Job Responsibilities
Investigate, process and administer Workers' Compensation for a
company that is a political subdivision for wastewater
management. Prepare statistics and training materials to reduce
work related injuries and severity. We are self-insured so I
negotate PPO agreements with healthcare providers, monitor, audit
and pay medical bills, indemnity payments and excess insurance
premiums. Coordinate benefits with short term disability and
assist with STD processing to ensure if condition is actually
work related, I get the employee appropriate benefits under
workers compensation. Our company has five facilities, I am
Safety Lead for the administration facility. Coordinate with
other facilities' safety teams and provide central contact
services for safety and health issues for all facilities.
Maintain all employee health records, maintain respiratory
compliance, Bloodborne Pathogens and associated innoculations,
coordinate fitness for duty examinations, and random testing for
CDL compliance. Recently appointed as HIPAA Privacy Officer for
our company. Review and monitor court decisions that may have an
impact on our company's benefit, health or workers compensation
programs and alert Corporate Counsel of the decisions, along with
my opinions and recommendations for Legal Department to take
action. Review and monitor FMLA and ADA compliance, review and
make recommendations for policy changes based on court decisions
and to maintain cutting edge/best practices. I perform these
tasks periodically every week and spend between 9 and 12 hours
each day at the office and 2 to 6 hours every evening and
weekends.
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Job Requirements
Our educational programs are not where I would like them to be,
but work 3 to 4 hours per week with our organization and employee
development team to implement corrections to existing programs
and to create new programs. We have tuition, book and fee
reimbursements for employees seeking to emplrove their current
knowledge and skills and to develope new skills to further their
careers. Internal classes are tought by me or by one of our
training specialists within our Employee Resources Health and
Safety Department. Although most classes are "scheduled in
advance" we provide specialized courses upon request (usually
within 2 days of the request).
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Uppers
Reducing injuries and making certain employees receive the best medical care
available in Cleveland. Helping employees find health care specialists near
their home for indemnity cases and near their particular work location for before
work or after work if they are among the "walking wounded". Getting that "thank
you" call from the injured employee or their union President, for what I did to
make their disability as easy as possible for them.
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Downers
Having to reject a claim because the employee won't follow
instructions or the physician's office will not provide State
required documents in a timely manner. I must add that 99.9% of
our injuries are ligitimate. 0.08 are questionable - usually due
to lack of information. 0.01% are just "coincidental" to work.
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Lifestyle
Work hours are "on call 24/7". Travel is limited to maintain my CWCP
certification and networking to ensure we are utilizing, if not establishing,
"best practices".My company does not have "social events". If we did, my
presence would be required to make certain everyone can put a face to the job,
and to have "informal" face to face conversations about claim related issues in a
"non-work" setting. Other places I've worked allowed me to take claimants to
breakfast to discuss claim issues.Dress codes vary by type of business. I prefer
to dress for the people I will be in contact with. Full suit for State Agency
situations, business casual (with a tie) for day to day, and casual for the
wastewater workers. I was raised that all people are the same and you treat
everyone the way you would want to be treated. This whole idea of "diversity" is
how I was raised and I have difficulty with any type of bigotry. If an
individual is biased in any way, then you cannot be an effective Health and
Safety Professional.Anyone wishing a creer in Health and Safety with a specialty
in Workers' Compensation must be an avid reader and be willing to spend a lot of
personal time to "stay on top" of the latest legal, medical, and technological
breakthroughs.
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Compensation
At my company, my pay is based on other government pays for the
title of the job. Government pay is approximately 75% less than
the national average for private industry for the functions I
perform. Private industry will usually off bonuses for injury
reduction, stock options, fully paid benefits, unlimited vacation
and sick time, and various "cafateria" style retirement
packages. As stated earlier, in government you can't do that as
taxpayers would be upset.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Secure their Safety Professional certification/degree, secure
your benefits specialist certification, ARM or CRM, and CWCP.
The current trend is to hire a TPA to do the job and the employee
just monitor. I see the pendulum swinging back in the direction
of internalization of the processes I perform in order to regain
control. Be patient, understanding, and optimistic - it will get
better.
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