ascip

Controlling increasing costs of workers’ compensation (WC) is a concern for every member.  With ASCIP as your partner and our team of experts that can help ease the burden, following are some steps you as the employer can take to mitigate increased costs.

Provide Prompt, Quality Medical Care—Using a nurse triage program, like Company Nurse assures that injured employees are quickly directed to the appropriate care.  Prompt care reduces chances of complications and leads to faster healing. Plus, our team will help you select quality care facilities, and medical specialists, along with helping you develop member-specific protocols with treating physicians.

Minimize Off-Work Time—Every day an employee is absent drives claims costs up, delays recovery and reduces productivity.  Implementing a return-to-work (RTW) program with pre-established, productive, safe tasks is one of the best and fastest ways to reduce claims costs.  If you don’t have a formal RTW program, ASCIP can assist members with implementing one.

Avoid Excessive Claim Denials—Workers’ compensation is a no fault system with most claims being accepted.  In a recent Business Insurance article “Claim denials, not report lag, lead to rising comp costs” * the author points to a recent Lockton Cos. L.L.C. study which shows that “67% of those initial claim denials were eventually paid”, with the denied claims costing 55% more on average.  Unless there is strong evidence to support a fraudulent claim, avoid needless denials and delays in medical care which cause the injured to treat outside established Medical Provider Networks.  Also, these claims are more likely to become litigated with additional lost time costs.

Close Claims Quickly—Do everything you can to move claims toward resolution.  The longer the claim is open, the more the costs increase.  The length of time an injured worker is off work is the number one driver of claim costs.

If you are not a member of ASCIP’s WC program, call us today to learn more about how ASCIP’s WC team helps members.  ASCIP’s expert team is here to help members manage claims efficiently, reduce costs and ease WC burdens.

*Read Business Insurance – June 13, 2018  article to learn more.