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Workers Comp Documents Top Six Best Read on Paper – With Bonus

August 16, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants 2 Comments

Workers Comp Documents – Paper Is Best In These Instances

Many Workers Comp documents can be left as PDFs in a computer file. Some documents read better on paper. This article came about due to the article from two weeks ago on paper files in the age of the small screen.

picture of workers comp documents book folded to look like a heart

Public Use License – Wikimedia – Icely88

Most of these go well with a highlighter on paper. If you cannot stand reading anything on paper, you may be missing some important points. Why? We all read so many documents on a screen all day that we tend to rush over the top of them.

Policies

A policy and a highlighter can be your best tools for generating questions and possible savings. Workers Comp policies remain one of the better workers comp documents to print. Almost all policies were designed back in the time where everything was on paper. I had written on this subject a few times over the years. Follow the links to see those articles. You should always have a paper copy of your business policies of all types at your fingertips.

Rating Bureau Information or LDF For Self Insureds

We receive at least 2 – 3 call per week on these often misunderstood Workers Comp rating documents. Rating Bureaus (NCCI, WCIRB, and others) have designed the documents to be more readable in the past few years. California’s WCIRB has completely redesigned their rating sheets.

Rating bureaus can and often do make changes to your Experience Modification Factor for your current, present, and future E-Mods (X-Mods). Filing them away can cost big $$ if you find a past mistake.

Endorsements – very critical

Business owners, risk managers, and other company personnel are sometimes inundated with policy changes on any insurance policy. That is the nature of insurance. An endorsement can change any policy including your original policy Workers Comp documents. Those endorsements should not be just filed away. Your agent will be glad to discuss them with you on receipt.

Policy endorsements should be read and kept in a quickly accessible paper file.

Premium Audits Including Auditor Workpapers

Premium audit articles are very numerous on this website. See this premium audit search. As mentioned earlier, these are usually in PDF files. Many business owners and risk managers have remarked to me that going over the very important workers comp documents on paper was beyond critical to their Workers Comp budget.

First Reports of Injury

Most carriers and Third Party Administrators require the First Reports of Injury (FROI) to be filed online. Many now even charge extra fees if an employer files a 1st report on paper.

One concern here is the slowness of inputting your company’s injury report into the system. The first 48 hours set the tone and risk for the rest of the claim. <<<Yes, but you said this article concerns paper files.

Printing out a copy of the 1st report still remains an important task. Most insurance carrier and TPA’s systems allow for printing the document. How FROI’s look on the screen and paper can be very different.

I recommend printing it out and reviewing very carefully before submitting to eliminate mistakes. No one workers comp document can be more detrimental to your workers comp program than an inaccurate FROI.

All Workers Comp Industrial Commission or Court Mail Including Forms

I added this one in as we had two clients within the last six months that were never notified that a very important hearing or mediation was occurring in the upcoming month.

One client completely missed the hearing. The Industrial Commission had sent them a file with 90+ pages of hearings on the document. The hearing notice was somewhere in those 90+ pages.

A mediation does not call for the employer to attend but instead an employer’s representative (claims adjuster and the defense attorney). However, the mediation may be a good time for the employer to attend the proceeding. If settlement authority is needed from the employer, they are already onsite instead of bouncing phone calls, texts and emails back and forth.

Bonus – Claim Notes and Reserving

This method remains an old trick used by file reviewers for many years. Many processes happen in the workers comp file all at the same time. Even if the claim notes in the workers comp document is separated into different computer file sections, following a train of thought or even a simple form can be tedious at best.

An example –

A workers comp agreement to pay benefits may take two to three months to have it signed by the employer, adjuster, employee (and attorney if they have one) and then filed with the Workers Comp Commission.

Now some adjuster-types will now comment – Hey we have a section on the forms in our system. Yes, but what if there were complications getting the form signed or having the proper amounts on the agreement, etc. I have not seen the associated notes in a Forms section, only the scanned forms at each step of the process.

If an agreement to compensation notes appears on page 11, 23, 45, 67, 110, 130, etc., how does one track that? Printed workers comp documents/notes can be reshuffled, not online ones to see the agreement to compensation flow through the file.

PDF Files For Storage

Mobility means everything nowadays. If you have to read documents while on the road, then PDF’s remain the best file storage. However, I just flew to California and back with a brown folder with 900 pages in it for review as an expert witness. Airlines have never counted the brown folder as a carry-on.

The bottom line is that reviewing documents on paper equals “another set” of eyes even though they are still your own. Let me know (I am curious) how you handle your important workers comp documents.

Filed Under: Workers Comp Documents

Injured Workers Trust Four Professionals The Most During Their Claim

August 14, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants 8 Comments

Who Do Injured Workers Trust During Medical Treatment?

Most injured workers resemble their counterparts in the general public. I came across this article on the most trusted professions. At least five articles on these professionals have appeared earlier.

sketch of medical practitioner after treating injured worker

I decided to covert the general public view as the view of injured workers. I had already written articles on the most trusted professional as a great risk management technique. The other profession held in very high regard were pharmacists.

According to the article by Espresso – Nurses were held in the highest regard by the public. That makes sense and further shows why rehabilitation nurses properly hired and place on workers compensation claims can be a win-win-win-win-win (injured worker-employer-doctor-claims adjuster-overall claim) situation.

The article refers to in-hospital nurses. Rehabilitation nurses should still apply as being a trusted professional. In fact, in 30 years of being involved with insurance claims, I have only had one complaint from an injured worker about their rehabilitation nurse.

I could have possibly been lucky. Even employees represented by an attorney have had very few problems other than the attorney wanting to be kept up to date.

The new addition to the list is physicians. However, Workers Compensation has the aspect of employer medical control to it that may make the medical treatment seem forced – the company doctor, etc.

Most injured workers do not have a problem with the care being controlled by a doctor appointed or paneled by their employer. Even if the injured worker has the right of medical control, they will usually see whomever their employer recommends as the initial treating physician.

One professional that “flies under the radar” is the professional that an injured worker sees the most except for minor claims. The Physical Therapist will usually see the employee for a few times a week for a few weeks.

No other professional will see the employee that often. Other than the rehabilitation nurse, the employee will have very limited time exposures to doctors and pharmacists.

Employers can control the doctor and rehabilitation nurse that sees the employee. Few medical networks address the treating pharmacist and physical therapist. The physical therapist should be considered part of the network of choice.

Many physical therapy networks (MedRisk, etc.) do exist even today. The best that can be done is to use a good network.

Filed Under: medical networks Tagged With: pharmacist, physical therapist, rehabilitation nurses

Workers Compensation Accident MVA Spike Caused By Smartphone Use – Maybe

August 9, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants Leave a Comment

MVA Workers Compensation Accident Increase Possibly Linked To Smartphones

The Workers Compensation accident increase reports are a thing of the past.

All of us know that on-the-job accidents have decreased significantly over the last few years. The one constant in these reports is the lack of a root cause.

picture of auto workers compensation accident

Wikimedia License Nehoda Uhersky

Why has the workers compensation accident rate fallen by 17.6%? No one to date has fully explained the phenomenon. Technology was one of the recommended root-cause decreases. Carpal tunnel syndrome, for instance has been reduced by 50% (amazing).

Now we have the same type of comparison for the increase in Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA’s). NCCI recently released a study of the MVA-related Class Codes. The intensive travel-related class codes (trucking, taxi, etc.) were of course, the ones that accounted for much of the MVA’s.

One shocking statistic in the report was that 40% of all Workers Compensation accident fatalities were due to MVA’s. That percentage is a serious and startling statistic. The full report by NCCI – recommended that you download the whole study from here.

Mark Walls – Safety National Insurance- recently remarked that MVA’s account for their most serious workers compensation accident claims. The same can be said for the NCCI study.

The year 2011 pegs the start of the increase in MVA’s. This starts the parallel use of smartphones. However, no report has ever directly concluded that smartphone use was or remains the root cause of the increase in MVA’s or the workers compensation accident rate.

I decided to dig a little deeper. This Bloomberg Article – Read past the Op-Ed headline shows that only 1.4% of MVA’s since 2011 resulted from smartphone use.

If you read further into the Bloomberg article, the reason for such a low number comes from the fact that not all cell phone use accidents are reported to the NHTSA properly i.e., the Tennessee conundrum in the same article.

We all either have been or have seen the hypnotized driver in the left lane swerving like a DUI candidate in the left lane of a four lane highway. Last week, I drove 15 hours in two days to make (ironically) an NCCI State Advisory Meeting and to make other meetings.

I decided to count the number of smartphone-hypnotized people in the 22 hours stretch of driving. I identified 16 left lane drivers that were on their phone by texting or talking in 22 hours. This route was on rather remote interstate highways.

I did not count the right lane smartphone users as at least they were out of the way and driving slower to offset their unsafe driving habit.

I only counted during daylight hours to not count DUI or drivers that do not do well at night. That reduced the counted hours on the interstates to 17. So 16/17 or 1 driver blocked the left lane due to smartphone use every 55 minutes.

Georgia recently enacted a law joining 16 other states on limiting cellphone or smartphone use. However, the use of bluetooth devices is still OK. Accident statistics show that bluetooth does not reduce accidents as the main culprit is inattentive driving.

The bottom is smartphone use and cause of traffic accidents has not been established – it is not because the fact that such a statistic exists – it is that the stat is not and has not been measured well. Why? – Who wants to tell the officer that they were on their phone either by texting or talking?

Someday, we may be able to identify smartphone use as the root cause of a workers compensation accident.

Filed Under: accident rate Tagged With: Bloomberg, NCCI data, smartphone, Tennessee

Workers Compensation Medical Treatment Lag Time – Surprising WCRI Study

August 8, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants Leave a Comment

WCRI – Time From First Injury To Workers Compensation Medical Treatment – Comparison Across 18 States

Most Workers Compensation medical treatment foretells how a claim will progress over its lifetime. One of My Six Keys To Saving on Workers Comp claims involves having a preset medical network in place.

The other likely involved key concerns the timely filing of the medical report.

picture of injured workers compensation medical treatment by Red Cross

Wikimedia License

These two keys can easily escalate a claim to over 800% more than if the first report filing time – called employer reporting lag time– tallies in with a high number along with the medical treatment not being provided to the injured employee ASAP. The 800% figure came from my research into claims on two different public entity sets of files that involved over 10,000 claims.

The study can be purchased here for $5, yes just $5 for a great study.

WCRI (Workers Compensation Research Institute) attempted to answer three different questions. I was hoping the answers to these three questions would agree with my old research. Those three questions were:

How much variation was there across states in the time from injury to first treatment for physical medicine and “specialty” services (such as surgery, major radiology, and pain management injections) across injury types?
Were there consistent patterns in time to first medical treatment; that is, did some states show shorter or longer time to treatment across injuries and services?
How much variation was there across states in the time from injury to first treatment for “entry” services, such as emergency, office visits, and minor radiology?

The study’s data sets were:

The study examines claims with more than seven days of lost time for injuries occurring from October 1, 2014, through September 30, 2015, evaluated as of March 31, 2016. This would, in a way, eliminate medical only claims from the data set.

The 18 states in the study are Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Two different reporters contacted me on my opinion of the study. One aspect that I had not read yet was that North Carolina was one of the lagging states in providing Workers Compensation medical treatment. (wow!) I decided to read more into the study.

Page 17 of the study (flash report) shows the average of all the states. The table (Table A-2) shows the comparison across all medical treatment types with the 18 studied states.

The states that were the slowest in providing medical treatment were (overall):

Massachusetts
North Carolina
Louisiana
California

I am not sure exactly what to draw from the study and flash report. California with its utilization review process would make the delays almost understandable. I am not so sure about the other three.

Our HQ state – North Carolina – surprised me quite a bit. North Carolina has employer-controlled worker compensation medical treatment. North Carolina did not place last or near the bottom in all of the study’s categories. I will likely need to read the study again to see if any hidden data nuggets exist in the workers compensation medical treatment data.

Filed Under: authorization, medical, WCRI Tagged With: California, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina

NCCI Virginia Advisory Forum 2018 – Shocking Nationwide Statistics

August 2, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Shocking Results at NCCI Virginia Advisory Forum – All Good

The NCCI Virginia Advisory Forum showed a strong Workers Comp market. The strong market is not surprising. The strength of the nationwide market was astounding.

pcture of working NCCI Virginia Advisory forum

Public Use Wikimedia – Henry Lawford c/o Flickr

I attended the NCCI Virginia Advisory Forum in Richmond yesterday. North Carolina has it own independent rating bureau. Richmond lies nearest to our HQ in Raleigh, NC. The results make it a worthwhile trip.

Last year, the agents/brokers packed it into the meetings. I arrived 5 minutes late and had to sit in the back. This year, the carriers and TPA’s were out in force.

The national statistics indicate the Workers Comp market combined ratio dropped to its lowest level since the 1950’s. What? Last year the NCCI Virginia Conference produced similar results.

NCCI always provides their slides from almost any meeting or conference. The slides for the 2018 Virginia Conference are here. The slides are a PDF file if you wish to download them.

These are my handwritten notes:

Combined Ratio – Lowest level since the 1950’s. See slide 17 in the PDF link above.
Payrolls have increased by 3.4% or 4.4% – depends on the source of the estimate.
9.6% Loss Cost Reduction
No end in sight to Combined Ratio reduction – quoted by Jay Rosen, NCCI Presenting Actuary

The Combined ratio can be thought of as a profit figure. The lower the figure, the more possible profit there is in the market for carriers. I myself had thought there would be a bottom to the net combined ratio. There does not seem to be one now or in the foreseeable future.

The formula for the combined ratio is in this article from the 2017 Virginia Advisory Meeting. Last year, the ratio was .94. For some reason, I had thought that was the bottom. I was incorrect.

My notes also show a result of a polling question asked by NCCI towards the end of the conference.

What is the most important issue to you with Workers Comp?

The two main categories were:

Fraud – by a large margin
Cost – a distant second

I recommend downloading the PDF file from this presentation and reviewing it. It will be worth your time to see all the topics covered at the NCCI Virginia State Advisory Forum.

Filed Under: combined ratio, NCCI Conferences Tagged With: fraud, Richmond, Virginia

Workers Comp Paper Files In The Age of The Small Screen

July 26, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Reading Workers Comp Paper Files – Too Old School or The Best Way To Handle Them?

Most discussions on workers comp paper files have an element of “Ewww – those are disgusting” somewhere in the conversation.

We are in the age of the small screen (smartphone) or at least a tablet or laptop. <<Just gross We are in the age of the itty bitty screen, not workers comp paper files – or as many adjusters call them manual files.

Wikimedia License – Jonathan Joseph Bondhus

My last two experiences with huge amounts of paper files were as an expert witness and as a consulting mercenary adjuster. Coincidentally, both assignments showed up in two completely stuffed copier paper boxes delivered by the UPS driver with a dolly to move them – with this grin on his face as he knew what they were somehow.

One positive aspect of these two instances was that I knew the assignments had to be dealt with quickly due to the volume of paper. Would I have responded in the same manner if I received the material on a thumb drive?

A secret – I always count the pages of material on a thumb drive. PDF’s can be counted quickly. That way I know how much time to spend on the assignments. One note – if any of the pages are duplicates, I still have to figure out if they are duplicates or not. That task is much easier on paper for me.

Then of course, printers in claims offices are humming all day long outputting thousands of pages. Yes, they all could be letters or forms, etc. Many claims adjusters and just not the 50+ crowd have admitted to me at times that they print out a section of an online computer file.

The claims adjuster, supervisor or manager wishes to read the file more closely or that their carrier or TPA employer does not allow off-site access to the adjuster sections of claim files. The claims person will print them and take them home with them to review.

What are the advantages or the old tried and true way to adjust files? From the adjusters come the reasons for Workers Comp paper files:

Can easily highlight the important material. Sometimes that is not so easy in certain software packages >PDFs(?)
Portability
Notes do not magically disappear on paper- I know all the claims staffs reading this are shaking their heads up and down.
Can write side notes on my notes – not able to do that in a system
Almost like having a different person reviewing the file – new perspective in a way
Did this quite a bit more when I was either a trainee or very experienced
Less stressful way to review
Less eye strain to review
Usually pick up something I missed on the screen <<<very popular response from adjusters
Can compare an old note to a new one – easier to do by just looking at different pages and not losing my place when flipping through screens

A caveat – if it is against company rules to print out material and take it home – do not do it. You do not want that in your personnel file.

When was the last time that you handled Workers Comp paper files?

Filed Under: File Review Differences Tagged With: claims adjuster, claims manager, claims supervisor

Subrogation Letter Is Just The First Step in Recovering Workers Comp Funds

July 24, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

The Subrogation Letter Should Not Be Solely Relied Upon To Recover Workers Comp Payouts

A quick subrogation letter remains one of the stalwarts in recovering workers compensation funds back to a file whenever there is a responsible 3rd party involved in a Workers Comp accident.

carrier pigeons carrying worker comp subrogation letter

Wikimedia Public Use License – Carrier Pigeons

The best example is an auto accident with another driver at fault. One has to watch saying “at fault” as that has to be left up to the traffic court. However, if the other party is ticketed for a violation, then they should at least be considered a responsible party.

I have recommended the Subrogation letter to the responsible 3rd party’s insurer as soon as possible with a certified return receipt letter. One rather disturbing trend that we have seen in files over the last few years is the workers comp carrier is ignored when pursuing a reimbursement.

Was the workers compensation adjuster ignored on purpose?

A recommendation is now made that the adjuster email or call the 3rd party’s insurance claims adjuster every month to inquire on the file status and to make sure that the current adjuster knows there is a legitimate lien on any file disbursements to the injured worker by the 3rd party carrier.

Why? Adjuster switch files often – it is the nature of the beast in the insurance industry. Usually in an auto liability carrier’s online file, there is a blank or two about any liens on the file.

The workers compensation adjuster has to make the auto liability carrier’s “lien blanks’ are completed with the workers compensation insurer’s information. The workers compensation adjusters often change, also. Tracking a reimbursement can become complicated as the online systems need to be relied upon very heavily.

Having a 30 day diary item to contact the auto liability adjuster (recommended by email) will enable the workers compensation insurer or TPA to keep up with who is on the file on both ends.

Over the years, I have had to provide general liability and auto liability adjusters with copies of the timely subrogation letter with the certified return receipt as a reminder of the lien on the file.

Of course, I started with an insurance all lines training and license, so I was not just a Workers Comp adjuster. This training enabled me to track and follow the liability lien portion of the file.

When I first started adjusting all lines files, I was sent to what amounted to a subrogation camp. The hotel fire alarm went off at 1:30 am until 5 am, so my absorption was a little slow and subrogation was what I thought at the time was an “outlier subject.”

As I have said often, most Workers Comp adjusters are now trained in just Work Comp adjusting. That is OK, except when one has to put on their liability adjuster hat.

Employers should take on some of the responsibility and track the subrogation claim through their own Workers Comp subro diary on a claim.

Even if the Workers Comp carrier of TPA has a subrogation unit, a subrogation diary by the Workers Compensation adjuster and employer is also recommended.

For more subrogation topics, click here for a full Google website search on subrogation.

The whole process starts but does not end with the subrogation letter.

Filed Under: subrogation Tagged With: auto liability, certified mail, general liability, Lien

How To Handle Workers Comp Emails – Suggestions For Inbound Messages

July 19, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Workers Comp Emails – Handling Them On The Way In Saves Time And Aggravation

Handling Workers Comp emails can be a complicated, frustrating job function. In fact, I have received quite a few questions over the years about handling Workers Compensation postal mail and emails.

picture of directional workers comp emails sign

Wikimedia Public Use License – Dyon Joel

Tackling the rerouting of Work Comp emails can be daunting due to the different email systems in place – Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoomail, Outlook, and many others.

I will cover all of the major ones in this article –

Different Versions of Workers Compensation

OK, so I said this might grate your nerves, but one of the woes of WC on the Internet is the different names for Work Comp. I have already used three versions in this section.

The different versions of Worker’s Compensation are:

Work Comp
Worker’s Comp
Workers’ Comp
Workers Comp
Workers Compensation
Worker’s Compensation
Workers’ Compensation

Copy and paste each one of these into a Google search, and you will be amazed that each one gives different results. (Ouch!) If you separate workers compensation into two words, you are going to forward everything from your inbox that had the word workers or compensation to count as workers compensation. I have made that mistake in the past.

What can one do? One of the rules – see next sections – is to have emails from a certain sender (agent, adjuster, rating bureau, etc.) go into a certain folder.

Folder

The first task involves setting up a folder in for items to be forwarded or move to that folder. This folder will be the landing place for all the emails you set up using certain rules.

Workers Compensation is always a good folder name.

Business/Employer System Emails

To be safe, if you have a systems administrator, do not do this on your own. That is the SysAd’s job, so let them do it. Due to my tech background, I set my own incoming email rules into place. Setting up the algorithm enables an email recipient to handle workers comp emails very quickly and efficiently.

Done wrong, and you can wipe out all your emails or crash the system.

The keyword here is the incoming rule. That is where you can direct any email to any folder, delete it, or perform 80+ functions to a certain set of incoming emails.

Microsoft Outlook 2013 is what I use for emails. Your system may vary, so the SysAd’s input is critical. If your SysAd says to leave it alone, then that is what you must do – or they can email me for any clarifications.

Instead of me droning on, I thought I would direct you to the proper Microsoft Outlook instructions. <<<Click here. It is all there. Microsoft created a great page there. Watch the versions. Check out the subsections in that webpage on how to create more rules.

Hotmail/Livemail

Hotmail rules can be found here. Thanks and good job to Lifewire for the rule breakdown.

Yahoomail

Click here for Yahoo Filters – they claim to have over 1,000 filters – wow!

Gmail

Gmail Inbox organization rules can be found at this link. – kudos to PC Magazine for their Gmail Inbox Tips

The smartphone apps for each of the services may be slightly different.

J&L Risk Management Consultants is not responsible if you blow up your inbox. Remember, to ask for help from someone with a tech background if this seems overwhelming or you get to a point of no return in setting up your workers comp emails.

(sm) Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoomail, Outlook, Lifwire, and PC Magazine are all screenmarks of their respective owners.

Filed Under: Emails Tagged With: Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, US Postal Service, Yahoomail

Captive Tax Advantages Recently Take Huge Hit In US Tax Court

July 18, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Captive Tax Advantages – Tax Court Ruling – One To Read Up On

Some Captive tax advantages may have been eroded with a recent US Tax Court decision. The case is Reserve Mech. Corp. v. Commissioner, 2018 Tax Ct. Memo LEXIS 87.

picture of Anguilla Captive Tax Advantages Island

Wikimedia Public Use Roy Googin

The three articles that started quite a buzz in the captive world are from: (LexisNexis full article behind paywall)

Captive Insurance Times

Captive.Com

LexisNexis

If you are interested in Captives, and you should be if you are involved with any facet of Workers Compensation, the articles are very much worth a read. If you perform a Google search on

Reserve Mech. Corp. v. Commissioner

one will find volumes of information.

Many companies, captive administrators, attorneys, and other people involved with captives have issued statements and opinions on the Reserve Mechanical case.

The PDF of the entire 66 page US Tax Court decision is here. You will need a PDF reader to read it. This decision may be one to download and read for yourself. The decision is a complicated one. The bottom line is the owners of the captive could not avoid a 30% tax on the captive insurance agreement. The captive tax advantages were not allowed.

Many of the legal, captive, and insurance pundits pointed to the Conclusion Section III (page 62). The first part of that section is below.

________________

III. Taxability of Reserve’s Revenue

We concluded that Reserve did not issue insurance or reinsurance contracts during the tax years in issue and therefore it did not receive more than 50% of its gross receipts from insurance premiums. See secs. 501(c)(15), 816(a).

—————————–

One has to draw their own conclusions. The 14 articles on Captives that I wrote can be found here. The article on rent-a-captive turned out to be one of the most popular ones on this website.

We shall see what the future holds for onshore and especially offshore captive tax advantages.

Filed Under: Captives Taxed Tagged With: US Tax Court

NCCI State Advisory Forums – Definitely Worth The Time – Free Of Charge

July 12, 2018 By JL Risk Management Consultants

NCCI State Advisory Forums – Great Workers Comp Data At Your Fingertips

Many NCCI State Advisory Forums have been calendared through the end of 2018. The Workers Comp data shared by NCCI at these forums analyze a large number of data points.

For example, below is one of their very helpful charts.

Graph NCCI State Advisory Forums Loss Time Claims

This handy chart was from the Oklahoma State Advisory Forum in 2017. Where can you find such great data, well, at these forums. A graph is worth a thousand words. One can easily draw 20 conclusions from this one chart.

I had always thought that I could just wait until after the NCCI State Advisory Forums posted to their website; read the charts; and understand what the data means without having to attend the forums. I was wrong as many times the presenters will add in commentary that is not on the charts, graphs, etc.

I attended the Virginia State Advisory Forum last year. I see that another is scheduled the first week of August. I have another commitment. North Carolina (our HQ state) does not use NCCI for their Workers Compensation ratings, instead they are an independent bureau.

The upcoming calendar through the end of 2018 is below. The NCCI has only two rules to attend the freebies, yes gratis State Advisory Forums. Some of the NCCI State Advisory Forums are part of a combination of meetings (Agent Workshops and Open Houses).

There is no charge to attend these forums, but registration is required. You are welcome to attend the forum for every state where you are writing or involved in workers compensation insurance.

Virginia SAF The Westin Richmond 6631 West Broad Street Richmond, VA 23230 804-282-8444	August 1, 2018
Kentucky SAF Capital Plaza Hotel 405 Wilkinson Boulevard Frankfort, KY 40601 502-227-5100	August 9, 2018
West Virginia SAF Four Points by Sheraton Charleston 600 Kanawha Boulevard East Charleston, WV 25301 304-344-4092	August 16, 2018
Iowa SAF Des Moines Marriott Downtown 700 Grand Avenue Des Moines, IA 50309 515-245-5541Note: Open House and Agent Workshop at this location. See registration for details.	August 29, 2018
Illinois SAF Chicago Marriott Oak Brook 1401 West 22nd Street Oak Brook, IL 60523 630-573-8555Note: Open House and Agent Workshop at this location. See registration for details.	August 30, 2018
District of Columbia SAF Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill 400 New Jersey Avenue Northwest Washington, DC 20001 202-737-1234	September 6, 2018
Maryland SAF Hyatt Regency Baltimore on the Inner Harbor 300 Light Street Baltimore, MD 21202 410-528-1234	September 7, 2018
New Hampshire SAF Manchester Downtown Hotel 700 Elm Street Manchester, NH 03101 603-625-1000	September 7, 2018
Missouri SAF Courtyard by Marriott Columbia 3301 Lemone Industrial Boulevard Columbia, MO 65201 573-443-8000	September 12, 2018
Hawaii SAF Hilton Waikiki Beach 2500 Kuhio Avenue Honolulu, HI 96815 808-922-0811	September 20, 2018
Alabama SAF Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center 201 Tallapoosa Street Montgomery, AL 36104 334-481-5000	September 21, 2018
Colorado SAF Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center 7800 East Tufts Avenue Denver, CO 80237 303-779-1234	September 27, 2018
New Mexico SAF Sandia Resort & Casino 30 Rainbow Road Northeast Albuquerque, NM 87113 505-796-7500	October 3, 2018
Arizona SAF Phoenix Airport Marriott 1101 North 44th Street Phoenix, AZ 85008 602-273-7373	October 5, 2018
Tulsa, Oklahoma SAF Marriott Tulsa Southern Hills 1902 E 71st St. Tulsa, OK 74136 918-493-7000	October 9, 2018
Oklahoma SAF Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Downtown Medical Center 741 North Phillips Avenue Oklahoma City, OK 73104 405-239-3900	October 10, 2018
Tennessee SAF Nashville Airport Marriott 600 Marriott Drive Nashville, TN 37214 615-889-9300	October 12, 2018
Oregon SAF The Duniway Portland, A Hilton Hotel 545 Southwest Taylor Street Portland, OR 97204 503-553-7000	October 17, 2018
Connecticut SAF Marriott Hartford Downtown 200 Columbus Boulevard Hartford, CT 06103 860-249-8000	October 19, 2018
Alaska SAF William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center 555 West Fifth Avenue Anchorage, AK 99501 907-263-2800	October 25, 2018
Kansas SAF The Eldridge 701 Massachusetts Street Lawrence, KS 66044 785-749-5011	October 25, 2018
Mississippi SAF Hilton Jackson 1001 East County Line Road Jackson, MS 39211 601-957-2800	October 26, 2018
Louisiana SAF Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center 201 Lafayette Street Baton Rouge, LA 70801 225-344-5866	November 9, 2018
Nebraska SAF The Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel 333 South 13th Street Lincoln, NE 68508 402-474-7474	November 13, 2018
Idaho SAF Boise Centre 850 West Front Street Boise, ID 83702 208-336-8900	November 28, 2018
South Carolina SAF Embassy Suites by Hilton Columbia Greystone 200 Stoneridge Drive Columbia, SC 29210 803-252-8700	November 29, 2018
Texas SAF Hyatt Regency Austin 208 Barton Springs Road Austin, TX 78704 512-477-1234	November 29, 2018
Georgia SAF Hotel Indigo Atlanta – Vinings 2857 Paces Ferry Road SE Atlanta, GA 30339 770-432-5555	November 30, 2018
Florida SAF Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport 9300 Jeff Fuqua Boulevard Orlando, FL 32827 407-825-1234	December 5, 2018
Utah SAF Salt Lake City Marriott City Center 220 South State Street Salt Lake City, UT 84111 801-961-8700	December 6, 2018