News and Updates
Month: June 2023
2 Hour Safety Training Deadline
If your company participated in Group Rating or Group Retro during the 2022 policy year (July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023) and had a claim during the green year(s), you’re required to complete two hours of safety training by June 30, 2023. Please be sure to complete and submit the training certificates to your team at Spooner (or your TPA, if you’re not a Spooner client). If you’re unsure if you need to complete this training, reach out to your client services manager. The training doesn’t have to be completed in person – so there’s still time to meet the requirement by participating in one of BWC’s online courses. Here are some details on fulfilling the two-hour training requirement, per the Ohio BWC website. Two-hour Training Options A variety of training sources are available for you to fulfill this requirement. They include the following offered through BWC’s Division of Safety & Hygiene: Education and Training Services Center courses Ohio Safety Congress & Exposition (OSC) safety education sessions Safety council seminars, workshops, or conferences featuring a safety topic that are at least two hours long (Safety council monthly meetings do not qualify.) Guidelines for courses offered through non-BWC training forums The group sponsor, third-party administrator, or an independent source can sponsor a course, provided it meets the two-hour criteria. The topic must be workp
Red Flags in Workers' Comp Claims
One of the things our team prides themselves on is identifying potential issues early on in workers’ compensation claims. Some of these can be so obvious that the employer will clue us in during the initial contact, but some are a bit more nuanced – and that’s where our expert claims examiners come in. Most people handling workers’ comp for a business know that a Friday afternoon or Monday morning injury is a little suspicious, even more if there were no witnesses. However, there are other scenarios that employers may not consider relative to the validity of a claim, and it’s our job to gather that information and educate our clients on how to handle it. Here are a few examples of details that sound our alarms, both early on in the claim, and as it progresses. Claimant is hostile about answering any questions regarding the accident, or provides very vague answers. Immediate representation by an attorney. The details (like date, time and place of accident) are unknown or can’t be recalled. Late reporting of the injury. Not everyone seeks medical treatment right away, but an incident report (with witness statements) should be completed even if first aid isn’t needed. The statute of limitations in Ohio is 12 months from DOI. If witness statements don’t corroborate the claimant’s story or are all different, that could be another red flag. Claimant can’t be reached - never answers the phone, or a
Is it Time to Leave BWC Behind?
Ohio employers have started receiving notifications from Ohio BWC regarding their rates and EMR for the approaching 2023 policy year. If your business is one of the lucky ones to see a rate decrease, congratulations! If your business is one of the thousands of policies that are seeing an increase, or your EMR isn’t going to help you win any bids - it may be time to explore different options. We know that the phrase “PEO” can make some employers gasp at the thought of sacrificing control for lower workers’ comp premiums, or an aesthetically pleasing EMR – but not all PEOs are created equal. Spooner Risk Control Services designed SuretyHR to be a very different PEO (Professional Employer Organization) than the ones employers have told us so many stories about. We don’t need to take over your day-to-day operations, or make you change brokers and retirement plan administrators. We have solutions for those services if you need them – but if it’s not broken, we won’t insist on fixing it. SuretyHR was built to improve and support your business, and free up time for management and owners to focus on the important things. Instead of spending time behind the scenes, leadership stays in front of the business to focus on employee engagement, business development, client retention, and creating cultures that retain the best talent. Employers happy with their BWC rates and EMR can still benefit from partnering w
OSHA Heat Illness NEP Ongoing
Let’s not forget that OSHA’s Heat Illness Nation Emphasis Program (NEP) is still going strong. On days that the National Weather Service issues a heat warning or advisory for certain areas, expect OSHA to be making rounds and doing inspections in 70+ indoor and outdoor industry settings that are considered high risk for heat illness. A study was recently published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health using data reported to OSHA. The research team found that 3% of all injuries and fatalities were exertion related – and of those, a staggering 89% were heat-related. Unsurprisingly, industries associated with outdoor work like construction, agriculture, and farming show heat as being a significant occupational danger – but the stats are also high for assembly line workers. Even today, many indoor industrial environments like warehousing, and production and assembly lines, don’t have A/C throughout their entire facility. Office areas will typically be cooled - but where most of the workers are concentrated, they rely on large ceiling fans, air circulation provided by open windows and loading docks, as well as personal cooling devices brought by the employees themselves. Much like work-related falls, heat illnesses are preventable. As an employer, you have a responsibility to provide rest, water, and shade to employees, allow new workers to acclimate to the heat in short bursts, monitor staff for signs of
MCO Open Enrollment Wrap Up
We’d like to sincerely thank all of the Ohio employers that chose Spooner Medical Administrators, Inc. (SMAI) as their MCO during MCO Open Enrollment last month, as well as those loyal clients who chose to remain with our MCO. SMAI continues to experience sustainable, organic growth, thanks to the partnerships we have with Chambers of Commerce, trade organizations, associations, and simply by word of mouth. SMAI has grown in both policies assigned and claims managed, and was also one of only four MCOs to see a net growth during Open Enrollment. They've also been the only MCO to grow every Open Enrollment since 1997. The team at SMAI is excited to begin building partnerships with the hundreds of new employers that moved to Spooner Medical Administrators this year. Thanks for putting your faith in us, Ohio businesses! We can’t wait to meet even more new customers when the next Open Enrollment rolls around in
