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In The Winery
now either incorporated occupational disease cov- of injuries and taking appropriate corrective action
erage into workers’ compensation law or passed to eliminate unsafe conditions and practices that
separate disease legislation. produce claims. It is frequently your supervisors
who play a pivotal role in the opportunity for, and
All workers’ compensation laws incorporate four success of return-to-work programs including: mod-
types of benefits: Medical, Disability, Rehabilitation, ified duty and transitional work programs.
and Survivor also known as death benefits.
Actions taken by your supervisors immediately
• Medical benefits provide payment for the medi- after an injury occurs can have a major impact on
cal treatment of an injured worker. the ultimate disposition of your claims. These indi-
• Disability benefits compensate workers who viduals are critical since they are frequently the first
are unable to work as a result of a work-related to know of claims and have the initial opportunity
injury. to investigate, direct and manage events.
• Most states have laws addressing workers’
compensation rehabilitation benefits and every Claim Reporting
state accepts the provisions of the Federal
Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Prompt reporting of insurance claims should be
• Survivor also called “Death Benefits” attempt encouraged and is considered a best practice in
to compensate a surviving spouse, children or workers’ compensation. There are significant ben-
other relatives of a worker whose death results efits for promptly reporting all of your employee
from an on-the-job injury. injuries. This includes:
The most common funding method to pay for • Most states have reporting requirements for
these benefits is a workers’ compensation insur- insureds to report claims on a timely basis and
ance policy from a private insurance company. may impose monetary fines as a penalty for fail-
Under this method you, as an employer transfer ing to report claims.
all compensation obligations to your insurance • Prompt reporting allows the claim adjuster to
company, which then pays worker benefits to your complete a timely investigation of the loss to
employees and handles other details required by determine compensability and to determine
law. an appropriate plan of action for resolving the
claim.
Fundamentals of Managing Workers’ • “Red flag indicators” of fraud are able to be
Compensation Safety Program detected and this allows the carrier to deter-
mine whether a case should be referred for sur-
Reducing the frequency and severity of claims veillance or if there is an opportunity to pursue
is the best way you can contain your total cost of subrogation against a negligent third party.
workers’ compensation. Written safety programs • The prompt reporting of injuries allows medical
that address the hazards your employees are treatment to occur within specialized occu-
exposed, along with top management support and pational medical clinics familiar with treating
effective employee training not only help reduce workers’ compensation injuries with a focus on
direct claims expense, but eliminate the indirect or facilitating an early return-to-work to promote
“hidden” costs of workers’ compensation claims. quicker healing.
These programs can produce substantial savings for • In some states, workers’ compensation benefits
your winery over time, since related expenses such may be reduced (or altogether denied) if there
as: loss of services, cost of training a new worker, is confirmed evidence of alcohol or a prohibited
temporary help, and administrative expense are drug on a post incident drug test.
often multiples of the direct claims costs incurred.
Medical Control/Provider
Claim Investigation Selection and Management
Your supervisors and managers will play a key Proper selection of workers’ compensation medi-
role in preventing claims and must understand the cal providers, combined with effective referral pro-
importance of thoroughly investigating the causes cedures and ongoing provider communication pro-
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