Back To Work During A Pandemic For The Employee – Another Look

March 25, 2021 By Erica Libo

Back To Work – Considerations And Qualifications

Going back to work is like a process of healing. A sick person needed medicine to be healed same as the workers that need to go back to their work.

They needed a job to sustain and fulfill their daily needs. Workers have been through a lot this year, especially last year. They fought a battle that they can’t see if they’ll win or not. They lost a lot of opportunities. Some business has been bankrupt. Some employees lost their job. Luckily, there is still work that continued at home. But how about now? Workers deserve to go back to work.

Woman Back To Work wearing surgical mask

Wikimedia Commons – www.vperemen.com

Being an employee, they shoulder a lot of responsibilities, they take a lot of risks and doesn’t have the assurance of what will be the result, and they become the best person as like what they want. Losing a job is one of the worst nightmares that workers may have been experienced. But returning on it is like grabbing a new life and opportunities.

Returning to work is never been easy compare to the previous years. There’s a lot of things that have been changed. Going back to work today is like your half-body is in a grave. You will risk a lot more than usual. It’s never been easy because there is a lot of qualifications that must comply.

In returning to work, workers should know that the more they interact with other people the more they have the chance and higher risk of spreading Covid-19.
If you are a worker and you are going back to work you must continue the proper ways to protect yourself from the virus. You must continue wearing a mask, using tissues, always sanitize your hands using alcohol, and distance yourself to avoid close contact.
In considering a person who wants to go back to work they need to be sure that they have never been having close contact with the people who have positive cases or never been exposed to the Covid-19 patients.
Workers should practice “going straight at home after work” to help other people not spread a virus and also to help yourself out to take yourself away from anything that could put you at risk.
Always monitor yourself. Be alert from the symptoms you may have.
Practice disinfecting the things before and after you touched them. Avoid sharing things with the other workers especially your personal belongings.

In considering the Return to work of the employees, the business should do the following things:

Businesses should limit the number of people in the workplace for them to meet the social distancing rule that a government has been made. They should have the assurance that workers that have been returned to work should meet the qualifications for them to avoid a severe illness.
Businesses should also limit the customers that are entering the facility to show and obey the proper social distancing. And continue to have a vulnerable employee as like what is stated above.
Businesses must have the permit that is being approved before re-opening.

Magnifying glass on the page Back To Work of book

Wikimedia Common – Karbyn

Here are the guidelines that businesses and a worker must know:

To have a hazard assessment
Proper hygiene
Social distancing
Identification and isolation of ill employee
Returning to work after being ill
To have controls
Workplace flexibility
Training
Anti-retaliation

In making things possible, businesses are not just into helping their company to gain but they are also helping their employees and their loved ones to feel safe and far from the risk.

Workers Comp COVID-19 Vaccinations – Part of Return To Work

February 25, 2021 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Employers Require Return to Work Workers Comp COVID-19 Vaccinations?

I started pondering how the Workers Comp COVID-19 vaccination process would work if an employee were returning to work with or without vaccination.

This morning, I was reading a blog post from a Law Professor from Wyoming University. I found it through a WorkCompCentral article, but the article is behind a paywall.

Picture of Workers Comp COVID-19 Vaccination s virus

Public Use Copyright – US NIH

WorkCompCentral still has a freebie daily newsletter. I signed up for a paid subscription in 2014 (worth it).

Mr./Dr. Michael Duff (smarter than me) said that the presumption of an injury might be removed if the injured employee refused a vaccination.

The article started my brain up (after two Keurigs, ok three) with the thought that what happens to a regular return to work and workers’ comp injury return to work if the employee has not been vaccinated for COVID-19 (at least the first shot)?

Illinois Says No Comp If No COVID-19 Vaccination – Wow

Referring back to Attorney Duff’s article – Illinois may enact a law that says this:

A workers’ compensation bill filed in the Illinois House on February 19 provides, “no compensation shall be awarded to a claimant for death or disability arising out of an exposure to COVID-19 if the employee has refused a vaccination.” 820 ILCS 305/7.5 new

If one reads further down the blog page, Arkansas was also in the midst of legislative wrangling on the same matter.

My slightly twisted thinking then said – What happens if an injured worker is released to return to work and they are unvaccinated or have refused a Workers Comp COVID-19 vaccination?

Workers Comp Return To Work Disputes Spike?

Let us talk about the treating physician or an Independent Medical Exam (IME) physician. The word that is tantamount would be:

Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI)

Please follow the link if you are not familiar with MMI. One way to think of it is all the parties’ (employer, employee, claims adjuster, physician, and others) goal is and always will be a return to gainful employment.

Surgeons Workers Comp COVID-19 Vaccinations treating physicians

Wikimedia Commons – SSgt. Derrick C. Goode, U.S. Air Force

If the injured worker does not receive or refuses a vaccination, does the treating physician say that he/she is at MMI?

That would be a big question that the persons in the above paratheses very likely will have to handle as the pandemic eases and normal return to work occurs in late 2021.

Could the injured worker’s refusal of a vaccine that keeps them out of work cause them to lose their weekly benefits? The disputes would sharply spike.

Workers Comp COVID-19 Vaccinations and The Presumption Legislation

Research into this subject today points to none of the State’s multiple-presumption Senate/Assembly Bills and laws considered this conundrum.

Letting the Workers’ Comp Judges and Appeals Courts settle this matter may not be the best avenue. Watch for the states to address this issue soon (or maybe not). Illinois has broken the ice in an indirect manner.

©J&L Risk Management Inc Copyright Notice

Coronavirus Return To Work – Top 10 Issues For Workers Comp

April 30, 2020 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Pending Post Coronavirus Return To Work Issues – Top 10 Preparations

Coronavirus return to work issues will become the buzzword phrase in Workers Comp over the next few months (rightfully so). Any references to a return to work mean all employees except for #9 below.

Picture Coronavirus return to work microscopic

CDC Public Use License

This complete list may not apply to your company whether you are an insurance agency, claims department, employer, safety and risk manager, etc.

The Top 10 Issues are:

The learning curve or the accident curve. One of the best formulas I was taught while obtaining my actuarial degree was the learning curve. I will save you having to look at the formula. The only thing I will say about it is that the formula involved logarithms. Even very experienced employees tend to have more accidents when returning to work. The machine or process that they may have used compares to starting over again.
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COVID presumptions AOE COE – NCCI produced a great chart on the state activities concerning legislation that will be updated weekly. You should check that chart out – nice work NCCI. Here is the link.
In case of a workers’ comp accident, make sure the medical facilities in your medical treatment network have enough staff to handle your injured employee(s). Waiting for hours to be treated for an injury is not the best way to start off a claim. This recommendation is the most important of the Six Keys.
Make sure that you are not overpaying premiums to your carrier – especially if you are returning a small number of workers to start your business up again. If you are renewing a policy and your workforce is going to be smaller, discuss with your agent about lowering the deposit premium. Caveat – if you start with a few employees, have your deposit premium reduced, and then fully staff, be ready for the premium audit bill.
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Reporting claims to your carrier or TPA – Who is now responsible for reporting your claims if your company did not staff up completely? Does this person know how workers comp works? Do they have a copy of your medical referral network that you use to treat injured employees? Do they have the info in #6?
Carrier and TPA Contact List – Do you know who is handling your claims at this point? Is there a new contact email or phone to reach the claims adjusters on your file? They could be working from home which would likely change the phone number to call them. Emails are still the best adjuster contact.
Remotely starting up – if your company has decided to work remotely before actually physically going back to their workplaces, you may need all the bandwidth you can muster. Check out this article to see how to speed up your connection by 100% with an old school trick. This trick works. I use it if I am hosting the webinar or video meeting. Hint – get out a CAT-5 cable.
Traveling for work – when you have employees that drive as part of their work, #1 above will heavily apply. Even familiar driving routes may seem different to an outside employee after weeks of not working or working out of their homes. The learning or accident curve applies to outside workers.
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Temporarily Totally disabled employees – if an injured employee was unable to return to work before the COVID crisis, how will you now return them to work if the treating physician releases them – have them work from home? Modified duty may be complicated to provide in the current environment.
Check with your legal counsel more than you did previously. I recommend #2 above and check with your legal counselor on interfacing workers’ comp and all the new laws that are in place. None of these 10 recommendations should be taken as legal advice. The coronavirus return to work varies so much from state to state.
Bonus – I do realize that many businesses may not start again for weeks if not months in certain states. Keep this list whenever your state allows your business to start up again.

Please do not consider any of the recommendations as legal advice only as a checklist for a coronavirus return to work for your employees.

©J&L Risk Management Inc Copyright Notice

Delaware Requires Employers Start Great Risk Mgmt Technique

June 26, 2013 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Delaware Requires Employers Job Lists To Treating Physician

The State of Delaware requires employers to initiate a great risk management technique. Return to work is one of the Five Keys To Saving On Workers Comp $. I have been writing, presenting, and blogging on these Five Keys for over 25 years. In study after study, files that have an element of return to work strategies overpay 400% on their claims.

State of Delaware Requires Employers park

Wikimedia Commons – Sixflashphoto

The State of Delaware made a bold and very intelligent move to require employers to provide workers compensation treating physicians with a list of jobs available (along with restrictions/abilities).

Employers should have been doing this already as part of their Workers Compensation risk management program. It is very striking to me that even large sophisticated employers are not providing treating physicians with what I call a job bank to ease the transition from being temporarily totally disabled to at least a part-time light duty job.

One area that most states look at very closely and critically is make-work. States, especially in the Southeastern US, do not approve of a job that is made up out of thin air. These make-work created jobs are not looked well upon by Workers Comp judges.

Pre-established job banks will usually pass the make-work hurdle for return-to-work jobs. One of the main cost reductions is the rehabilitation nurse/field case manager fees. I have seen the rehab nurse:

Interview the employer’s HR rep
StockUnlimited
Write the job description
Have the HR department sign off on the job
Take the job description to the next doctor’s appointment
Have the treating physician sign off on the job
Provide all parties with copies of the job description and sign-offs.
Follow up with employer and employee once injured employee has returned to work.

At almost $100 an hour, the rehabilitation nurse will spend 20 or more hours going through this process. Rehab nurse are priceless to Workers Comp, but not in shuffling paperwork between the parties in a WC claim. The employer should have all light-duty jobs on file in the treating physician’s office – plain and simple. If not, get out the checkbook.

Occupational Therapy – Great Return to Work Technique – Worth It?

May 9, 2013 By JL Risk Management Consultants

Occupational Therapy Can Be Worth The Expensive Costs

Most Occupational Therapy programs provide a great return to work technique.

Many years ago when I was “riding” a WC claims desk, a file in New Hampshire had a type of provider I had not seen before in my career. The physical therapist referred an injured employee to an Occupational Therapist.

Picture Of Patient And Physician Occupational Therapy In Corridor

StockUnlimited

I had thought this was just more physical therapy. Reviewing the Occupation Therapist notes created a few surprises. Some of the tasks were grabbing steel balls off a simulated conveyor belt and stacking these small blocks of wood into pre-cut patterns.

This seemed to be a large unnecessary cost to the file. I denied the bill upfront. The conversation I had with the OT was tense, but enlightening. After going through the complete Occupational Therapy plan for the injured employee, it was obvious that this type of therapy was valid and justified payment.

The Department of Labor has a great webpage on Occupational Therapists. OT’s usually perform these tasks:

Observe patients doing tasks, ask the patient questions, and review the patient’s medical history
Wikipedia commons – U.S. Department of Labor
Use the observations, answers, and medical history to evaluate the patient’s condition and needs
Establish a treatment plan for patients, laying out the types of activities and specific goals to be accomplished
Help people with various disabilities with different tasks, such as helping an older person with poor memory use a computer, or leading an autistic child in play activities
Demonstrate exercises that can help relieve pain for people with chronic conditions, such as joint stretches for arthritis sufferers
Evaluate a patient’s home or workplace and identify how it can be better suited to the patient’s health needs
Educate a patient’s family and employer about how to accommodate and care for the patient
Recommend special equipment, such as wheelchairs and eating aids, and instruct patients how to use that equipment
Assess and record patients’ activities and progress for evaluating clients, for billing, and for reporting to physicians and other healthcare providers
The injured employee from New Hampshire with a saw cut injury to his hand returned to work after being out of work for 4 months on modified duty that became his full time job. In my humble opinion, the OT plan should be read by any personnel (adjusters, supervisors, auditors, etc.) involved in the file.

The return on investment on the file was 8 to 1 when looking at the reserve reduction versus the amount the OT charged for her services. OT has become more popular and understood over the years. Sometimes, the adjuster may have to bring up referring the injured employee to OT.

AMA – Startling Workers Comp Return To Work Statistic

June 11, 2009 By JL Risk Management Consultants

AMA Early Return To Work Saves Workers Comp Funds

Doctor AMA talking to her recovered patient

Wikimedia Commons – National Cancer Institute

I was attending a lunch conference on Workers Compensation Return to Work earlier this week. The presenter provided this statistic from the AMA (American Medical Association). The stat was based on the longer an injured employee is out of work, the less likely they will ever return to work.

The percentage of workers that return to work after being out of work for:

Less than 8 weeks – 50%
After 26 weeks – 18%

There was also a study performed in the 1980s and the 1990s that said an employee that is out of work more than six months will return to work only 50% of the time. I had performed a statistical analysis of the same type on a group of public sector files. The most startling statistic was that only a very small percentage of employees out of work for more than one year. I think the number was 7%.

Return to work is becoming more of a financial defense strategy for companies. Having a return to work program is very critical to reduce Workers Compensation costs. It is one of the easier methods to reduce Workers Comp payouts.

There are a few good methods to establishing and facilitating a Return to Work program. I will cover them in the next post along with the reasons for the low % of return to work after such a short time off work.