Comp Quotes

Leadership changes in underwriting and premium audit

Laura Robison replaces Bruce Hoffman—who is retiring—as VP of underwriting.
After 16 years of dedicated service to SAIF and our policyholders, VP of underwriting Bruce Hoffman is retiring on March 29.

"I have never seen Bruce waver in his fundamental principles of doing what's right for our policyholders, their workers, and the workers' compensation system," SAIF CEO Kerry Barnett declared. "‘If we can, we should' continues to be the mantra in underwriting, an important differentiator from our competitors. Bruce's impact has been broad and deep."

Chief actuarial officer Laura Robison will take on leadership of the underwriting and premium audit functions, in addition to her responsibilities with the actuarial team.

Robison served as Oregon's insurance commissioner prior to coming to SAIF, as well as chief financial officer of the Oregon Health Authority. She has the comprehensive knowledge, skills, and management experience to serve in this expanded role.

In addition, the billing and collections team will now report to Gina Manley, VP of finance.

These changes will take effect on April 1.

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Medford Reforestation Forum

More than 50 contractors helped identify injury trends, prevention strategies, and more.
Last fall, our Medford office hosted a Reforestation Forum, presented in both English and Spanish to more than 50 reforestation contractors.

Reforestation is a particularly large industry in southern Oregon with unique exposures regarding workers' comp coverage. These include extraterritorial coverage issues, complex classification assignment, and workers often hired through the H2B visa program.

The Reforestation Forum identified industry injury trends and strategies for injury prevention and clarified payroll class assignment and worker-state subjectivity.

An outcome of the forum was development of Oregon state subjectivity guidelines for H2B reforestation workers. The guidelines note factors considered in establishing Oregon subjectivity.

"Development of these guidelines was important in providing clear direction to the industry on state subjectivity and reporting," said David Jordan, SAIF's southern operations director.

SAIF also recommends that reforestation employers request an other states coverage policy to avoid noncompliance when working in other states.

One attendee said the reforestation forum provided clarity on complex topics. "I was especially glad to get a better understanding of class codes and state subjectivity."

Another remarked, "I have a better understanding of the H2B visas and other state coverage/subjectivity."

A second Reforestation Summit is planned for Wednesday, November 6, 2019, in Medford.

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Changing how we handle policyholder calls to underwriters

Our staff will first transfer the call to you or your agency.
Although it doesn't happen very frequently, our reception staff occasionally field calls from your customers asking to speak with "their underwriter." If it's related to a billing or payroll question, we transfer these calls to the appropriate departments.

However, if the customer indicates that it isn't either of these and they want to speak to the underwriter (not our service center), our reception staff will first try to transfer those calls to you.

We know you want to be involved in changes to policies, and that you're the best person to handle these calls. In an effort to provide the best customer experience, we'll transfer the call to the underwriter if we can't get in touch with you or your agency. The underwriter will then follow up with you.

If you have questions, please contact your underwriter.

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New electronic ERM-14 filing

NCCI’s Experience Rating Ownership Submission feature expedites reporting.
In January, NCCI released an Experience Rating Ownership Submission tool to electronically complete and submit ERM-14 forms. The online nature of NCCI's tool improves and expedites the required reporting of ownership changes.

A primary feature is DocuSign, which allows a policyholder to electronically review, sign, and submit the ERM-14 to NCCI. An additional feature lets us share an ID number so you can access the form to confirm, modify, or add information before we submit it to NCCI.

SAIF is happy to complete and submit ERM-14 forms to NCCI, even though you can do it yourself. Should you choose to do it yourself, please remember to notify us of the changes, too, so we can confirm coverage continuation and determine owner subjectivity.

Please contact your underwriter or the SAIF service center (888.598.5880) if you have questions.

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Capitol update

A quick review of major workers' comp bills before the legislature.
SAIF has been the catalyst in forming a coalition of business and labor groups that has held meetings with key and new legislators to educate them on workers' comp. The well-received meetings provided a brief history of the workers' comp system and emphasized the importance of the vetting of legislation by the Management Labor Advisory Committee.

Bills of interest:

• (SAIF bill) HB 3003 - Provides an additional option for self-insured employers wanting to enter the private insurance market. This bill would allow a self-insured employer on entering the competitive market, with the approval of the director of DCBS, to buy insurance coverage from a workers' comp insurance carrier to cover both future injuries as well as the continued costs from when they were self-insured. Currently, a self-insured company entering the competitive market is required to keep a deposit with DCBS for a minimum of 62 months to cover the continuing costs of injured workers from when they were self-insured. The deposit can range into the millions of dollars and may be increased.
  
  Purchasing an insurance policy creates certainty for employers, workers, and the state of Oregon. For employers, cost is more certain. For workers, benefits are administered by an insurer rather than the employer. For the state, the transfer of risk from the self-insured employer eliminates the risk that they are unable to pay for claims due to financial troubles including bankruptcy; when a self-insured employer transfers all its risk to an insurer, the state no longer bears the burden that the deposit it holds may be insufficient.
• SB 507/HB 2418 - This bill creates a presumption that stress and PTSD diagnosis of law enforcement, firefighters, corrections officers, youth authority officers, and 911 dispatchers were caused by work. Sponsored by a variety of public safety unions, the bill is being worked on by an MLAC subcommittee and had a hearing before the Senate Workforce Committee.
• HB 3022 - Sponsored by the Oregon Trial Attorneys Association, it seeks to make major changes to pillars of the 1990 workers' comp reforms, including eliminating consideration of many pre-existing conditions. The bill is being worked on by an MLAC subcommittee and had a public hearing before the House Business and Labor Committee. The scope of the discussion has been limited to diagnostics and ceases denials.

Legislation from the Oregon Workers' Compensation Division:

• HB 5011 - The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs budget includes a request for $1 million to begin planning to modernize the Workers' Comp Division computer system. SAIF is supportive of the division's request and has been in close contact. The bill is before the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
• HB 2087 - Increases the aggregate fine limit for insurer violations from $40,000 a year to $180,000 annually, keeping a $2,000 per violation cap. SAIF has supported giving the department the tools necessary to enforce their rules. The bill is currently awaiting the Governor's signature.

The session will end in June.