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Monthly Archives

July 2012

OFFICE SAFETY AND SECURITY: WHAT WORKERS NEED TO KNOW AND DO

By Workplace Safety

Although most people think of business places as safe and serene, in fact they’re rife with risks, both inside and outside the building. Security experts recommend taking these safety precautions:

  • Parking Lot Security/Lighting. Because crime flourishes in the dark, implement a “buddy system” to ferry workers to and from their cars. Limit parking lot access to controlled points and have the lots as well lit as possible. In fact, light is such a deterrent to crime that it’s wise to keep your entire facility lit, inside and out, during non-business hours.
  • Entrance Area Safety. Make sure a receptionist is on duty at all times. Provide a registration system for all visitors (even if they wear the uniform of contract cleaning or other service personnel). Have all doors, windows, and locks checked frequently for proper operation. Use badge or other photo ID systems, with frequent checks of entry code systems. Never let employees prop open a door with a chair so that it doesn’t lock behind them outside on a break.
  • Suspicious Activity. Urge employees to report any suspicious persons or activity around the building. Never allow employees to open suspicious packages. Instead, report them to the authorities for proper search and disposal.
  • Information Safety. Unfortunately, it’s increasingly easy for computer hackers or disgruntled employees to steal your organization’s vital business information. To guard against this threat, use the latest security software for your entire system, updated frequently, and make sure to have regular backups for this information. Shred paper documents with critical information as soon as they’re no longer needed.
  • Equipment Security. Keep an inventory of all your critical equipment, hardware, and software. This is especially important as electronic devices keep shrinking in size, making them easier to conceal and remove. Having an inventory (many experts suggest taking photos of important items) will also make it easier for your insurance carrier to process any claim if anything “goes missing.”
  • Employee Valuables. Provide secure places, such as lockable drawers and closets, for employee property and encourage their use. Valuables, especially any item that reveals personal information, should be locked away during company gatherings or breaks.
  • Safety Team. Set up a group of managers and employees who meet regularly with a set agenda.

Our experts would be happy to work with you in creating a comprehensive workplace safety program. Feel free to give us a call.

CASE SETS WORKERS COMP SETTLEMENT RECORD

By Workplace Safety

In 2004, a California carpenter fell 20 feet from a scaffold, suffering a head injury that resulted in brain injury — and led to a structured settlement of $8.9 million (the highest on record in the Golden State).

According to attorney Christopher Asvar, his client is suffering from a variety of injury-related symptoms ranging from multiple personality disorder, depression, and psychosis to cognitive impairment and anxiety attacks that could last for the rest of his life. Asvar won the settlement despite the fact that CT and MRI scans showed no signs of trauma to the client’s brain, and medical experts described his disability as “mild.”

This decision speaks for itself — and it carries a warning to every business.

HIGH-DEDUCTIBLE HEALTH PLANS GROWING IN POPULARITY

By Employment Resources

More and more businesses are offering workers, and their dependents, High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) as an alternative to traditional programs with low deductibles. Participation in these programs rose by 7% in 2011, and is on track to hit double-digit growth this year. According to the Employee Benefits Research Institute, HDHPs might become the dominant type of employee health care benefit plan as early as 2014.

It’s easy to see why: In return for paying larger annual deductibles (and out-of-pocket medical expenses up to $3,000), participants can slash their premiums dramatically — and invest these dollars in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which they can use to accumulate retirement funds exempt from federal taxes. That’s a powerful incentive in today’s uncertain economy.

HDHPs give your employees “skin in the game.” Because they’ll have to pay their medical bills themselves until they meet their deductible, they tend to evaluate health-care providers and services carefully, shopping to meet their needs, rather than being shoehorned into a standardized cookie-cutter plan. What’s more, participants have a financial motivation to reduce health-care expenditures by taking better care of themselves through weight-loss or stop-smoking programs, gym memberships, dietary changes, etc. Some plans offer preventive-care “wellness benefits,” such as health-risk assessments, free of charge.

However, before you offer your employees an HDHP, bear in mind that:

  • These plans aren’t cost effective for people with chronic health problems.
  • Some participants try to save money by postponing or avoiding the care they need.
  • Workers in lower-income brackets might not earn enough to benefit from the HSA tax breaks.

For a complimentary review of how HDH plans can benefit you and your employees, please get in touch with us.

EMPLOYEE HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS: THE TIMES, THEY ARE ‘A CHANGIN’

By Employment Resources

The complex interaction among evolving employee needs for medical services, skyrocketing health provider costs, and lingering uncertainty over health care reform is transforming traditional health benefits programs from top to bottom.

The lingering recession has had a significant impact on these plans. If you’re like most businesses, you’re focused more closely than ever on the bottom line; curbing costs wherever possible. In this challenging environment, it’s all too easy to lose sight of your most valuable asset — your workers — and the need to provide health care benefits that can play a key role in boosting employee retention rates and generating the growth in productivity your business will need when the economy starts to take off again.

Although economic pressures prevent many workers from leaving their jobs, a nationwide survey sponsored by MetLife found that one in three employees expected to change jobs during the next year. According to the study, workers who were happy with their health benefits program were almost three times more likely to remain in their current positions than were respondents who didn’t have a satisfactory plan.

An effective, comprehensive, cost-effective employee health benefits program should include these elements:

  • Freedom of choice. The health care needs of your workers can vary widely, depending on their age, gender, life style, medical history, etc. — which means that old-fashioned cookie-cutter plans just won’t cut it. It makes sense to let employees choose from among the “alphabet soup” of benefit options (such as PPOs, POS’s, HRAs, and ACOs), and work with them to tailor a program that fits their situation.
  • Cost control/cost sharing. Budgetary constraints make it essential to curb the cost of benefit plans. For example, take a close look at whether the dependents of your employees are eligible for the program. According to some studies, nearly one in seven dependent beneficiaries don’t meet eligibility criteria — and these freeloaders account for 7 cents of every dollar spent on employee health benefits. Employees will need to put “skin in the game” by taking higher deductibles and paying more out-of-pocket costs.
  • Proactive employee participation. Encouraging workers to help keep themselves healthy will benefit them — and boost your bottom line — by increasing productivity and reducing the cost of your benefit program. You can offer participating employees a variety of financial incentives, ranging from gift cards for taking a comprehensive physical to premium reductions in return for such lifestyle changes as losing weight and giving up cigarettes.
  • Non-traditional benefits. Give employees the opportunity to supplement their health plan with a “Chinese menu” of voluntary benefits, for which they’ll pick up the tab. These products usually include Life and Long-Term Disability insurance, Dental and Vision plans, identity theft, and legal services.

Choosing the best employee benefits programs for you and your workers can be a daunting task. As your insurance professionals, we stand ready to help. Just give us a call.

GROUP DISABILITY: A FINANCIAL SAFETY NET FOR YOUR WORKERS

By Employment Resources

If sickness or injury kept an employee off the job for weeks — or months — how would he or she be able to pay the bills? The answer: Group Disability insurance provides an invaluable source of income, averaging about 60% of his or her earnings, for up to two years (depending on the policy).

One recent nationwide study found that only one in three workers benefit from the financial security net that this product offers. Yet, according to another survey, although only 13% of employees knew much about Disability insurance, 90% were prepared to pay at least part of the premium once they understood it.

To help sell your workers on this valuable financial “umbrella,” let them know that:

  • Although Workers Compensation helps pay for loss of income from job-related illness or mishaps, it does not cover employees who are unable to work due to sickness or injury incurred outside the workplace — which account for up to 90% of Disability claims.
  • Social Security Disability Insurance payments max out at only $1,100 a month.
  • One in three sick or injured workers stays off the job for at least 90 days — and these workers will probably remain disabled for at least two years.

We’d be happy to help you develop a comprehensive, cost-effective Group Disability program that can help give your employees financial peace of mind.

IT’S SUMMERTIME — AND THE HEAT IS ON!

By Risk Management Bulletin

Whether your employees are outdoors — on the job or at play this summer — or working indoors in a hot environment, they need to know how to cope with hot and humid conditions that can pose serious dangers to their health that the heat brings.

The human “cooling system” uses perspiration and blood vessels to regulate body temperature. However, when someone is working hard in the heat, especially when it’s also humid, this system can break down, raising the person’s temperature and heart rate. Although people who are past middle age or have health problems are especially vulnerable, the young and healthy can also suffer from heat-related conditions.

Overheating also affects the brain. A temperature hike as little as 2 degrees can impair mental functioning, which makes heat an underlying cause of job accidents, as diminished ability can lead workers to overlook hazards and make mistakes.

In order of seriousness, heat hazards — and their remedies — include:

  • Heat rash — Can be irritating: Take a shower and use a little talcum powder.
  • Heat stress — Symptoms include thirst, vision problems and/or feeling woozy or tired: Drink a cool, non-alcoholic beverage in a shady place.
  • Heat cramp — Involves pain from twitching muscles caused by losing salt from perspiration: Get into the shade and take cool fluids.
  • Heat exhaustion — Look for heavy perspiration, fatigue, queasy stomach, and chilly, clammy skin: Put the person in the shade, with their feet slightly elevated, provide a cooling beverage (unless the victim is nauseated), and be prepared to seek medical assistance.
  • Heatstroke — Can be a fatal condition, characterized by a lack of sweating, a temperature elevated by up to five degrees, hot skin, mental confusion, and loss of coordination: Call paramedics immediately — and then get the victim to a shaded spot and keep him or her cooling down with cold water sponges or ice packs until help arrives.

To help keep your workers protected from the heat, we’d recommend that you advise them to: (1) Wear sunglasses for protection against exposure to UV rays; (2) Apply sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or more to minimize the risk of cancer or sunburn: (3) Keep hydrated with plenty of cool — not cold — water and beverages free of alcohol or caffeine; (4) Minimize exposure to the sun by going indoors or staying in the shade during the heat of the day; and (5) Eat light meals with small servings of fruits and vegetables (which are rich in fluids).

For valuable information on dealing with heat-related issues, check out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) web page, Heat: A Major Killer.

MAKING WORKPLACE SAFETY INCENTIVES WORK: THE VIEW FROM OSHA

By Risk Management Bulletin

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is taking another look at the controversial issue of how safety incentive programs on the job impact the willingness of workers to report injuries or accidents.

The new review will examine the conclusion of an earlier OSHA report that a 2005 explosion at a BP oil refinery — which killed 15 employees and injured another 180 people — was due in part to a job safety program that provided workers with disincentives for reporting injuries and accidents (the lower the reported rate of mishaps, the higher the bonuses that employees received).

OSHA recently warned employers that if their safety programs discourage workers “in any way” from reporting potential dangers on the job they could face penalties for discrimination against the employee’s right to free speech — as well as violating OSHA requirements that the employer keep accurate workplace records. Although programs which encourage worker safety by offering employees or work teams such incentives as bonuses for having no injuries or accidents over a period of time might be “well-intentioned,” OSHA noted that these programs are far more effective if they focus on positive safety-related activities, such as pinpointing hazards in the workplace, or helping investigate mishaps or “near misses” on the job. For example, the agency’s guidelines for its Voluntary Protection Program include providing workers with such rewards as cash, gift cards, and T-shirts. A company might also honor workers for their contributions to a comprehensive safety program by hosting a party. On the negative side, employees who violate safety rules would receive demerits.

See an in-depth report on this complex issue from the General Accounting Office here.

The bottom line: To develop an effective workplace safety program, you’ll need to create and maintain open lines of communication with your employees. Our risk management professionals stand ready to analyze your business and offer recommendations on a comprehensive safety program to keep your workers as safe as possible.

CLEANUP ON AISLE TWO: BEWARE OF SLIP-AND-FALL SCAM ARTISTS!

By Risk Management Bulletin

Any company that has customers on its premises is vulnerable to slip-and-fall claims: A con in which criminals stage “dangerous” situations so they can fake a tumble and claim compensation for their injury.

Because slip-and-fall claims can easily be legitimate, every business needs to either carry coverage against this exposure or self-insure against it.

According to the National Insurance and Crime Bureau (NCIB), the number of suspicious slip-and-fall incidents rose more than 10% from 2010 to 2011, costing businesses hundreds of millions of dollars — not to mention driving up insurance rates — ultimately paid by customers in the form of higher prices.

A large percentage of these scams, often run by organized crime, target retail stores. Although there are a number of variations on the con, one common type involves a two-member “accident team.” While one person keeps lookout, the second pours a liquid or a piece of debris in a store aisle and then pretends to take a fall. At this point, the lookout appears to” “help the victim” and volunteers to act as an eyewitness, After telling store personnel that their injury might need medical care, the victim waits for a few days and then returns to demand (pricey) compensation under threat of a lawsuit.

In all too many cases, the store owner will pay up as a cost of doing business, rather than face the hassle and cost of litigation — not to mention the negative publicity involved. According to insurance experts, that’s one reason why most victims avoid reporting questionable slip-and-falls to the police — which makes the extent of these crimes even harder to measure.

If you carry slip-and-fall insurance, it makes sense to stand up against what you believe are phony claims: The insurance company will pick up the tab for providing a legal defense against litigation and reimburse you if you should lose.

If you don’t have this valuable protection, we’d be happy to find the best coverage for you at the best price. Of course, you should also report any suspicious claim to the NCIB nationwide fraud line at (800)-TEL-NICB.