JODI MATHY
HNI Senior Claims Consultant

It was a rainy April night, and I heard a crash outside. I quickly jumped up to see what was going on.

JODI MATHY
HNI Senior Claims Consultant

Many employers will encounter a particularly challenging type of employee — the employee you suspect is "gaming the system" when it comes to a work comp claim.

JODI MATHY
HNI Senior Claims Consultant

Your middle-aged workforce — while rich in experience, energy, and industry know-how — slowly is losing a quality-of-life battle. Back health starts to slide after age 35, and it happens to everyone. There are strategies, though, to lessen discomfort and head off major problems.

JODI MATHY
HNI Senior Claims Consultant

For the most part, employees on their way to and leaving from work are not eligible for workers' compensation. This is referred to as the "coming-and-going rule." In other words, accidents during these times are an employee's business, and her employer is not on the hook. It also should be noted that employees who are running errands during a work day that are substantially unrelated to their employment also are not covered by workers' compensation.

JODI MATHY
HNI Senior Claims Consultant

The cliche that "rules are meant to be broken" really doesn't apply to rules about workplace safety. Policies are in place to keep workers safe and your business running as efficiently as possible. What's more, rules about safety help control risk and costs for your firm!

Reporting workers compensation claims in a timely manner is important.  While late reporting of workers compensation claims by the employer does not affect the employee's benefits, it often causes issues with claims handling process and usually increases the cost to the employer.

JODI MATHY
HNI Post Loss Specialist

In my role as Post Loss Specialist, I work daily to help clients manage their workers compensation claims and protect their experience modification rating (MOD). With recent changes in the split-rate formula for rating calculations, businesses need to be even more diligent in managing reserves and claim outcomes.

JODI MATHY
HNI Post Loss Specialist

When you have a worker’s compensation claim, you want it handled quickly, and you want it handled right.  One of the biggest complaints that I hear from frustrated clients is that the adjuster assigned to their claim isn’t calling them back quick enough. 

Before joining HNI, I worked as a claims adjuster for a large national broker.  Based on my experience there, these are my tips for getting efficient responses from claims adjusters.

1. Know that your claims adjuster is trying

Most adjusters in every field are buried under enormous workloads.  The problem of high workload to most adjusters is compounded by high turnover of cases – as an adjuster, I rarely went more than a day without a new claim. New claims come with multiple contacts to be made and investigations to be completed, in addition to a daily diary of activities to follow.

2. Give them at least 24 hours to respond

You should expect a return call or email for most requests within one business day.  Many people expect adjusters to call them back same day and get very put off by repeatedly getting a voicemail.  Multiple calls and voicemails aren't going to make an adjuster more eager to call you back either.

If your adjusters’ response isn’t as quick as you’d like, understand that they probably just have on their plate.  I’m not saying this is how it SHOULD be – but it’s the unfortunate reality we have to deal with when managing claims.    

3. Leave good voicemails

JODI MATHY
HNI Post Loss Specialist