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Category : Worker’s Compensation

Joining a workers’ compensation group self-insurance program may be a significant means for small and mid-sized employers to reduce operating costs. Such plans deliver savings by providing employers with considerable control over losses, medical care and rehabilitation, plus improving cash flow.

A Duke University Medical Center study revealed that obese workers filed twice the number of workers’ compensation claims as non-obese workers. In addition the over-weight workers had 7 times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or work illness than did non-obese workers.

According to a study conducted by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, younger workers have more injuries and illnesses than older workers; but older workers have higher costs per claim. The researchers discovered that age is an important factor in overall claim costs, but the significance of age on claims frequency has lessened. This has been interpreted to mean that age may not play an important role in future frequency trends. However, the relationship between age and claim severities is basically unchanged.

According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, both on- and off-the-job motor vehicle crashes cost employers $60 billion annually from 1998 through 2000. The problem is so widespread, that in a recent study, the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc (NCCI) noted that traffic accidents are the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States. The study also said that workers’ compensation claims resulting from motor vehicle accidents are more severe than the average claim. Although they make up approximately 2 percent of all claims, they account for more than 5.5 percent of all losses because they cover a disproportionate share of the most severe claim types.

According to a study released in July 2006 by the National Academy of Social Insurance, employer costs for workers’ compensation grew faster than combined cash and medical payments to injured workers in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available. Combined benefit payments for injured workers increased 2.3 percent in 2004 compared to prior year levels, while employer workers’ compensation costs rose by 7.0 percent for the same period.

In an August 2006 ruling, Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that the claimant in the case of Michael G. Blakeslee Jr. vs. Platt Brothers & Co, who was injured when co-workers tried to help during a seizure, is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. Typically, workplace injuries caused by a seizure wouldn’t be eligible for compensation because the injuries arise from the medical condition itself and not from conditions in the work area. In the Blakeslee case, the claimant received two dislocated shoulders on February 13, 2002, when three co-workers tried to restrain him during his seizure. He had fallen near a large steel scale, and then started flailing his arms and legs as he regained consciousness.