WARREN — When employees are injured on the job, employers can opt to continue paying wages to the injured worker, or allow the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to make payments to the worker, playing a balancing game between the cost of paying the wages vs. increased insurance premiums if the BWC takes on the payment.
Mahoning and Trumbull counties both offer their employees wage continuation after an injury in an effort to keep premiums to the BWC low, but the two counties vary in how long they will pay.
Mahoning County offers its employees 90 days of wage continuation. Trumbull County offers twice the amount at 180 days, but it previously offered an entire year of wage continuation.
Collective bargaining agreements can affect how employers handle the benefit.
Nancy Marscio, Trumbull County’s administrator of the workers’ compensation program, said she wanted to see the amount of time wage continuation available to employees lowered to 90, 60 or 30 days, but because it was part of union contracts, it was negotiated down to 180 days, but no lower, she said.
She and the Trumbull County Human Resources Department director said they do not know if the move saved the county money or what the savings might be after reducing the amount of time by half.
“While they are off, they continue to get health insurance, accumulate sick and vacation time and any other ‘perks’ within their salary. Also, while they are off for the six months, Trumbull County cannot fill their job. Other employees in the department will have to do their work. This is all protected by their union and the union supersedes anything put in place by the bureau, in most instances,” Marscio said.
On wage continuation, the employee receives his or her full salary and it does not count against sick time, she said.
Cathy Jones, who handles risk management for Mahoning County, said it is cheaper to pay employees themselves than allowing the BWC to make the payments.
“When the bureau pays the injured worker, it goes against our premium, so it is cheaper for us to pay it instead,” Jones said.
Because the bureau calculates premiums retrospectively, it is difficult to calculate the savings in real time, because premiums paid today are based on claims from the prior years, Jones and Marscio said.
A 90-day period works best for Mahoning County, Jones said, because most moderate soft-tissue injuries are diagnosed and treated in that time period.
“Ninety days is a normal timeframe to get diagnosed, get therapy and get back to full duty, so it is a win-win,” Jones said.
It can be “very costly” to pay a full salary even when someone isn’t working, Marscio said.
“However, if there was an accident and as long as the claim is fully investigated and it does meet the criteria, we have to get the employee back to good health so that they are fit for duty and can return to work,” Marscio said.
Sometimes, employees are placed in a transitional work program, if a doctor agrees, that allows lighter duty until they can fully return to work, Jones and Marscio said.
“The sooner they can do any of these things, the better it is for the worker and Trumbull County. It is always better to get the (injured worker) back to work as soon as possible as long as they are fully healed, and that will be determined by a doctor,” Marscio said.
Wage continuation was originally meant to help injured workers continue to receive pay while waiting for the lengthy time it took for the bureau to begin sending a check because it used to take several weeks, leaving the employees without paychecks, Marscio said.
“That hasn’t been the case for a number of years, and there really is no reason to have wage continuation for a lengthy amount of time because the (injured worker) can apply on the eighth day of the claim and their checks will start very quickly,” she said.
If the bureau approves the claim, the bureau can begin providing payments.
In Trumbull County, employees have to update their form every 45 days to continue receiving the benefit, and if the worker has a valid medical claim, they have to file for temporary total disability with the bureau, Marscio said.
The Trumbull County Engineer’s Office doesn’t offer wage continuation, Herb Laukhart, director of human resources for the office, said.
“The employee has a couple of different options if they will be off work while waiting for workers’ comp to start sending a payment. They can take sick or vacation time until the workers’ comp kicks in, but they have to use the time they have,” Laukhart said. “Salary continuation, flat out paying them while they earn vacation and sick time too, is a lot more expensive to the taxpayers than what we do.”
It takes at least a week, even longer sometimes, to get to the doctor, fill out forms, get it certified and sent to the bureau, and if the employer contests the issue, it can be tied up in hearings and extended a long time before the bureau starts paying the employee, Laukhart said.
What a department might save one day by not allowing wage continuation, may come back in the form of higher BWC premiums down the road. The engineer’s office and other county departments fall under the county umbrella for BWC premiums and claims management through a managed-care organization, so the different policies of the different departments can affect premiums for the whole county.
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