Inside this issue:
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Rollin' Out
the Red Carpet:
Welcome New AGC Group Retro Members |
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New AGC of Washington General
Contractor members
Axis Construction, Inc.
Belsaas & Smith Construction
BN Builders
Chervenell Construction Co.
The Highridge Corporation
Interwest Construction, Inc.
Terhune Custom Homes, LLC
Westmark Construction, Inc.
Whatcom Construction, Inc.
Existing AGC of Washington General
Contractor members
KLM Construction, Inc.
Woodworth and Company, Inc.
New AGC of Washington Subcontractor
members
Archer Construction, Inc.
Bailey Electrical Inc.
Betschart Electric Co.
Bravo Environmental Services, LLC
Clemens Mechanical & Plumbing
Danard Electric, Inc.
EC Distributing
Ewing Electric Inc.
Johansen Mechanical Inc.
Nardone Mechanical Contractors Inc.
Narrows Pacific Framing, LLC
Reliable Floor Covering, Inc.
Rick’s Custom Fencing and Decking
Sellers Masonry, Inc.
Seven Sisters, Inc.
Skyline Tile, Inc.
SS Framing
Sullivan Heating and Cooling, Inc.
TI Northwest
Time to Time Construction
Existing AGC of Washington
Subcontractor member
Cascade Construction Co.
New AGC Inland Northwest General
Contractor member
Piersol Construction, Inc.
New AGC Inland Northwest Associate
member
Ada Lin Waste Systems
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Special Thanks to Members Recruiting
New Members:
Gary Bennett, Ferguson Construction Company
Gene J. Colin, Ferguson Construction Company
Dave D’Hondt, Absher Construction (former AGC Group Retro Committee
member)
Philo Hall, Lease Crutcher Lewis
Van Hardy, GLY Construction
Paul Herbold, Diamond B Constructors
Doug Lydig, Lydig Construction (former AGC Group Retro Committee
member)
Jay Meyers, Garco Construction
Mike Poppoff, Poppoff, Inc.
Mark Scoccolo, SCI Infrastructure
Stephen Seger, Foushée and Associates, Co., Inc.
Richard Thody, Goodfellow Brothers
Len Zarelli, Merit Company
Randy Zutter, Paras General Contractors, Inc.
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Register Now
for This Fall's "Think Tanks"
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With 12 Think
Tanks across the state taking place this fall, there's no
reason to miss out! The September Think Tanks will focus on
how to complete OSHA logs
(what is recordable and what isn't), accident
investigations, DOSH inspections, and claim
validity. Sometimes what constitutes an L&I claim may or may
not be recordable. These 3-hour sessions will be led by AGC
Safety Directors Stori Sanders (AGC of Washington) and Ben
Kaufman (AGC Inland Northwest) in conjunction with AGC
Retro Director, Lauren Gubbe.
Click here to
register online. |
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At the October Think Tanks,
members will receive an explanation from an L&I
Representative on the new way the Department is going to be
calculating experience rates. The Department's changes have
been publicly announced to take effect in 2007 and are
supposed to provide companies with less volatility in their
rates for small dollar amount claims. Those
attending will also be provided with their projected EMR's
for 2007. This is our most popular workshop!
Click here to
register online. |
(Note: September Think Tanks are from 10
a.m. to 1 p.m.)
Wednesday, September 6, Tacoma AGC
Tuesday, September 12, Seattle AGC
Wednesday, September 13, Spokane AGC
Friday, September 15, Vancouver
Wednesday, September 20, Bellingham AGC
Thursday, September 21, Yakima AGC office
(Note: October Think Tanks are from 10
a.m. to noon)
Monday, October 2, Vancouver
Tuesday, October 3, Tacoma AGC
Wednesday, October 11, Bellingham AGC
Thursday, October 12, Seattle AGC
Wednesday, October 18, Spokane AGC
Thursday, October 19, Yakima AGC
Call
the Retro Office at 360-352-1632 or 888-227-3876 or
register online by clicking
here. |
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| AGC Group
Retro Members Honored in Regional Publications |
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Congratulations to members listed in
the Puget Sound Business Journal as the largest in the
Puget Sound area. These companies were also listed in the
Northwest Construction magazine Top Contractors:
Lease Crutcher Lewis
Bayley Construction
PCL Construction Services, Inc.
Wilder Construction Company (also largest heavy highway)
JE Dunn Northwest, Inc.
GLY Construction, Inc.
Walsh Construction Company
Ferguson Construction, Inc.
Foushée and Associates, Co., Inc.
JR Abbott Construction, Inc.
SCI Infrastructure, LLC (largest heavy/highway)
The majority of the top 25 companies that are State Fund insured
participate in AGC Retro. Seven of the top 25 are self-insured
and seven are either in individual Retro plans or other Retro
groups.
The following members are also listed in the Northwest
Construction magazine Top Contractors:
Garco Construction, Inc.
Poe Construction
John Korsmo Construction
Emerick Construction
WPC, Inc.
Andgar Corporation
Exxel Pacific, Inc.
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AGC Group Retro Prevails In Refund
Appeals
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AGC Group Retro
staff appealed the refund adjustments and recently received
another $519,604 as a result. Those companies participating
in Plan Year 11 will receive distribution of the final
refund once calculations are completed. Plan Year 12 and 13
appeal monies will be invested and refunded with interest
with the customary refund distribution cycles for those
years. |
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L&I Change In Experience Rate
Calculation
L&I announced they are in the process of changing the rate
calculations for next year. The idea is to provide more rate
stability to smaller companies with minimal increased impact to
larger companies. The Department is also looking at taking minor
medical only claims out of the experience rate and Retro
calculations. The way they are proposing to evaluate whether or
not a case is a minor would be based on the average medical
costs associated with claims that have no indemnity costs
(time-loss, vocational services, permanent impairment) and then
doubling this amount.
For example, currently the average medical costs associated with
a medical only claim are approximately $700. So, the Department
would double these costs and claims under $1,400 would not be
charged against the companies experience rate,
but would be charged against their Retro refunds. The claim would still be filed and paid through
the Department. The problem the Department is attempting to
correct is the movement firms take in their rates as a result of
nominal medical only claims.
It remains to be seen what the actual proposal will look like.
L&I has agreed to come out to Bellingham, Olympia, Tacoma,
Seattle, Spokane, and Yakima to explain the calculations and
implications of the new rates as early as the actual
calculations are clear. We hope to have this finalized prior to
our October EMR workshops.
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| L&I
Online Access to Claims |
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If you haven’t
signed up for online access to claims, you need to do it!
Completing your Report of Accident just got easier…you can
complete it now over the internet and have it submitted onto
the L&I claim record instantly! We encourage you to do this
as we still see cases where the employer has not submitted
their portion of the report of accident.
In addition, you can also complete your quarterly reports
and look up your experience rate online. |
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L&I Project For Employers to File
L&I Claims:
Looking For Volunteers!
If you haven’t done so,
this is an opportunity for you to have your employees file any
workers compensation claim through you as opposed to through
their doctor. The worker may still file the claim through their
doctor; however, the idea is to encourage your employees to file
the claim through your office. See the attached PDF file for
more information on this project and how you can get involved.
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L&I Speeding Up Fraud Investigations? |
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Carl Hammersburg of the Department of Labor and Industries
has indicated that they have stepped up the timeframe for
claim validity investigations and are performing these
within 30 days. |
He reported that in comparison
with the prior year that the number of cases referred to
county prosecutors was up 44 percent, premium collections
were up 12 percent, and that another $7 million dollars was
saved in cost avoidance by “taking care of providers that
were billing inappropriately, as well as, closing claims
that had future payments set inappropriately, etc.”
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L&I
Claims Statistics
L&I indicates the leading number of injuries are falls from
elevations, falls at the same level, motor vehicle accidents
and musculoskeletal disorders of the lower extremities,
neck, and back. These injuries account for 91.6 percent of
all compensable (timeloss, vocational services, and/or
permanent impairment) claims, 94.7 percent of compensable
claims costs, and 95.5 percent of all timeloss days. |
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In addition to costs against the
experience factor and Retro refunds, employers need to
calculate the additional costs to replacing the worker,
training the replacement, investigating the injury, managing
the claim, working with their Retro Claims Consultant, and
the possible reduction in quality work that’s being done.
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Staff Changes at Safety Educators
Dan Moore has returned to employment with Safety Educators, Inc.
and will be running the Seattle Center. Dan is taking over for
Jeff McDonald as Jeff recently accepted a position with a local
company as their Safety Director.
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New Vocational Retraining Plan/L&I
Building Inspector
The Department of Labor and Industries, indicated they were
looking for building inspectors and inquired if AGC Group Retro
was interested in offering a fourth re-training plan for those
injured workers unable to return to the trades. As a result, AGC
Group Retro advised Thomas Willson, President of Safety
Educators, Inc. and he met with L&I staff to design a retraining
plan for building inspectors. We are pleased to report we have
our first person participating in on-the-job training (OJT) with
the Department as a building inspector!
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| Employee
Training Resources: |
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AGC Heat
Stress Prevention Program
The L&I Emergency Heat Stress rule became effective June 1,
2006. AGC of Washington Safety Director Stori Sanders has
created a useful tool for contractors that includes a link
to the
WISHA Regional Directive (WRD),
a toolbox talk, a customizable sample heat stress
plan and other resources Click on the link
below to go directly to this tool.
http://agcwa.com/Public/Safety/heat.asp |
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Video Library
Did you know AGC has a great video library for you to
utilize free of charge for toolbox talks, etc.? Go to AGC of
Washington videos online
http://agcwa.com/public/Safety/videos.asp or Inland
AGC's at
http://www.northwestagc.net/Safety.htm In addition,
Department of Labor and Industries also has a video library
that you can access via the Department’s website at
http://lni.wa.gov/Safety/TrainTools/Videos/default.asp
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CPR/Flagger
Certification
Did you know that Safety Educators, Inc. will provide quick
CPR/First Aid certification or Flagger certification to any
one of your employees that you need to provide this to vs.
waiting for a class in your area?
Locations for the Resource Centers are: Tacoma, Seattle,
Everett, and Spokane where you can access this great
benefit. You just have to CALL AHEAD and talk to Thomas
Willson to arrange the training for your employee. |
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