Early Incident Reporting Saves Money and Headaches
A strong focus and commitment to injury prevention is the most surefire way to improve your safety metrics and reduce your workers’ comp costs. When prevention activities fail, and an injury occurs, it is equally important to have strong claims handling procedures in place. In fact, our data supports that claims reported within a week are 44% less expensive than those reported at four weeks! Here are some other benefits of early claim reporting:
- Decreases attorney involvement – 31% of claims reported after four weeks have attorney involvement.
- Claims close faster – 71% of claims reported after four weeks are still open at 18 months.
- Allows immediate incident investigation, which can help your safety team identify cause and avoid similar injuries in the future.
- Promotes a caring and helpful atmosphere. When you know an incident occurred, you can help your worker navigate the confusing L&I system and overcome barriers with medical treatment.
- Provides critical information for early claims management.
- Provides a level of accountability and helps you avoid fraudulent claims.
Our team of dedicated claim managers is here to help you navigate the claims process, and the sooner we know about a claim, the sooner we can help. Please report claims to us immediately by calling your ERNwest Claim Manager, reporting claims via email at claimsreporting@ernwest.com, or report claims securely online in our ERNwest Reporting Portal.
GRIP Safety Committee
If this sounds familiar, “Hey, we were just visited by L&I and need a safety person, TAG YOUR IT!” this is the place for you. Come join the GRIP Safety Committee, October 27, 10am to share best practices and discover the issues impacting the building community.
Return to Work (RTW)
The single most powerful tool an employer has in controlling its workers’ compensation costs is immediately providing meaningful work.
OCTOBER TIP: Don’t forget L&I reimburses up to half of the modified-duty wages you pay your employee. This savings makes immediate return-to-work even more cost-effective for you as an employee.
Making Money with RTW – for Free!
Avoiding Time-loss benefits through Return to Work (RTW) lowers your L&I premium rates and increases your GRIP refunds. GRIP is excited to launch a new program that, when combined with L&I’s Stay at Work program, reimburses you up to 100% of the base wages for injured employees working modified duty. Now you can enjoy the enormous cost savings that come with avoiding state time loss benefits at no expense to your company. Go to our website for detailed information. (Password: WorkSafe)
Focus on Safety (FOS) –
Struck By | FALLS
Each month we will focus on one of these incidents which cause the most injuries in the construction industry.
Slip-and-Fall Vigilance as We Head into Fall
As GRIP members head into fall months, darker skies and rain can cause muddy boots and slippery surfaces that make slips and falls a common occurrence in the residential construction industry. Let’s be proactive and vigilant while working on elevated surfaces such as roofs, ladders, and walkways. If you notice conditions on your construction site that may present a slip or fall hazard, correct them immediately. Download the Beware of Slip and Fall Hazards PDF.
ERNwest FOS Webinar Series – October Training
Each month ERNwest offers topical discussions about safety strategies unique to your industry. Check out our presenters in October.
10/26/2021 | 10:00 AM
Get It Together: Transforming Safety Culture and Performance Through Increased Safety Participation
Presented by: Julie Hile and Jonathan Seiden, The Hile Group
REGISTER
This session will feature case studies from Hile Group’s diverse client portfolio, illustrating how safety pros, ops managers, executive leaders, and front-line workers can work together to turn a vision of proactive safety into daily practice. Participants will take away an overview of how mixed teams build sustainable safety cultures within their companies and the ways to start collectively changing mindsets and behavior.
Other October Webinar Training
Download the 2021 Calendar of FOS Webinars as part of our available training and refer back to ERNwest.com/training for updates and additions.
10/12/2021 | 10:00 AM | Mentoring for Safety – Coaching vs Discipline
10/21/2021 | 10:00 AM | Mentoring for Safety – Coaching vs Discipline
Presented by: ERNwest
Mentoring, coaching and discipline are powerful tools when used appropriately. This class will walk managers, supervisors and leaders through the differences between the three. Through discussion and examples, attendees will learn what each is best suited for and when to apply them.
L&I Announces 2022 Rates
L&I Proposes a Rate Decrease for Construction
Although L&I has proposed an average 3.1% increase statewide, their proposal includes rate decreases for most construction risk classes, averaging to a 1% decrease across the industry. The specific changes proposed for the most common risk classes in GRIP are:
Click here for the full list of construction risk class rates.
What’s notable when reviewing L&I’s proposal is a 10% increase in the Supplemental Pension Fund (SPF) portion of the rates. The SPF pays for cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) on lifetime pension claims. Those COLAs are indexed to the state’s average wage. Washington experienced a 10.1% increase in the state’s average wage last year, leading to a corresponding increase in the SPF.
ERNwest has obtained your company’s specific 2022 experience modification factor (EMF) and rates and will be sending those to you shortly. If you have any questions about your rates and want to talk about strategies for lowering your rates in the future, please contact ERNwest at aday@ernwest.com.
Other Safety Information
National Protect Your Hearing Month
Did you know tools such as circular saws, table saws and hand drills exceed the permissible exposure limit of hearing loss? Did you know that hearing loss is the third-most common chronic physical condition among adults? Go to Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention to learn how to protect your employees during National Protect Your Hearing Month.
Vaccine Mandates and Workers’ Comp.
Will your company be affected by the new vaccine mandates? If you have an employee working modified duty because of a workplace injury and they are at risk of being terminated because of the vaccine mandates, make sure you are protected from L&I Time Loss!
How? Verify that a reasonably continuous job offer is in place with a medically approved job description. Contact your ERNwest claim manager for assistance if you have not completed this documentation. When you have an employee working modified duty without a reasonably continuous job offer in place, it is almost guaranteed that L&I will pay Time Loss if they are terminated because of the vaccine mandates.
Upcoming Training
GRIP Training*
GRIP-specific training benefits new members or serve as a great refresher for established GRIP participants. Click on the topics below for more information about the training and to register. *Training has been moved to webinar events.
10/07/2021 | 10:00 AM | Getting Your GRIP on Claims, Comp & Safety
10/07/2021 | 1:00 PM | Hiring an Independent Contractor
11/04/2021 | 10:00 AM | Getting Your GRIP on Claims, Comp & Safety
11/04/2021 | 1:00 PM | New Year, New Rates – First Look at Your 2022 EMR & Premium Rates
ERNwest Webinar Training
ERNwest presents topics such as Understanding Industrial Insurance Rates, What is Retro? and Using Kept on Salary and Modified Duty Effectively on a monthly basis. Select a topic for more information and to register.
10/05/2021 | 10:00 AM | Understanding Industrial Insurance
10/07/2021 | 2:00 PM | What is Retro?
10/19/2021 | 10:00 AM | Fundamentals of Claims Management
10/26/2021 | 10:00 AM | Using Kept on Salary and Modified Duty Effectively
Find more training online at ernwest.com/training.
Latest COVID-19 Updates
Additional RETRO Resources
GRIP Safety Resources
Access Toolbox Tips and general safety resources. Learn more.
(Password: WorkSafe)
Workplace incident or injury?
Contact ERNwest first.
Report incidents immediately so that your claims manager is aware and can help guide you through the process.
ERNwest.com/report-an-incident
Contact
For precautionary reasons related to COVID-19, MBAKS offices are closed until King County enters Phase 3. Staff is working remotely and can be reached via phone or email. Events and class cancellations are noted on the MBAKS Events Calendar. Refer to the MBAKS COVID-19/Updates for up-to-date information.
GRIP Retro Questions?
Ashlee Day, GRIP Group Manager, (253) 237-0809 | ADay@ernwest.com
GRIP Safety Questions?
Ann Kershul, GRIP Safety Manager, (253) 237-0819 | AKershul@ernwest.com
Michael Octave CSP, CHST, VP Safety, (253) 237-0812 | MOctave@ernwest.com
GRIP Stay-At-Work Questions?
Annette Brown, GRIP Stay-At-Work Coordinator, (253) 372-2357 | SAW2@ERNwest.com
