Reducing your costs, one day at a time

By Brian Sornson, SAIF State Agency Operations Supervisor

With the start of the new fiscal year, now would be a good time to highlight some key strategies that can help you reduce workers' compensation costs—which have totaled more than $33 million to the State of Oregon over the last four policy periods.

Without a doubt, the best way to do that is to embrace a culture of Total Worker Health® to keep your workforce safe and healthy and prevent claims. However, when claims are filed, the next best thing is to facilitate early transitional work for injured employees who have not been released to regular work.

For perspective, the impact of lost time over the last four years has been high. Thirty percent of all claims were classified as disabling (or "time loss"), with 77,442 missed days and $8.6 million in costs.

Having reviewed thousands of claims over the years, I have observed some consistency in the approach of employers who are most effective at mitigating time-loss costs. This includes:

• Creating an early return-to-work culture within the organization, affirming that workers are brought back to work at the earliest opportunity following an injury
• Setting a uniform understanding with supervisors and managers of their pivotal role in facilitating transitional work and explaining the value it brings to the organization
• Giving injured workers a blank copy of the Return-To-Work Status form to take to the doctor for completion following their initial injury to obtain clearly defined work release information
• Encouraging workers to return to work on the injury date, if released, to complete their shifts so the three-day waiting period is not triggered
• Making contact with the worker on the injury date (if they do not return to work following first treatment) to check on their welfare and confirm if restrictions were established
• Setting reasonable expectations that work restriction information is to be shared promptly following rechecks with the doctor
• Staying in regular contact with workers taken completely off work to offer ongoing encouragement and keep the prospect (and expectation) of returning to transitional duties on the forefront
• Developing a "bank" of transitional duty ideas for each department to potentially pull from, and discuss with supervisors or managers, when the need arises
• Having the worker perform transitional work in another area or even location (if within 50 miles from where injured) if the department where they were injured has no work available
• Developing a similar bank of ideas for possible worksite modifications or equipment purchases that could help with transitional duties
• Considering the full array of benefits that can be accessed under the Employer-At-Injury Program, beyond just wage subsidy reimbursement—including worksite modifications or equipment purchases ($5,000 limit), clothing ($400 limit), or even skills-building training ($1,000 limit)

For many years, state agencies were restricted to offering transitional work for 90 days. However, on April 6, 2015, the transitional work limit increased from three 30-day review sequences to four 30-day review sequences, under State HR Policy (50.020.05 "Early Return to Work").