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A publication of the Risk Management Division
1/30/2019 3:30:55 PM
What you need to know now
Up-coming events:
Observance:
By: Gary Westman, Division Director
A new service to help employees better access health care services following work-related injuries started in July 2018.
Injured employees should continue to notify their supervisor or agency workers’ compensation coordinator of an injury. Immediately after notifying their supervisor or agency workers’ compensation coordinator and before seeking medical treatment, we want employees to call CorVel’s 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line at (844) 235-2055. A registered nurse will help evaluate employee injuries and connect employees to health care services.
When calling the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line, the employee should be ready to identify the state agency that they work for and their work location. This enables the nurse to better assist the employee. The call should be placed from a location that provides privacy for employee, and once the call is made the supervisor should step away from the call and allow the employee privacy to share information about their injury with the nurse. Once the nurse has finished speaking with the employee, it is usually appropriate for the supervisor to rejoin the conversation. Please understand that private medical information will not be shared with the supervisor.
There are several possible outcomes from the call to the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line. The nurse can recommend first aid/self-care that will include a next day follow-up call to the employee to assess if the care recommendations have properly treated the injury. The employee can also be referred to medical care, either at the time of the original call or during the next day follow-up call.
If the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line call results in a referral for medical care, the employee can be provided the option to access this care through a Telehealth visit. If the employee accepts this option, the employee will be scheduled for a face-to-face online visit with a medical doctor. The medical doctor can assess, diagnosis, and prescribe certain treatments through the Telehealth visit. These visits can be conducted on most mobile devices that have video and voice capabilities. A Telehealth visit requires that the work injury/incident be reported to the Workers’ Compensation Program as a claim, as it will result in a health care visit cost.
Both the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line and Telehealth are services that are intended to work immediately following a work injury and prior to employees accessing other medical care. If employees have already sought treatment for the work injury, there is no benefit or need for them to call the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line.
Please have all employees call the 24/7 Work Injury Nurse Line at (844) 235-2055 before seeking medical care following any work injury. The sole exception is emergency situations where 911 should be called. If you have questions about these new services for workers’ compensation injuries, please contact Gary Westman at (651) 201-3030 or gary.westman@state.mn.us.
By: Kemal Munn, State Safety Coordinator
The second of three planned statewide safety perception surveys will begin later this winter. Your participation and support is essential!
The results from the first survey conducted two years ago, and summarized in the Winter 2018 Alert, provided agencies and campuses with valuable information that has been used to enhance processes, training, and communication within organizations, for the purpose of improving their safety culture. Studies have shown that organizations that improve their safety culture experience fewer workplace injuries.
Why administer a second survey?
The second survey will allow participating organizations to measure against their benchmark data collected in 2017. This will assist them in analyzing their safety culture improvements over the past two years. The survey will also provide the state with additional focus areas for our continuous improvement journey to improve safety culture within state government.
Who will participate in the survey?
The survey will be rolled out to most state agencies and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. If your organization did not participate in the 2017 survey, there is still time and a benefit to getting involved in this year’s survey.
When will the survey be administered?
All agencies and campuses will not be completing the survey at the same time. The survey is being conducted in phases, with Minnesota State campuses expected to begin in February. Additional survey phases will occur throughout the spring and early summer, with all survey data collection completed by the end of the fiscal year.
What's next?
Please be on the lookout for additional communications from your organization’s Perception Survey Coordinator.
Questions?
If you have additional questions, please contact Kemal Munn at kemal.munn@state.mn.us or by phone at 651-201-3011.
By: Marlys Williamson, Underwriting Manager
Rarely does a day go by that we do not hear another sad news story about a tragic shooting or bombing, natural disaster, or catastrophic accident.
You may have wondered how the state’s insurance would respond to such events. Workers’ compensation would cover injured employees. General liability coverage purchased by state agencies would address bodily injury and property damage suffered by third parties (such as customers), if the agency is deemed negligent. Property insurance purchased by agencies would cover loss or damage to insured property that is damaged or destroyed as a result of these events.
Standard insurance coverages like these, however, do not address the services that are desperately needed in the aftermath of these events. To close this gap, Risk Management purchased a Disaster Management Services policy effective July 1, 2018.
What triggers coverage?
Active Assailant Incidents, Acts of Terrorism, Natural Disasters, and Man-made Catastrophes, which result in three or more fatalities and/or critical injuries. (Critical Injuries means injuries requiring emergency medical or hospital treatment. It does not include emotional distress.)
Who is covered?
What type of services are available?
These services are designed to come alongside (not usurp) and support the agency and the population for whom it is directly responsible.
When do the services start and how long do they last?
Services begin following an insured incident, for a maximum of 30 days.
What is the coverage territory?
Worldwide – occurring at a state location, or at an event hosted or organized by a state agency (regardless of location), or during a trip in which the state agency is directly responsible for those involved in the insured incident.
When are the services activated?
Upon being advised of any situation that may give rise to a claim following an insured incident, contact Risk Management’s 24 hour Emergency Claim Reporting Line: 651-201-2594.
What is not covered?
The key policy exclusions are:
Are there any out-of-pocket expenses to the agency?
None are expected, unless the policy limit ($1,000,000 per Insured Event; $2,000,000 annual aggregate) is exceeded. In the unlikely chance that an insured incident(s) exceeds these limits, the additional expense would be borne by the agency. (The agency would be notified well in advance of approaching the policy limit, so they can make a business decision whether to continue the services.) The policy has no deductible.
If you have questions, please contact Marlys Williamson at 651-201-2591 or Marlys.Williamson@state.mn.us.
Learn your role in eliminating workplace injuries at mn.gov/admin/mnsafe
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