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Workers’ Compensation Group

DTMA offers you the opportunity to reduce your workers’ compensation premium by joining our group-rating program.  With our group, all members can save up to 90 percent on their premiums!  The group-rating program allows our member companies with good safety and claims records to pool together and enjoy discounted premiums.  For employers who cannot qualify for 90 percent savings, we have many other options to fit your individual needs.

If you would like to apply for the DTMA Workers’ Compensation group click here for an AC3 form – Temporary Authorization to Review Information – complete and return to the Frank Gates Service Co.  (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view this file.)

Please click here www.frankgates.com for more information about the Frank Gates Service Company, our program administrator.

If you have questions, please contact Cindy Reeves at DTMA at (937) 512-3862 or by e-mail or Catherine Pletz at Frank Gates at 1-800-777-4283, ext. 429 or by e-mail.

Choose CareWorks as your MCO

Effective return to work can prevent lost time claims, cut costs and save your business money.  Enroll with CareWorks by May 30, 2008.

The 2008 MCO Open Enrollment period is May 5-30, 2008.  If you are already enrolled with CareWorks, you need not do anything, your re-enrollment with CareWorks is automatic.

It is critical that you select a managed care organization (MCO) focused on the most important area of workers’ compensation – achieving quick, safe return to work that prevents your workplace injuries from becoming lost time claims.

DTMA recommends CareWorks as the clear MCO of choice for our members.  CareWorks has demonstrated an effective focus on keeping claims in medical only status and reducing lost time through early intervention and successful return to work.  CareWorks has demonstrated industry-leading return to work performance that positively impacts its customers, including:

•  CareWorks had the #1 return to work performance of all MCOs over a five year period.
[Source:  Average of BWC’s Quarterly MCO DoDM Results from 4^th Quarter 2002 through 3^rd Quarter 2007]
 

•  CareWorks had the #1 First Report of Injury Turnaround of all MCOs for each of the last three years. [Source:  BWC MCO Year-End Summary Data from 2005, 2006 and 2007]

Claims become lost time when an injured worker is off work more than seven days.  Just one lost time claim can cost your business significant dollars.  Your business cannot afford even one lost time claim.  According to a 2004 BWC report:

•  Lost time claims cost, on average, $51,000.00.

•  Medical only claims cost, on average, $820.00.

Now is the time to enroll with DTMA recommended CareWorks before the May 30, 2008, MCO sign-up deadline passes.  To choose CareWorks, complete the enrollment form and FAX it, toll-free to 1-888-358-5319 before May 30.  Or, call CareWorks, toll-free at 1-866-CAREWORKS.

Don’t miss this opportunity to have your claims managed by CareWorks!

There are no direct costs for MCO services.  These services are included with an employer’s BWC premium.  For more information please contact Cindy or call (937) 512-3862.  Or, you may contact CareWorks, toll-free at 1-866-CAREWORKS or online at www.careworks.com.

Dayton/Miami Valley Safety Council Training Events

Attend the 2008 Breakfast with the Experts Series and get credit toward the Ohio BWC's incentive program.  All participants are required to sign in at registration to receive credit.

BWC Safety & Health Classes for Ohio Workers

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Division of Safety & Hygiene Training Center offers 57 occupational safety, health and ergonomic courses in ten locations statewide.  All courses are offered at no additional cost to Ohio employers who pay into the Ohio workers’ compensation insurance fund.  Courses are designed to emphasize practical application of safety principles, to help develop a safety culture, and to provide current and proposed standards for regulatory compliance.

For more information call 1-800-644-6292, option 2, 2 or log on to www.ohiobwc.com, or click here to download a flier.  (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required.)

Safety Works! for you

Safety Works for You and your employees.  By improving safety and preventing accidents, you can protect your workforce while at the same time reduce your workers’ compensation costs.  And the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s (BWC’s) Division of Safety & Hygiene is here to help.

As an employer in Ohio’s worikers’ compensation system, BWC’s Division of Safety & Hygiene can meet all your needs and at no direct cost to you.  They provide a broad spectrum of services including research, education, publications, local information networks and on-site consulting.

Visit www.ohiobwc.com 

Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation

BWC online services are going a step further to provide convenient service to small businesses – working hard to get you online instead of standing in line!  Visit www.ohiobwc.com for information.

BWC is changing the way they do business to better serve Ohio businesses.  Their new business model focuses on continuous process improvements that will dramatically reduce workers' compensation costs, provide a more competitive business development environment, better coordinate health care for Ohio's work force and improve workplace safety.  Click here for more information.

OSHA Inspection Survival Kit

If you have not felt the brunt of an OSHA inspection recently, chances are you will do so soon.  Inspection efforts are escalating.  Often it is a disgruntled employee who brings in OSHA - not the "random" inspection.  Also, accidents which find their way into newscasts and newspapers frequently trigger inspections as well.  When OSHA appears, the employer's initial response will determine its success in avoiding and defending citations.  Therefore, procedures should be in place for dealing with an inspection.  Here are some things you need to know in order to survive OSHA's calling card.

Inspections are of three types - safety, health or a combination of both.  When OSHA appears, you have two options - permit the inspection or refuse it.  If the inspection is permitted, strict parameters need be set in order to keep the compliance officer ("C.O.") from having the opportunity to engage in a fishing expedition for additional violations.  Whether to grant access frequently depends upon the facts and circumstances surrounding the citation and the working environment at time of inspection.  Generally, however, if the C.O. appears with a proper complaint, he should be permitted to inspect, but only for the item identified in the complaint.  The employer's limitations on the inspection should be stated to the C.O. and those limitations should be strictly followed.  Remember, OSHA is empowered to expand the inspection scope and issue citations for other violations which may be in plain sight as the C.O. moves between the entrance to the work place and the area of the inspection.  Anything seen is fair game!  It is so important to limit the compliance officer's exposure that it is not unusual for an employer to cause the C.O. to walk outside and around the facility and therefore enter by a back or side door immediately adjacent to the area of inspection.

An employer has the right to deny access until a search warrant is obtained.  Some benefits exist in requiring a warrant - it identifies the scope of the inspection, the time limitations for performing the inspection and gives the employer time to get its house in order before the compliance officer returns with the Court order.  Requesting the warrant is most advised, if there are numerous items listed on the complaint or a "wall-to-wall" inspection is intended.  Historically, compliance officers are not more zealous about the inspection, when required to obtain a warrant.

Stick with the following survival hints and avoid being overly cooperative and overly communicative:

·         Review C.O.'s credentials and obtain full name and office address

·         Determine if the inspection is caused by complaint, is random or post-accident

·         Inquire as to the scope of the inspection (specific piece of equipment, area or wall-to-wall)

·         If wall-to-wall inspection, consider requiring search warrant

·         If narrow inspection, reach agreement as to approach for inspection

·         Walk with C.O. (elbow to elbow) through entire inspection - take C.O. to the site in the most direct fashion

·         Take pictures of anything OSHA takes pictures of from the same angle and at the same time

·         Provide no unsolicited information and permit no one else to do so

·         Take minutes/notes regarding everything C.O. does and says, including those to whom he speaks (he has the right to interview employees outside of your presence but you may be present when supervisors are interviewed)

·         If C.O. has a video recorder, be cautious that, while it may be pointed to the ground, it is recording audio (a favorite trick)

·         Take thorough notes at the "closing conference" when the C.O. reviews his findings - your labor attorney should be present

·         Determine whether to contest any citation based upon the costs involved, the penalty amount, the severity of the citation, the precedent set, the ability to abate the alleged violation (time and method), likelihood of future violations and the impact on other possible collateral litigation.

OSHA's enforcement activities have changed dramatically in the recent years and your approach to dealing with the agency needs to be reconsidered, if you are to survive an inspection.

Bob Dunlevey

Dunlevey, Mahan & Furry