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Less than a year after switching its workers' compensation insurance
program to The PMA Insurance Group, a recent report presented to the
Cumberland City Council credited the City's new return-to-work program
and proactive risk control initiatives for cutting its workers'
compensation claim costs in half.
The City of Cumberland, Md., the county seat
of Allegany County, is situated in the northwestern part of the state
approximately 130 miles from Washington, D.C. A bucolic city with
small-town America allure, Cumberland stretches along the Potomac River
amid the Appalachian Mountains and is home to nearly 22,000 residents
who, according to the City's web site, "wouldn't live anywhere else."
Cumberland offers the same local services as
many larger cities through its own full-time police, fire, water and
sewer, public works, administration and parks and recreation
departments. As such, it's imperative for the City to have a
results-driven workers' compensation insurance program that not only
protects its employees, but also saves money that can be reinvested in
its community coffers.
In July 2006, Cumberland and Joe George,
Executive Director of CBIZ, the City's insurance broker, selected PMA to
provide the City's workers' compensation insurance program with two
primary objectives: 1) establish effective risk control measures and 2)
achieve cost savings through improved claims handling services. The
results have been nothing but impressive ever since.
Partnership and Communication
Open and consistent communication is at the
heart of nearly every successful relationship, and the communication
between Cumberland, CBIZ and PMA has been no exception. "Everyone at the
City has had an incredibly positive attitude from the start," says Gary
Lowe, PMA Sr. Underwriting Specialist. "One of our first steps was to
develop a service agenda to address their most pressing needs in a year
[safety practices and claims costs] and the mayor called a special city
council meeting to approve the PMA-City contract right away - that's a
level of commitment that we don't see every day." A full PMA service
team, including representatives from underwriting, risk control and
claims, attended the meeting, along with George, to set the plan in
motion.
Today, in addition to helping develop safety
practices and reduce overall costs, PMA holds quarterly on-site claim
reviews with the City and George in order to gauge the City's progress.
"We make sure to stay in touch on claims," notes Barb Lehrer, PMA Client
Service Manager. "The more we discuss and review claims, the better our
chances to improve outcomes, safely return injured workers to the job
sooner and reduce the overall costs of claims."
Proactive Risk Control Measures
Shortly before partnering with PMA, George
and Cole Brown, Vice President of Loss Control for CBIZ, helped the City
to develop safety committees for each of its operating departments and
to establish a city-wide Risk Management Committee. Jeff Rhodes, the
City's Director of Administrative Services, who serves as Risk Manager
for the City, heads the city-wide Risk Management Committee and leads
its monthly meetings with representatives from each operating
department. "It's simply about communication and awareness," says
Rhodes. "Our committee discussions and reviews of accidents have already
helped us to develop improved safety policies, like reporting all
injuries, large or small, within 24 hours."
Initially, department representatives
attended the monthly Risk Management Committee meeting merely to report
injuries. "It's different today," adds Rhodes. "Now they attend knowing
they will also be asked to report how the injury occurred and what the
corrective action was to prevent it from occurring again. This has
helped to change our thought process from being reactive to being
proactive, which has resulted in safer work environments throughout our
departments."
Once PMA was on board last year, Sam Stirlen,
PMA Sr. Risk Control Consultant, began attending the meetings and
working with George, Brown, Rhodes and Jeff Repp, City of Cumberland
Administrator, to develop safety best practices. "One of our more recent
initiatives was to develop a newsletter that shares these best practices
with all departments and employees," adds Rhodes. "The very first thing
in our first newsletter was a letter from the City Administrator to all
employees about the seriousness of the issue." This support from the top
down, according to Rhodes, has helped show employees that on-the-job
injuries and how each department responds to them have a dramatic
financial impact on the City's operating budget.
Stirlen also recently conducted accident
investigation training with the City's departmental supervisors. "This
training empowers supervisors so they can properly identify loss trends
and opportunities where safety measures may help to prevent accidents
down the road," adds Stirlen.
Return-to-Work Program
In addition to open communication, claims
reviews and risk control measures, the City's commitment to its
return-to-work (RTW) program, which PMA helped to implement, has also
been essential to its insurance program's success. The RTW program has
enabled the City to bring injured employees back to work sooner with
light-duty assignments until it's medically safe for them to return to
their regular responsibilities.
"This not only helps to shorten the duration
of claims," says Lehrer, "but also to keep injured workers on a safe,
healthy and efficient road to recovery." Often, when an injured worker
returns to work sooner than expected, even in a light-duty capacity, he
or she can feel more confident in the recovery process and apt to follow
through on medical appointments. When it comes to the cost of medical
care, the City has diligently used PMA's Preferred Provider Network
(PPN) to help save themselves more than $40,000 in billed medical
charges since July 2006.
Planning for Future Success
The City of Cumberland has achieved
excellent cost savings in a relatively short time. As with any workers'
compensation insurance program, only time will tell just how lasting an
impact these achievements will have. As such, the City, PMA and CBIZ
aren't resting on their laurels and are already looking ahead for future
success.
In addition to more accident investigation
training for supervisors, PMA Risk Control has plans for a training
class regarding the insurance program that will show employees how their
safety on the job every day impacts the City's bottom line. Safety
management training is also in store for the fire department's deputy
chiefs. PMA Risk Control will conduct several unannounced hazard site
inspections throughout the next policy year.
"We're off to a great start," adds Rhodes.
"Our employees are more aware and receive better information about
working safer, and it's this change in mindset that's going to help our
program improve and realize additional savings over time."
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