(Part 1 of 4)
Labor and Industries recently adopted premium base rates for the 2024 calendar year. While their press release cites a 4.9% increase, this is an average across all risk classes and could be higher or lower for your company. Now is a great time to ask yourself if there’s more you could be doing to lower your premium rates in the future. Over the next four installments of this blog, we’ll review commonly overlooked strategies for lowering your rates.
The Medical Only Discount
When calculating your rates, L&I discounts the claim by $3,670 if the only benefits paid have been for medical treatment. In most claims, this discount removes the claim from your rate calculation completely. If any wage replacement (time loss, loss of earning power) or permanent partial disability (PPD) have been paid, the discount will be removed and you will be hit with the full cost of the claim.
Earning the Medical Only Discount
You can control whether or not time loss or loss of earning power is paid under the claim with two simple strategies:
- Return all injured employees to work within their work restrictions as soon as possible. Identifying light-duty work ahead of time and utilizing our Return to Work Form is the easiest way to return injured employees and keep your medical-only discount. Download the Basics of Return to Work.pdf
- If your employee must miss work, bridge the time between their injury and their return by continuing their regular wages, known as Kept on Salary (KOS). Download the Basics of Kept on Salary.pdf
With increasing labor costs, supply chain shortages, and rising inflation, every dollar saved counts. For more information on these cost-saving strategies please contact us.