Comp Quotes | summer 2021

A message from Chip Terhune, SAIF's new CEO

As you are reading this, I will have been in my new role for just a couple of weeks and am still learning everything I need to know about SAIF, our customers, and workers' comp.

Yet one thing is already clear: the importance and value of SAIF's appointed agents. You are critical to attracting, serving, and retaining our customers, and we want to do everything we can to partner with you and help you be successful.

We know that workers' comp can be complex for businesses. With you as our partners, we want to make it as simple as possible for businesses to get a policy and understand the best ways to manage it.

I'm looking forward to meeting many of you in the coming year, particularly as we transition to more in-person events, including the 2022 Workers' Compensation Seminar. I want to hear about what it's like working with SAIF, what is working well for you, and how we can improve. Please don't hold back! Your feedback will make us better and help us better serve our policyholders.

Thank you for your continued partnership and dedicated service to SAIF and our mutual customers.

About Chip

Chip Terhune became SAIF's CEO on July 1, 2021. He brings experience from a wide variety of roles in Oregon government and insurance, including:

• Chief of staff for former Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski
• Assistant executive director of Oregon Education Association
• Director of environmental and public affairs at Schnitzer Steel in Portland
• Multiple vice president roles at Cambia Health Solutions in Portland
• Senior vice president and general manager of government programs and accounts for Medecision, a health care technology company

Chip has a bachelor's in international studies and a master's in public affairs from the University of Oregon.

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Keeping payroll estimates and operational information up to date

The economic recession and other events of the past year have had a significant impact on payroll for many businesses. Our agency partners have played a critical role in ensuring we have accurate payroll estimates for our customers on installment billing plans so that premium can be calculated and charged correctly.

As an example, a restaurant that temporarily closed due to the pandemic may have reduced payroll estimates significantly. If payroll estimates are not increased when their operations resume, it could result in a significant amount of premium due when payroll is reconciled at year end. It could also result in their renewal payroll and billing being out of alignment with actual operational expectations.

Please continue to keep us up to date on significant changes affecting policyholders' payroll or operations including:

• Reduced or increased payroll
• Changes to operations or products and services being offered

Additionally, many policyholders reduced payroll estimates during the past year, so as their policies come up for renewal, it will be important that you provide SAIF with accurate payroll estimates for the future year so that premium and billing plans can be adjusted accordingly. We welcome policy updates at any point during the year, but please continue to provide updated renewal payroll estimates 45 days prior to renewal whenever possible, to ensure policies are being issued using the most accurate premium estimates available.

Please reach out directly to the service center or your region underwriter with any significant changes that may impact a policyholder's renewal.

*Note: Beginning with the June 1, 2020, renewals, the 6.2% renewal payroll inflation factor was reduced to 0%. This factor was in place to account for projected wage growth, reflecting the historical average growth for SAIF policyholders. We are in the beginning stages of evaluating reinstatement of an inflation factor and will let you know when we decide to make a change in the future.

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Outage scheduled for Labor Day weekend

Our co-location project, which will physically move all SAIF's servers and databases out of SAIF's server room in Salem and into Flexential's data center in Hillsboro, is underway. The team is preparing for implementation over Labor Day weekend.

Flexential specializes in enterprise data centers, with more than three dozen data centers across the country. Moving our equipment to their data center will provide us with fully redundant power and internet connections, better physical security, and options for more capacity.

What does this mean for you? On September 3-5, almost all SAIF applications, servers, and databases will be unavailable. This will impact both internal and external systems and will include saifQuote and Business Online. Applications that are hosted in the cloud will be available (such as email and Office365), but everything else will be offline. We'll provide more details for you as we get closer to moving day.

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Other states coverage (OSC) submissions

Thanks to all of you who use our OSC product. As a reminder, we can accept ACORD applications for all the other states you want us to review for an OSC quote. We can't accept OSC applications through saifQuote. We've noticed that most of the ACORDs for this coverage are coming to the OSC team incomplete (for example, missing ownership, payrolls by state, and out-of-state locations). If that happens to you, your application will be delayed while we reach out to you for the missing information.

As a rule of thumb, if you couldn't complete a saifQuote submission due to missing data, you'll need to make sure your ACORD also has the complete data so the OSC team can provide you a quick turnaround.

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Build your knowledge of construction

SAIF is offering two live webinars for agents in late July that cover classifying residential and commercial building, from the ground up. We'll have resources to help you classify everything from site clearing to the final cleanup.

Each class is approved for one regular Oregon CEC. Webinars are free, but registration is required.

See our agent course listings for more information and to register.

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Court says classification law applies to truckers

For those of you with clients in California, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court ruled that truck drivers in California are subject to evaluation by AB-5 workers classification law. AB-5 criteria are used to determine if a worker is an employee or independent contractor.

The California Trucking Association argued that it was exempt from AB-5 criteria due to pre-emption by a federal transportation statute. The 9th circuit disagreed, meaning these businesses will have to re-evaluate their workforce with potential workers' compensation coverage implications.

Under the test, employees must meet all three of the following requirements to be classified as independent contractors:

• The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity's business in connection with the performance of the work.
• The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity's business. And,
• The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.

SAIF's other states coverage program allows you to apply for coverage for Oregon policyholders who have workers' comp exposures outside of Oregon. To learn more about the program visit Other states coverage (saif.com).

Contact your underwriter or the SAIF service Center at 888.598.5880 to inquire about getting a quote, or if you have questions.

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News in brief

• Dividend update | Checks will be mailed to eligible policyholders during the week of July 12. You can see amounts for your customers in Business Online.

• Remember, our virtual trainings - both live and recorded - are available in the training section of saif.com. Due to COVID, we are still only offering training online.
• Mark your calendars for SAIF's 30th annual workers' comp seminar on May 5, 2022, at the Salem Conference Center.