Category Archives: Workers Compensation Insurance

Claims Management, Human Services Practice Group Content, Other, Workers Compensation Insurance

COVID-19 on NYS Workers Compensation

The COVID-19 outbreak has spread all throughout America, but most notably in New York. Considering America’s largest metropolitan hub is New York City, when the disease hit it was bound to be catastrophic. Due to the heavy outbreak in New York, Governor Cuomo ordered a stay-at-home rule for nearly three months. This resulted in higher unemployment and less in-person work happening.

Increase in COVID-19-Related Workers Comp Claims

What exactly does this mean for Workers Compensation claims? It depends on what types of workers comp claims. Considering health care workers and essential first responders are eligible for workers comp, the workers comp claims due to the contraction of coronavirus have been large in quantity and amounts paid out. Coronavirus claims have been costly for insurance carriers per claim for two reasons.

First, the medical bills related to treatment of the virus are hefty: 6 days of hospitalization can cost $40,000. Second, insurance carriers set a high standard for respiratory Workers Comp claims after the 9/11 attacks. Respiratory diseases lime coronavirus can have permanent or long-term impacts, meaning more money out of insurance carriers. And because the coronavirus is a temporary pandemic and is no fault of the employer, premiums can not necessarily increase, meaning greater losses for carriers due to the costly COVID-19 workers comp claims.

Decrease in Non-COVID-19 Related Workers Comp Claims

However, the COVID-19 impact on NYS workers comp does not end there. Because of the lock down, the number of non-COVID-19 workers comp claims has significantly shrunk these past 3 months. So, financially, while the COVID-19 claims are more expensive than regular workers comp claims, the number of COVID-19 claims is still not as large as the average amount of workers comp claims, meaning that both of these effects of the outbreak have offset each other financially.

The question is now whether insureds will protest that due to there being less workers on payroll and claims being filed, WC premiums should decrease, meaning insurance carriers charge less on premiums to pay out almost the same amount of money. It is important to know the outbreak is not over and these figures may change when the pandemic finishes. Keeping up to date with the official NYCIRB and NY officials is the best way to keep track of insurance on workers comp effects from the pandemic.

Still confused? Still have questions? Call a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444 or visit us here at our website.

Note

*All of these statistics and findings were found in a June 2020 report on COVID-19 and Workers Comp claims written by the NYCIRB. The link is mentioned in the article, and can be found here.

HR Challenges, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Workplace Stress: Recognition and Management

According to the American Institute of Stress, 65% of workers said that workplace stress had affected their lives in one way or another. This number is not a surprise to many, but it should be. When comparing the stress level of work environments around the world, the U.S. takes the cake. U.S. workers have spent more hours on the job than the labor force of any other industrial nation. A 2001 survey concluded nearly 40% of workers described their office environment as “a real-life survivor program”(American Institute of Stress). As the workforce grows increasingly more competitive, and the job market tightens, many believe workplace stress to be on the rise.

Now, let’s compare the average American workweek to that of other industrialized countries. The average American works approximately 44 hours per week. Whereas in Japan and Italy, the largest number of hours an employee allowed to work in a week is 40 hours. And in the UK, Canada, Germany, and France, average work weeks are less than 4o hours.

Why is this information relevant? Because between 60% to 80% of workplace injuries are workplace stress-related. There are a multitude of factors that may contribute to workplace stress. These include understaffed departments, and poor management techniques. Regardless of what causes stress, all these contributors lead to decreased productivity. Whether you run a small business or a Fortune 500 company, decreases in productivity can be detrimental. Especially in the case of small businesses, which typically don’t have the cash reserves necessary to make up for the lost time.

Having management aware of the problem can go a long way in managing workplace stress, but it isn’t enough. Workplace stress affects everyone in the office, decreasing employee morale, and overall productivity. This lack of productivity can diminish the profits of the business, feeding into the flame of a stressful work environment.

 

 

Some Tips on Reducing the Stress Levels in Your Workplace:

1) Engage your frontline supervisors. They should be on the lookout for stressed out, anxiety-ridden employees. You don’t need to be Freud to recognize a stressed employee.

2) Have that front line supervisor engage in a one on one discussion. Oftentimes knowing that the employer recognizes a problem relieves stress. It may even motivate an employee to work through a tough time.

3) Check with HR or your Workers Comp Insurance Carrier, they may have counseling provisions within their policy. Their policy could allow several visits to a therapist to help relieve stress. Even if it’s personal and not work-related, check to see what your Workers Comp policy offers.

4) Rotate staffing, giving days off for completing “x” amount of days without an injury. Try to motivate focus and productivity. By giving your employees achievable goals, they can feel a sense of accomplishment.

Running an efficient and profitable small business is hard enough as it is. As a business owner, you must allocate resources to workplace stress. These dollars spent on increasing the coverage of your Workers Comp Insurance Carrier are far cheaper than if the worker hurts themselves or others because they are not focused on the work at hand.

If your business is suffering from production losses, take some of the steps above. Seek professional help if that still doesn’t work and if you have any further questions, contact Metropolitan Risk Advisory today!

Contact a Risk Advisor or call 914-357-8444 if you have further questions!

Claims Management, OSHA, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Work Injuries – Main Types and Causes

Work injuries are all too common in the workplace. Just this year alone, workplace injuries will cost businesses over $59 billion, and that number continues to increase every year. Among the list of top workplace injuries, the “usual suspects” always rank near the top. These being accidents caused by falling, mishandling of objects, and auto incidents always rank near the top. Improper machine use, slip and trip, and awkward posture also cause thousands of injuries a year. The other injury type that has come on of late is overexertion. Overexertion injuries cost $1 billion every week in treatment alone, and ergonomics, the study of how to improve workplace efficiency, is dedicated to stopping these injuries.

Many define work injuries as specific physical damage to a worker while on-site or completing a task at work. This is an important definition as it can be very unclear whether a worker deserves workers comp. or not based on his injury.

While we list the top-10 types of work injuries, there is a root cause for all work accidents. The number one reason for work injuries is negligence from a worker or employer. Many injuries can be avoidable if the worker pays more attention to certain surroundings in the work environment. Or, if employers paid attention to their worksites and their worker’s health and safety. Another way injuries can be avoided is more employee training. With more safety training and knowledge on how to use machinery/handle objects, employees’ jobs are a whole lot safer. Employers should invest the money into this training. While it may not be a profitable payment, they save hundreds of thousands on fewer workers comp claims and lower insurance premiums. Additionally, employees have more job training and can work more efficiently with greater output. This is an obvious win-win.

View our Work Injury Infographic

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For more information, contact a Risk Advisor at 914-357-8444.

Claims Management, Construction Practice Group Content, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

National Safety Stand-Down Week Announced ( With INFOGRAPHIC)

OSHA recently announced that the National Safety Stand-Down Week will take place September 14-18, 2020. This week is to recognize fall dangers, and, in general, work-site safety. Fall-related injuries continue to be the number one leader in deaths and injuries in the construction industry. Over ⅓ of workplace deaths in construction were due to falls in 2018. Here are a few ways to “celebrate” the tradition.

If you’d still like more information on job site safety or need help with risk management, contact one of our Risk Advisors today or call 914-357-8444.

Claims Management, Employers Practice Liability Insurance, HR Challenges, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Heat Injury and Illness in the Workplace

An Under looked problem

Heat injury and illness is a serious work-related danger that affects millions of American workers each year. Not only do heat injuries directly cause injuries/illness, but at times they are the underlying reason for mishandling of equipment, and lack of focus that leads to other work-related injuries. While federal agencies such as OSHA publish articles on measures to prevent heat-related injuries/illness, at times these cautions do little. It is on the management to provide resources, knowledge, and safety measures for workers in constant risk of heat injuries and illness. Here are some ways to prevent heat injuries and illness.

How to Avoid Heat Injury and Illness

Provide Rest Breaks:

Management should provide several work breaks other than lunch every day. These breaks should include free water and a shaded location. This well help workers stay out of the heat, cool down body temperature, and replenish fluids.

Provide Information:

Your workers need to understand the dangers of working in constant heat. Manual labor in heat will cause a slower release of body heat and less sweat. This traps more heat in the body, raising the body temperature. This is a dangerous result, as 2 degrees fahrenheit higher than normal body temperature can cause dizziness, lack of focus, and dehydration. Once you hit 5 degrees past normal body temperature you are flirting with possible fatal illnesses. The more your workers know, the safer your workers will work under intense heat.

Training:

Training workers on how to avoid what prevention is nearly impossibly. However, training project supervisors on proper safety plans and measures is beneficial to all. Having set heat prevention measures in place for your supervisors to execute can save you money in claims and injuries.

Sometimes, these precautions still are not enough. Workers may still suffer from the effects of high heat and humidity. Here are a few steps to deal with a worker with a heat injury or illness.

How to Treat Heat Injury and Illness

Immediately Bring the Worker to Shade:

Give the worker tons of water to hydrate them. Ice packs to cool down their body temperature is also recommended. The best spot to cool down a worker is the back of the neck, as it helps control your entire body’s temperature.

Bring the Worker Medical Assistance:

If their symptoms continue to worsen or remain stagnant, calling an ambulance is the best option. Make sure to call the ambulance within the hour the worker first felt symptoms.

Loosen Clothing:

Loosening the worker’s clothing can help free entrapped heat between the skin and clothing. This will help cool the workers’ internal body temperature. It will also help with quicker blood flow, which will help the worker recover quicker.

Heat injuries and illnesses are not small cast-offs when talking about workers’ injuries and workers comp. These are critical parts of worker safety and health, especially in construction and work done primarily outside. Hopefully, this article will help bring important information to project supervisors and management about proper steps and safety precautions regarding heat injuries and illnesses.

Still confused and want advice? Call a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444 or visit our website here for more information.

Claims Management, OSHA, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Safety Meetings: Advice and Tips

Safety meetings are common in the workplace, and will be almost necessary once normal work resumes post covid-19. The problem that arises from safety meetings is that sometimes they are inefficient. They are too long, planned at the wrong times, and/or not executed correctly. There are 4 simple steps to correctly have a safety meeting in a normal work setting.

Step 1: Prepare and Plan

This is the first part when setting up a safety meeting. Know who will be attending, who will be leading the safety meeting, location, etc. Making sure everyone that needs to be at the meeting is informed and reminded in proper time. Have a general outline of the main goal/statement you want your employees to hear. From there, you can create the safety meeting around that information.
The worst thing for a safety meeting is to show unpreparedness with nothing but as a topic for your safety meeting and ramble. No one is given helpful information. Employees feel you have wasted their time and morale lowers. Make sure you plan ahead.

Step 2: Timing your Safety Meetings

How long your meeting will last and what time and day the meeting occurs is crucial. Picking a time when employees are most attentive is best. That happens to be at the start of the work day/shift.
The day is also important. Mondays seems to be when employees are most tired and least focused. Friday seems to be when workers are out the most and their mind is not fully focused on work.
Routine is the last part that is important to plan. Planning for a safety meeting one Tuesday is perfectly fine. We do not suggest you plan your next meeting next Thursday. Have a routine time and day. Once a month, every other week, or something along those lines is perfect.
Wait until 4 and the only thing on your workers’ mind is what bar has a happy hour. Try the first Wednesday of every month at 9:30.

Step 3: Delivery in your Safety Meetings

Let’s face it, your employees are most likely doing something more important. They want to get back to work to meet deadlines. The safety meeting should be a routine quick “check-up” on guidelines. For us, quick may be 15-20 minutes, 30 at the max.

Don’t just read off a piece of paper. Have some slides or graphics ready! People are more attentive when they can visually see the information. That can include images, facts, or important statements.

Allow for employees to ask 5 minutes worth of questions. How do you know what you said made complete sense to them? If they have questions, make sure to give them the floor.

Step 4: Following Up After the Safety Meeting

Try and get some interaction with your audience either at the end of some of your meetings or through a reply email. Your employees are the ones who witnessed the safety meeting. They have the best opinions on whether or not it was executed well. Try asking a question on how to improve.

Also follow-up to make sure they understood the message. Possibly leaving an email with a “quiz question” attached to answer in a sentence. These are a few ways to engage with your audience.

 

Still have a question? Consult a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444 or visit us here at our website

Claims Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Requiring Sunscreen as PPE

The dog days of July and August have come. And with those months come extreme heat, humidity, and higher risks of staying in the sun. Injuries and illnesses related to heat are real and affected millions of workers a year. Sunstroke, severe dehydration, and fainting due to dizziness are common. However, one of the overlooked effects of the sun is the damage of UV rays on the skin. Requiring sunscreen as PPE can help minimize that risk.

Without skin protection, extreme heat in the summer may cause permanent sun damage and illnesses in the future. These may form skin cancers that appear decades afterward. Making sure workers are protected can save costs and claims. The solution happens to remain very simple.

Make all workers wear high-SPF sunscreen as PPE. If gloves protect the hands and goggles protect the eyes, sunscreen should protect the skiing. Even a subtle injury such as sunburn can affect a workers productivity for the next few days. We also recommend workers wear more clothing to hide their skin as well as using sunscreen. UV rays are more extreme and direct in the summer and workers protection is imperative.

This article is a great guide to PPE protection and goes over sunscreen use in the summer. If you still have questions, contact a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444.

Claims Management, Construction Practice Group Content, Risk Management, Workers Compensation Insurance

Hand Sanitizers Risks in the Workplace

Hand Sanitizer Problems

According to a recent event that occurred on a construction site, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America has announced to be extra cautious with brand-name liquid hand-sanitizers at the workplace. Many of these sanitizers contain isopropyl alcohol, a highly-flammable but important component of the sanitizer. If the skin does not absorb the entire sanitizer, the solution can ignite when set near other flammable objects.

According to the MCAA, an event occurred where a construction worker used the sanitizer then touched a metal beam. Because the sanitizer did not fully absorb, the worker received first-degree burns. This news rightly frightens many, as millions of Americans use hand sanitizers every day.

Hand sanitizers are becoming a commonality when entering a new building due to COVID-19. Liquid sanitizers containing isopropyl alcohol are supposedly effective at combating COVID-19. Yet it is now apparent they are also effective at causing serious flammable problems.

The other component of hand sanitizer labeled as dangerous by the FDA and CDC is methanol. The FDA recently placed recall orders for various hand sanitizers from Mexico because of their use of methanol. The sanitizers claim the use of ethanol, a regulatory hand sanitizer component. However, there has been traces of methanol instead. methanol is wood alcohol usually used in dry adhesives and paint thinners. More than 4% methanol in a hand sanitizer is considered “poisonous” by the FDA. This is due to the fact that methanol can cause serious, permanent damage or death when directly ingested or rubbed onto the skin.

How to Prevent the Hand Sanitizer Problems

To prevent accidents like these from happening, experts say to just let the sanitizer soak into the skin. Waiting an extra three minutes before starting to work can be the difference between disaster and containing a pandemic.

To prevent using methanol, make sure to read the full FDA banned sanitizer list and know what sanitizers to buy and not buy. Also, make sure the hand sanitizer is government approved and not some homemade liquid mixture. These are becoming prevalent due to the hand sanitizer shortage.

Causes

Some things that may assist in the ignition of isopropyl are open flames, electrical tools/machinery, sparks from static electricity, as well as smoking cigarettes.

With the need of isopropyl alcohol to actually defend the skin against COVID-19, the problem will not be going away anytime soon. However, small changes such as waiting an extra 2 or 3 minutes or wearing gloves can make a drastic impact. COVID-19 has already impacted our work lives plenty the last 4 months, a relatively small hand sanitizer issue should not stop us from re-entering the workplace.

Still confused by this article? Still concerned about your health and safety? Contact a risk advisor today at 914-357-8444/

Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, Human Services Practice Group Content, Transportation Practice Group Content, Workers Compensation Insurance, Workers Compensation Premium Audits

Who Is Exempt From Workers Compensation Coverage?

The New York workers’ compensation insurance law requires the majority of employers to have appropriate workers comp insurance coverage in place. However, there are three key exemptions.

Sole Ownership

If you run your business alone and don’t have any employees, you may not need to have workers’ compensation coverage.  You should note, however, that in order

not to inadvertently break the law, you must not use the services of volunteers, such as family or friends.

Partnership

Partnerships set up under New York laws may also be exempt, but only where they comply with the provisions applicable to businesses in sole ownership outlined above.

Small Corporation

Where one or two people have set themselves up as a corporation, hold all the offices and own all the stock, they might also be exempt, as long as they have no employees of any kind, as per the other two exempt categories above.

Sub-Contractors

It is important to note that should your otherwise exempt business use the services of sub-contractors, you should make sure they have their own insurance coverage. Otherwise, the New York Workers Compensation Board may rule that they are employees. Similarly, when a sole owner, partner, or small corporation owner works as a sub-contractor, he or she is required to hold personal New York workers compensation insurance.

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