Impact on Your Premium
Bringing an employee back to work as soon as medically possible can substantially reduce the claim's impact on your workers' compensation premium.
Let's say one of your employees sustains a back injury. Medical restrictions will be in place for three months. How will this injury affect the costs of the claim and ultimately your premium? It depends on which scenario you follow in the example below. Your SFM claims representative can calculate the dollar amounts for your specific case.
Key variables:
- When the employee returns to work
- The amount paid in workers' compensation wage-replacement benefits, if any
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Example return to work scenarios and their premium impact
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Scenario 1
Early return to lighter-duty work
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Scenario 2
Return delayed while employer develops lighter-duty position
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Scenario 3
Employer waits until the employee is fully recovered
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Employee returns to work(calendar days)
Medical restrictions after returning to work
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At 3 days
Yes
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At 5 days
Yes
|
At 3 months
No
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| Work load after returning to work |
Lighter-duty |
Lighter-duty |
Full duty |
| Wages paid by employer after return to work |
Full |
Full |
Full |
| Wage-loss benefits paid by work comp |
None |
Total for 2 days |
Total for 3 months |
| Claim |
*Medical-only |
Lost-time |
Lost-time |
| Total claim costs including medical and wage-loss benefits |
$1,500 |
$2,000 |
$12,000 |
| Increases experience modification (e-mod) by an additional: (average e-mod is 1.00) |
*0.03 |
0.12 |
0.34 |
| Increases annual premium of $10,175 by an additional: |
$305 |
$1,221 |
$3460 |
*Claim does not involve wage loss, so claim costs are discounted 70 percent in calculating your e-mod.
SFM's Employer Kit contains more information on how return to work impact your premium. Learn more 
