By decreasing work time lost from to job-related injuries and illnesses, Return-to-Work (RTW) programs can reduce your insurance costs (Workers Compensation, Disability, and Medical insurance), strengthen workplace morale, boost productivity – and help protect you against ADAAA litigation.
Here are ten common mistakes by businesses when using RTW:
- Failure to manage the higher number of employees covered by the ADAAA. An expanded definition of disability has increased the number of employees under the ADA to the point that some attorneys advise against fighting disability claims.
- Insisting on employee release to “full duty” before returning to work. This raises Workers Comp costs and the possibility of the employee not returning to work when medically possible.
- Ignoring co-morbidities. Health issues that complicate or delay an employee’s recovery (such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension) can increase Comp claims.
- Failure to commit the necessary budget or resources. The costs of absences and non-compliance with government rules is usually far higher than that of implementing an RTW.
- Reluctance to set transitional assignments because employees “might get reinjured.” It’s even riskier to have them stay at home and develop a “disability attitude” that extends the absence and boosts costs.
- Failure to distinguish “light duty” from “transitional work.” The ADAAA permits employers to reserve less physically demanding or “light-duty” jobs for those with work-related disabilities – and these jobs should be distinct from transitional tasks.
- Relying on physicians to guide the RTW process. Although physicians are medical experts, they’re not familiar with workplace policies, job demands, and the availability of transitional work.
- Failure to understand overlapping and conflicting laws. The clashing requirements of insurance companies and state and local governments can be a nightmare.
- Inability to focus on the goal. An Integrated Benefits Institute study ranked a focus on the employee’s job as the major success factor in successful RTW programs.
- Believing that Workers Comp settlements resolve other liabilities. One size does not fit all.
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Third-Party Administrator (TPA) adjusters form the front line of defense against unnecessary claims expenses, including such traditional cost drivers as fraud or opioid pain medication addiction. They’re the ones who determine how soon employees will mend and return to the job, the length of claims, and whether closing a claim will require additional resources, such as attorney involvement. It makes sense that the more closely you monitor the adjusters of your company’s TPA, the lower your Workers Comp claims costs – and premiums.
However, adjusters today are running on overload more than ever. In addition to managing larger caseloads, they face growing real-time information demands, increasing communication speed, and expanding regulations – which distract them from such cost-control practices as staying in contact with injured workers. Says one claims adjustment expert, “The fastest way of getting an injured employee to hire an attorney is making them feel like you don’t really care about their injury. So you end up with a lot more claims than necessary going to attorneys, which leads to higher claim costs.”
It makes sense to work closely with your TPA adjuster by following these guidelines:
- Interview adjusters before they’re assigned to your company.
- Review the adjuster’s claims notes on a regular basis.
- Audit the TPA’s services periodically to make sure that the adjuster is meeting your expectations.
- Develop close relationships with claims examiners and their supervisors.
We’d be happy to work with you and your TPA adjuster on keeping tabs on your Workers Comp claims costs. Please feel free to get in touch with us.
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Some companies employ workers who work alone or in remote areas where injuries and illnesses can occur, resulting in delays in emergency response or medical assistance. They include people who work outside normal business hours, such as janitors, security guards, special production, plant maintenance or repair staff, delivery truck drivers, and others. Protecting the safety of these lone or remote workers isn’t always easy – but it’s your responsibility.
In some cases, you must monitor the exposure of these workers to identify potential hazards, assess the risks of injury or illness, and take steps to eliminate or control them. Bear in mind that some high-risk activities have safety regulations which require at least one other person to do the job, such as confined space work (defined by OSHA regulations) or electrical work at or near exposed live conductors.
If you have any employees out in the field or working alone, consider what safety measures to take to protect their well-being and security. A well-thought-out safety program for these employees is an essential first step. Hazard control measures might include:
- Safety Awareness information.
- Training.
- Supervision.
- Protective Equipment.
- Communication and Monitoring devices.
Take steps to make sure that these safety control measures remain in effect – and review your plan at regular intervals by doing a risk assessment in areas where employees work alone.
As your professional insurance agents, it’s our responsibility to help you keep all of your workers safe at all times. Give us a call at any time to discuss how we can help.
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Business Property insurance protects your building and property against loss or damage from theft, accident, and a variety of other causes. The policy will pay for replacing or repairing covered property or providing compensation for irreplaceable items.
If you don’t own your building you’ll still need to cover its contents: fixtures, furniture, office equipment, inventory and the supplies stored at your location or off-site.
The premium will depend on whether you choose to insure the replacement cost or actual cash value (ACV) of the property. Most Business Property coverage is written on a replacement-cost basis, which will reimburse you for replacing lost or stolen goods with new items at current market prices. This feature can help your business recover from the loss or theft quickly. (If you’re leasing equipment, the leaseholder might require you to cover it at replacement value.) You’ll need to revise your coverage when you acquire or dispose of property. Be sure to update replacement values over time; a computer worth $1,000 two years ago might cost half that today – on the other hand, the price of a desk might well increase.
Actual cash value coverage, which generally costs less, provides reimbursement for the depreciated value of covered property. If your business owns its own equipment, which you could replace easily with comparable goods at depreciated market value, the lower premium of an ACV policy might make it a more cost-effective choice.
As always, our agency’s Business Insurance specialists stand ready to offer their advice on choosing the coverage that’s best for you. Just give us a call.
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Business Interruption (BI) insurance makes sense. Consider Allison Dorst, a New Jersey resident who operates three e-commerce web sites selling sportswear. Last fall, Superstorm Sandy brought a prolonged power failure that shut down Dorst’s customer-service lines, causing sales to evaporate. She’ll also see lower sales because of a month-long delay in the delivery of next season’s styles. Fortunately, her Business Interruption coverage will reimburse the profits lost because of this lost revenue.
Although most middle-market business owners and managers understand the need for BI, they don’t always have the information they need to choose the right coverage. Some companies don’t have enough insurance to remain in business after they suffer a major loss, while other businesses might be buying more coverage than they need. When it comes time to renew your BI insurance, be sure to take a close look at the insured or reported values for the policy, as well as on the various coverage extensions that apply to your business, based on its operations. It also makes sense to consider additional coverages such as:
- Contingent Business Interruption
- Claim preparation fees
- Extended period of indemnity
- Expediting expense
- Service interruption/power outage, including overhead transmission and off-premises lines
- Extra expenses
- Ordinary payroll coverage
- Selling price of finished goods inventory
- Ingress/egress
- Loss of attraction
- Civil authority
- Sue and labor
We’d be happy to offer our advice, free of charge, in selecting the amount and types of coverage that can minimize your financial risk and keep you in business after disaster strikes. Feel free to get in touch with us at any time.
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By now, employers should all realize and understand that sexual harassment is illegal. However, what employers might not be aware of is that the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings in June of 1998 that expanded what is termed sexual harassment; expanded the responsibility that employers have to provide a work environment that’s non-hostile; and did away with harassed employees having to prove that their company holds some responsibility or that their career suffered from lack of promotion, firing, demotion, or such. Employers are now directly responsible for employee behavior, thereby giving harassed employees more recourse in bringing about legal actions against employers. Work-related harassment and discrimination cases have been climbing steadily since the Civil Rights Act of 1991 allowed for trial by jury, compensatory damages, and punitive damages in legal cases involving discrimination. In fact, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the amount of annual employment harassment and discrimination cases being filed grew by more than 13% between 1997 and 2009.
Any employer that’s ever been involved in a sexual harassment suit can attest that the cost to settle or defend a sexual harassment lawsuit can be jaw dropping. The average award for damages in these types of lawsuits is around $650,000, and that isn’t even including the secondary cost from workplace disruption, bad publicity, and those involved in the suit being absent from work.
What Constitutes Sexual Harassment? The first step in protection is understanding what is defined as sexual harassment. State and federal law prohibits behavior that involves an employee in authority basing professional expectations or decisions regarding a subordinate employee being willing or unwilling to exchange sexual acts. The following are examples of such behavior:
- Altering expectations of job performance when a subordinate repeatedly refuses advances for a date or sexual encounter.
- A superior demanding sexual acts in order for a subordinate to receive a raise or promotion.
- Disciplinary action, including termination, of a subordinate that refuses sexual advances or ends an existing romantic relationship.
However, sexual harassment doesn’t always involve a subordinate/authority figure relationship. An offender can be anyone from a coworker to a customer or business vendor. The offender can be male or female, as can the victim. Furthermore, the victim doesn’t even need to be the employee actually harassed. Anyone that’s affected by the harassing or offensive behavior can be termed a victim; for example, an employee that overhears two other employees discussing a taboo subject. The two employees directly involved might not be offended, but if the overhearing employee is offended, then it can constitute sexual harassment.
Verbal, visual, physical, or written behavior that causes another employee to view the work environment as hostile, are unwanted, or focus on the sexuality or gender of another person may constitute as sexual harassment. Specific examples of such would be teasing, suggestive objects or pictures being displayed, and repetitively requesting sexual acts or dates verbally or in writing.
Protection with Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). After knowing what constitutes sexual harassment, businesses can further financially protect themselves with Employment Practices Liability insurance (EPLI). This is an insurance to protect employers when an employee makes the claim that their legal rights have been violated. Although policies vary, EPLI generally doesn’t cover criminal or civil penalties and punitive damages. EPLI does generally cover settlements, judgments, and incurred legal costs arising from an array of incidences – wrongful termination, employment contract breaches, employment and promotion failures, wrongful disciplinary actions, wrongful emotional distress infliction, negligent employee evaluations, employee benefit plan mismanagement, discrimination, and sexual harassment.
Coverage is specific. So, before purchasing a policy, decide who should be covered. For example, should full and part-time employees, contracted persons, supervisors, department heads, subsidiaries, company divisions, and so forth be covered or not? One other note about EPLI is that it’s mandatory for employers to report incidents within a reasonable amount of time. Some policies might feature an ERP (extended reporting period) or prior acts. The length, cost, and availability vary by carrier.
Purchasing EPLI has been challenging for small companies in the past. However, the 2004 rate increases have somewhat plateaued. Some rates have even decreased. Keep in mind that EPLI cost is figured based on the business type, employee numbers, and past lawsuits associated with the business.
Prevention of Harassment Lawsuits. Prevention is the cornerstone in decreasing the risk of a sexual harassment lawsuit. Prevention steps include the following key elements:
- If the business has EPLI, any incident should be reported immediately.
- Create, communicate, and enforce a zero-tolerance policy for workplace sexual harassment.
- Have an effective harassment complaint process in place and take immediate, consistent, and appropriate action when a complaint is made.
- Thoroughly document all complaints and the following investigation and actions.
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