A favorable court ruling produced changes to Stay at Work (SAW) reimbursements effective immediately. The first date eligible for payable SAW reimbursement is no longer based on the date the job description is communicated to the worker’s attending provider, but rather the date the worker is medically released.
Department of Labor and Industries v. Briseno in February 2020 clarified that L&I will retroactively pay SAW wage reimbursements if transitional work/light duty is approved, as long as the worker was medically released to perform the transitional work for the dates requested. There is nothing additional you need to know or do regarding this ruling, this is just for your information. If you receive an Activity Prescription Form from your employee, start thinking about light duty transitional work and contact your Retro Claims Coordinator.
Report injuries early
To optimize the highest reimbursement amount, early reporting of injuries is paramount. The Retro Program has a target lag reporting goal of 5 days. Entering your own incident report as soon as it’s reported to you helps keep your organizations lag report days low. This also allows Retro staff to begin working with you on transitional work/light duty and keep your time loss costs down.
Retro staff has applied for more and more Preferred Worker incentives. We have recently applied for the Program’s first one-time premium relief benefit, Continuous Employment Incentive. A Preferred Worker is a person with an L&I claim that resulted in permanent restrictions to a lighter category of work. An employer that hires a Preferred Worker is entitled to receive financial incentives, like the SAW benefit.
The Continuous Employment Incentive has the same financial benefit as the SAW and Preferred Worker. An employer becomes eligible for this incentive when the Preferred Worker has been employed for at least 12 months. The 12 months begin the date the worker is certified as Preferred or the first date of employment, whichever is later. View our Return to work and preferred workers programs webinar to find out more.