Skip to main content
search
Monthly Archives

May 2016

May 02
Love0

Workers Compensation Rates Throughout the Years: How Your Expenses Stack Up

By Workplace Safety

0516-wc-3The healthcare profession has had a lot of attention in this country, and the disparity between the rates of service has been linked to practically every argument about how to compensate doctors while protecting patients as well. Each side claims they’re getting the short end of the stick, and the whole debate becomes very tiresome to both citizens and politicians alike. Workers compensation rates are directly tied to to not just how long your employees aren’t able to work, but how much each injury costs insurance.

It’s rare, but sometimes people lose limbs while they’re on the job in high-risk working conditions. More commonly, people are more likely to claim chronic back pain due to sitting in an air-conditioned office typing at a desk for 8 hours a day. Whatever threats are you on your plate, you should know there are doctors out there who see workers compensation cases primarily as an income booster, and they’ll encourage people’s claims in ways they shouldn’t. These doctors get the same referrals from the same attorneys in the area, and proceed to perform tests and give out excessive disability time. This ultimately doesn’t help the worker because the motivations are centered around greed and not the patient’s actual health. Both the lawyers and medical professionals involved have no reason to complain, but the insurance companies and legitimate doctors in the area are hurt by this as well.

This is why rates will vary in different states depending on how your insurance model works. If your employee visits a doctor and is refused treatment, then your state probably has extremely low reimbursement rates for the hospitals. Legitimate doctors are also turned off by the time delay it takes for someone to review the bill and sign off on the services as well. Having someone perform this service also costs additional funds, which can bring up the rates for the wrong people. Some have proposed that it would actually work better to have more of a network of approved doctors like a group health care plan. This way certain treatments can be pre-authorized and rates could become more standardized.

In states where there have been major reforms, like California, there has been a significant decrease in premiums. If you’re wondering how your rates stack up, your best bet is to keep up with how well your state is doing at managing the laws. If you have seen your premiums only decreasing over the years, then your state is likely implementing better plans to stave off fraud and eliminate intense (and costly) bureaucratic procedures. Workers compensation rates, like the cost of medical care, see huge differences depending on the area.

May 02
Love0

How to Reduce Your Liability for Workers Compensation During Worker Shortages

By Workplace Safety

0516-wc-2Worker shortages are tough for every employer. Being too selective may mean you sacrifice your deadlines to ensure you keep your quality, being too welcoming to every candidate could mean the complete reversal where quality is sacrificed instead. However, there are more dangers that come with hiring just anyone off the street – there’s a much higher risk you will be scammed by them or that their inexperience will open you up to a workers comp claim. Here’s what you can do to limit your liability.

Look to the Past

Hopefully you have some experience with worker shortages. You need to draw from your past, and identify the major pitfalls and mistakes that were made when you had a limited pool to select employees from. While you may not have had any claims filed before, you should be able to see the types of situations that arose from the workers’ skills. Were people careless with the equipment? Did they generally need a lot more help to complete their tasks? Were they constantly asking for more money or time off without offering anything in return? These types of workers are most likely to cause you grief later on either through legitimate injuries or fake ones. This should give you an indication of how to best plan divide the workload and immediately catch problems before they start.

Interview With Care

The interview is your first chance to limit your liability. Don’t take it lightly! An interview needs to be about figuring out the responsibility level of your candidate, so they have less chance of being hurt. Accidents can happen to anyone, but some people are more susceptible than others. Ask the questions you care about, and get a sense for how the structure their days. Laziness and carelessness can travel from personal to private life. While a your potential employee isn’t going to admit their flaws, they will reveal clues about their personality right upfront. Don’t ignore your better instincts if you sense there’s a problem.

Get Creative

You need to find ways to advertise your opening everywhere you can: online, on community bulletin boards and through referrals. The more choices you have, the more likely it is you’ll find the people you want. It can be overwhelming to have variety, but ultimately you need it to be successful. You may also want to consider switching up the tasks if you’re still finding it hard to attract good people. If there are less dangerous tasks that can be done to help your best workers, then that could be a new role you carve out. Limit the responsibility of those you might consider at-risk, and you’ll also limit your liability.

May 02
Love0

Insurance Companies Use of Fraud Analytics to Discourage Workers Comp Fraud

By Workplace Safety

0516-wc-1Insurers who provide workers comp understandably want to do everything possible to prevent fraud, but it can be difficult to do when claims are fraught with emotion and there’s no possible way to check on every last detail of the case. Instead of just relying on people’s stories entirely, it may make more sense to use fraud analytics for commercial claims to ensure that medical providers, workers and employers are telling the truth about the extent of the damages.

Right now, insurers are mainly using manually processing, and while they do see patterns that indicate fraud, the system is just not as good at showing where the problems are actually stemming from. Whether that’s a specific area, hospital or industry, there’s more ways out there to significantly reduce the chance of fraud. While employees may continue to come up with creative ways to trick their employers, these automated processes can use specific criteria so everyone who works in this field can start inputting their numbers for real results. The way the referrals process works right now, there’s a gap in how the data is being looked at as a whole. This means people miss important factors that could signify fraud.

Medical bills and records as well as policy and pharmacy information could all provide a crucial link to giving people a way to identity bad apples in the system. The information can then be looked at as an entire compilation which could provide a framework for future cases. Currently, many people in the insurance industry have been relying on traditional methods which limits their knowledge and the face of workers comp in general. Unlicensed medical providers may write up false data or hike up procedure costs for workers comp cases, and employers may misrepresent an employee’s job as being much safer than it actually is to lower their claim rates.

One estimate puts payouts of workers compensation at over $7 billion dollars a year. It’s unclear just how much goes toward fraudulent claims, but there are few out there that think it’s not a problem. When there’s money to be made, people come up with some very interesting ways to go about getting their hands on it. It’s also expected that these fake claims will continue to rise in number in the immediate future. Even if there are professionals out there who think the system works by going through each claim by hand, there’s little to be lost here by at least trying out a new form of detection. Any additional insights that can be used to decrease claim payouts for the next few decades will only decrease everyone’s premiums.

May 02
Love0

Tips for Dealing With a Passive Boss

By Your Employee Matters

0516-em-4Every company needs strong leaders. Without them, the business will fail to achieve goals, lose customers and employees, and possibly fail. That’s what makes a passive boss such a disaster for the company and for individual employees like you. Discover several tips that help you deal with a passive boss as you find success at work.

What is a Passive Boss?

Passivity involves sitting on the sidelines and letting employees do whatever they want. It can be extreme, such as ignoring employees and expectations, or simply refusing to get involved in any issue until it becomes serious. You know your boss is passive when you see:

  • No-show managers who assign a project and then disappear into their office
  • Little employee motivation
  • Missed deadlines and unfinished projects
  • Increased conflict, stress and disagreement
  • Unresolved problems that grow rather than shrink over time
  • Lack of feedback for high performing and low performing employees

Take Action

When you figure out that you have a passive boss, understand that nothing you can do will change him or her overnight. However, you can take steps that address the passivity and improve your workplace.

  1. Consider personality. Managerial styles develop over the years and can be part of someone’s personality. Your boss may not be trying to be a jerk on purpose, and this fact can help you have compassion as you decide your next step.
  2. Focus on helpfulness. Approach your boss with an attitude of helpfulness as you seek to make real change. Deal with your frustrations beforehand so that your attitude isn’t one of accusations or demands, and prepare a list of ways a leadership change will help your boss.
  3. Address your needs. While you want to point out how passivity negatively affects your boss, be sure to share how it also helps you do your job, meet deadlines or know what to expect.
  4. Nix the witch hunt. Even though you may want to gather your co-workers and confront your boss, that strategy will only put him or her on the defensive, aggravate the situation and harm any positive outcome you hope to achieve.
  5. Schedule a one-on-one meeting. Rather than approach your boss during a large meeting, schedule a solo meeting. If your boss is willing to be accountable, set up weekly or bi-weekly meetings that address ongoing concerns.
  6. Talk to the higher-ups. Sometimes, you need to take action and talk to your boss’s boss. Take this step if your boss refuses to listen or cannot or won’t make changes.

A passive boss affects the entire company. Address the issue with these tips as you make your workplace better for you, your co-workers and your customers.

May 02
Love0

Understand Teen Work Hours

By Your Employee Matters

0516-em-3Every employer must follow fair work hours. Typically, employees can only work 38 regular hours per week, must receive extra pay for shifts that extend outside the normal 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours and receive mandatory meal and rest breaks. The rules are stricter for teens, so understand them before you hire young workers.

Teen Work Hours

Here’s a summary of the hours teens may work.

14-15 year old teens, school weeks:

  • 3 hours per day, Monday through Friday
  • 8 hours Saturday and Sunday
  • Max 16 hours per week, 6 days a week
  • Start 7 a.m., quit 7 p.m.

14-15 year old teens, non-school weeks:

  • 8 hours per day, Monday through Sunday
  • Max 40 hours per week, 6 days a week
  • Start 7 a.m., quit 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. June 1 to Labor Day

16-17 year old teens, school weeks:

  • 4 hours per day, Monday through Thursday
  • 8 hours Friday through Sunday
  • Max 20 hours per week, 6 days a week
  • Start 7 a.m., quit 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, midnight Saturday and Sunday

16-17 year old teens, school weeks with a special variance that proves the teen can handle school and work:

  • 6 hours per day, Monday through Thursday, 8 hours Friday through Sunday
  • Max 28 hours per week, 6 days a week
  • Start 7 a.m., quit 10 p.m. or midnight Friday and Saturday

16-17 year old teens, non-school weeks:

  • 8 hours per day
  • Max 48 hours per week, 6 days a week
  • Start 5 a.m., quit midnight

Breaks and Meals

Any teen employee under 18 years of age must be provided with regular breaks and meals. Meal breaks must last 30 minutes for individuals who work more than five hours in a day. For every four hours worked, teens must receive at least one 10-minute paid rest break. Additionally, employees who are 14 and 15 years old must receive a separate 30-minute uninterrupted meal at least once per four-hour shift and a paid 10-minute rest break every two hours.

How to Hire a Teen

Now that you understand teen work hours, follow several steps as you hire teen employees.

  • Obtain and post a Minor Work Permit that’s available at bls.dor.wa.gov. Reapply for it annually.
  • Obtain a signed authorization form from the teen’s parent and school
  • Obtain and file a copy of the teen’s birth certificate or other proof of age
May 02
Love0

Five Questions to Ask Before You Quit Your Job

By Your Employee Matters

0516-em-2Quitting your job might feel like the only way to escape a stressful position or stretch yourself professionally. Before you quit, though, consider asking yourself five questions to ensure you’re quitting for the right reasons.

Am I making an emotional or impulsive decision or one based on facts?

It’s normal to feel like quitting in the middle of a tough project or when you’re passed over for a promotion, but resist the temptation to quit because of emotions or impulse. Instead, practice coping skills like exercise, meditation or self-advocacy and do what you can to change your work environment. Then give yourself a few weeks to discern if your desire to quit is driven by facts rather than impulse or emotions.

What are the perks about my current job?

Your discontent could cause you to see only the negatives about your current job. Nearly every job has perks, though, such as a flexible work schedule, generous benefits or short commute. Weigh these perks and decide if you’re willing to put up with a stressful workload because of the short commute or if you prefer to exchange the benefits for a more relaxed boss.

What’s my track record for time spent at one place?

Some employees establish a pattern of jumping from job to job every year or so. Potential employers will see your track record and assume you’ll leave them quickly, too. It’s one thing if you do that to climb the ladder, but be honest about why you’re job hopping. It might be better to stick it out at a rough job if doing so can helps your resume.

Will it take long to find a new job?

Depending on your skills and the job market in your area, it could take months or even years for you to find a new job after you quit your current one. Your savings and morale will plummet as you wait for another position. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a new job lined up before you quit.

Have you tried to change your current work conditions?

The temptation to complain about your job is normal, but instead of quitting, make sure you’ve done everything you can to change your current work conditions. Write out your complaints, and schedule a time to talk to your boss about them. Your boss may be willing and able to change things up so that you can stay, but if not, you may wish to start looking for something different.

May 02
Love0

Taking FMLA for an Adoption

By Your Employee Matters

0516-em-1The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles employees to take unpaid time off work for certain family events, including adoption. It protects your job and ensures you receive the same health benefits during your leave as you would be entitled to if you were still at work. Understand your FMLA rights as you welcome a new child into your family.

Adoption is Covered by FMLA

Most people think of FMLA when they think of having a biological child, but it is also available when parents adopt a child. Before the actual adoption or child placement in your home, use FMLA when your presence is needed for the adoption to proceed. Examples include:

    • Counseling sessions
    • Required physical exams
    • Consultations with attorneys, social workers, the adoption agency and/or the child’s birth parent’s representatives
    • Court appearances
    • Travel for the purpose of completing the adoption

Adoptive dads and moms are also eligible for FMLA after your child is placed in your home. The source of the adoption does not affect your eligibility for FMLA.

How Much FMLA can I Take for an Adoption?

Typically, FMLA provides employees with 12 work weeks of leave in one 12-month period. For traditional childbirth, you can take that time in split increments. For example, you want to be at your child’s doctor appointments, so you can take FMLA and attend the well-child checks even if they’re only an hour once a month.

The rules are slightly different for adoptions. In this case, you are eligible for intermittent FMLA leave before the placement and for the 12 months after your child is placed in your home. Post-placement leave must be taken in a continuous break and may not be split unless the child has a serious medical condition or your employer agrees to let you take intermittent leave.

How to Take FMLA

Your first step toward receiving FMLA is asking for it. Instead of submitting the standard medical certification form, though, you should ask your attorney to write a letter stating that you are in the process of adoption. It should include how much leave you need and how long the process is expected to take. Your employer will then approve the leave or ask for further details.

Throughout the adoption process, you may be asked for updates or recertifications. Employers do this to ensure that the time you take off is indeed for adoption-related tasks.

May 02
Love0

What You Don’t Know About Famous Liability Cases

By Construction Insurance Bulletin

0516-con-4We tend to think of it as a problem of the social media age that people only read the headlines, they never look at the actual story. Well, the truth is that we’ve always been this way. In the 80’s and 90’s, we would listen to Johnny Carson and David Letterman riff on news stories and we’d wind up taking their jokes as fact, maybe embellishing it with some assumptions we’d made, and before long, a news story has become an urban legend. Here are three major liability stories that we’ve pretty much all gotten wrong:

McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case

This is perhaps the most famous liability case in recent history. The story we all heard on late night television was that an old lady spilled some coffee on herself and squeezed McDonald’s for millions of dollars. The truth is that McDonald’s had received hundreds of complaints over their scalding hot coffee, the woman had initially only solicited the fast food chain for $800 to cover her skin grafts (yes, she actually suffered serious injury in the incident). When it became a courtroom drama, she tried to settle for $20,000. McDonald’s refused, not wanting to set a precedent that would make them responsible for any future injuries. Finally she wound up taking home just $640,000, minus what she had to pay for her medical bills, of course.

Worker Sues Ladder Company

It was actually 60 Minutes that reported this one: a worker mounted a ladder in frozen manure, and when the manure melted throughout the day, the ladder slipped and he injured himself. That’s a funny story, so that’s the one that spread, not the real one: That the ladder actually broke with the weight of just one adult man on it. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why the manufacturer got sued.

Lady Bankrupts Town Tripping On A Pothole

The story that we heard was that Sally Stewart was shopping in Reeds Spring, MO. Stewart tripped on a pothole in the street and sued the small town, bankrupting the entire village. The reality: The pothole was actually in the sidewalk, not the middle of the street, and it was covered by grass, and Stewart required expensive surgery to repair the injury she sustained. And she didn’t sue the town, she sued the owners of the store where she tripped, and it was the court that decided that the city be held responsible. And the town wouldn’t have had to pay a dime if they’d had insurance. And the mayor at the time of the incident was Joe Dan Dwyer, who’d actually made his own fortune from a personal injury settlement, and who soon left office under investigation for insurance fraud. And the mayor told Stewart “you will probably have to sue us” if she wanted the town to pay for her surgery.

May 02
Love2

How Construction Has Changed In The Last Century

By Construction Insurance Bulletin

0516-con-3Construction, like any profession, is an ever-evolving trade. We don’t build homes today in the same way that we built homes one hundred years ago anymore than we still go to the dentist and the barber in the same building. Certain techniques and materials fall out of favor while new techniques and materials are developed. Even the layouts of new homes are subject to change over time. Here are some of the biggest ways construction has changed over the last hundred years:

Windows

Windows are one of the biggest changes in housing construction over the last century. Glass has gotten much lighter and much stronger, starting around the turn of the century. Specialty tinting have further allowed windows to insulate a home without the need to be especially thick. Specialty tinting can also help to keep UV light from damaging interior decor.

Efficiency of Space

Homes have gotten more energy efficient in the last couple of decades, but they’ve also gotten much more space-efficient. Many homes today have a kitchen, dining room and living room that all flow together in the same general space. This wasn’t usually the case 100 years ago, when the kitchen was more likely to be closed off in its own space.

Home Size

Incidentally, the era of the “big house” in the 20th Century was fairly short lived. Today, developers are building homes and apartments smaller than they did thirty, forty years ago, but the glory days of the American suburban sprawl were fairly short lived. Row houses were first built in the 1800’s and were shaped a bit like modern trailer and pre-fab homes, stretching only 19 feet across and going back about 30-40 feet. Today it seems that the most fashionable homes tend to be rather small, rather than the sprawling bungalows of the 1940’s set on 60 by 100 feet of land. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that it was taken for granted that each child in a family could have a room of their own.

And then, there are things that stay about the same. We’re still building homes from bricks and wood, as we did 20, 100, 500 years ago. While the techniques, the design, the technology may change over the years, the fundamental basics of construction have generally remained the same. Moving farther into the 21st Century, we’re likely to see more homes being built for solar just as homes are built for electricity and indoor plumbing today, and we’ll likely see more innovative, efficient uses of space.

May 02
Love0

Demolition Disasters

By Construction Insurance Bulletin

0516-con-2When you watch primates at the zoo, swinging from vine to vine, they look incredibly graceful, don’t they? You’d never guess, then, that when researchers x-ray older primates, they find a lot of signs of broken bones. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, whether you’re grabbing a vine that wasn’t as securely attached as you thought, or you’re putting the dynamite just a few yards to the left of where it goes. Here’s what can go wrong when the demolition team makes a whoopsy:

“I Barely Nudged It!”

Early in 2015, footage uploaded to Liveleak showed a demolition crew in China attempting to tear down an old seven story building when a small digger accidentally struck a supporting wall, sending the building crumbling down in plumes of dust and debris, and the workers scrambling for cover. The entire building came down in mere seconds. Buildings being torn down are usually in a dillapidated state to begin with, and sometimes the scariest mistakes happen before the explosives have even been planted.

The Leaning Tower of Russia

In late 2014, an illegally built 10 story tower in Sevastopol was set to go down with a controlled explosion. Knowing that people would gather around to see the building destroyed, public safety was top priority, and the demolition crew chose to use a weaker explosive charge than what would usually be recommended for the job. Unfortunately, the blast only knocked out enough of the structure to leave the tower looking a bit like a bendy-straw, tilted just a few degrees off center about half-way up. Footage uploaded to the Daily Mirror shows witnesses laughing as the building fails to come down.

House Survives Tornado… Then Gets Accidentally Destroyed By Wrecking Crew

Sometimes bad luck misses the first time, so it comes back to try again. That’s what happened earlier this year in Texas, when a woman whose home had miraculously been one of the few in her neighborhood to survive tornadoes last December came home to find the entire place torn down by a demolition company who had the wrong address. They were supposed to be tearing down a damaged house about a block away. She’s still waiting on the demolition company to help her out, and would rather not be pushed to pursuing legal action.

Whether we’re talking about misplaced explosives, not enough explosives, clerical errors or just nudging a building in the wrong way, there’s a lot that can go wrong on a demolition site.

Close Menu