Risk Management Diary For Workers Comp Subrogation
The Workers Comp Subrogation handlers should have a risk management diary. A few posts ago I analyzed the Workers Compensation adjuster situation in handling third-party liability claims. In defense of the Workers Comp adjuster, a requirement for the job is NOT a background in liability claims. That is an understood fact.
What can a Risk Manager or company officer do to possibly track the outcomes of an accident where a third party may be liable for reimbursement for all or part of a Workers Comp claim? I would suggest setting up a subrogation diary to track the outcomes of a liability claim against the third party. As I said in the last post, we have noticed in our file performance reviews that subrogation or subro is/has not been properly handled in the claims.
The subro diary can be easily interfaced with any of the diary programs such as Microsoft Outlook(r). The main thing is to track if and when the subrogation claim is being pursued and how the funds have been handled along with how the insurance carrier has reported the reimbursement to the rating bureaus.
Some of the areas to track are:
- When did the adjuster send the original notification letter to the responsible party’s insurance carrier? Make sure that letter went out to all responsible parties’ insurance companies.
- Did the adjuster for the responsible party acknowledge and respond to the notification letter?
- Negotiation status on settling the workers’ compensation lien
- Important – Legal proceedings – if a lawsuit filed
- Was a subrogation check received by the Workers’ Comp adjuster? If so, were the funds credited back to the file?
- Did the insurance carrier (if not self-insured) report the reserve reduction to the rating bureau?
I recommend not contacting the adjuster for the third party directly. Let the Workers’ Compensation adjuster do their job.
I try not to do very long posts. I will stop there. If you have any more questions on a subro diary, please use the Contact Us page to reach us.
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