Temporary Total Disability Period Claims
In a recent workers compensation study by NCCI , the total disability period for injured workers indicated the Temporary Total Disability (TTD) period had increased sharply over the last three years.
I decided to check a few numbers their study produced to see if there were any underlying statistics that could have added to the increase. There was one statistic that I thought would require a further look.
The number of TTD days increased from 129 to 141 from 2006 until 2009. The unemployment rate increased over the same period from 4.6% to 8.7%. The TTD days increased 19% while the unemployment rate increased over 100%.
I cannot draw a direct correlation between the unemployment numbers and the TTD period both increasing. I would say there was some effect on TTD days by the unemployment numbers.
If there is no position in a company for an injured worker returning to work, the expected TTD period would be lengthened. With an enormous increase in unemployment, this would tend to remove positions from the employer while the injured employee was on TTD benefits.
One of the Five Keys To Saving On Workers Comp that I have written and spoken about very often is a return to work program. I do realize that in today’s economy employers of all types and sizes are finding it difficult to return an injured employee to work.
The staggering statistic by not returning an employee to work is a 400%+ claims costs increase. As the old saying goes, the longer a claim is open, the payouts become exponentially larger. An adjuster will heavily increase the reserves on a file where an employer refused a return to work. The risk of future payouts is extreme when this happens.
I had performed three large studies on Workers Comp files over the last fifteen years. The 400% came from those studies.
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