by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Insurance, Workers Compensation
To save money on your workers compensation insurance starts with working with a large insurance broker like GDI Insurance.
Save Money on Your Workers Compensation
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. represents the majority of major workers compensation insurance companies so we can get you quotes from a large number of insurance companies at one time. We also use comparative rating programs, where we can enter your information and get quotes from just about every insurance company in the state. Even the ones we don’t represent!
Premium Credits Available
Workers Compensation Insurance is driven by premium credits as high as 50% off plus your workers comp modification factor can cut your rates further. It can also raise your rates if you aren’t careful. I was sent a notice by the workers compensation rating bureau today on aa dairy I had tried to work with two years ago. Their premium is up 49% in the last two years and they have no idea why. Their modification factor went up but also their last audit wasn’t completed so it shows on the states website incomplete. Seems like a lot of money to pay for workers compensation insurance to not know why something has gone up 49%! Find out how to save money on your workers compensation below.
Below is a brief overview of some key parts you need to pay attention to if you want to keep your workers compensation rates down. Of course you can just let GDI Insurance Agency handle it for you by calling us at 888-991-2929
Safety Program Goals
- Investigate near-miss incidents to prevent future accidents. Seventy-five percent of accidents are preceded by a near miss.
- Create a risk control service plan based on your workers’ compensation losses. Pay particular attention to frequency and severity of claims to craft an appropriate plan.
- Justify your risk control expenditures strategically to senior management so you receive the budget you need. Be sure they understand the importance of your company’s safety program and the money it saves in the long run.
- Based on your experience with prior claims, create a workers’ compensation cost allocation program. Budget money by examining what types of claims you’ve had over the past several years and the costs.
- Benchmark your company’s workers’ compensation performance against other comparable companies in your industry. This will help you identify areas to improve upon.
General Safety Procedures
- Protect your employees by minimizing any job hazards. You should always be evaluating every aspect of your workplace to ensure the safest environment possible.
- Prepare emergency announcements and do test runs of emergency response systems to familiarize employees.
- Choose a practical flooring surface, not just one that looks nice. Often, the best looking floors can be the most dangerous and will be slippery when wet.
- Customize workspaces to fit each employee’s needs through ergonomic adjustments. By ensuring that an employee’s work space is tailored, you create a safer environment less prone to bodily stress or injury, and thus, less prone to workers’ compensation claims.
- Educate your employees on the safest way to lift objects. Squatting with bent knees minimizes the stress to the back, regardless of what is being lifted.
- Create a policy on distracted driving. Motor vehicle accidents account for a large percentage of work-related fatalities. Eating and drinking, cell phone use and music devices are all possible sources of distraction behind the wheel. The use of such devices could also be illegal, as more state and federal agencies crack down on distracted driving. A good policy can help prevent fatalities and limit liability for your company.
- Along the same lines, prohibit texting while driving regardless of whether or not your state specifically prohibits the practice. Texting while driving makes an employee 23 times more likely to have an accident. A federal ban prohibiting drivers of commercial vehicles from texting has also been recently enacted. Create a written policy for both distracted driving and texting while driving, and have all employees sign off on it.
- Establish and enforce disciplinary measures for safety violations. There should be some type of corrective action for any employee who doesn’t abide by safety requirements.
- Train your supervisors in-house. They may have previously been trained as supervisors in general, but they need to also be trained in your particular work environment.
- Job offers should always be made in writing and should thoroughly describe the offered position to ensure the hire is fit for all duties.
- When the job is offered, send a formal job offer package along with the offer letter. Make sure it includes all the benefits the potential employee is eligible for, including return to work policies and procedures, so there is no confusion later.
- When developing a temporary assignment for someone returning to work, find useful tasks that are not covered by other areas of the company—the goal is not to take work away from another employee.
- Create a written job description and job analysis for all transitional duty jobs. These jobs should match physical capabilities with the work that needs to be done so that they are both useful and appropriate.
- Hold employees working temporary assignments or transitional duty jobs to the same work rules as other employees. This prevents devaluation of the job by employees and sends the message that they are still contributing to the company.
- Develop and maintain a close working relationship with medical providers. Make sure they understand your business so they can help you evaluate return to work policies, procedures and cases.
- For all employees assigned to temporary work, monitor their medical health regularly. Make sure they are doing well physically and, if they are making progress, find out from their physician if they can move forward to more demanding tasks.
- Develop and maintain a close working relationship with claims adjusters. Make sure they know your return to work program, and ask them for advice and suggestions to improve it.
- Resist the temptation to turn temporary job assignments into indirect punishment. Understand that the work is therapy for the returning employee; make sure to stay positive and keep the work meaningful.
- Consider establishing a transitional duty pay rate. It will be less than what the employee would earn working their normal job, but make sure it is consistent among all employees on transitional duty.
- For return to work program employees, stay in frequent touch from the time of the return to work offer letter until they return to full working status. You should be accessible for them to be sure their return to work is progressing smoothly.
- Develop a return to work plan for every injury that results in lost time. Communicate with the employee’s doctor so you understand when and how they can progress to various work tasks.
Claims Management
- Contact your injured workers early and often. This will let them know that you care about them, which can help keep morale up and encourage their return to full, regular duty.
- Consider unconventional or outside-the-box treatment if it will help an employee recover and return faster.
- If your state allows you to direct or encourage employees to use certain doctors, use doctors who understand your business whenever possible. This will help ensure the best treatment for your employees and hopefully aid in return to work scenarios, keeping claims costs down.
- Integrate strategic wellness programs into your company to help reduce injuries. Understand how chronic conditions, like obesity and diabetes, can affect or cause other injuries. Managing such diseases properly can reduce workers’ compensation claims costs.
- Explain workers’ compensation benefits, programs and expectations during new employee orientation to keep future claims costs down. Make sure employees understand that they will not be punished in any way for making a claim or reporting an injury, and explain the importance of promptly reporting any injury or incident.
- Make return to work a priority across your entire organization – every job should have a return to work provision, and every employee should know about it. Return to work program awareness should not just be the job of human resources or your claims adjuster.
- Keep up to date on laws that impact your workers’ compensation claims. Be sure to know your requirements and responsibilities as an employer and how to address any possible or suspected fraud.
- Keep tabs on what your claims administrator is doing; you should always know what is happening with a claim.
Claims Investigation
- Exercise due diligence when investigating a claim. Beyond speaking to the direct supervisor and the injured employee, interview other witnesses or co-workers who could shed light on the situation.
- After an incident or claim, be sure to investigate early and keep all the information organized. Make sure you gather all appropriate evidence and information so it can be verified later.
- Determine whether the employee was actually working on the date that they claim to have been injured. Discrepancies or falsities happen often, particularly with late claims.
Medical Considerations
- Make sure that your occupational medical practitioner does a thorough and proper examination when an employee first goes to see them; this way, you will not be surprised when the independent medical examiner (IME) tells you that you have a problem claimant. This includes performing Waddell’s tests when there is a lower back injury involved.
- A diagnosis should be supported by the conditions of the accident. If the two don’t match up, then the diagnosed injury could be a result of something not directly related to work functions. In these situations, be very careful of what you pay for.
- Don’t pay a bill for a surgery or procedure without reading the operative report. Sometimes it can contain things that had nothing to do with the incident that should not be your financial responsibility.
- Don’t let diagnostic tests dictate your case management; tests only prove that there is an injury, not whether it happened at your workplace.
- For a quick and easy way to save money, refer employees to physicians that you trust to provide legitimate findings and diagnoses.
- Before a surgery takes place, establish whether it was caused by a work-related condition. Doctors may suggest surgery a bit more readily when they know it is a workers’ compensation claim.
- Make sure that diagnoses are legitimate and universally accepted before you pay a claim. For instance, don’t list “pain” as your work-related diagnosis. Pain is a subjective finding—you cannot qualify it or quantify it.
- Know the basics about common medical terms that you may encounter. For example, fibromyalgia is not a diagnosis; it is a symptom. The word itself means “pain in the fibrous tissue” (the suffix “algia” always indicates a symptom).
- Be wary of paying for surgeries or operations caused by arthritis. Arthritis is not caused by trauma and thus cannot result from an on-the-job injury; therefore, in most cases, it should not be considered a workers’ compensation claim. The only exception is arthritis caused by repetitive trauma, found in employees who do a lot of squatting, kneeling or repetitive hand and finger movements.
- Be wary of other common claims that may be masked as workers’ compensation injuries. For example, in general, trauma does not affect an existing replaced knee, making it rare for necessary loose knee replacement to be work-related.
Legal Considerations
- Know and understand the interplay between your state workers’ compensation laws, the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
- Keep your legal counsel in the loop on workplace injuries right from the beginning. The first 24 hours after an incident are crucial, and your lawyer needs to be informed about conditions, investigations and any updates.
- When hiring, provide detailed job descriptions that include an accurate percentage of the amount of work that is physical. This may prevent later legal disputes.
- Document and file everything throughout the workers’ compensation and return to work processes, as it may become relevant information if there is a claim or later dispute.
- After an incident, review the employee’s personnel file. This will help you understand the employee better, and it may offer clues or tendencies for potential fraud or a vendetta against a co-worker or manager.
- After an incident, your legal team or representative should do an on-site inspection where the injury occurred. Be sure that they interview others who do a similar job in addition to any witnesses.
- If there are changes in the diagnosis, the accident needs to be re-evaluated. It may not have happened as reported.
- Keep an organized case chronology, documenting everything from initial claim to the close of a case. This includes previous history of the employee that may be relevant (past disputes with co-workers, claims history, problems at home, etc).
- Make sure to provide the IME with everything you have, including your chronology.
- Before a trial, make sure your witnesses are prepared. Someone from the company should be present at every hearing; it’s important to make sure that everyone is always on the same page.
Workers Compensation Specialists
GDI Insurance Agency offers comprehensive worker compensation insurance packages. Our California Workers Compensation Savings Program has more information on how to save money.
by Grant Davis | Insurance
What is a Waiver of Subrogation?
The review of every contract you sign with all of its requirements and clauses is a highly important risk management consideration. This includes a contract’s waiver of subrogation clause.
To understand what a waiver of subrogation does, it’s important to understand what subrogation means. Subrogation is a basic insurance concept utilized in insurance contracts. If a loss occurs, it typically happens through someone’s negligence. In general, the negligent (or “at fault”) party is liable for the cost of the loss. Your insurance carrier can “step into your shoes” and choose to sue the at fault party to recover the amount of a claim they paid for you. This is subrogation. You may not find the term subrogation in your contract, but it may be included — check for the terminology ”Transfer of Rights of Recovery Against Others to Us,” which some insurance policies use.
When a waiver of subrogation is required in a contract, it means that you are “signing away” or waiving your insurance company’s right to subrogate against another party—most commonly the party you are contracting with. This is not an uncommon practice. In fact, most policy contracts, with the exception of workers’ compensation, allow you to waive your rights of subrogation as long as it is done IN WRITING AND PRIOR TO THE LOSS. Often an endorsement is added specifically referring to the exact contract as a means of clarification.
There are areas of caution:
- Workers’ Compensation: In some jurisdictions, Waivers of Subrogation are not available. Therefore, a careful review of the state statute is required. You should also obtain your workers’ compensation carrier’s position and agreement on waivers of subrogation.
- Waiver of subrogation requirements should be built into a contract. The contract wording should be thoroughly reviewed to ensure the waiver of subrogation is being utilized appropriately for the situation. For example, mutual waivers may be beneficial in landlord/tenant contracts (where all parties waive their rights). However, in construction contracts, mutual waivers may not be acceptable nor prudent.
Why Waiver of Subrogation Clauses are Valuable
A waiver of subrogation clause is placed in a contract to minimize lawsuits and claims among the parties. The risk, once assigned to the insurers by the parties, is determined to stop there, without allowing the insurer to seek costs from a third party. This guarantees that if a loss occurs, the owner’s insurer pays the claim and the insurance proceeds can be used to fund the cost of repairs without determining who was “at fault.” Without a waiver of subrogation, litigation or arbitration is frequently needed to determine whose fault caused the accident. And these can cause long and costly delays.
Reviewing Contracts: An Important Risk Management Consideration
It’s important when agreeing to any and all contractual language that it mirrors your policy. As your insurance partner, we are committed to helping you understand how your policy language impacts your contractual risks.
Call GDI Insurance Agency, Inc today at 1-888-991-2929 to learn more about how we can assist you in mitigating your contract exposure.
by Grant Davis | Insurance, Safety Tips
Auto Refinishing Shop Safety
Auto refinishers use many potentially harmful chemicals when painting vehicles and auto parts. In particular, auto shops use solvents, isocyanates, pigments and other additives in paints and coatings that can present serious risks to your employee’s health and the environment as well. In conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Design for the Environment (DfE) Program, the agency launched the Auto Refinish Project to provide health and safety recommendations for reducing employee injuries and illnesses in auto body shops around the U.S.
This program was created partially because workers tend to overlook their safety when mixing paint and during cleanup tasks. In fact, many workers perform paint mixing and cleanup duties in small, enclosed rooms with little or no ventilation or with ventilation that works improperly. This often increases their exposure to dangerous chemicals. However, a properly installed ventilation system will remove harmful vapors from the air and will provide a healthy working environment for employees.
TYPES OF VENTILATION SYSTEMS
General Exhaust Systems:
- Typically consist of an exhaust fan, mounted in a ceiling or wall that pulls air out of the workroom and discharges it outdoors.
- Replacement air is brought into the work area by either natural means (windows or vents) or by a more sophisticated setup that includes a separate make-up air fan, duct work and air registers that provide clean air to the work space.
- Systems are not recommended as the sole source of ventilation when hazardous vapors are present because they do not immediately remove vapors from the work space.
Local Exhaust Ventilation Systems:
- Remove chemicals and other contaminants at their source.
- Systems are recommended for controlling hazardous vapors because they remove vapors before workers are exposed to them.
- Systems consist of the following: a hood installed close to where the work is performed to capture vapors, ductwork to transport vapors from the hood to the outdoors and a fan located downstream of the hood to draw air away from the work area.
Combination Systems:
The most effective means of ventilating your paint mixing room is to use both local and general exhaust ventilation systems together. A local exhaust system installed at the work bench as close to the mixing operation as possible will capture most hazardous vapors before they can escape into the air. General ventilation systems, on the other hand, for rooms with floor level exhaust vents, will remove low-lying vapors that are not captured by the local exhaust system or are generated from other sources of vapor in the room.
Make Wise Decisions
An improperly designed system will do little to improve your current workplace conditions and will not protect your workers from hazards. For this very reason, it is important to make sure your system is designed and installed by properly trained individuals, such as a qualified ventilation contractor or an industrial hygienist. As an alternative, prefabricated paint mixing rooms are currently on the market and typically provide spill protection, explosion-proof electrical installation and general ventilation.
Design Considerations
Regardless of what type of ventilation system that you choose, keep in mind that vapors produced in paint mixing rooms are extremely flammable and can produce explosive environments. For this reason, all electrical equipment that you place or install in this room (including ventilation fans, wiring and switches) must be specifically designed and approved for use in explosive atmospheres. Ventilation equipment manufacturers should also be able to tell you what types of environments their equipment can be used in properly. Beyond that, it is wise to contact your local Fire Marshall to learn more about applicable electrical requirements.
Keeping your workers safe is not only your obligation, it is the law. Visit www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/auto/index.htm for more information on how you can protect your auto body workers from the occupational hazards they encounter each and every day.
California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management
As one of the fastest growing agencies in California, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is able to provide its clients with the latest and greatest of what the insurance industry has to offer and much, much more. With locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business.
For more information on Auto Body Safety and saving on your Auto Shop insurance CALL GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. at 1-209-634-2929
by Grant Davis | Business Insurance, Construction, GDI Insurance, Human Resources, Insurance
Contractors Insurance Program
I always tell my clients, remember this, is it if you’re using your insurance, something already has gone terribly wrong. If your contractual transfers are incorrect, that’s if you’re the developer, you didn’t transfer it on down to your subcontractors or if you’re a subcontractor, you took on more responsibility than you should have and you’re in trouble now. Find out more on our Contractors Insurance Program!
You can buy general liability insurance, or builders risk insurance or workers compensation insurance and get just that. Or you can call GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. and get the entire package of insurance policies and benefits we have put together to assure your construction business isn’t just insured, but assured they have the right coverage, at the lowest rates with all the compliance needed. From OSHA Safety programs, to up to date HR systems with live attorneys to answer questions.
It Starts With Being Safe
There’s a lot to this so we’ve got to remember, it starts with being safe on the job site. Safety, human resource, wellness plans, property and liability, transfers and protection, we can help you with all of that. This is just the tip of the iceberg here.
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. has volumes and volumes of material to help contractors secure their business. Everything you could imagine for contractors. GDI Insurance spends a lot of time working with developers and subcontractors and their attorneys. We help them with the indemnification clauses, letters for certificates of insurance and proper Additional insured statuses. From certificate tracking programs and management, additional insured contract reading, the insurance service office ISO has a lot of variations of additional insured and a lot of people will say, “Oh, this is an equivalent to the 1185 which we’re all looking for.” If it’s equivalent to, why don’t they just use the same wording, right?
You build a quality house, my clients all build quality houses and we try to make sure that the contractual transfers are done properly. Either way, I represent subcontractors, and I represent developers, and I represent commercial developers, and commercial property owners, sub contractors, solar installers and heavy iron workers, the whole shot,
I am happy to help you. If you also look at all the companies we have, no one has any better rates, no one has any companies we don’t have, so it’s really a matter of just trying to stay out of trouble in the first place. Smaller and fewer claims is the ticket.
Call and ask for Grant Davis 888-991-2929 at GDI Insurance Agency, Inc.
I am your construction expert and I can help! I hope you got the information you needed. By the way, if you want something else, just ask me. Call Grant Davis, whether you’re our client or not. I will do what I can to help you.
If you’re not our client, we’ll give a couple of things to help you out. If you’re looking for an employee manual or a safety manual, no problem, we’ll just give it to you and you’re good to go. We do ask you to be our client because if you would like full OSHA compliance, your 300 logs and all of that, we do all of that for free for our clients as part of our Contractors Insurance Program.
Thanks a lot for reading this. Call me anytime Grant Davis GDI 1-888-991-2929.
by Grant Davis | Driving School Insurance, Insurance
Protect Your Driving School and Save
Owning a driving school is a great way to make a living helping teach people how to drive safely. Protecting your driving school business with the appropriate insurance is vital. Driving School insurance consists of coverage for your cars in the even they are in an accident you need liability insurance to protect your driving school from claims when someone is injured as well as to repair your car.
But What Other Insurance Might You Need?
What about workers compensation to cover your instructors? Have you considered what happens if while instructing a student the student causes an accident and hurts others, the student themselves, as well as your instructor? Having insured driving school for 30 years now all I can say is what you least expect happens!
Do you offer class room training, or have an office you run your school out of? Even your home? It is important to also have business liability insurance even if you have just one car, and run your school from your home. Your personal insurance excludes coverage for business activities. So if you meet a student at Starbucks for coffee and to discuss the basics, and that student trips and falls over your laptop case, who pays for that? Your business liability insurance does.
GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. brokers have access to over 100 insurance companies we can check rates for you, and save you money on your driving school insurance.
A GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. broker can save you as much as almost 70% off your driving school insurance! Take a look at Spencer’s Driving Schools Testimonial. In most cases we have found we can save up to 37% off the cost of driving school insurance for your cars. We also add a business owner’s policy and workers compensation to complete your coverage.
How Do We Do It?
First we have access to the insurance companies that insure driving schools. Then we give you all your Human Resource material, Illness and injury prevention plans, OSHA compliant safety programs, as well as fleet auto safety plans. All these things help you run a safer driving school, and get you premium discounts on your driving school insurance!
Just call a GDI Insurance Agency Broker 888-991-2929 or fill out the contact form under the driving school tab to Save on driving school insurance! Or just click here and go right to the page
