March Resources from Sedgwick - OABA Member Service Partner

OABA is pleased to partner with Sedgwick to offer members quality service and stability through the complex workers’ compensation environment. Check out these updates from Sedgwick regarding tracking & calculating Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) and cost control strategies.

Cost control strategies

Sedgwick utilizes leading measures and predictive cost containment to help Ohio employers contain costs and lower premiums. When a claim occurs, Sedgwick is ready to apply cost containment strategies to quickly resolve the claim.

Salary continuation

Salary continuation is compensation paid to an injured worker by the employer, in lieu of temporary total compensation paid by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC). By continuing to pay an injured worker’s wages as if they were still working the regular amount of hours per week, an employer can avoid BWC paying out temporary total compensation of the claim.

Lump sum settlements

A lump sum settlement is an agreement between the employer, injured worker and BWC for a payment of lump sum, to settle one or more workers’ compensation claims. Settling a claim allows the removal of the settled claims’ reserves and helps to keep the employer’s premium costs lower.

Handicap reimbursements

Handicap reimbursement is a program where an employer may seek reimbursement if an injured worker has one of 25 pre-existing conditions. Under the program, an employer may file for reimbursement on certain workers’ compensation claims, if it can be proven the handicapped condition(s) led to the injury or delayed the healing process.

Vocational rehabilitation

Vocational rehabilitation helps injured workers safely return to work or maintain employment and decrease costs of workers’ compensation claims. These services are individually tailored to meet the needs of injured workers and their work environment.

Modified duty off-site (MDOS)

MDOS is offered to assist in returning employees to work (temporarily offsite) following an injury or period of disability. This program provides placement for employees, who are not able to temporarily return to their original job. Typically, these job placements are coordinated with non-profit organizations. MDOS allows employees to resume a productive work lifestyle while transitioning to their regular job, helping decrease claim costs for the employer.

Transitional work program

Transitional work allows injured employees with medical restrictions to work in their job or a transitional job for a limited period of time under the supervision of a medical provider. This program helps lower an employer’s workers’ compensation costs by decreasing the number of days an injured worker is off work.

For more information, contact our Sedgwick program manager, Rejeana Woolum-Napier at rejeana.woolum-napier@sedgwick.com or at (614)359-2403.

Tracking & Calculating Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR)

There’s no shortage of metrics to capture in your environmental, health and safety strategy. Figuring out which ones can make the biggest impact can seem daunting, but many of them are critical to your organization’s success. When creating your EHS strategy, recording your Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) should be a priority.

What is lost time incident rate?

Lost time incident rate is a standard OSHA and PERRP metric that calculates the number of incidents that result in time away from work. Not all recordable incidents result in lost time, which is why there is a separate calculation for these more severe incidents.

For example, a workplace injury where an employee breaks his or her arm on the job and misses work the next day would be included in an LTIR report. A similar situation where an injured employee can work the next day would not be included in this metric.

How to calculate lost time incident rate

The formula to use: (Number of lost time cases x 200,000)/total number of hours worked by employees

The figure 200,000 is a standard number to measure incident rates so companies of varying sizes can be compared fairly. This figure was determined by multiplying 100 employees by 40 hours (a standard work week) by 50 weeks (assuming each employee takes two weeks of vacation). The resulting figure indicates the number of employees who lost time due to an incident.

For example, if you have 40 full-time employees and 3 incidents that resulted in lost time, your calculation will look like this: (3 x 200,000) / 80,000 (40 employees x 40 hours per week x 50 weeks per year)

Your lost time incident rate would be 7.5, which means that for every 100 employees, 7.5 have experienced lost time due to an incident.

The importance of tracking lost time incident rate

It might sound like just another metric, especially if you’re already obligated by OSHA/PERRP to record it. But even if no one is forcing your hand, this piece of data can prove beneficial to your company.

For starters, calculating your lost time incident rate lets you know how much impact those incidents have on your organization and if the trend is improving or worsening over time.

Your lost time incident rate may also affect your business insurance rates. An increase in this figure may trigger a series of other events, including a hike on your insurance premiums.

Another benefit is that this statistic is impossible to over-report, unlike recordable incidents. Some companies record incidents that shouldn’t be recorded for fear of becoming non-compliant with OSHA requirements.

Reporting unnecessary incidents exaggerate your figures, since LTIR focuses only on incidents resulting in time away from work, there’s no way for you to skew the results so you get a more accurate idea of your safety status.

Making the most of lost time incident rate reporting

LTIR is a lagging indicator, meaning it uses data from incidents that have already happened. This figure on its own can’t help you forecast future incidents, but it can prove useful over time.

Many medium- and large-sized organizations calculate this rate monthly and track the trends from month to month. You can compare this rate to activities in your safety program to help gauge their effectiveness. For example, if you implement a new form of training at the beginning of the year and notice your LTIR decreases from the previous year, you might be inclined to believe your safety training had something to do with it.

If you notice your rate starts to climb, you’ll know to investigate it sooner than later. If they decline, you’ll know something in your safety program is working.

Resources

The Division of Safety & Hygiene’s safety, industrial hygiene and ergonomics specialists can help you develop effective strategies to make your workplace safer and healthier. They can visit your workplace or consult with you by telephone or email. These services are available for any private or public employer. BWC also offers specialized options for certain employers. You can request these services online at: info.bwc.ohio.gov or 1.800.644.6292

For more information, please contact Craig Lanken at 330.472.1656 or craig.lanken@sedgwick.com

Learn more about Sedgwick!

Did you know that many alternative discounts are available to help reduce your annual Ohio workers’ compensation costs? Through the OABA workers’ compensation program, your organization can significantly reduce your workers’ compensation costs through a variety of alternative rating programs. Our program, administered by Sedgwick, offers you quality service and stability through the complex workers’ compensation environment.

For over 50 years, Sedgwick has been helping employers navigate Ohio’s workers’ compensation system, providing services to help them control claim-related costs and reduce premiums. Our team includes the experienced colleagues from CompManagement and CareWorks Comp.

Learn more about how Sedgwick can help your company save significantly on your workers’ compensation premium by visiting www.oaba.net/services_workers_comp.