Return to Wellness Perspectives: Juanita Snyder

Welcome to our first blog interview!  Since ecovery is a holistic, proactive approach to returning injured workers to wellness and productivity, the entire Eastern service team works together to support our Return to Wellness philosophy.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at ecovery from a variety of team perspectives.  First up, Juanita Snyder, Eastern’s Regional Supervisor of Risk Management for the Southeast Region, provides her thoughts on ecovery and why it is a Best Practice for every employer!

Q: From your risk management perspective and experience, what is the biggest challenge for an employer in offering modified duty?

A: The biggest challenges I see is not understanding what modified duty is, what modified duty can be and how to do implement modified duty.  The other issue that is significant to overcome is past experience.  For some reason, employers feel they cannot manage an injured employee.  Once they realize they still have the ability to manage the employee and hold them accountable to doing productive work, they are often more willing to move forward with a modified duty position.  

Permanent Restrictions - the ultimate challenge

Cartoon Source:  Safety.BLR.com

SCENARIO:  As an employer, you've been cooperating with providing modified duty within the injured employee's work restrictions.  Despite the challenges, you've made it work.  And then you receive notice that the injured employee's work restrictions are permanent.  What is a mason who cannot lift cinder blocks all day going to do?  What could a dietary aide worker do who cannot feed patients possibly do?  How about the delivery truck driver who has never done anything but deliver auto parts?

Consider the following ideas as options to resolving your most challenging RTW opportunities:

OSHA's $afety Pays Program

OSHA's website provides a fantastic tool to demonstrate the estimated costs of occupational injuries and illnesses and the estimated impact on an organization's profitability.  Check out the $afety Pays Program Calculator.


Here's how it works:
The user manually inputs some basic workers' compensation claims data including profit margin, type of injury/illness, and number of injuries.  The calculator has been programmed with data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. (NCCI) which details the average cost of lost time workers' compensation claims from 2006-2008.

Results:
The calculator provides the user with estimated direct costs (actual costs associated with claims which may be insured under WC policy) and indirect costs (loss of production, overtime, hiring costs, etc. -- always paid by employer).  The calculator then bases the amount of sales the employer would have to make to cover the indirect and direct costs of the claims.

The user can use this for an individual claim, or they can input their loss runs data to demonstrate just how much their WC claims costs them above and beyond premium dollars.

Considerations:
The NCCI data is based on an average including a number of states.  Numbers are only an estimate, but can serve as an eye-opener to employers who assume that "this is what I have WC insurance for."  While partly true, every employer has more at stake than just a WC premium increase.

Being out of work is bad for your health!

For many of us Memorial Day signifies the start of the summer vacation season.  Each year many of us anxiously await the opportunity for a week or so off from work, vacationing or "stay-cationing."  We relish the time that we get to spend with friends and family, relaxing and trying not to think about work.  While it is said that vacation time is linked to many aspects of mental and physical well-being, too much of a good thing is never a good thing.

Did you know that being out of work may actually be bad for your health?  That's right, I said it.  Let me clarify -- I'm not stating that being out of work for a work related injury is equivalent to taking PTO or vacation, nor am I stating that we shouldn't be taking a well-deserved vacation...trust me. 

The evidence
In a literature review conducted by Waddell & Burton (2006) regarding the impact of unemployment, re-employment, and work for sick and disabled people demonstrates the following findings:

Job Offer Letters: Who, What, Where, When ,Why, and How?

Who is involved in the job offer letter process?

Your Eastern claim representative can provide you with a template and guidance for a job offer letter.  The physician is involved, as they provide the restrictions and may have already approved the job being offered. The injured worker receives a copy of the letter via regular and certified mail.  If there are attorneys involved, they should receive a copy of the letter.  Your insurance agent may also want a copy of the letter.  A company HR representative may be involved in writing the letter.  The injured worker's supervisor should also receive a copy of the letter.

What goes into a job offer letter?

The letter should introduce the date of the most current restrictions and the name of the doctor releasing the injured worker to modified duty.  A copy of the restrictions should be attached to the letter.  The name of the job being offered should be included if it has a different job title.  The duties of the job should be clearly detailed in the body of the letter.  Wages and number of hours, including start date and shift/hours to be worked should also be contained in the letter.  Please be sure to include the person who the IW should report to upon returning to work.  If the job is in a different department or location, notify the employee in the letter of this.  Finally, a response date should be set about 7 days out from the date of the letter.  This will ensure that there is enough time for the letter to reach the IW prior to their expected RTW date.