By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims 

On Monday, July 20, 2015, we arrived at work to start another week. Facing us were telephone calls, mail, faxes and e-mail, all part of everyday business. But one of the telephone calls we received relayed upsetting news. Sharon Medwid, one of the owners of Three M Tool & Machine, one of our long time insureds, had a fatal accident. With the exception of a one year break in service, Three M Tool & Machine has been insured with us since 1980. After that length of time, you are more like family. Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with Sharon on one or two particular files, so I was able to have multiple, lengthy conversations with her. In my lifetime I have what I consider “favorite people”, and Sharon was quickly added to that list of no more than 10.

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The Annual Meeting is October 15th
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
at The Inn at St. Johns

Watch for more information to follow.

On some of my monthly notes, I try to answer questions that I get frequently from members. Here is one topic that comes up a couple times a month from different members. Question: What is the financial stability of MTMIC? Does MTMIC have a “Best” rating? If not, why not?

First, a common measurement of financial strength in the insurance industry is how much surplus a company has. Surplus is the amount of financial cushion a company has in the event that losses exceed the premium. As of March 31, 2015, MTMIC had a surplus account of $17,950,415. Industry experts often say that the ratio of surplus to premium should be one to one. MTMIC has $0.94 that is surplus for every $1 of premium.

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By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

Workers’ Compensation insurance coverage is mandated in the State of Michigan. Even so, Workers’ Compensation is a “benefit” to the employee (and the employer). Employees are “entitled” to medical care and compensation should they have an injury while in the course of employment. But that does not allow the injured worker to have an “entitlement attitude”. Workers’ Compensation is not a “social program”. Benefits are governed by laws that were enacted over 100 years ago. Those laws have been periodically modified to change with the times. When you talk about laws, you are talking about attorneys – hence the modifications! Our success in the Workers’ Compensation courts is strongly influenced by the current political arena in our State at that time.

Employers know the part they play in the process: safety programs, safety training, drug screening, employment physicals, prompt reporting of injuries, accident investigations (and preventions).

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By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant

As companies strive to reach customer deadlines, growing production numbers, and do so with the smallest amount of overhead, it is understandable that some of the new ergonomic tools and resources have gone unutilized. While understandable, it is essential to understand how not having those tools in place not only affect your employees in a negative manner, but could also have a large impact on your daily operations.

Upon a review of MTMIC’s current loss run, it shows that of the top 50 lost time injuries, strains account for 46% of them (23 of 50). When looking at the same top 50 lost time injuries, strains accounted for 38% of the total dollars spent on those injuries. That is a sum of $8.6 million dollars. Of the 23 strain injuries, 39% are from the lower back (9 of 23). The sum of those 9 lower back injuries accounts for 50% of the total dollars spent on strains within that top 50 lost time injuries list. That is a staggering 4.0 million dollars spent on just 9 lower back claims.

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One of the most common questions during a member’s renewal process is “What is my experience modification? And how is it calculated?” Often this leads to another question that goes something like, “I had no losses last year but my experience mod went up, why?”

Let’s cover the big picture and the first question. The goal of the experience modification is to reward Michigan employers with lower than expected losses for their classification codes and payroll. The opposite is also true. Michigan employers with higher than expected losses in their rate classification receive a “debit” experience modification, which is a mod above 1.00. We have some members with experience modifications in the 60s, such as one today was .62. That employer at the very beginning of the rating process receives a 38% discount off of the standard rate. We also have a couple employers with experience modifications above 2.00. For these employers, their starting point in the rating process is twice the standard rate.

A critical part of controlling your workers’ compensation premium is controlling your losses. By the way, MTMIC is eager to help you with your loss control needs.

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By: Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM, Loss Control Manager

Well, it’s that time of year again when MiOSHA released their top violations for general industry at the Michigan Safety Conference. This is also where we, as loss control consultants, focus our attention when we conduct our site safety surveys at your facilities. This year they broke down the top violations into both Heath Violations and Safety Violations, we will start with the Health Violations, which you may be less familiar with. If you are unsure if you have a health violation, you may ask your loss control consultant for more guidance on any of these violations noted below.

Listed below are the 2014 most recent general industry health violations cited by MiOSHA:

1. Part 602 – Asbestos Standards for Construction – 622 Citations Issued

• Not having an exposure assessment before starting renovation projects at your facility. Any building built before 1971 must have an asbestoses survey completed.
• Not having proper engineering controls and work practices when renovating.

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By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultan

Due to the changes to the Recordkeeping Standard, the OSHA “Job Safety and Health It’s The Law” poster was updated to reflect those changes. According to OSHA, previous versions of the poster is currently acceptable. The changes to the Recordkeeping Standard was addressed in the December 2014 MTMIC newsletter. Previous newsletters can be obtained through the MTMIC website: http://www. mtmic.com/blog/

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Martha B. Yoder, Director
Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration (MIOSHA)

MTMIC is pleased to announce that Martha B. Yoder will be speaking at our upcoming Annual Meeting in October. Martha will be discussing how to Be Proactive in Creating Safe and Healthful Workplaces.

On March 1, 2012, Martha B. Yoder was appointed Director of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA). In that role, she oversees the MIOSHA program, which is responsible for enforcing workplace safety and health standards and providing consultation, education and training, and outreach services. She is also responsible for overseeing the Wage and Hour Program, which protects the earned wages and fringe benefits of Michigan workers.

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Last month I wrote you about the fun of delivering 2.5 million dollars’ worth of member dividend checks. We had 544 member checks. The average check amount was $4,596.00 which equates to 19.6% of the individuals paid premiums. Probably another interesting statistic, for 106 members their dividend was greater than 50% of their annual workers compensation premium. As a reminder the dividend had two parts, part one was a loyalty dividend for all members with policies by 12/31/12 that were still insured on February 19, 2015. The second part of the dividend was based on the loss ratio of your individual account. The Board thought, all members should be rewarded and those will great loss histories should get a bonus.

Many wonderful stories came out of our “surprise” deliveries. I had many myself. Special fun with Julie Grimm at Star Cutter Company, Celeste and Dennis Johnson at Thread-Craft, Inc., the management team at Symmetry Medical, and Maritza Gaskin at AB Heller. Regarding the loyalty piece, I should mention that both Star Cutter and AB Heller have been with MTMIC and the Trust before since 1976. Yes 39 years.

Just as important as old “news” is new “news”. Please mark your calendar on October 15th for the MTMIC annual members meeting. It is a quick moving 2 hour luncheon at Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. At this meeting, not only do we have two speakers, we will also complete the first review for the next dividend. It will be interesting.

Please plan to attend.

By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

I recently attended a conference where one of the speakers was John Flood, D.O. from Michigan Orthopedic Center in Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Flood is a physician we have utilized for Independent Medical Evaluations in the past. Dr. Flood presented some interesting facts concerning low back pain.

One fact is that 80% of the population will experience low back pain during their lifetime. Of that 80%, 15% will experience the pain for 2 weeks or more. Interestingly enough, experiencing low back pain “decreases” after age 65. The annual incidence of back pain has been unchanged over the past 30 years.

The good news is that 85% of this population will improve at 6 weeks; 90% improve at 12 weeks; 10% will have ongoing pain. However, the recurrence rate at one year is 25-80%. Permanent work disability affects about 5% of those treating for low back pain.

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Denise Williams, PhD, MS, SPHR, SHRM-CP

We are excited to announce that one of our speakers at the MTMIC Annual Meeting will be Denise Williams, PhD., MS.SP
HR, SHRM-CP. Denise will be speaking on The Distracted Worker: A Hidden Risk to Employee Health and Productivity. Denise is a Performance Consultant serving the staff of the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (HHC.) In this role, Denise collaborates with leadership and employees to create, support, promote, and optimize a culture of inclusion, equity, and diversity that welcomes and supports the health of staff and patients. Her liaison work supports recruitment, employment, education, training, and retention of superior staff to position the University of Michigan Health System as a national exemplar in the areas of health equity and inclusion.

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Are you going back to the Inn at St John’s in Plymouth? We are.

The 2015 annual members meeting is October 15th.

More information to follow…

What does giving MTMIC members $2,500,000 look like?

At the February 19, 2015 MTMIC Board meeting, after assessing the financial strength of the company, the Board approved a dividend of $2,500,000 payable to members in March. The dividend was made up of two parts: Part 1 – $1,000,000 goes to all members with policies prior to 12/31/12 who are active members as of February 19, 2015. Part 2 – $1,500,000 goes to the members with the same dates as Part 1, but who also have great loss histories for the years 2010 – 2012. With these Board parameters, the staff of MTMIC went to work on the project. On March 10th staff produced 548 member checks. When looking at the check amounts, staff decided delivering these checks would be a great way to say congratulations to members and also thank them for their loyalty. So the account assignments were made and 5 MTMIC staff members job for the next two weeks became check deliverers similar to “Publisher Clearing House” check delivery types. From the pictures you could see we were well received.

Many fun comments came out of the visits. A couple members asked if the check was real. While I was making surprise check deliveries, I also checked in with staff to see how their visits were going. Our Loss Control Representative, Chris Demeter, wrote me “It’s all good. I think after they hear the amount and see the check, my hair could be on fire and they wouldn’t notice.” On one of my deliveries, the female owner said, “I know who you are.” I replied, “Really, we have never met.” She went on to say, I am “cuter” in person than the picture in the Newsletter. She won the award for kindness. It is the Board’s desire that this dividend is not a one-time event. Staff will remain focused on claims adjudication and Loss Control input. You are the most important part of managing MTMIC Claims. For an early heads up, the first review of the 2016 dividend will occur at the MTMIC Annual Members luncheon which is Thursday, October 15th, at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. We hope you will attend and get the first preview for what is in store for March of 2016.

Finally, thanks for a terrific 2014 year. Staff will stay focused to do a repeat in 2015.

By Travis Halsted, Loss Control Consultant

Accident investigation and analysis is a means used to prevent accidents. As such, the investigation or analysis must produce information leading to corrective actions to prevent or reduce the number of accidents in the workplace. In 2014 the state of Michigan had 37 workplace fatalities. The investigations from these events are essential as they provide the possible root cause of the accident as well as assist in developing long term remedies. Injuries result in loss of productivity and efficiency, increased workloads on supervisors and co-workers, possible damaged equipment costs, economic hardship to the injured workers’ family, and a cost of the time spent on the accident investigation, return to work programs, and workers’ compensation claims management. By conducting accident investigations a company could possibly implement a remedy that could prevent future occurrences.

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By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

We are all aware of how and where potential “serious” injuries can occur in the workplace and hopefully actions are taken to avoid those situations. Things like weight limits on lifting, guarding on machinery, wearing safety glasses and other personal protection equipment. But what about those seemingly innocent actions and movements, that are almost second nature to a person? The following are actual claims handled by our office.

An employee stopped to get the mail and slipped on black ice and snow resulting in an ankle fracture in three places and a shattered heel. Surgery was performed with plates and screws; and the employee remains disabled from work.

An employee jumped off the bed of a truck resulting in a heel and foot fracture. The employee has been referred to a specialist to see if surgery is necessary. The foot fracture was not noticed on the initial diagnostic testing. The employee remains disabled from work.

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GREAT NEWS TO ANNOUNCE!

A benefit of being part of a small mutual/owner directed insurance company is that the profits that are generated are owned by its members. This is in contrast to commercial carriers where profits are owned by the stockholders. After writing about this topic for the last three months, the MTMIC Board at their February 19th meeting reviewed the 2014 results and determined that a policyholder/member dividend is in order. The Board of Directors, the management team and staff are proud to announce a $2,500,000 dividend. $1,000,000 is to be shared by all members with a policy inforce on February 19, 2015 that had coverage 12/31/12 and prior. An additional $1,500,000 dividend is being shared by members that meet this criteria plus have a loss ratio of below 40%.

We thank you for these great results. This dividend is the result of aggressive claims management, hands on loss control practices and most importantly our policyholder member’s commitment to reducing loss costs.

Dividend checks are being delivered by MTMIC staff, your brokers and the post office beginning as early as March 10th. The MTMIC Board also made it clear that they want to distribute dividends in the future as long as company results warrant it. Congratulations on the MTMIC 2014 results.

SAVE THE DATE!

Mark your calendar now to join us for lunch at the MTMIC Annual Meeting to be held on October 15, 2015 at the beautiful Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth.

Watch for more information to follow.

By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultant

Are you prepared for an emergency when it happens in your workplace? If your workplace has more than 10-employees, it is recommended you develop a written emergency action plan. At a minimum, your emergency action plan should include the following:

• A preferred method for reporting fires and other emergencies;
• An evacuation policy and procedure;
• Emergency escape procedures and route assignments such as floor plans, workplace maps and safe or refuge areas;
• Names, titles, departments and telephone numbers of people within and outside your company to contact for additional information or an explanation of their duties and responsibilities under the emergency plan.
• Procedures for employees who remain to perform or shut down critical plant operations, operate fire extinguishers, or perform other essential services that cannot be shut down for every emergency alarm before evacuating.

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