National Return to Work Week - Part 2

The first group of webinar sessions for National Return to Work Week were a great introduction into the why a company should make the effort, perhaps even amid lay-offs, to returning an employee to some sort of productive work.

Annually, 1.1 million employees lose and average of 7 days due to their work injury. When looking at the significant costs of those injuries, one finds that according to the National Safety Council's Accident Facts ® injuries cost US employers $160.4 billion each year in medical and other direct costs, lost productivity and wages. This expense does not count the additional expenses related to adding to the social security systems.

Now not all injuries are workplace injuries. A return to work program can also be effective to keep short-term and long-term disability claims down. Disabling injuries happen off the job as well as on the job. Every 1.3 seconds someone suffers a disabling injury. That's 63,000 people total people injured daily. Almost half of the 6.8 million people who collect Social Security benefits are under the age of 50.

In the current economic downturn both company employers and the insurance industry are showing huge losses. These staggering statistics make an excellent case for an effective return to work programs for employees injured both on and off the job. The new amendments to the ADA and updates to the FMLA that went into effect this year may also substantially affect companies who do not have a progressive return to work program.

Allowing or forcing an employee to stay at home rather than working a modified duty does nothing more than create an end settlement that does one of two things:

1. Either it rewards those workers who have a tendency to play the system, encouraging them to repeat the actions at their next job.

2. For those workers with a legitimate injury the settlement is rarely enough to survive on, thus creating an additional burden to society though welfare and social security systems.
   

An employer must effectively manage the workers compensation process from the date of injury through return to work or settlement. The insurance adjuster is not the employer. The employer has a far better handle on the issues related to the injury. However, a well managed return to work program doesn't have to be a daunting task, as Dennis Chandler – Director of Return to Work Programs with Company Nurse shows.

Attorney Michael Moebes, who has the unique position to have worked on both the employer and worker sides of the workers compensation issues, discussed the mistakes employers make. Attorney Moebes also talked about the current economy and the success of return to work programs.

To learn more a, please review yesterday's webinars and sign up for others happening this week. The webinars will be stored and the recording available for you to watch on-demand.

http://nationalreturntoworkweek.org/register-for-national-return-to-work-week-sessions/