ReAudio: ReAssess Your Workers Comp Toolbox
ReAudio goes beyond policies and regulations to explore the real impact of workers’ compensation. We break down key industry trends, workplace injury data, and best practices while diving into the human side of recovery. Through expert conversations and powerful stories, we uncover the challenges, emotions, and perspectives that shape the experience for employees and employers alike.
Whether you’re an industry professional or just curious about the system behind workplace injuries, this podcast brings you the facts you need and the stories that matter—because workers’ comp isn’t just about processes, it’s about people.
The award-winning ReAudio podcast is presented by your partners at ReEmployAbility. Thanks for listening!
ReAudio: ReAssess Your Workers Comp Toolbox
Managing Workplace Injuries: Best Practices for Faster Recovery and Lower Insurance Rates
In this episode, Jennifer Barrett, Director of Risk Resources at Acrisure, shares proven strategies to cut workers’ compensation costs and support injured employees. Drawing on her deep construction industry experience, Barrett explains how fast communication and proactive return-to-work programs can boost recovery rates—and slash premium costs.
Learn why employees who return to modified duty within 30 days have a 90% chance of full recovery, and how poor claim management can spike your experience mod by 30 points. Barrett also covers essential tools like nurse triage, telemedicine, and partnering with the right occupational health providers to streamline the claims process.
If you're an employer, HR professional, or risk manager ready to take control of workplace injury claims, this episode is packed with actionable tips to protect your people and your bottom line.
Listen now to revolutionize your workers' comp strategy.
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Speaker 2:I can recall growing up in western New York the first day it hit like 55 or 60. We'd all be outside in shorts and T-shirts and washing cars. And I'll never forget all the snow banks on the side of the road and the roads being dry because of all the salt and everything. It's still being snow, but warm enough, really not warm enough for shorts, but we thought it was yeah, oh for sure, yeah, no.
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Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome, jennifer Barrett. So you are a director of risk resources at Acroshore, but you have a background in construction, which I guess you know. It's funny when I look at the word resources and I know we're going to kind of talk about this as we kind of move along but resources always looks to me like it means something beforehand. Right, you need to have resources before you can move on and do other things, and so I think the title that you have at AcroShare is definitely going to lead us into maybe some preparation stuff that people can learn from our conversation. But tell us a little bit about your background in construction and how it got you to where you are now with AcroShare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. My job at the construction company was one of my most favorite jobs. I loved every moment of it. I had a boss that was so incredibly smart and talented and challenged my brain on a daily basis, and part of my role within the construction company was to manage their claims, and they had a very large deductible. So they, you know, they really called the shots. They didn't adjust their own claims, but they really directed the adjusters to kind of exactly what they wanted to have happen to. You know, make sure that the claims were handled in the most efficient and effective manner, without sacrificing care for the employee.
Speaker 3:And I learned so much through that process and just saw how much money was on the table when you manage claims well, it just saw how much money was on the table when you manage claims well. And so when I saw the job posting for the position that I'm in now, I thought to myself I really didn't want to make a move. But I thought to myself what an incredible skill to be able to help smaller businesses that don't have a risk manager be able to, you know, have control, or think that they have control, over workers' comp claims. Because I can tell you every time you talk to somebody about workers' comp and if they've had a bad claim, the process is horrible to them, right? And they think that they have absolutely no control, and that's so not true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's actually on both sides of the fence as well. You know, with what we do at reemployability, we work closely with employers, but we also work closely with injured workers and I feel like both sides almost feel the same way and there's this immediate wall, I think, that develops between the two parties involved in a claim. You had mentioned that what you learned was being able to manage claims efficiently but still keeping the best interest of your employees in mind.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us a little bit about that, Like what are some of those things that you can do to be able to do both?
Speaker 3:Yeah, of course I think you absolutely have to advocate medically for your employee, right?
Speaker 3:If the workers' comp system can be very daunting to an employee that's never been through the process, the medical system alone can be daunting, right. So when you bring both together, it's extra daunting. And so we often would help the employee kind of understand what benefits were within the workers' comp claim that could help him or her navigate the medical process, to get you know treatment quicker or a diagnostic quicker that would lead to treatment quicker. And so oftentimes nurse case managers, you know, we would partner with one particular firm that we used and we would connect the dots to get them, you know, a nurse to help kind of guide them through that medical process, to make it feel a bit less scary and to make the medical process more efficient.
Speaker 3:Obviously, the other piece of it was getting them back in a work environment right, and it didn't have to be the same exact work environment, because oftentimes injured employees have work modifications or restrictions and they can't do their typical job. So finding them work that was satisfying for them too, while not being able to contribute like they used to prior to the injury, and helping them mentally understand that we're your partner here. We're going to get you through this. These restrictions, hopefully, are temporary and we're here to support your transition back to full duty.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you had a pretty good line of communication between your employees and kind of explained the process. That's one of the things we run into here. Too many times we find that employers, when there's a work comp claim, they cut their ties essentially and they don't have that communication, and I can imagine what that must feel like for an employee. What sort of things did you do to keep those lines of communication in place when somebody was at home and then if you were providing a return to work of any kind?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we would check in with them frequently Myself, their supervisor so they had a couple of proactive touches throughout the week, especially if they weren't at work. You know the statistics when people are out of work. The longer they're out of work, the less likely they're coming back right. So that first two weeks is just so incredibly critical to make that employee feel like they're still part of the team. We've got their arms around them, we're here to help them through the process. They don't have to navigate it by themselves. And so there were frequent check-ins and the same with their direct supervisor.
Speaker 3:We spent a lot of time educating our supervisors on how to deal with taking employees back to work and putting them into light duty and making sure that those transitions happen successfully so that there wasn't any regression in their symptoms or in their injury. And I think that was, you know, so hugely helpful. Their direct supervisors, you know they have to be a part of the team, they have to understand the process, and that's where so many things can go wrong, right, I mean, I don't think employees generally want to disappoint their supervisors. Right, they want. They want to do the right thing for the most part, and so making sure that the supervisors they are supporting them is huge.
Speaker 2:It's a tremendous. It makes such a difference in the whole process of the claim and I'm so glad that you mentioned like within those first two weeks. The statistics that we have show that if you can get somebody back into some kind of modified duty within 30 days, there's a 90% chance that they're going to come back to work. If that goes six months, that's cut in half. It's like 50%, which is crazy. Can you? From a practical standpoint and I don't mean to keep harping on this, but it seems like it's such a glaring thing that happens when we're working with employers what are some of the practical things that you do to stay in communication with your employees?
Speaker 3:employees yeah, I mean literally just pick the phone up and say, hey, how is it going, we're just checking in on you, how's your recovery going? Is everything going well from the claim standpoint? Because a lot of times the employees won't say, hey, they've missed my paycheck or hey, they're not approving diagnostic tests in a timely fashion. I've been waiting three weeks for an MRI. If you check in with them periodically and make sure that all of that stuff is going smoothly, hopefully the process for that employee is more efficient. If you don't, and they are waiting three weeks or four weeks for approval of an MRI test, that then takes another three to four weeks to get on the books. The dollars of the claim quickly add up and how the employee in their work capacity is likely in a more stagnant situation versus kind of getting back to work, figuring out what's going on and getting back to work.
Speaker 3:So you know it's not just a matter of hey, how are you doing, it's how is everything going? Is the adjuster returning your phone calls? Are you getting what you need from the insurance carrier? Are we doing what we need? To check in with you? You know that type of stuff, and just assuring them that you know their job is still there. They're excited for them to come back when they're ready. That means so much when you fail to check in with your employees. I mean they're at home. There's attorneys commercials all the time on the television, right. And when somebody sits home without any kind of affiliation to what they were doing right at work and they're feeling kind of secluded and alone, it's easy for them to make a phone call or accept a phone call from an attorney who really aren't going to act in their best interest, right aren't going to act in their best interest, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes so much sense and there's a lot of fear, I think there's fear on both sides right. When an injured worker is home, possibly for the first time ever, they don't know if that job's still going to be there. They don't know what the role of an adjuster is. There's so much there that they're just guessing on. And you're right. When that attorney commercial comes up, I mean there, it is right, that's the first person they're going to go to, because they make them feel comfortable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I will just add I would say one of the biggest things that you can do from an employer standpoint is to make sure that the employee feels supported. Really honestly, I know that from an employer standpoint, when somebody gets injured, the employer's thinking okay, dollar signs, right, my mod is going to go up or my insurance premiums are going to go up. If we manage the claim efficiently and effectively and take care of our employee and get them back to work quickly, it's not going to go up that bad. If we, you know, fail to take care of our employees, fail to check in with them, and then they get an attorney, yeah, it is going to affect your mod, right. So doing the right thing out of the box from you know, from a claim standpoint is just, it's so impactful.
Speaker 2:So that's the fear side of the employee. What about the fear side of the employer? What are some of the things that small companies are facing that stress them out the most?
Speaker 3:now, yeah, I mean I think their experience Maude right and the ability to procure insurance for a reasonable amount of money, and then I would also say being down an employee having to pay another employer, potentially over time. You know, smaller businesses don't have a ton of margin typically to cover those costs, and so it's scary for them. So those are definitely some of the things that we hear from our employers, like what am I going to do without this key employee or this valued employee? Now, all of these other employees are going to have to work extra. I'm paying overtime I have, you know, I have more expense than I'm used to. And oh, by the way, now my experience mod is going to go up and my insurance premiums are going to go up, and so they you know they the cost of it becomes an impact to them.
Speaker 2:For sure. And so how does Acrisure come in and help these clients manage their claims? What are some of those, those resources that you're able to provide to them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question and you know, and any broker for that matter, should be able to help you through the claims process.
Speaker 3:I do like to think we're very different in how we approach risk management in general and claims. You know we think of them as one. A good risk management program doesn't just encompass safety or claims management, it's both, and so we bring both resources to the table. The proactive piece, which is the safety side of things, we will plug in and help wherever we have to to mitigate loss. We have a very routine, systematic process for doing what we call claim reviews for our larger clients that do generate some claim activity, and we do those strategically throughout the year so that we're looking at the claim reserves prior to the mod being calculated and then prior to the client redoing their insurance or even potentially going out to market to make sure that the claims are reserved appropriately and those reserves that could be inflated are not going into their mod and they're not going into a loss run that a potential carrier is going to look at and really kind of underwrite their business based on a number. That's not correct.
Speaker 2:Right Aside from safety. Some of the things we were talking about before we recorded this were that there are some services that you feel like too frequently are looked at post-injury and not necessarily prepared for pre-injury Can you talk about some of those things that maybe a risk manager listening now could look more into.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think there's a lot that you can do pre-injury right From a risk management standpoint. Adopt a return to work program. Work with your broker or carrier they should have resources for it but adopt a philosophy to bring people back to work. Understand where you can bring people in light-duty positions, in medium-duty positions, in medium to heavy-duty positions. So find positions within your organization that you could accommodate somebody being in that role for a little bit of time as they transition through the work injury. If you don't have that opportunity, obviously re-employability is a fabulous resource for that. We refer to you guys all the time. I mean, we do have certain organizations where it is hard to find light duty within those organizations and so in those situations we absolutely refer to you guys. So definitely adopt a light duty program. That is one of the most impactful things that you can do from a workers' comp standpoint. Number two partner with an occupational health clinic, a concentra a clear choice. Whoever may be near you that understands workers' comp is willing to come and visit your facility and understand your philosophy around workers' comp and direct care there, if you can statutorily. So always look at your states and figure out what you can do from a medical standpoint. Here in Vermont we can direct the first visit so hugely important to have AHRQ health clinics to direct to, because emergency medicine just doesn't understand workers' comp. It's extremely expensive and primary care physicians really don't understand workers' comp either. So AHRQ Med is a huge benefit.
Speaker 3:Third, I would say educate supervisors. Any supervisor you're bringing on. If they're responsible for people, managing people and they're exposed to work injury, put them through a workers' comp 101. And that's something that we do. We educate a lot of supervisors. They're the boots on the ground that are, you know, in the trenches every day with these folks and they need to understand what their role is and how impactful it is to the employee.
Speaker 3:Right, because it can go very well. It can also go very wrong if it's not dealt with properly. So ensure that supervisors really understand your light duty program, how to handle injuries, when to report them, all of those things. And I would say, give very clear instructions to new employees as they come on about reporting what is you know, what is your process, how do you report a claim? Let them know what you know, what you expect from a safety perspective. I think that's a really big part of it too. New employees are obviously most at risk of getting injured. They typically get injured more frequently. So really make sure that you're taking time to kind of, you know, train them, mentor them and if and when they do get injured, they know what the process is.
Speaker 2:When you were in the construction industry, how many phone calls did you get after normal business hours from a manager saying somebody got hurt?
Speaker 3:What do I do now?
Speaker 3:Many and I still get them today, even outside of the construction business. So yeah, it's. You know it's out there and people are. So, like I said, people are so protected they're protected because of their experience mods so they're so worried about what is this going to do. You know, a mod can jump 30 points from one claim. That's 30% of premium. So if you're paying 100 grand in premium, 30 points is $30,000. It takes a lot of money to make $30,000. So you can understand why they're so protective of their mod. And so when they do have claims, oftentimes like, do I need to report this?
Speaker 3:And the answer is always yes you have to you know you have to report it and let the carrier you know, the people that are licensed to adjudicate claims in that jurisdiction kind of make the determination. But I will say, whenever I have a difficult claim and difficult, I mean, you know, not sure if the injury is completely legit, has some, you know, interesting circumstances around it, just doesn't feel right I always will work with my clients, the employers and the carrier. I'll get everybody on the conference line and just kind of develop a plan so we're all on the same page. We all know how to navigate it going forward, and oftentimes that's followed up by, you know, phone calls, monthly phone calls, just to kind of make sure things are still moving in the right direction.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned. You know, sometimes you just get that feeling that something's just not right. We also talked about the level of communication that's necessary from the employer to the employee so that that employee feels like they're still a part of that organization. So obviously there's a mindset for employers I think they many default to. I don't think this is legit or I think there's something wrong? Right yeah, which is unfortunate. I truly believe that the majority of claims are like what you said at the beginning People want to get back to work.
Speaker 2:They want to do the right thing. What do you do in your role to help change that mindset that employers have of this is bunk to? Maybe we'll take the benefit of the doubt and move forward in the right way.
Speaker 3:So oftentimes the employers that have those mindset, you can see, I can usually tell, like if I'm going out on a prospect meeting, right, and I've seen their loss runs or know their claim history maybe they sent me a claim review I can usually tell by the level of litigation in the claims If there's a, you know, kind of a tougher relationship with the, you know with the employer and the employee when they get injured Because oftentimes they do go to a attorney. You know, like, if they have that adversarial relationship right away, like I don't want to report this, this employee really didn't get hurt here, you know it makes the employees kind of feel not great and so they feel like, okay, well, now I need to fight for the fact that I feel like I did get hurt here and they get an attorney. We spend a lot of time trying to educate those employers. That you know, early reporting and letting the carrier do their job, and letting the carrier do their job, obviously with our involvement, is the best way to along. Or I should have been a little bit more proactive in how I handled my employees because they see, you know, they may see the benefit quickly of changing their mindset and getting these claims reported and treating these employees in a better light.
Speaker 3:It just it sets the stage when you have an employer that immediately we call it posturing right, they immediately posture against the employee and they don't think it's a valid claim.
Speaker 3:It just makes for a very adversarial relationship from the beginning of the claim and it will drag on because of it. An employee doesn't want to come back to work for somebody that's going to treat them like that when they need them the most right. And if it is, you know, if it is a claim where the validity is a problem, we work with the adjuster to try and make sure that we're getting to the bottom of that and doing what we need to do within the statute to ensure that it you know it's denied or whatever needs to happen from that standpoint happens. But most of the time you're right. They're pretty credible injuries and a lot of times the hardest thing as an employee is going to your supervisor and saying I hurt myself, right, a lot of times. What reporting a claim sounds like from an employee's standpoint is I think I may have tweaked my back the other day Because they have so much angst about saying that to somebody.
Speaker 3:If you really think that nobody wants to go to their boss and say I think I hurt myself and I need to file a claim. So oftentimes it comes out different and it's up to the supervisors to realize okay, is this? You know, I've got to ask some more questions to really understand. Is this employee need to seek medical treatment? Do I need to file a claim, and how do I best support them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and at the end of the day, that's what that insurance coverage is for.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:We're all afraid. I mean I automatically go towards car insurance. And how many times have? I had a fender bender, and the person that bumped me said hey, how about I just hook you up with 250 bucks? And it's like well, you know, let's, let's walk through this. There's a reason why this structure is in place.
Speaker 2:And don't be afraid to use it, especially if you have guidance with with folks like you Talk. Can you tell us a little bit about your team, like, what do you look for in the folks that do what you do at AcroSure?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I challenge my team to be curious every day, right? So if something isn't going well in a claim, or if we have a claim that's been going on for a year and a half and we're still kind of trying to figure out what direction it's going to take or get a clear diagnosis, it's time to start asking the tougher questions, right, being curious about other avenues that we can explore within the claim. Do we need an IME, should you know? Should we look at getting a second opinion? Do we want to put a nurse on the file? Because that's the biggest thing I want people to realize is you actually do have control in the claim process. It may not be 100% control, but you have channels to have some control over the claim. And so I typically, you know, talk to my team about being curious and figuring out how to get to the end game without sacrificing, you know, care to the employee. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3:And think about managing claims like it's your own money. I mean that's the biggest thing. And and think about managing claims like it's your own money. I mean that's the one piece of advice that my first boss at the construction company gave me is we have a. We have a. I think it was half a million dollar deductible that they were managing claims under. He goes. It's our money and so we have to be very efficient in how we manage claims and never ever was there was there a day that went by that things weren't done by the book. I mean, it was always done in the correct manner, but because we were looking at it so frequently and so heavily involved in the claims, they were more efficient. The employees did get back to work quicker. Less of them stayed out longer or you know it didn't take them six months to get to an MRI. You know we were very efficient in how we went about the process.
Speaker 2:Being curious, I think, is such a great piece of advice because I'm sure that you and your folks have, you know, specifically dealing in certain industries, you probably see and hear what feels like the same thing day after day after day. There's not a whole lot of not a whole lot of variety in what actually happens in a claim, but by asking the same questions again and again to different people, you very well may get a different answer that leads you in a different direction.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Don't be afraid to ask, even though you think you might know what the answer is going to be, because that always leads and listening to Right. That's sometimes the hardest part about being curious.
Speaker 3:And I will also say I think the second biggest thing too, is building relationships Right. Whether you're an employer or an injured employee or or Jen or my team. It's so important to build relationships with your clients with the adjusters, right, so they understand kind of what your philosophy in managing claims looks like. With the defense counsels, with your employees, right. If I'm the employer, the biggest relationship you have is with that employee, and so having good, strong relationships throughout the entire process with all parties, it makes the process so much easier.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm. Yeah, trust asking questions and good listening. It sounds easy, but it's not natural.
Speaker 3:No, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:So it seems like the past maybe 10 years or so things are looked at as pre-COVID, post-covid, you know a lot of things. So much changed, not just within our industry but in looked at as pre-COVID, post-covid, you know a lot of things. So much changed, not just within our industry but in the world as a whole, right. So in the time that you've been with Acrocher and doing what you're doing, you've probably you know have a ton of experience in what you saw. What do you see coming in the next few years? What kind of changes are happening in the industry and what should people keep their eyes out for?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I'm hoping more people come back to the workforce. I understand remote work. I think there has been a benefit to remote work. I think we've seen reduced claims because of that in the workers' comp role. I mean, carriers are more profitable than they've ever been and certainly that's probably a bit of a component to it. Medicine is certainly something that's out there for folks that are maybe in a you know geographic area that isn't privy to having an occupational health clinic. That's something that we're using more frequently than we ever have and I think it's a huge value.
Speaker 3:Nurse triage services too I think we're, you know, really starting to utilize triage, with some of our clients that have kind of like four wall exposures that you know maybe don't need to go to a doctor but can be triaged on site and save a claim. Those are things that I think will continue to grow in the future and I think just keeping you know, keeping taps on legislative stuff like what is going on within your jurisdiction that you have to be mindful of, that you may want to provide testimony over. You know, like in Vermont, for example, there's some bills being proposed around average weekly wage calculations and including health insurance and some other things. So just always keep an eye as to what's happening in your jurisdiction. And if you have multiple jurisdictions you may have to keep an eye on what's going on in those specific jurisdictions. But one little piece of legislative bill that's passed can really wreak havoc on the comp system if it's not caught. So always keep an eye as to what's going on.
Speaker 2:From that standpoint, so you're in Vermont but obviously you work with employers all over the country. Is it okay if we give your email out if anybody has any questions that they can reach out to directly? Jen, how can they do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my email is j-e-b-a-R-R-E-T-T at acrochurecom.
Speaker 2:Terrific, and I'll put that in the show notes too, so hopefully you'll get a flood of questions. Jen, thank you for spending time with us. It's really interesting, great information, and I hope you come back again. We appreciate it very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me Todd.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to REA Audio. I hope we opened up your brain a bit and helped you be better at what you do. Please follow us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, stitcher, amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have input or suggestions, email Todd at reemployabilitycom. Be grateful and have a fantastic rest of your week.
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