August Resources from Sedgwick - OABA Member Service Partner

OABA is pleased to partner with Sedgwick to offer members quality service and stability through the complex workers’ compensation environment. Check out this update from Sedgwick regarding Industrial Air Monitoring in the Workplace and Navigating Ohio's Workers' Compensation System.

Industrial Air Monitoring in the Workplace

Monitoring for indoor air contaminants at work is crucial for maintaining a healthy and productive environment. Poor air quality can lead to various health issues, including respiratory problems, headaches, fatigue as well as affect morale and productivity. Many areas in a facility, such as production, warehouses, chemical storage and offices have the potential for air contaminants. You may need to do some investigating at your facility to determine which process(es) may be contributing to employee exposure. Areas that are smoky, dusty, misty, have strong chemical odors or areas where employees are exposed to open containers of chemicals, such as bins, vats or mixing tanks may be a place to start.

Once you have identified areas to test, you must decide what air contaminant to test for. The challenge is identifying the air contaminants that could cause health problems among employees. You may need to evaluate the SDS's to identify the ingredients and their percentages of the overall makeup of the chemical. This should give you some guidance on what to test for. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established employee exposure limits on over 500 chemicals. These exposure limits are known as PEL’s or permissible exposure limits. The PEL of a chemical is based on the average concentration of a chemical to which workers can be exposed over an 8-hour workday, 5 days per week, for a lifetime without receiving damaging effects. The list of PEL’s can be found here. As you review the list, you will see that exposure limits vary depending on the chemical. Those with lower exposure limits signify a more hazardous effect on employees.

Once you’ve devised a monitoring plan, you need to have the monitoring completed. Typically, this can be done by a consulting group or the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC). The monitoring devices are pumps that must be calibrated to collect the air contaminant on specific collection media. For example, charcoal media is used to collect various types of solvent vapors, and filters are used to collect different types of dust. The pumps are placed on the employee during the monitoring period, and the air sample is collected near the employee's breathing zone.

After testing, the media is submitted to a laboratory for analysis. Once the results are received, they are compared to the PEL’s from OSHA’s list. Results below PEL’s generally require no action, but results above the PEL’s would require the employer to look at ways to reduce employee exposure. A good way to do this is by using the Hierarchy of Controls, which identifies a preferred order of actions to best control hazardous workplace exposures. The actions are arranged in order of the most effective to the least effective ways to prevent exposure: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment.

Once corrective measures have been implemented, it is recommended that a follow-up test be conducted to confirm that target air contaminants have been eliminated or reduced below the applicable limits. It is important to note that although legally enforceable, many PEL’s were developed years ago and many are only infrequently updated, meaning that they may not be reflective of current information and technology. However, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has developed their own exposure limits known as Recommended Exposure Limits (REL’s) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) has established Threshold Limit Values (TLV’s). The REL’s and TLV’s are not enforceable limits, but they may offer greater employee protections because these two organizations update their exposure recommendations based on more recent research and studies.

There are many benefits to investigating the need for air monitoring at your facility. Of course, the number one concern is the safety of employees, but remember compliance with regulations, increased morale, efficiency, productivity and an overall good safety culture. By systematically monitoring and managing indoor air quality, workplaces can create a healthier, more comfortable environment for employees.

If you need help identifying potential hazards in your workplace, please contact Andy Sawan, Risk Services Specialist at Sedgwick at andrew.sawan@sedgwick.com or 330-819-4728.

Navigating Ohio Workers' Compensation System

For most employers, workers’ compensation is one of a thousand items that require their attention daily. Most workers’ compensation professionals will tell you that the best injury is one that never happens. The reality is that there are 257,000 private and public Ohio employers incurring approximately 67,432 allowable injuries in 2023. (Source: Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation 2023 Annual Report).

Managing a workers’ compensation program can be simplified by implementing a few standardized processes that will make it easier for you to minimize lost days, control your costs and maintain productivity in your business.

Early Claim Intervention

Having a standardized injury reporting process and claim investigation mandate in place before an injury happens means that you will have tools at your disposal to quickly analyze what happened, is it work related and are there any red flags that will lead you to contest the claim.

Your Managed Care Organization (MCO) can provide your company with guidance on any questions related to injury reporting and seeking BWC (Bureau of Workers Compensation) authorized provider medical treatment. The injured worker will need to complete a First Report of Injury (FROI), which is the BWC form required for filing a claim application. It is also a good best practice to have your employee complete a supplemental accident report that is specific to your work environment and expands on some of the important questions that arise during an injury investigation, such as – were there any witnesses? Did you immediately notify your supervisor?    

Minimizing Claim Costs

Once a claim application is filed with the BWC, things begin to move quickly and your window of opportunity to minimize the impact is small. The most common type of compensation is Temporary Total (TT). This is when the BWC pays the injured worker a portion of their regular pay to cover their lost wages while recovering from an allowed injury.

If you are not contesting the claim or its compensability, your focus should move to helping your injured workers get the necessary treatment they need to quickly return to full duty employment.

If you can accommodate a return to light duty while the treatment moves forward, then making a light duty job offer will prevent the claim from flipping from “medical only” to “lost time”. It will also keep your injured worker from getting used to being off work because of the injury. If light duty is not an option, then another path is to pay the claimant their regular wages – also known as salary continuation - while they are off work.

Other Cost Containment Options

When a claim is allowed the BWC attaches a reserve to estimate and cover future costs. There are several ways to minimize the impact a reserve has on your annual premiums:

• Settlement – the most effective way to close a claim and prevent future costs from being applied is to negotiate a full and final settlement with the injured worker. The settlement amount is paid out of the claim by the BWC, the cost is added to the overall claim cost and the injured worker receives monies in lieu of future treatment and compensation.
• Disability Relief – The BWC currently has a program in place to recognize pre-existing conditions that negatively impact the allowed conditions or the injured worker’s recovery from the allowed condition. The BWC will hold an informal conference with the employer/Third Party Administrator (TPA) to review the application and the medical that supports the request and then will determine an impact percentage between 0% and 100%. This percentage relates to the amount of “relief” the employer will receive due to filing a successful application.
• Subrogation/No Fault MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident) – When a third-party is the cause of a workplace injury there may be relief that can be pursued to offset the cost of the claim. The most common example is an employee’s claim that is the result of a non-at-fault vehicle accident involving a third party.

Navigating the workers’ compensation system can feel frustrating and at times complicated, but with your MCO and TPA partners you have access to subject matter experts that can make your job easier and keep your premiums down.

If you have any questions, contact our Sedgwick program manager, David Deyo, at 614-318-5516 or david.deyo@sedgwick.com.

Learn more about Sedgwick!

Did you know that many alternative discounts are available to help reduce your annual Ohio workers’ compensation costs? Through the OABA workers’ compensation program, your organization can significantly reduce your workers’ compensation costs through a variety of alternative rating programs. Our program, administered by Sedgwick, offers you quality service and stability through the complex workers’ compensation environment.

For over 50 years, Sedgwick has been helping employers navigate Ohio’s workers’ compensation system, providing services to help them control claim-related costs and reduce premiums. Our team includes the experienced colleagues from CompManagement and CareWorks Comp.

Learn more about how Sedgwick can help your company save significantly on your workers’ compensation premium by visiting www.oaba.net/services_workers_comp.