10 Steps to Control Your Workers Comp Premium
An employer’s experience modification factor is an important component that is used in calculating a company’s workers compensation premium. Controlling your mod will help you to control your costs. Here are a few tips to live by if you are trying to control this cost and your bottom line.
- Investigate accidents immediately and thoroughly. Take corrective action to eliminate hazards. Be aware of fraud.
- Report all claims to carrier immediately. Alert carrier to any serious, potentially serious, or suspect claims. Frequently monitor the status of the claim and communicate with the adjuster to resolve as quickly as possible.
- Take an aggressive approach to providing light duty to all injured employees upon their release from treatment. Supervise light duty employees to assure their conformance with restrictions.
- In serious cases that involve lost time, communicate with the claims adjuster so that they recognize your interest in returning the injured employee back to gainful employment.
- Set safety performance goals for persons with supervisory responsibility. Success in achieving safety goals should be used as one measure during performance appraisals.
- Develop a written safety program and train employees in their responsibilities for safety. Incorporate a disciplinary policy into the program, one that holds employees accountable for breaking the rules or rewards them for correctly following safety procedures.
- Frequently communicate with employees, on a formal and informal basis, regarding the importance of safety.
- Make safety a priority. Senior management must be visible in the safety effort and must support improvement.
- Evaluate accident history and near-misses at least monthly. Look for trends in experience and take corrective action on worst problems first, as soon as the problems manifest themselves
- If you don’t have the resources available internally to implement these suggestions, hire a third party who specializes in minimizing the risks.
