Midwest-based Agent ‘Walks the Walk’ to Control Work Comp Costs

Carl Zeutzius has walked his share of floors over the past four years. But they were miles well traveled.

As a Certified Work Comp Advisor (CWCA) and director of Sales and Marketing for UNICO Group, an insurance, risk management and financial services group based in Lincoln, Neb., Zeutzius walks the site of every new company he works with, accompanied by the company’s safety supervisor and HR director. Zeutzius can then see firsthand how he can then construct a workers’ compensation plan tailored to what they need.

“It also gives me a chance to observe such things as the cleanliness of the facility,” Zeutzius explains. “I can also see if employees are wearing safety glasses, if there are eye wash stations, and what the overall body language is of the employees.”

Occasionally, there will be another person taking the tour with them – a doctor.

“We also stress having new companies that work with us immediately set up a clinic relationship with a doctor who has experience in occupational injuries,” says Zeutzius. “We then invite that doctor to walk the floor with us, to become familiar with the facility so they can better understand what the employer does.”

An Emphais on Costs

The UNICO Group’s emphasis on helping employers deal with workers’ compensation costs began to materialize in 2005, when it sent five people to training sessions offered by the Asheville, N.C.-based Institute of WorkComp Professionals (IWCP). There, they learned how employers could lower their workers’ compensation costs, particularly when dealing with open reserves of greater than $10,000.

“We made this a priority and right away realized that a lot of employers didn’t understand how reserves work,” says Zeutzius. “But they did after we explained to them how having open reserves can drive up their costs.”

Zeutzius cites the example of a trucking and excavating company that had a large workers’ comp claim with a $304,138 reserve. The current agent had no communication with the adjuster on this claim and nothing was being done to monitor it. UNICO’s claims advocate got involved and discovered that the treating doctor had deemed the injured worker not to be a candidate for a recommended surgical procedure. When the adjuster was approached with this information, he agreed to lower the reserves to $121,070.

Zeutzius and UNICO Group also assisted with a lump sum settlement pending for the same client at the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. The settlement was approved and the total pay out of the claim was $89,520. But Zeutzius didn’t stop there.

“We also had another claim on this account with the previous carrier that had a reserve set at $58,121,” he said. “We stayed in contact with the adjuster and ultimately had the reserve lowered to just under $10,000. The total claim payout was $8,487.”

For UNICO Group and Zeutzius, communication is key – whether it’s having their claims advocate communicate with the insurance company, employer and adjuster, or making certain the company’s safety director receives the necessary education that will filter down to the employees.

“Sometimes it can be as simple as having the employer send an injured employee a get well card,” adds Zeutzius. “That way they know you are thinking of them as an important part of the company. If an employee is out of work 12 weeks of more, there’s probably less than a 50 percent chance they’ll return.”

The Experience Mod Factor

Zeutzius says many businesses have no idea how open workers’ comp claims can affect their experience modification factor. “What we see very often is that other agents and brokers state that they monitor open claims and do claim review meetings,” Zeutzius explained. “Yet, they never show their client exactly what work they did for them in that critical 60 day-window before the claim information needs to be reported to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI).

“By monitoring these claims closely for our clients, we have been successful over the past three years in lowering open claim reserves by more than $6.5 million dollars, which on average has resulted in a 19 point drop in experience modification factors,” he said.

Achievements like this caught the attention of Alicia Elson. As the HR Director for Omaha, Neb.-based Quality Living Inc., a large rehabilitation center for young adults suffering from traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological diseases, Elson said although she had a good relationship with her existing agents, she had heard good things about Zeutzius, Tom Champoux and the UNICO Group.

“Zeutzius and Tom came out and talked about what they could do for us,” recalls Elson. “They made a great presentation and gave us a lot of information we weren’t aware of, which ultimately saved us a lot of money.”

“We used our IWCP education to show Alicia what we could offer her company,” said Zeutzius. “In doing so, we managed to save them around $65,000 by making sure they received the scheduled credits that Nebraska allows (up to 40 percent). We were very active in communicating with the insurance company about how well run this organization is.”

Zeutzius said the team also discussed “how important it was to stay on top of the open claims before they are reported to NCCI, because this impacts their experience mod. We also reviewed with them how to prepare for an audit.”

Employers, Zeutzius observed, “don’t understand that they are the ones paying for the employee’s injuries, not the insurance company. We really stress this.”