- Reserve Reductions
- Employer Services
- Integrated Disability Mgmt.

- Employability Analysis
- Vocational Opinion
- Life Care Plan
- Medicare Set Aside Trust
- Expert Witness
- Case Studies

- OBWC Premium Discount
- Occupational Health/Rehab.
- CARF Mock Survey
- Therapy Contract Svcs.
- Provider Education

Overview of Services

VoCare Rehabilitation Services offers employers the opportunity to provide injured workers with a complete portfolio of services from case management to an array of rehabilitation services – both offsite and onsite. These services have one simple aim: to get injured and disabled people back to productivity as quickly and cost effectively as possible.

VoCare Litigation Support provides expert testimony in cases involving serious and catastrophic injury, commercial casualty, product liability, and medical malpractice. The development of life care plans, the management of those plans, and vocational opinions are also part of it portfolio of services. The VoCare team provides world-class assistance in determining liability and costs, and when the dust settles, it is there to assure that these most difficult of cases are handled effectively.

VoCare Consulting Services is expert at helping clients to ascertain workers' compensation premium discounts and develop programs to help reduce workers' compensation costs. Leveraging premium discount programs, developing and implementing transitional work and drug-free workplace programs, and providing guidance through the ever changing regulatory maze are all a part of the value provided by VoCare Consulting Services.

To find out more, click here.

Rehabilitation Services

• Case Management: Coordination of rehabilitation services that will maximize the injured worker’s ability to return to work early in a safe and cost-effective manner.
• Job Seeking Skills Training: Development of skills to obtain employment such as resume development and interviewing skills.
• Job Placement: Assisting an injured worker with locating employment.
• Career Counseling: Helps determine interests and skills to facilitate job placement secondary to a change in vocation.
• Rehabilitation Counseling: Counseling an individual to overcome stressors such as disability related life changes and related return to work concerns.
• Labor Market Analysis: Assisting with identifying jobs in a specific labor market.
• Transferable Skills Analysis: Assisting with defining skills of the injured worker in relation to their work history and current skills and capacities.
• Expert Opinions: Assisting attorneys with vocational opinions regarding employability and labor market access.
• Medical Case Management: To expedite prompt, timely and appropriate care.

Employer Incentive Programs:

• Gradual RTW: Allows an injured worker to return to work on a gradual basis progressing from part-time status.
• Employer Incentive: While an injured worker returns full-time, the employer is reimbursed a portion of wages to compensate for the loss in productivity due to claim allowances.
• On The Job Training: Allows an injured worker to obtain or upgrade vocational skills through actual work experience.
• Work Trials: Permits an injured worker to attempt to return to work in an original job or at a new job with either the same employer or new employer.

Litigation Support

Patient Care Experts for the Severely- and Catastrophically-disabled

When the unthinkable, unbearable happens - when someone close becomes severely or catastrophically injured or disabled - the world changes. Care is intense and seemingly forever. Costs are out of sight. And the healthcare system appears vast and seemingly difficult to navigate.

Yet, that person is suffering. Their life has changed – forever.

It’s at times like these that the full value of VoCare Litigation Support becomes unmistakably clear. VoCare is compassionate clinicians – nurses, rehab specialists, and others – experts who understand care and costs, experts who demand that both be managed well and in tandem. Experts who will see that people in your charge, people you care about, receive the best possible care at a cost you can afford.

Litigation Experts for Complex Cases

Years of experience with a myriad of catastrophic and severely disabled cases has made each of VoCare’s professionals an expert. Our experts testify in complex cases in all jurisdictions including Courts of Common Pleas, U.S. District Court, and U.S. Court of Claims relating to social security, workers’ compensation, and insurance claims. We provide assistance in cases involving serious and catastrophic personal injury, commercial casualty product liability, and medical malpractice.

Our expert opinions are particularly useful in cases involving:

• Residual or lost employment;
• Wage earning capacity;
• Rehabilitation opinions;
• Life care plans (cost of future care);
• Standards of care;
• Permanent or continuing disability status;
• Workers’ compensation;
• STD/LTD continuation; and
• Social Security.

We understand the complex issues and nuance of litigation in this area. We call the case, uncompromisingly, as we see it. But for attorneys with a case, we’re powerful advisors.

To find out more, click here.

Consulting Services

VoCare Consulting Services is expert at helping clients to ascertain workers’ compensation premium discounts and develop programs to help reduce workers’ compensation costs. Leveraging premium discount programs, developing and implementing transitional work and drug-free workplace programs, and providing guidance through the ever changing regulatory maze are all a part of the value provided by VoCare Consulting Services.

Guardianship Assistance Corporation

Guardianship Assistance Corporation (GAC) understands that for some, independence depends on the compassionate and capable help of others.

As a provider of advocacy, wellness oversight, and lifestyle support services to elder care and people with special medical needs, GAC focuses on creating an individualized assistance program for each and every client. Our goal is to optimize every client’s quality of life, regardless of an individual’s circumstances, by extending and supporting his or her independence.

Our services span the total continuum of personal care needs for the elderly and those individuals with special needs including:

• Health, safety, and wellness visits as needed;
• Assistance with daily living routines;
• Professional advice in selecting an appropriate assisted living facility;
• Organizing and assisting in the relocation of elderly or special needs patients;
• Arranging cleaning services and routine emergency home maintenance;
• Assistance with special medical needs and care;
• Helping to prepare end-of-life arrangements;
• Written or verbal reports as required or needed; and
• Research in support of life care decisions.

To find out more, click here.

Case Analytics

Medical Litigation Support Services

Case Analytics provides a full spectrum of litigation support products and services designed to assist the attorney in cases involving some medical aspect. These products and services are structured on a continuum of increasing complexity, detail, and analysis. The attorney can then select from this menu those products/services that will optimally address the precise litigation support needs of each individual case.

• Case Analytics’ Medical Record Acquisition service relieves the law firm of the challenge locating the many healthcare providers typically referenced in a given case. Case Analytics will obtain the necessary medical records from these providers and coordinate payments to each provider for the duplication and delivery of these records.
• Case Analytics’ Medical Record Organization service brings order to the volumes of records frequently encountered in medical litigation. Imaging and indexing capabilities enable Case Analytics to provide medical records to law firms in an electronic format compatible with the firm’s own software.
• Case Analytics’ Medical and Scientific Literature Research provides an expert review of the relevant published and unpublished literature relating to a given case and then distills this information into a knowledge-based summary or case manual.
• Case Analytics’ Medical Case Abstracts are helpful for the attorney attempting to understand the medical characteristics of plaintiffs in a collective or single action. A Medical Case Abstract is a one-to-two page overview of each plaintiff’s medical records. The abstract has particular utility for law firms selecting the most viable bellwether claimants from among hundreds of plaintiffs in a given mass tort.
• Case Analytics’ Medical Case Chronologies are objective timelines of all or selected medical encounters experienced by the plaintiff. These fact-based work products translate hundreds of pages of medical records into a succinct summary illuminating the salient medical findings of the case.
• Case Analytics’ Medical Case Analyses take the Medical Chronology and add the component of analysis designed to explain the case’s medical components in language understandable by the non-physician. The Medical Case Analysis also incorporates findings from medical literature research and can suggest alternate causation for the plaintiff’s medical condition.
• Case Analytics’ Medical Billing Analyses delineate the extent of all remaining medical expenses borne by a plaintiff subsequent to coverage by third party payers.
• Case Analytics’ Customized Products are developed in partnership with the attorney to satisfy the specialized requirements of new or unique litigation. For example, custom made litigation support products can range in nature from an epidemiologic and demographic analysis of thousands of plaintiffs represented in a class action to a standards-based critique of hundreds of pulmonary function test reports cited in industrial exposure litigation. Case Analytics can also identify additional, but critical, healthcare providers involved in a case but whose participation and medical records were not disclosed during initial discovery.

To find out more, click here.

Reserve Reductions

Rehabilitation is one of the most effective ways to reduce disability-related costs. A 1994 study of long-term disability by Northwestern National Life found that "rehabilitation of disabled workers offers employers significant savings. The study revealed an average savings of $35 in disability reserves for every dollar spent on rehabilitation." The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation’s own figures show significant savings. According to the Bureau, reserve code values are reduced by an average of 50% when rehabilitation is a factor in a claim. Additionally, since rehabilitation costs are not counted in reserves, total reserves are reduced even further. The following charts will demonstrate the cost-saving benefits of rehabilitation. The figures are based on a claimant, age 40, with a weekly rate of pay of $400.

The area highlighted in gray shows that when a worker chooses rehabilitation, a Living Maintenance cost replaces the Temporary Total cost for the second three months. Although the cost is the same, the Living Maintenance cost is not assessed and the Comp Assessed In Rate is significantly reduced. The chart below shows how this affects employer premiums.

The areas highlighted in gray show how rehabilitation has reduced the Reserve Code/Value by 50% and the Reserve Assessment by approximately 75%. In other words, all that money that would have been tied up in reserves is now available to run an employer’s business. Even more importantly, premiums are based on an employer’s Reserve Assessment. A lower Reserve Assessment means lower premiums. Lower premiums mean thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, in annual disability cost savings. To maximize savings, injured parties need to get into rehabilitation as soon as possible after the injury. This is not always easy since rehabilitation is a choice the employee makes, not the employer. Nevertheless, VoCare has a high success rate in convincing injured workers to enter rehabilitation.

Employer Services

The longer an individual is out of work the harder it is to return them to work. Prevention and an expedient return to work program are the keys to success. Assessing work sites, worker education, and development of formal safety and wellness programming can reduce costs. Our experts can help you build a comprehensive occupational health program network. This will enable you to significantly reduce the amount of days lost due to restrictions or lost work days.

On-Site Rehabilitation Services

Transitional Work Program Development: Uses real job duties to gradually return the injured worker to the worker’s original job. The program’s components include company analyses and job analyses of the employees’ job tasks, labor-management collaboration, program-policy development and program evaluation for effectiveness.

Benefits: Research shows indirect costs for a workplace injury that becomes a lost-time claim are four times greater than any direct claim expense. By eliminating or limiting lost time, we can reduce costs including decreased productivity; hiring and training replacement expenses; overtime for loss of work; legal bills; and loss of morale, worker’s compensation business, and customer goodwill.

On-site Therapy

Licensed therapists will assist your injured worker in returning safely to the workplace. On-site evaluation, work task progression, and education are designed to recondition the worker to perform full duty essential job functions.

Job Analysis

A job analysis is an on-site evaluation that provides an assessment of the job in terms of the physical, intellectual, and environmental demands.

Ergonomic Assessments

Ergonomic Assessment: A recommendation report that follows the analysis offering employers suggestions for enhancement of the work-site.

Additionally, if the worker is eligible for vocational rehabilitation, the above services can be written in a rehabilitation plan.

OSHA Compliance

Consultation is given to assist with OSHA regulations.

Risk Management

• 10-Step Business Plan Implementation
• Premium Discount Program Implementation

Injury Prevention

Unique educational programs, custom-fit to your work environment.

• Body Mechanics: Education - Back anatomy, correct posture, proper lifting techniques and appropriate back exercises.
• Cumulative Trauma Education: Identifying correct postures, task pacing, and other factors that may be a risk factor in developing cumulative trauma disorders.

Occupational Health Services Review

An analysis of your providers to reduce provider expenses.

Integrated Disability Management

Most estimates peg the direct and indirect costs of employee absences due to sickness or injury at 8% to 12% of total payroll. And an even worse picture is painted by a recent Integrated Benefits Institute study which shows that the costs of lost productivity due to absenteeism can run as high as three times the direct benefit costs paid to the absent workers.

VoCare Services has built its reputation for quality, cost effective care, and superior responsiveness on a foundation blending the seamless integration of products, services, and people. Integration, it turns out, is an organization’s best weapon to control ever rising healthcare benefits costs - integration in the form of Integrated Disability Management (IDM).

Integrated Disability Management provides for expanded integration of absence and medical management services to help drive a return to work for injured employees as early as possible, whether the absence causing disability is occupational or non-occupational. Whereas traditional disability management protocol and coverage depend on where the injury occurred, IDM doesn’t care. The focus of IDM is simply return to work. Professional case managers handle reporting, insurance and care handoffs, gaps, and overlaps to assure integrated or coordinated coverage transparent to all parties involved.

To find out more, click here.

Employability Analysis

A comprehensive and accurate employability analysis is a vital tool in determining the degree of permanent impairment an individual has sustained, and the extent to which a person’s injury will affect his or her ability to gain and retain work. As Permanent and Total Disability (PTD) injury cases are decided on a preponderance of evidence, an effective and credible employability analysis can be the difference between winning and losing a case.

To find out more, click here.  You may also download a sample report. To compare and contrast the Employability Analysis and the Vocational Opinion, please review this table.

Vocational Opinion

Opinions are rendered regarding employability, placeability, transferable skills, workplace accommodations, and future comprehensive rehabilitation services.

• Residual or lost employment
• Wage earning capacity
• Rehabilitation opinions
• Permanent or continuing disability status
• STD/LTD continuation
• Social Security

To find out more, click here.   To compare and contrast the Employability Analysis and the Vocational Opinion, please review this table.

Life Care Plan

A life care plan is a detailed rehabilitation plan which projects future needs for services, equipment, care and the funding necessary to provide them. Used in catastrophic injury cases, it provides a clear format to communicate the multi-disciplinary needs of seriously disabled individuals to all third parties, including the family, insurance carrier, attorneys, arbitration panel, or jury.

Life care plans have been determined to be admissible as evidence in the State of Ohio. In addition, they provide a detailed outline of the progression of care with the objective of promoting the optimal independence of the disabled individual.

Recommendations are made which may address:

• Projected evaluations and therapeutic modalities;
• Future medical care, routine and/or aggressive;
• Aids for independent functioning;
• Medication and supply needs;
• Wheelchairs and accessories;
• Architectural renovations, furnishings, and accessories;
• Transportation needs;
• Home care or residential care needs; and
• Vocational rehabilitation.

Life care plans are developed using a team approach. The assessment is formed collaboratively by Rehabilitation Counselors, Rehabilitation Nurses and other professionals. A patient/family interview is conducted along with a review of background information and consultation with treating physicians and therapists. The result is a rigorously developed plan specific to the individual’s needs and achievable within the availability of resources.

To find out more, click here.   To compare and contrast Life Care Plans and Cost of Future Care, please review this table.

Medicare Set Aside Trusts

Medicare Set-Aside trusts are required, by law, in any workers’ compensation claim settlement where:

• The settlement is greater than $250,000,
• The claimant is likely to be Medicare eligible within 30 months, and
• The settlement includes provisions for cost of medical care after the date of settlement and includes release of carriers from future liability.

If the Medicare Set Aside Trust is not set up or properly administered, the carrier, the self-insured employer, or plaintiff/defense counsel can be held liable for up to 200% of the settlement amount.

Ensure this doesn’t happen to you by having a thorough life care plan written and implemented by VoCare Services.

To find out more, click here.

Expert Witness

Expert witness services can be given in cases involving serious and catastrophic personal injury, commercial casualty, product liability, and medical malpractice cases.

Vocational Expert

Our Rehabilitation Counselors are licensed by the State of Ohio and hold specialty certifications that affirm their unique expertise. They render opinions regarding employability, placeability, transferable skills, workplace accommodations, and future comprehensive rehabilitation services, utilizing their education and many years of experience assisting disabled people to achieve their goals.

Nurse Expert

Registered Nurses are available to consult and to testify regarding standards of care.  Additionally, they can help in the organization and development of medical information in personal injury and catastrophic disability cases. Our Nurse Experts can develop life care plans to document the costs of future care, and they can also assist in the identification of medical specialists for testimony.

To find out more, click here.

Case Studies

Real names have been removed to protect the confidentiality of the client.

• Case Study 1 - Life Care Plan
• Case Study 2 - Guardianship Assistance Corporation (GAC)

Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Premium Discount Programs

For too many employers, the costs of workers’ compensation insurance have become a significant drain on productivity and profitability – to crisis levels for some organizations.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC), to its credit, realizes the financial impact high premium costs can have on an employer.  The BWC sponsors programs to significantly lower premium costs, build a positive and productive workplace environment, and improve claims resolution.  You don’t have to be “penalty-rated” to be eligible to leverage these programs – even “group-rated” companies with outstanding safety and employment records can benefit.  However, it’s up to you, the employer, to take advantage of these BWC programs.

Three particular BWC program areas should be evaluated in every employer’s benefits cost reduction strategy.  Each offers employers significant opportunities to obtain major year after year discounts on workers’ compensation premiums.  They are:

• Transitional WorkGRANT$ Program
• Premium Discount Plus Program
• Drug Free Workplace Program

To find out more, click here.

Occupational Health/Rehabilitation Services Consultation

Consultants will analyze current programs to enhance attractiveness to customers. This may include identifying and enhancing efficiencies with such items as coding/billing, marketing, policy development, corporate compliance, and system issues.

In addition, consultants will assist with identifying emerging markets and new opportunities to assure that their design is a “best fit” with customer needs.

CARF Mock Survey

Consultants will assess conformance with the current Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities standards to ready a facility for a CARF survey.

Therapy Contract Services

Our therapy team can assist with staffing needs in several healthcare arenas. Our team is your team.

Provider Education

A customized program can be developed to meet the needs of your staff. The program will be delivered on-site with your goals and budget in mind.

Case Study

Life Care Plan

A 59 year-old woman and her husband, Mrs. and Mr. M., were bike riding when they were struck by a drunk driver. Mr. M. had multiple fractures, but recuperated completely after a lengthy hospitalization. Mrs. M., however, suffered a severe brain injury in addition to several fractures. She was unresponsive and on a ventilator for an extended period of time. While she gradually became more stable, her neurological status remained permanently altered, and she was unable to move the left side of her body. She became a resident of a local skilled nursing facility, where her husband visited her daily.

VoCare Services, Inc. was asked by Mr. and Mrs. M.’s attorney to assess Mrs. M. and develop a life care plan that would outline her needs for care, equipment, and services for the rest of her life. It was Mr. M.’s wish to bring her home, and so the plan addressed costs for both options for her long-term care - home care and facility care. VoCare attended a mediation involving her attorney, Mr. M., and his insurance company, which resulted in a settlement that would enable Mr. M. to bring his wife home.

Mr. M. hired VoCare Services to help him implement the life care plan they had developed and to function as case managers for this effort. We worked with an architect to plan an addition to their home, which would serve as a “special care” area for Mrs. M., as well as to modify other areas of the existing home. We interviewed home care agencies and were able to find one who would not only actively recruit nurses to provide around-the-clock care but would also be able to provide home physician visits. We interceded between the M.’s insurance company and various vendors in order to assist them in having the most cost-effective outcome possible occur. VoCare worked as a liason between Mrs. M.’s skilled nursing facility and the home care agency that was to provide for her care so that they could better plan for the care that she would need once she was home.

After spending almost four years in the skilled nursing facility, Mrs. M. was finally able to return to her home and remains there today. Pain and behavioral issues, which had been problematic since her brain injury, have been re-evaluated and addressed since Mrs. M. has come home, and her comfort and cooperation levels are visibly improved. VoCare Services worked closely with the home care agency during the initial return home, and as her care became more routine to both the agency nurses and Mr. M., we continued to follow from a much greater distance. To date, she has not needed hospital admission for any complications. Mrs. M. is now able to be back in the surroundings that she loved; receive qualified, one-on-one care; and be near her husband, children, and grandchildren.

Case Study

Guardianship Assistance Corporation (GAC)

Mrs. A. was involved in a head-on collision on her way to work. In addition to multiple fractures and internal injuries, she suffered a severe brain injury. After a prolonged hospitalization, she was transferred to a skilled nursing facility for brain injury and physical rehabilitation. Her progress was slow and was complicated by changes in her personality as a result of her brain injury. She was gradually able to walk short distances with assistance, but mainly required her manual wheelchair in order to be mobile. Mrs. A. continued to require nursing care and was transferred to the residential area of the skilled nursing facility.

VoCare Services was contacted by Mrs. A’s attorney with the request to develop a life care plan for her in order to ascertain her needs for care, equipment, and services for the rest of her life. Mr. A., who continued to be very supportive of his wife, expressed a desire to be able to bring her home and have her care provided there. In the course of assessing her needs, we looked at both options possible for her care - home care and facility care. An insurance settlement for Mrs. A’s care was awarded and put into a special needs trust.

VoCare Services, Inc. was contacted by Mrs. A.’s trust attorney with the request to assist Mr. A. to implement the life care plan that we had developed so that he could bring his wife home. As case managers of this venture, we coordinated services that would be funded by the trust along with services provided by the Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) and Medicaid. The A.’s existing home was totally unsuitable to meet Mrs. A.’s accessibility and safety needs, and was not capable of being modified. We worked with Mr. A. to look at one-story homes that could be modified for wheelchair accessibility and also to consider building a home that would be suited to her needs. We were finally able to find a wheelchair accessible ranch home, formerly owned by a woman with similar accessibility needs. VoCare Services worked as a liaison between the skilled nursing agency, the BWC, Medicaid, and her trust attorney as we prepared to have Mrs. A. discharged to her new home. Home health aid care was to be provided for eight hours per day.

Once she was home, Guardianship Assistance Corporation (GAC), a program of VoCare Services, Inc., continued to monitor Mr. and Mrs. A.’s needs. After about three months, Mrs. A.’s behavior was becoming increasingly difficult to manage and required intervention by her nurse case manager from VoCare, who consulted with a local outpatient brain injury rehabilitation service in order to make recommendations that would assist and support Mr. and Mrs. A. We brainstormed ideas regarding adult day care services and modifications of when home health aid care is provided. As Mrs. A’s behavior becomes more manageable, her and her husband’s needs will continue to be monitored by GAC in the event that other acute problems can be effectively dealt with so that she can continue to reside at home.

BWC Transitional WorkGRANT$ Program (TWP)

The best claim is the claim that never happens. Just one “lost time” claim can significantly impact your workers’ compensation premium costs for up to 5 subsequent years.

This program will help facilitate the safe and early return to work of injured employees while lowering your organization’s workers’ compensation costs. In addition, TWP will:

• Reduce lost time days to help speed up your company’s return to “group-rated” BWC status as quickly as possible.
• Significantly reduce the impact of injured workers’ claims on future workers’ compensation premiums.
• Assist in the development of an objective program which will assist the employer to fight questionable claims.

As an employer, you can take advantage of these savings – at almost no cost. The Transitional WorkGrant$ will reimburse employers up to 80% of the total cost of the program – and for employers with less than 50 employees, 100% of the cost is covered.

To receive the GRANT$, employers must institute a five-step process. However, it’s only the first step that your company must do itself – and that is, hire a certified transitional work developer. This is usually a certified vocational, medical case manager, or a physical or occupational therapist. Once hired, they will complete each program step to ensure your TWP meets all your requirements and receives BWC accreditation.

The Transitional WorkGrant$ Program identifies appropriate medical providers that promote the safe and early return of your injured employees to their original jobs as quickly as possible – the best situation for you, your financial health, and your employee’s well-being.

For more information on the OBWC programs, click here.

BWC Premium Discount Plus Program (PDP+)

The Premium Discount Plus Program is also known as the BWC’s 10-Step Safety Program – and can provide you with up to a 25 percent savings in premium costs over a 3 year period. All that is required is the simple development of an action plan designed to establish a safer and more cost-effective workplace. By implementing PDP+, your organization creates a 10-step safety program that meets the needs of the business while enabling you to control future workers’ compensations costs by using various risk-management techniques. This program discount, however, is only available for organizations that are “penalty-rated” and not members of a group.

Your PDP+ discounts can be as high as 25% off your workers’ compensation premium costs. These savings are spread across three years – 10% for the first two years, and 5% for the third year. Further, if you perform well during the first year of the safety portion of the PDP+ program, you can also qualify to receive an additional 20% savings on your workers’ compensation premiums. “Performing well” indicates that you are able to reduce your organization’s claims frequency and/or severity by 15%. This brings your total premium cost savings to 45 percent!

After implementation, a BWC Employer Services Specialist will visit your company to evaluate your program implementation and determine your discount savings. Whether your savings are 5% or 45%, you have buffered your company’s profitability by creating a safer and healthier workplace.

For more information on the OBWC Premium Discount Program, click here.

BWC Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP)

The BWC Drug-Free Workplace Program encourages employers to detect and deter alcohol and substance use and misuse. The incentive for developing and implementing the DFWP is the potential to become eligible for a 10%, 15% or 20% annual discount off your workers’ compensation costs for up to five years.  These discounts are available to you whether or not you are “penalty-rated” or “group-rated”.

Beyond the possible cost savings, the program’s most valuable contribution is the long-term benefits that are gained from having a drug free workplace. Workplace statistics don’t lie: substance users are 33% to 50% less productive while their absentee rate sees them being tardy three times more often than non-users (absence rates average three weeks more each year).

However, a drug user’s or abuser’s biggest impact on the workplace comes from the fact that they are three to four times more likely to have an accident on the job and five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim.  Finally, if you still doubt the potential workplace savings, consider the fact that substance abusers file 300% to 400% more claims, and are responsible for 50% to 80% of all pilferage, theft, and property loss at the work site.

In order to take advantage of the BWC DFWP program, your organization will need to implement the five basic components of the DFWP.  They are: a written substance use policy, employee education, supervised training, drug and alcohol testing, and employee assistance.

Again, a BWC Employer Services Specialist will visit your company after implementation to evaluate your discount eligibility.

For more information on the OBWC Drug Free Workplace Program, click here.