Lower Workers’ Comp Insurance Rates for 2016 – At the end of the year, many insurance companies will attempt to settle or reduce the number of open claims they have. Workers’ compensation is no different, creating an opportunity for Denver workers’ compensation lawyers, Greeley workers’ compensation attorneys, and especially their injured clients. These clients often work for years at their jobs and suffer work injuries before finding out how difficult the system can be. Through the course of treatment, workers need to focus on getting better rather than the sometimes stressful world of workers’ compensation. After all, you hire a Denver workers’ compensation attorney so he or she can do the worrying for you.
Lower Workers’ Comp Insurance Rates for 2016
The other important information for workers’ compensation that comes at the end of the year is the amount of lost-time claims that were reported for Colorado employers over the year. This figure factors into premium costs for workers’ compensation insurance, the cost of which is released for the next year at the end of the previous year. For 2016, The Colorado Division of Insurance reduced the average lower costs portion of workers’ compensation premiums by almost 2 percent.
Reduction of reported injuries is good for insurance companies, who have to pay less in medical bills and costs for workers injured on the job, and business owners, who have to pay less in premiums if they can prove as a whole that Colorado suffered fewer work injuries. This incentive makes sense: if you make your workplace safer, you should be rewarded, and the language most businesses speak is money. And if workers’ compensation insurance is less expensive, fewer businesses can argue it costs too much to maintain even with the potential risk to workers.
Individual businesses still have to wait to see what their rates will look like. Just because, as a whole, state workers’ compensation premiums will decrease slightly, it doesn’t mean all employers will see a decrease in their industries. After all, certain industries are inherently riskier than others, just as a job in construction might carry a higher risk of work injury than an office job. It’s not always the case, but as a general rule, certainly.
Related: Make No Mistake. The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Carrier is not on your side.
A decline in reported workers’ compensation claims might not mean a decline in work injuries. The measures are reported injuries. Sometimes, workers hesitate to report injuries because they are close to the owners of their companies, or the company immediately starts paying for medical costs out of pocket. Certain businesses make this decision because the workers’ compensation system is complicated and difficult to manage from many different perspectives. However, part of the safeguards built into the workers’ compensation system in Colorado is designed to make sure injured workers aren’t left with their medical bills or saddled with difficult doctors who refuse to see the direct work-related cause of the employee’s injuries. It’s a tricky system, to be sure, and many people make the conscious decision to avoid it altogether. However, the obvious risks of such a system are the reason workers’ compensation works the way it does. The system is not perfect, but it’s the best pragmatic way to safeguard the interests of employers and employees alike.
Lower Workers’ Comp Insurance Rates
Over the past eight years, Colorado’s lost-time or workers’ compensation claim frequency has gone down. This makes it more likely, globally speaking, that companies will have workers’ compensation insurance in Colorado, which, on its face, is a good thing. However, if truly injured workers hesitate to take advantage of the insurance plans when the workers qualify, the system does not serve its purpose. After all, worker safety is everyone’s priority. The best way to increase worker safety is to identify ongoing safety risks early on in the process so others aren’t injured in the same manner.
Additional Resource: Medical Benefits with Colorado Workers’ Compensation Insurance
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Workers’ Compensation can be difficult, confusing, and very complex. Kaplan Morrell has helped thousands of injured workers since 1997 get the benefits they deserve. Contact us here or call us at 303-780-7329 for your free consultation.
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