Tag Archives: employee injury

When an employee is injured, there are many factors that must be addressed and questions that must be answered. These include whether the injury was work-related, will they need treatment, and whether Workers comp is necessary.

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/

Claims Management, HR Challenges, Workers Compensation Insurance

Late Reporting of Employee Injuries will Lead to NY Workers Comp Board Fines

At Metropolitan Risk, our best practice clients understand the critical importance of getting employee injuries into the workers compensation system. Each injury that goes undetected or unreported costs the employer up to 39% more for the same exact injury if unreported for more than 4 weeks. This is why Day of Injury protocol can be such a powerful tool if your goal is to lower the high cost of employee injuries.  Recently timeliness has become even more imperative as failure to comply with timely injury reporting not only drives your workers compensation costs up, it will now be a fineable offense through the eyes of the NY State Workers Compensation Board.

From Then to Now

In June of 2013, the eClaims for First Report of Injury (eFROI) was initiated which required all New York State Insurance Fund policyholders to report electronically all “First Report of Injuries” In addition, an expectation that all carriers not just the NYSIF will move to this electronic reporting platform. This eFROI mandate was went into effect on April 23rd, 2014. As a part of this mandate, effective May 23rd, 2014, all employers are required to use Form C-2F, which replaced Form C-2.

As of October 1st, 2015, the Board announced strict enforcement of  timely reporting ; assessing all available statutory penalties to EMPLOYERS for non-compliance in reporting claims.Fines range from $1,000 to $2,500 for late reporting of workplace injuries.  

What Should You Do About This?

Minor Incidents (Internal Incidents Only):

For all incidents that have resulted in a minor injury that only requires first aide of 2 or less treatments and/or lost time of not more than one day beyond the day or shift when the injury had taken place, you MUST complete Form C2-F which is a formal notice of incident. This form does NOT get submitted to the carrier or the NY State Workers Compensation Board. It must be kept in an internal file for no less than 18 years, love that, UGH! If you are a client of Metropolitan Risk it should be attached to the incident record in our portal for safe keeping, please retain your own copy for your internal records. This should be submitted to Metropolitan Risk within 24 hours of the incident.

Filing A Formal Claim:

If your employee has been injured, reported the incident to someone on your staff AND it DOES NOT fit the criteria of a MINOR INCIDENT (see above) you must complete and file a C2-F and submit to your workers compensation carrier of record. Please supply Metropolitan Risk a copy so we don’t keep pinging reminders at you that it needs to be done.

Please note if you are insured with the New York State Insurance Fund you must report the claim electronically by clicking HERE as they do not accept paper forms.

If you neglect to report the CLAIM via the C2-F Form or the NYSIF’s (eFROI)  within 10 days, the New York State Workers Compensation Board may be sending unwitting employers penalties for late reports per the aforementioned change of policy on October 1st , 2015.

New York State has secure procedures in place that allows them to track just how timely you are reporting claims. They have the power to issue a $1,000 fine or a $2,500 penalty directly to your company which maybe the policyholder of record if you neglect to report the claims within 10 days.  We are curious as to how this will be enforced as quite often the employers are not the first to know of a worker’s injury. Thus we recommend that a notice be placed inside each worker’s pay slip advising them that all workplace injuries MUST be reported within 10 days of the injury to be considered and leave it at that. Just to reinforce it. We are not certain how the State will rule when an employee reports an injury. We have inquiries into the State and will issue an advisory to clear some of these ambiguities up.

So, what should you do about all of this? Best practice firms in any industry will make sure to report all incidents to us within 24 hours. We will then guide you when we think it should be reported up to the carrier so as not to trigger a potential fine and reserve your rights as a policyholder.  As of October 1st, 2015 it’s not only a requirement of your workers’ compensation policy, but also the law in New York State.

Coming Soon: The Easiest Way to Report Claims:

We expect to have our mobile app deployed soon, which lets all stakeholders know an employee was potentially injured so our team and yours can jump on the incident. It will also guide you to the nearest medical center. You may even have an account right within the app.

We are also changing our incident reporting procedures for all client HR point people at the client level. You will be reporting the incidents directly into our website which is built to match the C2-F. Once complete you hit a button, the C2-F form will print for your 18 year record. Should we have to report this incident to the carrier we have all the info in our system and can report for you directly so you will be in compliance.

As of this writing we are still building the back end of the system. Until this is deployed, you will be responsible for reporting to the carrier directly as only you have the payroll records, etc.

We hope you find this notice helpful as we are continually working to make your lives more efficient. Any suggestions or recommendations are always welcomed. Thank in you in advance for your cooperation with these new changes in the rules and regulations with respect to NY Workers Compensation Insurance. Just want to be sure all our clients are up to date with the latest and greatest.

To download the C2-F Form directly, click here.

 

Kind regards,

Lisa Schorfheide

(914) 357-8444

lisas@metropolitanrisk.com

Claims Advocacy Supervisor &

Your Metropolitan Risk Claims Advocacy Team

 

Claims Management, Construction Practice Group Content, Food & Beverage Practice Group Content, HR Challenges, Human Services Practice Group Content, Loss Control, Risk Management, Transportation Practice Group Content, Workers Compensation Insurance

Does it Make Sense to Pay Injured Employees Twice or Even Three Times?

Unfortunately this is a question facing both interstate and intrastate trucking companies whose home office is in state “A” but they operate in states B,C,D,E. etc… These companies face what is called Multi-State Exposure. This occurs when a driver gets injured on the job in a different state from which his company is domiciled. What nobody tells these companies is that the driver has the ability to receive benefits from more than one state on your dime!

Competitive rates for Workers Comp Insurance in the trucking industry are difficult to obtain due to the difficulty the underwriter faces assessing the risk. Add multiple state workers comp laws into that equation and you have a recipe for high premiums, open claims and payouts that are double and even triple what they should be.

When an out of state claim happens, two jurisdictions come in to play. If the claim is handled by the company’s home state the driver will retain legal counsel in the state in which the injury occurred.  Once qualified to receive benefits from the home state, the driver can go the state where the injury occurred and receive additional benefits. This is known as “Piggybacking.” This is the cost of not fully comprehending the Workers Comp Laws in the states you operate in and this can certainly be an expensive lesson.

Continue reading Does it Make Sense to Pay Injured Employees Twice or Even Three Times? →

Human Services Practice Group Content

Preventing Fighting-Related Injuries at Your Day Care

As a childcare provider, you are responsible for every kid left under your care. Day care insurance is an essential part of protecting your assets if something were to go wrong on the premises. A common reason behind injuries at day cares is children fighting. There are ways to prevent or limit the severity of disagreements between your charges.

•    Create and post a list of punishments for children involved in fights.

•    Make time regularly to talk about bullying, peaceful solutions to disagreements, and other topics related to fighting among kids.

•    Talk to parents about children who are constantly involved in fights, especially ones that turn physical. You may want to include in your list of policies the possibility of a kid being removed from the childcare program for regular behavior issues.

•    You should not promote violence by showing violent television shows or allowing the children to play violent games.

•    Try to settle disagreements quickly and fairly. If a fight turns physical before you are able to stop it, notify parents immediately and provide any necessary medical aid.

It is important to treat bullying or fighting as a serious issue. Any injury that occurs while the kids are under your watch could be placed on your shoulders legally and financially. Having a comprehensive day care insurance policy could keep the medical bills and wrath of angry parents from bankrupting you or your business.

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