scholarly journals Analyzing Workers’ Compensation Claims and Payments Made Using Data from a Large Insurance Provider

Author(s):  
Navneet Kaur Baidwan ◽  
Nathan W. Carroll ◽  
Bunyamin Ozaydin ◽  
Neeraj Puro

Background: All states in the USA have established Workers’ Compensation (WC) insurance systems/programs. WC systems address key occupational safety and health concerns. This effort uses data from a large insurance provider for the years 2011–2018 to provide estimates for WC payments, stratified by the claim severity, i.e., medical only, and indemnity. Methods: Besides providing descriptive statistics, we used generalized estimating equations to analyze the association between the key injury characteristics (nature, source, and body part injured) and total WC payments made. We also provide the overall cost burden for the former. Results: Out of the total 151,959 closed claims, 83% were medical only. The mean overall WC payment per claim for the claims that resulted in a payment was $1477 (SD: $7221). Adjusted models showed that mean payments vary by claim severity. For example, among medical only claims, the mean payment was the highest for amputations ($3849; CI: $1396, $10,608), and among disability and death related claims, ruptures cost the most ($14,285; $7772, $26,255). With frequencies taken into account, the overall cost burden was however the highest for strains. Conclusions: Workplace interventions should prioritize both the costs of claims on average and the frequency.

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Elinor R. Dulay ◽  
Ma. Danica Katrina P. Galvan ◽  
Rio Joana M. Puyaoan ◽  
Angel Abraham Y. Sison ◽  
Nicole S. Natanauan ◽  
...  

Objective. The study aimed to evaluate the sound pressure levels of selected traffic enforcer sites in the City of Manila. Methods. A Brüel & Kjær Integrating Sound Level Meter type 2225 was used to measure sound pressure levels in dB(A) to estimate personal noise exposure of traffic enforcers designated at Quezon Boulevard near Quiapo Church and Recto – Rizal Avenue on a weekday and a weekend. Graphs were generated while appropriate measures were calculated for the noise exposure levels. The mean exposure levels were compared with the Philippine Occupational Safety and Health standards by computing the corresponding permissible exposure limit for each work shift using the Equal Energy Principle.17 Results. Noise exposure levels at Quezon Boulevard ranged from 75.0 dB(A) to 91.5 dB(A) with mean noise exposure level of 84.3 ± 3.7 dB(A) and 82.5 ± 2.6 dB(A) for the weekday AM and PM shift, respectively. The mean noise exposure level at Quezon Boulevard for the weekend AM shift was 82.4 ± 2.6, whereas 80.4 ± 2.8 for the PM shift. The noise exposure levels at Recto – Rizal Avenue ranged from 81.5 dB(A) to 99.3 dB(A) with mean noise exposure level of 86.7 ± 2.6 dB(A) and 86.0 ± 2.1 dB(A) for the weekday AM and PM shift, respectively. The mean noise exposure level at Recto – Rizal Avenue for the weekend AM shift was 86.7 ± 2.3, whereas 89.0 ± 4.0 for the PM shift. Conclusion. The study showed that traffic enforcers designated at Quezon Boulevard and Recto – Rizal Avenue are exposed to noise levels that do not exceed the Philippine Occupational Safety and Health standards.


Author(s):  
Esther Vaquero-Álvarez ◽  
Antonio Cubero-Atienza ◽  
María Pilar Martínez-Jiménez ◽  
Manuel Vaquero-Abellán ◽  
María Dolores Redel-Macías ◽  
...  

Most of blood borne and airborne pathogens are highly contagious, harmful and have prevalence among healthcare workers. In this group, healthcare students, especially nursing undergraduates, have even higher risk to be exposed and suffered a contagious accident. One of the main pillars to prevent exposure to such pathogens and decrease accidents seems to be through education. A prospective observational educational research focused on quantifying the students’ knowledge, and prevention culture was carried out. The educational approach based on the development of a technological tool, its integration in the students’ education, and posterior assessment. The Chi-square, ANOVA, Kruskal–Wallis, Man–Whitney U, and Spearman correlations were used to determine the effect of such educational methodology. The results, previous to the integration of the educational approach, showed differences between the elementary and proficient knowledge and correct procedure in each academic year (p < 0.05), being the best year the third academic year. The mean of elementary knowledge among second year students after the inclusion of the educational methodology improved for 2017/2018 with a mean of 7.5 (1.11) and in 2018/2019 with 7.87 (1.34). This study argued that the educational approach proposed could improve the prevention culture and knowledge among students and future healthcare professionals.


Author(s):  
Lobat Hashemi ◽  
Patrick G. Dempsey

Workers' compensation claims associated with manual materials handling (MMH) represent the single largest source of claims and costs. There have been few analyses of such losses associated with MMH. An examination of the nature of the injuries associated with MMH as well as the body parts most frequently affected can lead to a better understanding of the losses attributed to MMH to suggest further research efforts. A large sample of MMH claims was analyzed and stratified with respect to body part affected and the nature of the injury. The cost distribution associated with the claims was considerably skewed, and an attempt to fit several known distributions to the data did not produce a statistically-significant fit. The lower back area and upper extremities were the body parts associated with the majority of claims. Strain was the nature of injury most frequently reported (51.3%). Lower back area strains were the most frequently reported nature of injury and body part combination.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (18) ◽  
pp. 3641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki ◽  
Steven A. Freeman ◽  
Gretchen A. Mosher

One of the principle objectives in occupational safety analysis is to identify the key factors that affect the severity of an incident. To identify risk groups of occupational incidents and the factors associated with them, statistical analysis of workers’ compensation claims data is performed using latent class clustering, for the segmentation of 1031 severe occupational incidents in agribusiness industries in the Midwest region of the United States between 2008–2016. In this study, severe incidents are those with workers’ compensation costs equal to or greater than $100,000 (USD). Based on the latent class clustering results, three risk groups are identified with injury nature as the most statistically distinctive classifier. The highest cost injuries include strain, tear, fracture, contusion, amputation, laceration, burn, concussion, and crushing. The most prevalent and statistically significant injury type is permanent partial disability. The study introduces a novel application of latent class clustering in the segmentation of high severity occupational incidents. The analytical approach and results of this study will aid safety practitioners in identifying occupational risk groups and analyzing injury patterns, and inform safety intervention plans to avoid the occurrence of similar incidents in agribusiness industries.


Author(s):  
Marcia Nathai-Balkissoon ◽  
Kit Fai Pun

As Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) embraces the digital age, one field in which the country must advance is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). This paper seeks to identify how T&T's Occupational Safety and Health Agency (TTOSHA) addresses e-government (e-gov) through its website, how its approach compares to those used by leading OSH bodies in two first-world countries, the USA (US) and the UK, and how the T&T approach may be improved. The OSH e-gov practices of the US OSHA, UK HSE, and TTOSHA websites are presented. Through a content analysis and comparison exercise, e-gov shortcomings of the TTOSHA site are noted and recommendations for improvement are proposed. The paper's potential benefits include improved accessibility and utility of the TTOSHA site through improved matching of site content to international practice, broader ranges of resource topics and media types, improved responsiveness and connectivity with stakeholders, and better focus on OSH performance through the dissemination of searchable OSH statistics and performance reports.


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