NCCI – Post-Accident Safety
Post-accident safety glitches can be very expensive for employers. Post-accident safety can be thought of as risk management protocols in the next few hours after a Workers Comp accident occurs in the workplace.
The terms Loss Reduction or Loss Control are interchangeable with post-accident safety. In my presentations, I like to refer to not performing immediate protocol actions (within 24 hours) as failures in post-accident safety.
Keeping an employee safe does not stop at the occurrence of an accident. The First 48 hours set the tone and costs for the claim. I have covered post-accident safety in detail with other articles on this blog.
Six Keys or Secrets
The injured employee still requires a reasonable amount of post-accident safety. The Six Keys To Saving on Workers Comp $$ that I had written in the 1980’s have not really changed except for adding in two more keys.
The Six Keys (Secrets) are:
StockUnlimited Timely Filing of the First Report of Injury – within 24 hours
- Physician’s Network – where does the employee treat?
- Return to Work Program – prevents large cases
- Employee Treatment by Employer, Doctor, Adjuster – reduces malingering and fraud
- Making Workers’ Comp a Priority – do you just write a check to the TPA or carrier?
- Understanding The Premium Audit Process- how your final bill has been calculated.
NCCI Study
The two massive informal studies that I performed on public entity claims confirmed NCCI’s report. However, the number I came up with for long reporting lag times was in the neighborhood of 400%.
Many employers will consult with me on claims that have gotten out of hand and are looking for any type of claims cost reductions. Some of the claims have the hallmark of late reporting. Some are setting in multiple brown folders on my desk.
Online first notice of injury reporting has become so popular over the last few years.
Over the last 30 years, the Six Keys have not changed overall. I had thought that timely reporting would be a non-issue by now. Timely first reporting was the first key as I had thought lag time would have been eliminated by 2015. That is not the case.
NCCI – Day of Accident Reporting
According to NCCI – (one anomaly of sorts is )”claims reported on the day of the accident are some of the most costly claims. This is expected because serious injuries often require immediate medical care, which triggers notification to the insurer.”
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