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Knowing how the machine is working from every perspective in workers comp policy means that you can better make a budget and plans for the future. Workers comp has only existed since 1901, and you should be aware of the major reforms that have come since then. It’s clear around the country that we still have a long way to go before providing workers with the care they need in the most efficient manner.

The numbers rolling in from 2015 come with good news and bad news. One recent study in California showed that while workers comp claims were down, suggesting that both employers and employees were practicing smarter habits, the severity of the claims seems to be headed up. We’ll look at some of the numbers in context.

This report analyzed about 3,500 claims and found that costs for workers comp have declined slightly due to the number of people filing has declined. However, due to the serious nature of the injuries, it has not declined nearly as much as you might suspect. Between 2005 and 2014, paid claims increased by just under 5.5% due to the sever nature of the injuries. One theory of why this is happening could be because the work force in California is aging, with more people at risk for bodily harm in all types of working scenarios. The survey also shows that claims that go to court which are only about 20%, account for more than half of the total amount paid out for every claim. The whole point of workers comp is to eliminate lengthy lawsuits for the benefit of both the employer and employee.

Meanwhile in places like Florida, Michigan, and Illinois, there is a lot of attention being paid to how claims are processed and what’s contributing to the problems in the system. Flint’s water crisis has sparked debate, and talk of reform is up. Some see this as a political matter while others see it as a case of simple greed. This may or may not cause country-wide changes during this election year, but it suggests that there will be efforts to fix the holes in the future. Workers comp only gets so much attention, but that doesn’t mean that elected policy makers aren’t against reintroducing the topic when it seems fit to garner public attention.

Regardless of the trends, safety does need to be at the forefront of your mind for the upcoming years. If you do have an aging workforce, then you may want to invest in more gear and training to promote safety. Keep your communication level up with employees about major stories, and always be aware of new measures you can take to care for your employees.

There is no exact science for adjusting an injured employee’s workload, but there are factors to keep in mind before you start doling out the assignments. Your employee can and should return to the job even if they can’t perform their former job entirely, but not necessarily to their exact same role. Here are just a few tips before you begin the transition process.

Be Prepared for Some Bumps

This isn’t necessarily going to be easy, and it can get frustrating. You can’t shut down your whole operation just because one person needs special treatment. However, you owe it to the injured employee to work with them, not to mention you risk your chance of being sued for wrongful termination should you decide that the person’s work schedule or duties aren’t working out.

Rethink Your Schedule

This is where you need to practice some major flexibility. Can the employee work part-time or can the full scope of their duties be partially reduced? Can they perform work-related activities at their home to prepare for coming back to work? Talk to them, give some options and make it work.

Rethink Your Structure

If you don’t have hard and fast rules set for workers comp injuries, even if it’s never happened before, then you need to sketch out a plan. While every worker and injury is different, corporate guidelines (which hold true for everyone across the board) gives workers a sense of comfort in the process. Your rules should have timelines and extremely clear expectations. Also, they should not attempt to treat the worker like an invalid. Most employees aren’t trying to get out of doing their job. Increasingly giving them more work as they’re ready will encourage them to return to their full capacity sooner rather than later.

Involve Other People

You should be consulting with the employee’s doctor to get accurate information about their progress. Also, the employee themselves should be able to let you know what they’re capable of based on their personal recovery path. Once the employee feels needed and trusted again, this may motivate them and stimulate their ability to heal even faster.

Planning Ahead

A single claim can get expensive between time and money lost, and you may need to spend additional money for extra equipment or accommodations to an employee return. However, you likely can’t afford to fight an expensive lawsuit if you were at fault for an injury. Liable parties may be required to pay for care that stretches on for years. This is just the chance an employer takes, so you need to plan ahead with a conscientious budget for salaries, care and adjustments when they come back.

Owning a business or even managing one comes with a huge set of responsibilities, but there are probably only a few that really get attention on a daily basis. Sometimes meetings are called to bring attention to this matter or the next, but it likely gets buried along with the information you don’t regularly use. How can you expect to know your workers comp coverage policies if it’s not something on the pressing list of concerns for the day? Here are a few tips to understanding more so you can have fewer exposures to fraud.

Workers comp is fortunately not extremely common, and the number of cases filed is down. Most people don’t know anyone who has ever filed, and you may have very limited exposure to it aside from forms full of words you’re likely never going to read. However, the most important factor here is that workers comp involves money which is a powerful incentive for people. Recently in California, there were doctors and providers who were uncovered in a large-scale fraud operation that involved receiving kickbacks for the treatments and prescriptions given to mainly Latino workers. This was all done via a highly advanced organization with employees all the way down the chain of command placing flyers in trucks to call a number if they’d been injured. There is also interpretation fraud discovered at the end of December with people billing for services that weren’t necessary for injured parties. And of course there’s fraud of employees faking an illness.

Obviously you can’t stop these types of things from happening, but if you think you’re not affected by all of this, then you’re mistaken. Fraud pushes everyone’s rates up and knowledge really can be the key to stopping it from happening at all. Understanding your policies can prevent fraud before it happens. When you keep up with new laws, reforms and the current political landscape, you increase the chance that you’re doing what you can do in terms of taking responsibilities for your employee’s welfare. It can also make you more likely to detect patterns that may signify something fishy going on.

In the case of the fraud operation, it was very well planned and everyone knew what was expected of them. However, the way they were caught is because they wanted to expand. Criminals are not above making a mistake, and your mindfulness can be just the key to noticing an anomaly in an employee. Also, you have rights guaranteed by your particular coverage which can also be your saving grace. You do not have to be a victim of fraud when you know your coverage and who your employees are.

Employees who don’t have a lot to do will inevitably become bored which can then lead to frustration. It might cause them to make careless actions or resent the few tasks that they do need to do. The law is not entirely clear on what will happen if an employee injured themselves if they were goofing off or playing a game when there was nothing else to do, but it is best practice to keep them as engaged as possible. If not you could be in a war with a situation you don’t have time for.

Consider a case where laborers were on the job and found an old bowling bowl in Pennsylvania. One thing led to another when the bowling ball smashed and the shard hit someone’s eye. Or consider an employee who wanted to chill out in an air conditioned truck in South Dakota and convinced his co-worker to leave the vehicle for a while. Once the co-worker came back, the sufficiently chilled man decided to dodge his co-workers potential physical punishments by running away. When he tripped, he claimed workers comp for this.

Judges both awarded people compensation in these cases, though the bowling ball case was overturned by the workers compensation board. The bowling ball case had a mitigating factor of a supervisor who did tell the employees to stop messing around with the bowl before the injury had occurred. Had that supervisor not been there, the courts generally do not see a momentary mistake as a means to deny care for the employee.

Whether or not you agree with these decisions isn’t really the point. You need to ensure that employees do have productive tasks and that there are specific rules on horseplay. Busy employees not only are less likely to find trouble, but are also more likely to take pride in what they’re doing. This is not to say that people can’t blow off steam and have fun because sometimes that’s necessary in the workplace too. However, there needs to be guidelines in place as to what is and isn’t acceptable. If you witness employees being just a little careless on the job, then it can’t be ignored.

The bottom line here is that even you dispute and win a case over an idle employees hijinks, it can eat up a lot of time and money. Days should be structured with deadlines when necessary. When employees are waiting for machinery or certain processes to be complete, there should be a list of approved activities that they can do. Don’t try to limit their freedom entirely though as this will cause further annoyance and resentment.