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| In any workers’ compensation program, the first goal is to prevent injuries by hiring employees who are capable of meeting the physical demands of their jobs. Once there is an injury, the challenge becomes transitioning employees back to work as soon as they are medically able. |
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Too often, employers and medical providers are forced to make subjective decisions when it comes to job placement or transitional duty assignments. Accurately and objectively measuring an employee's physical capabilities against job requirements is, at best, difficult. Even more challenging is ensuring those measurement standards are accurately reproduced across the organization.
Functional and physical capacity testing can provide unique tools to help lower workers’ compensation costs as well as short-term and long-term disability expenses by assigning employees to the best-fit jobs through post-offer, pre-placement screening; using objective physical measurements to validate fitness for duty following an injury; and providing objective, measurable medical evidence when evaluating a disability rating or settlement.
What Will You Say When They Ask What Happened?
Executives who are concerned about workers’ compensation costs should ask themselves the following questions:
- Are we testing new hires post-offer, pre-placement to make sure that employees can safely perform their job functions?
- Are we experiencing higher than expected impairment ratings?
- Do we have a fair, impartial way of determining an employee’s fitness for duty after a workers’ compensation injury?
- Is medical utilization unusually high?
Who's Looking Out for You?
Marsh’s Workforce Strategies Practice has teamed with BTE Technologies, a provider of technology-based physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation solutions, to offer extensive functional and physical capacity testing capabilities as well as a technology infrastructure that documents job requirements.
Using state-of-the-art human performance evaluation and rehabilitation technologies, physical capacity tests are applied consistently to produce reliable, reproducible results. In addition to measuring functional capabilities, this unique testing program also measures task effort. Together these two measurements create a realistic picture of an individual’s physical abilities.
Functional and physical capacity testing is conducted at the more than 250 centers throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Depending on individual company needs and testing volume, facilities can be set up on site and staffed to meet individual requirements. Employee confidentiality is closely protected, and all testing protocols and placement strategies meet Equal Opportunity Employment standards.
Through the testing centers, clients have access to a network of physicians, physical therapists, and other healthcare providers. Using digital evaluation technology to evaluate individual performance and physical abilities, these medical professionals can help ensure that new hires can meet the physical requirements of their assigned jobs. The same testing protocols can be used to evaluate medical improvements post injury and help determine fitness for duty in the return-to-work process.
Building the Job Bank
The process begins with a Physical Demand Analysis (PDA). Testing programs and protocols are created to meet organization-specific needs. Next, consultants measure the forces and physical demand requirements of each job and its associated tasks. Then, associated pass/fail physical standards are established for each job task. Company PDAs are stored and accessed via a secure Internet portal. Employers, claims administrators, case managers, and medical providers will all be able to quickly and easily access and reference the physical capacity measurements associated with each job task.
Injury Prevention
In the post-offer, pre-placement phase, physical capacity testing objectively assesses a new hire's ability to perform essential functions. The employee’s physical capabilities can be mapped back to job requirements to find an appropriate job. Programs can be customized to test the organization’s current employee base.
Injury Management
Following a workplace injury, physical capacity testing can help guide an employee through the return-to-work process. PDAs give a clear description of the specific demands of each job task. Functional testing provides an independent assessment of the employee’s capabilities and ability to return to the workplace. Testing results can be used to customize a transitional duty assignment based on the PDA for specific jobs and work tasks. If functional testing was used in the pre-placement phase, pre- and post-injury results can also be used to objectively measure disability and impairment ratings in the resolution of claims.
If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us.
Kroll, which recently became part
of Marsh, offers services that complement Risk Consulting's. Learn about Kroll's
background screening capabilities.
If you are seeking information about insurance and related services, please visit marsh.com.
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