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NCCI – Post-Accident Safety Errors Cost Companies $$$

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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.

Picture Of Seat Belt Post-accident safety In Car
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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:

  1. Two Man Post-Accident Safety Whispering
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    Timely Filing of the First Report of Injury – within 24 hours

  2. Physician’s Network – where does the employee treat?
  3. Return to Work Program – prevents large cases
  4. Employee Treatment by Employer, Doctor, Adjuster – reduces malingering and fraud
  5. Making Workers’ Comp a Priority – do you just write a check to the TPA or carrier?
  6. Understanding The Premium Audit Process- how your final bill has been calculated.

NCCI Study

NCCI just published a study that agreed with what everyone in the WC community knows will cost employers dearly.  The one area that astounds me to this day is the lag time on reporting injuries by employers.  Lag time is likely the easiest to fix that will result in huge savings on WC for employers.
NCCI has said that employers that report claims that pay 51% more than employers that report timely.   Post-accident safety involves the time taken to report a claim.   Time is of the essence in reporting claims to a carrier or Third Party Administrator (self-insureds).

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.

Injured Worker Post-accident safety Vector Image
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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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James J Moore - Workers Comp Expert

Raleigh, NC, United States

About The Author...

James founded a Workers’ Compensation consulting firm, J&L Risk Management Consultants, Inc. in 1996. J&L’s mission is to reduce our clients’ Workers Compensation premiums by using time-tested techniques. J&L’s claims, premium, reserve and Experience Mod reviews have saved employers over $9.8 million in earned premiums over the last three years. J&L has saved numerous companies from bankruptcy proceedings as a result of insurance overpayments.

James has over 27 years of experience in insurance claims, audit, and underwriting, specializing in Workers’ Compensation. He has supervised, and managed the administration of Workers’ Compensation claims, and underwriting in over 45 states. His professional experience includes being the Director of Risk Management for the North Carolina School Boards Association. He created a very successful Workers’ Compensation Injury Rehabilitation Unit for school personnel.

James’s educational background, which centered on computer technology, culminated in earning a Masters of Business Administration (MBA); an Associate in Claims designation (AIC); and an Associate in Risk Management designation (ARM). He is a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a licensed financial advisor. The NC Department of Insurance has certified him as an insurance instructor. He also possesses a Bachelors’ Degree in Actuarial Science.

LexisNexis has twice recognized his blog as one of the Top 25 Blogs on Workers’ Compensation. J&L has been listed in AM Best’s Preferred Providers Directory for Insurance Experts – Workers Compensation for over eight years. He recently won the prestigious Baucom Shine Lifetime Achievement Award for his volunteer contributions to the area of risk management and safety. James was recently named as an instructor for the prestigious Insurance Academy.

James is on the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the North Carolina Mid-State Safety Council. He has published two manuals on Workers’ Compensation and three different claims processing manuals. He has also written and has been quoted in numerous articles on reducing Workers’ Compensation costs for public and private employers. James publishes a weekly newsletter with 7,000 readers.

He currently possess press credentials and am invited to various national Workers Compensation conferences as a reporter.

James’s articles or interviews on Workers’ Compensation have appeared in the following publications or websites:

  • Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS)
  • Entrepreneur Magazine
  • Bloomberg Business News
  • WorkCompCentral.com
  • Claims Magazine
  • Risk & Insurance Magazine
  • Insurance Journal
  • Workers Compensation.com
  • LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites
  • Various trade publications

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