This fall brings two opportunities to support the SFM Foundation with events in Minnesota and Iowa.
Annual fall event returns
The Foundation’s annual Fall Fundraising Event is scheduled for 6-9 p.m. on Thursday, November 9, at The Westin Edina Galleria in Edina, Minnesota, near SFM’s Bloomington headquarters. The in-person event will feature wine, craft beer and cider tasting, a silent auction, raffles and complimentary appetizers. Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. The online silent auction will run from November 6-9. If you are unable to attend the live event you can still bid on items through the online bidding platform. If you’re interested in making a bigger impact, sponsorships are available at multiple giving levels and donations are also being accepted for the silent auction.
New Iowa event planned
A new event is making its debut this year in Iowa. The Bowling for Scholarships fundraiser is set for 5-9 p.m. on Thursday, November 2, at Spare Time Entertainment in West Des Moines, Iowa. Join the Foundation for an evening of bowling and live music by The Juan & Only. There are multiple ways to participate:
Register as a Team Sponsor for $500 and your team of four will receive two hours of bowling, shoes, pizza and refreshments. Team themes and costumes are encouraged. Prizes will be awarded for best team theme and highest team score.
If you’re interested in supporting the event without bowling, register to be a Lane Sponsor for $300 and you’ll have your logo displayed electronically at one of the 14 lanes.
Register as a Social Attendee for $50 if you prefer to hang out, watch the bowlers, listen to the live music, and enjoy two complimentary refreshments.
Proceeds from both fall events will support multi-year scholarships for students affected by workplace injuries.
Since its inception in 2008, the SFM Foundation has granted 232 scholarships totaling $3.7 million to help students pursue higher education thanks to the generous support from sponsors and donors.
The SFM Foundation provides scholarships for students whose parents were seriously injured or killed while working for Minnesota or Iowa employers. SFM Foundation is an affiliate of Kids’ Chance of America in Iowa and Minnesota and is also known as Kids’ Chance of Iowa.To learn more about the cause, visit sfmfoundation.com .
It’s now even more important for employers to notify their claims adjuster immediately if an employee requests a non-emergency surgery.
Minnesota workers’ compensation law changed recently to allow an employee to notify their employer directly of a request for non-emergency surgery. Once notice has been given, the employer or insurer has seven days to give a response to the request. In a previous version of the law, such requests had to be directed to the insurer by the health care provider.
Legal options available to employers and insurers for response include approving or denying the surgery, requesting additional information or a second opinion, or requesting an independent medical examination (IME).
Kirsten Peterson has been a Medical Support Representative at SFM for two years, and in the workers’ compensation industry for 15 years. Kirsten is part of SFM’s in-house bill review team. We asked Peterson to share a little bit about her background and her role.
How did you get into workers’ compensation? I just kind of fell into it by getting a temp job at a small workers’ compensation third-party administrator. I later got a job with a large pharmacy benefits manager. That’s where I learned a lot about medication and authorization and different rules for different states regarding medication. I still use that knowledge to this day, which is really cool. It’s kind of funny how it comes full circle.
How did you end up at SFM? When I moved back to Minnesota, I made a list of the insurance carriers that were local and who had the nicest adjusters and SFM was at the top.
How would you describe your role in a nutshell? A lot of what we do is processing medical bills, but a lot of people don’t know that we also educate medical providers to make sure they are billing us correctly and that we’re also paying them correctly. We also work closely with different state agencies to make sure that we’re following state-specific guidelines and rules. When we’re reviewing medical bills, we’re looking to make sure the bill relates to our injury. Sometimes we’re even identifying additional body parts or red flags in the medical records and passing that information on to the adjuster. They appreciate having us as their second set of eyes.
How is SFM different from other organizations you’ve worked for? There’s a big sense of family, which I really love. Everyone is super kind, super friendly, super nice, very, very helpful. I love how close knit everyone is and you make relationships with people as you get to know them. We have a big focus on collaboration and learning from one another and teaching one another. I love having the opportunity to teach people on my team. Everyone’s feedback is heard and is welcomed. I work for an amazing team. Everyone’s super supportive. My boss is amazing. I love it a lot.
What do you like about your job? I love that it’s completely different every single day. We have our basic set of tasks, but how you approach a bill is different from bill to bill and even claim to claim. I love provider phone calls because they keep us on our toes. Sometimes it’s a simple phone call wanting to know if the bill was received, and sometimes it’s a lot more complex.
What’s most challenging about your job? There’s a lot of different state rules and regulations, so as we branch out into new states – which is really awesome and exciting – there’re new things that we have to learn, so we have to do the research. We have to reach out to other departments of labor and industry and make sure that we’re doing things appropriately, so that’s where it can get a little bit challenging.
What words of wisdom do you have for employers? Make sure injured workers know to give our billing information right away when they go to medical appointments. If they don’t have a claim number yet, that’s OK. At least give our mailing address. That’ll ensure a smooth billing process, and they won’t get any unexpected bills sent to them.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I’m from International Falls, Minnesota, and I picked my college for their hockey team. I don’t necessarily recommend that as a method to choose your education, but it was also a good school (University of North Dakota). I have a 12-year-old nephew who does it all. I like to go to his hockey games, football games, baseball games, and now he’s a cowboy, so we keep pretty busy attending all of his sporting events, or if I can’t make it, my mom takes a video for me so I can cheer from afar.
SFM’s Companion magazine will be delivered via email only starting with the January 2024 edition.
“As more and more communication moves to electronic channels in many of the workplaces we serve, we felt the time was right to make this change,” said Vice President and Chief Communications Officer Andy Gebhard. “Discontinuing our print edition will allow us to place more focus on our online resources, and operate in a more environmentally friendly way.”
SFM will continue to send out the emailed edition of the Companion as it has for the past several years. Going forward, recipients of the electronic version will see no immediate changes.
In addition to the Companion email newsletter, SFM policyholders have on-demand access to a wealth of articles, downloadable resources, and videos covering a variety of workers’ compensation-related topics at sfmic.com.
Fifteen years after the SFM Foundation began their mission to help make college affordable for students affected by work injuries, they’ve granted 232 scholarships totaling $3.7 million.
This includes $502,000 awarded to 16 new recipients announced in May. Six of these students are from Iowa and 10 are from Minnesota.
Over 125 scholarship recipients have graduated since the SFM Foundation’s inception in 2008, and there are currently 72 active scholarships. Scholarships are awarded regardless of the workers’ compensation insurer involved in the claim.
Thanks to the generous support of event sponsors and donors, the Foundation has been able to reach these families in need for a decade and a half.
The Foundation’s golf fundraisers are the primary source of fundraising for their scholarship fund, and 2023 was no exception. The Minnesota golf event has become one of the largest charity golf tournaments in the state. This year’s event on June 12 raised an astounding $125,000 for the scholarship program. The Iowa golf outing is a newer event and continues to grow each year. This year’s event on May 22 raised $45,000 for scholarships.
The Foundation is always on the lookout for eligible scholarship candidates. If you know of a family who would qualify for an SFM Foundation scholarship, please direct them to sfmfoundation.com/apply .
About the SFM Foundation
The SFM Foundation provides scholarships for students whose parents were seriously injured or killed while working for Minnesota or Iowa employers. SFM Foundation is an affiliate of Kids’ Chance of America in Iowa and Minnesota and is also known as Kids’ Chance of Iowa.To learn more about the cause, visit sfmfoundation.com .
Registration is now open for the SFM Foundation 2023 Minnesota and Iowa “Golfing for Scholarships” fundraisers. The Foundation’s golf events are the biggest fundraisers of the year and pay for most of their multi-year scholarships.
Events will be held on the following dates:
Minnesota golf event – Monday, June 12, 2023 at Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury, Minnesota
Iowa golf event – Monday, May 22, 2023 at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston, Iowa
Participate in the event by sponsoring, golfing or both. Sponsorship opportunities are available ranging from $750 to $10,000.
Space at both events is limited, so register early to secure a spot.
Funds raised at these events go toward scholarships for students whose parents were seriously injured or killed while working for Minnesota or Iowa employers.
The SFM Foundation was created in 2008 by SFM Companies, a regional workers’ compensation insurance group headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. SFM Foundation is dedicated to easing the burdens on families affected by workplace accidents. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded 216 scholarships totaling $3.2 million. For more information, visit sfmfoundation.com .
When you use a third-party service to pay your workers’ compensation premium, your payment can be delayed. If this causes a late payment, it can start the policy cancellation process.
To avoid delays, we recommend paying bills to SFM directly through the SFM website. When you pay on our website with your bank account, any installment fees are waived, and you can set up AutoPay so future bills are paid automatically on the due date.
SFM is not affiliated with any third-party bill paying services.
Wisconsin-based Loss Prevention Specialist Carl Gruber received SFM’s most prestigious service excellence award for 2022.
The Richard J. Marshik Service Excellence Award goes to one SFM employee annually who exemplifies the level of service that has become SFM’s hallmark.
Gruber’s passion and dedication to providing incredible service to policyholders, workers and his team helped earn him the award. He regularly goes above and beyond to ensure that all customers are 100% satisfied, focuses on building and fostering solid relationships, takes a hands-on approach, regularly offers coworkers assistance, communicates well with customers of all types, and has a positive personality that is “infectious.”
Gruber’s job is to help SFM policyholders reduce or eliminate workplace injuries. He offers each customer a truly unique experience that focuses on the employer’s individual risks. Policyholders rave about how easy he is to work with and how he’s able to motivate employees to work safely. His warm, enduring and sincere nature tears down any barriers or apprehensions. People take precedence over policy, resulting in a safer work environment for policyholders.
“Not a working day goes by where Carl doesn’t make me smile or feel appreciated,” said one of his award nominators. “The Dick Marshik Award is the ultimate recognition an SFM employee can receive. I don’t know another SFM employee that deserves such recognition more than my coworker and good friend, Carl Gruber.”
Elyse Porter is a member of SFM’s newest class of claims trainees, which started in June of 2022. She now handles claims as part of our Small Business Accounts team.
SFM’s claims training program helps recent graduates and those changing careers get into the field of workers’ compensation claim handling. It’s one way we’re ensuring that we continue to maintain our high standard of claim handling for years to come.
Tell us a little bit about your background. I spent the last 10 years of my career being a preschool teacher. I was living in an early education environment throughout the pandemic and then decided I needed to make a change. I have a family connection to an SFM employee who let me know about the training program. It was the right time to make the change and she had nothing but good things to say about SFM.
Is there anything you’ve been able to carry through from your preschool teaching experience that relates to your current role? Most of teaching 4- and 5-year-olds is related to social emotional learning and the idea that we as humans need to be taught how to self-regulate and deal with the natural emotional swings that humans have throughout the day. When helping people, especially people who are going through really challenging moments in their lives, it’s extraordinarily helpful to have the background to think, “This is a person experiencing this emotion. This explains their behavior.” And, “This then is how I need to meet them in this moment,” to help them traverse what is a really complicated system when you’re not usually in it.
How would you describe your role in a nutshell? I tend to say that I am someone who helps people navigate the workers’ comp system. My job is to help ensure that workers can understand and get access to the things they need to recover, and also to help employers through the process. Especially in small business, this is potentially their first claim ever, so they have no experience with this system as a whole. It is a lot of teaching in that I am walking people through an entirely new system that they’re unfamiliar with, but has really substantial impacts on, especially the worker — their health, their well-being, their family’s well-being. It has really substantial impacts on their daily life.
Is there a time that stands out to you when your job was particularly rewarding? I got an email last week from an employee who recently had surgery and is now experiencing the wage-loss benefits of workers’ comp for the first time in her career. She has been in her career for decades and she sent me this really kind email just saying that she really appreciates how competent I am and that it’s made her experience better. There’s not much better than being able to meet someone in a challenging moment and making their life easier instead of adding burdens onto their plate.
What do you like about your job? I like the variation from day to day. There’s a joke within the claims community that there is no concrete answer because every claim is different. The reality is that I can have employees with very similar injuries in similar time frames and there’s very little overlap as far as how their claims progress or what is needed with each claim, and I like that variation. I like that every day is a little bit different, but I can still make substantial and meaningful impacts in people’s daily lives.
What’s most challenging about your job? I think the challenging bits are trying to meet people’s needs from a distance. In my prior job, I was in person. If a family, a child had an issue, I was able to build rapport in person and have meaningful conversations face to face. With this job that’s not what it is. I’m trying to build rapport and meet needs through the phone or an email and that’s a different process and just requires a little bit of a different response to it.
What words of wisdom do you have for employers? I think earlier is always easier, so the sooner things are reported, the easier it is to allow things to progress in an easier fashion for all parties. Also, it’s OK to not know the system. I’m here to help you navigate the system. It’s complicated and really varies from case to case. Even if it is your first claim or it’s your 10th, but this one’s different, it’s OK to not know. It’s OK to rely on SFM employees to help guide you through, because that that’s what we’re here to do.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. I am currently trying to complete a goal of hiking in every state park in the state of Minnesota. It was a hobby I started during the pandemic to help self-regulate and really work on my own well-being and mental health through a hard time. It’s been a couple years and I’m more than halfway through. I think I’ve hiked in 47 of the 66 parks now. I just did a long weekend the beginning of November and did nine parks along the North Shore and hiked 23 miles over four days.
The SFM Foundation’s in-person fall fundraising event returned in November 2022 after a two-year hiatus, and the results surpassed expectations. The event took in nearly $35,000, an astounding 75% above the $20,000 goal. Taking expenses into account, this results in approximately $15,000 for the Foundation’s scholarship program.
The event was hosted at the Westin Galleria Edina and included wine, beer and cider tasting, raffles, holiday shopping and a week-long virtual silent auction.
“It was wonderful to see so many returning supporters and all the new faces at this year’s event,” said SFM Foundation President Linda Williams. “The sponsors, liquor partners, donors, vendors, volunteers and attendees all played an important role in us exceeding our fundraising goal. You truly helped make a difference in the lives of the students and families impacted by work tragedies.”
Williams and the rest of the SFM Foundation team are already planning next year’s golf events. Mark your calendars for Monday, June 12, 2023, at Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury, Minnesota, and Monday, May 22, 2023, at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston, Iowa.
The SFM Foundation provides scholarships for students whose parents were seriously injured or killed while working for Minnesota or Iowa employers. SFM Foundation is an affiliate of Kids’ Chance of America in Iowa and Minnesota, and is also known as Kids’ Chance of Iowa. To learn more about the cause, visit sfmfoundation.com .
