Full Duty Return to Work Requirement Costly For Employers
In our claim reviews for employers, a trend that had faded now seems to have returned in a costly manner. Some employment situations require a full duty return to work requirement. After the pandemic, many employers have decided to require a full duty return to work release from the treating physician.
If an employer refuses a light or modified duty return to work release by the treating physician, one can watch the cost of the claim spike over the next few months. Why? – Let us look at one of the reasons.
In the late 80s, I came up with Four; now Six Keys to Workers Comp savings. The third key back in the late 80s and now is a Workers Comp return to work program. Yes, that does include a modified duty and light duty return to work program.
Expensive Decision
Only allowing an injured employee a full duty return to work keeps them out of work much longer. The time barrier according to some workers comp studies stops at six months – some studies say a year of Temporary Total Disability by the injured employee usually results in a minuscule chance of ever coming back to work.
Once an injured worker becomes used to completely staying out of work for a lengthy period, returning to work becomes a much more complicated situation than with an initial light/modified duty return to work.
Ask any claims adjuster and they will tell you that requiring a full duty return to work release by the treating physician from the start usually causes an adjuster to increase the reserve more dramatically at the 60-day initial reserve calculations.
Looking at a reserve calculation sheet comments section, one can often see where the claims adjuster has documented the file as “no light duty available” or full duty return to work only.” The adjuster will heavily increase the Compensation benefits to cover the longer period.
Bottom Line on Full Duty Return To Work Requirement
A modified and light duty return to work program remains a cornerstone requirement for an effective employer workers comp program. Start working on yours today.
Making sure that the treating physician knows that your company also has a light duty program in place is a critical task once you have one in place.
