Ideally, your employees will let you or a supervisor know right away any time they are injured at work, even if it’s a minor injury.

But what if they don’t? Can you be legally required to report an injury that was never reported to you?

In many states, the answer is yes. If you become aware of an injury by seeing it occur, or even suspecting it, it can be considered “constructive notice.” In other words, you should have known.

This matters because there are state deadlines that limit how much time can elapse between the time you become aware of an injury and when workers’ compensation benefits must be paid or denied.

This means that as soon as you’re aware of an injury, it’s important to report it to SFM so your claims representative can investigate and make a determination on whether workers’ compensation benefits are due.

Following are a few things you can do to make sure work injuries are reported right away at your organization:

• Train your supervisors to watch out for work injuries and report them immediately. Make sure they know it’s their responsibility to report all injuries as soon as they learn of them. It’s not up to the employee to decide whether to report.
• Help supervisors remember how to report injuries through the SFM Work Injury Hotline by hanging posters and through other communications.
• Make sure supervisors and employees know that all work injuries, no matter how minor, should be reported immediately.
• If you suspect that the employee was not injured as reported, it’s still important to report the injury right away. Let your claims representative know your concerns. We have the resources to investigate fraud.

When you report a work injury by calling the SFM Work Injury Hotline at (855) 675-3501, you’ll have the option to let your employee speak with a nurse. This is a good option if your employee is unsure whether to seek medical treatment.

Here’s what happens when you call and choose the nurse option:

1. A nurse will answer.

The registered nurse will talk first with the supervisor, and then ask to speak with the employee.

2. The nurse will ask the employee questions about the injury.

These questions will help to determine severity of the injury and the best way to address it. The nurse uses patented software to assist them in asking injured workers the right questions to determine what type of medical care the employee needs.

3. The employee will get a treatment recommendation.

This could range from self-care to a clinic referral or even emergency treatment. If the nurse recommends self-care, instructions can be emailed or faxed to the workplace.

After the call, the nurse will send the report to SFM.

Injured workers who choose to self-treat can call back for further advice if their condition changes or worsens.

How the nurse service is provided

To make nurses available to injured workers, SFM partners with Medcor, a Midwest-based company that has pioneered workplace injury triage since 1997.

Medcor’s nurses are specially trained in responding to work injuries, and they operate under the supervision of a full-time medical director who is board certified in emergency medicine.

They use software that supports the company’s patented methods for making the best triage recommendations for injured employees.

The Medcor call center is accredited by URAC, an independent nonprofit health care standards organization.

Common questions about the nurse option

Here are answers to some of the questions you might have about the hotline:

• What if the injured employee doesn’t speak English?
  The nurses can access interpreters for more than 200 languages.
• Are third-party administrator, high-deductible and assigned risk plan policyholders included in this program?
  Clients whose claims are administered by SFM Risk Solutions (as a third-party administrator) or Superior Point (for the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Assigned Risk Plan) are NOT included in this program. Policyholders with deductibles over $100,000 can choose whether to participate. If you are a third-party administration client and need to report, go to the Report a TPA injury page. If you are insured through the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Assigned Risk plan, report your claims on the Superior Point website .
• Is there any fee for this service?
  No, it is free for most SFM policyholders to call the SFM Work Injury Hotline. The only exception is policyholders with deductibles over $100,000 that choose to participate.
• What if an injured employee disagrees with the nurse’s recommendation?
  It is still up to the employee to decide whether to follow the nurse’s advice.

If there was an easy way to ensure better medical treatment and a faster, smoother recovery for each of your organization’s injured workers, would you do it?

What if it was as simple as making sure that employees at your organization report injuries as soon as possible after they occur?

Here are four key benefits to reporting work injuries to your workers’ compensation insurer as soon as possible:

• Better medical care.
  Sometimes injured workers are unsure whether they need medical care. That’s why we offer the option for workers to speak with a nurse when you report injuries by phone. This helps prevent both under-treatment and over-treatment.
• Better accident investigation.
  Figuring out what caused an accident is important because it helps you determine how to best prevent a similar one in the future. Investigating an accident can also help bring your attention to the rare case in which an employee is committing fraud. Talking with witnesses and the employee right away will help you get the best picture of what happened, or misstatements in the employee’s story, before memory of the incident fades.
• Better contact with medical providers.
  When you learn about work injuries before your employees seek treatment, you have the chance to be proactive in working with medical providers. You can give the injured employee a work ability report to be completed by the doctor so that you know which work restrictions the employee has, and you can let the doctor know you offer light-duty work.
• Better communication with injured employees.
  Staying in contact with injured employees, and assuring them they’ll have jobs to return to is the number one way to prevent litigation. Injured employees tend to seek out attorneys when they feel their livelihood is in jeopardy. When your employees report their injuries right away, you get the opportunity to assure them right away that they will be taken care of.

Avoid fines by reporting injuries right away

An additional benefit of reporting injuries right away is avoiding fines.

Even if a claim isn’t compensable, insurers — and ultimately employers in some cases — face fines for late denial of liability if claims aren’t reported on time.

Fines range from $100 to $5,000.

Penalties can be twofold. Depending on the state, insurers can be charged both for reporting late and making late benefit payments to injured workers, so reporting late can cause fines to add up quickly. If there is a penalty due to the employer reporting late, the insurer may seek reimbursement from the employer, depending on the state. In some states, the employer may be fined directly by the regulatory agency.

If you question the legitimacy of a claim, still report it right away and let the claims representative look into it.

If you’re like most professionals, you have so much to do each day that some tasks must be delayed for another day. Don’t let injury reporting become one of those tasks. Instead, report right away to save yourself time in the long run and ensure the best outcome for your injured employee and your organization.

Need to know how to report an injury? If you’re an SFM policyholder, visit the Report an Injury page for details.

 This is not intended to serve as legal advice for individual fact-specific legal cases or as a legal basis for your employment practices.