From The Iowa County magazine july 2021 issue

Everyone goes home safe at the end of the Day!

This has become the “unofficial” motto of IMWCA. ICAP (Iowa Communities Assurance Pool) and IMWCA (Iowa Municipalities Workers’ Compensation Association) both place great emphasis on safety, risk improvement, and loss control to achieve this goal to prevent claims and injuries.

“Workplace injuries and illnesses are costly in both financial and human terms. Coordinating safety pays dividends in many ways, including at the end of the day everyone goes home safely, the same way they started the day,” states a resource guide for Safety Coordinators from IMWCA.

A search on Google for the term “Safety” lists more than 2.9 billion hits. In plain terms, safety is “the state of being safe” or free from harm or danger.

Risk management or risk improvement is a process of identifying risks to avoid or minimize claims/accidents.

Loss control is a risk management technique that seeks to reduce the possibility that a loss will occur and/or to reduce the severity of losses that do occur.

A good loss control program should help counties, or any policy holder, reduce claims. By working together, ICAP and IMWCA strive to assist your County in reducing losses through safety, loss control, and risk management information and services. One of the best ways to accomplish an effective plan is through a Safety Committee and specifically, a Safety Coordinator.

A Safety Coordinator can help counties identify, manage, and provide training opportunities via resources available through ICAP and IMWCA. The Safety Coordinator may also be responsible for implementing policies and procedures as well as overseeing the county employees’ safety at work. 

County governments in Iowa have responsibility for a wide range of activities and operations: from road maintenance to property tax collection to health systems to conservation to public safety; the County employees’ health, safety and welfare is paramount. A Safety Coordinator is vital to fulfilling this function.

In Iowa, some counties employ a full-time coordinator, others add these responsibilities to roles already established in the organization. Some Counties hire a third party to provide these services. Some County Supervisors take on this role. No matter how your County structures the Safety Coordinator position, it is imperative that someone oversee safety! A lax safety/loss control program translates to a higher number of claims, loss of productivity, and higher claim dollar costs.

Iowa utilizes experience rating to adjust the cost of workers’ compensation to conform to the characteristics of an individual County. Experience Rating is accomplished by applying a factor to the manual premium. The factor is promulgated by a comparison of actual losses to expected loss for the three most recent expired policies. (To minimize the effect on the premium of unusually large losses, maximum limitations are applied.) For example, the 2021 experience modification number is found by “plugging” the losses from the policy years from 2017-18; 2018-19; 2019-20 into a formula. (This is a very simplistic explanation. For a specific and detailed review of your specific county, please contact your local agent and/or CRMS representative.)

The bottom line is, the greater the number of claims and claim dollars paid, the higher the experience modification. The higher the experience modification, the higher the premium for your workers’ compensation coverage.

My dad was a Navy veteran, and among other lessons I learned at a young age (besides the proper way to swab a deck!) was, you can only spend a dollar once. If you spend more dollars on your premium, you have less to spend on other services. IMWCA and ICAP safety and risk improvement advisers are at your service to work in conjunction with your Safety Coordinator and/or Safety Committee.

Eighty counties receive workers’ compensation coverage with IMWCA with a July 1 effective date. In the past month, CRMS has met with at least 10 counties or agents to review claims, trends, and the impact on the experience modification number and premium. The 5-year analysis reviews listed two major claims categories. “Slip, Trip and Falls” and “Law Enforcement” injuries were at the top of the list. The counties we met had about 60% of their total claim dollars from Slip, Trip and Falls. Slip, Trip and Falls has been a hazard for counties for several years.

IMWCA has a great Slip, Trip and Fall Handbook for your use under the Loss Control, Model Program tab. This tab also has a Resource Guide for Safety Coordinators.

ICAP has addressed the law enforcement claims issues by offering monthly webinars for members with a wide variety of topics specifically for Law Enforcement employees.

Both ICAP and IMWCA offer hundreds of policies, procedures, power point presentations, training modules, webinars, and in-person experts at your convenience - no cost.

In 2020, OSHA’s (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) top #1 most frequently cited standard was Fall Protection per the U.S. Department of Labor. Per their website, “Far too many preventable injuries and illnesses occur in the workplace.” Learn more about this or see the full list at www.osha.gov/top10citedstandards

County Risk Management Services (CRMS) works with your local agent, and ICAP and IMWCA resources, and can provide information and services for all county operations including Safety Coordinators.

Past IMWCA newsletters are available online. Click the link at the bottom of any page to subscribe to future email newsletters. www.imwca.org/communication/informer-newsletter/

The ICAP website also includes past publications and a blog covering a variety of topics important to counties. www.icapiowa.com/publications-1

At end of the day, Safety Coordinators and Safety Committees not only save counties money on coverage premiums, they also help to ensure that every county employee returns home safe at the end of the day.

By Willene White, CRMS (County Risk Management Services) Representative