vacation while they were supposed to be injured/rehabilitating and collecting workers compensation. Officials at Facebook refused to turn over the photos citing the federal Electronics Communications Privacy Act prohibited it from responding to the subpoena . To me this illustrates the lengths employers and those administering workers compensation will go in order to combat fraud. This should probably serve as a cautionary tale as well to those who frequent these social networking sites. Be careful what you put up there in cyberspace, the "EYES" are everywhere.

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr I recently came across a post on a insurance blog, link above, that discussed the usage of peer group pressure being brought to bear to help decrease workers compensation costs. The idea was to divide your employees into groups to start a competition among them to see who can have the lowest workers compensation claim incidence rate . The article suggested monthly prizes, recognition, etc, to be used as a form of incentive . Obviously a larger motivating factor, often unspoken, would be the peer pressure among team members to keep other members incidence rates to a minimum. Those employers with not enough staff to divide into teams can use the same concept on an individual basis. Each employee would still strive to keep their incidence rate down so as to decrease the chances of having their fellow employees look down on them since results would be publicly posted monthly. There are many good ideas out there, this just being a good ...

Image via Wikipedia Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn today announced another cut for workers compensation rates to be effective October 1st. This rate cut is an average 11.57 % decrease in premiums, covering the wide range of occupations covered under the code. When combined with the rate cuts previously undertaken last fall, the State of Delaware insurance website, www.delawareinsurance.gov, is touting the almost 30% decrease in workers compensation rates since last year. While work still remains to be done on the cost containment/managed care portion of recent workers compensation legislation, this is a good sign for employers that the days of runaway workers compensation costs/premiums might indeed be a thing of the past.