Workers Comp Indemnity Reserves

The definitions for most of these terms can be found by clicking on the Definitions tab/button in the menu. I will not reiterate them here to keep the post at a readable length.



The indemnity part of claim reserves is basically the amount that is paid directly to an injured employee for:

• Wage loss - Temporary Total, Temporary Partial, Permanent Total
• Permanent reduction in function to a body part - Permanent Partial, Disfigurement
• Other - Many state-specific indemnity payments

Unlike the medical reserves, the indemnity reserves are more easily forecast. This is not to say that they are easy to predict for the lifetime of a claim. They are usually easier than the medical reserves to estimate.

One of the areas that can cause great unpredictability is if an injured employee is under consideration for a Permanent Total rating. If an adjuster has to consider the employee as being unable to return to work for the rest of his/her life the indemnity reserves can spike tremendously. If an employer can offer a return to work even with a different job function, this is very helpful to avoiding a huge reserve and may be very beneficial to the employee. Quite often, states will have "make-work" laws that prevent an employer from just making up a job for an employee to return to work. This is an area of very heavy litigation in certain states.

Using my Six Secrets/Keys to Cutting Workers Comp Costs will reduce the likelihood of extreme reserve increases and will benefit your employees. The Four Secrets tab will soon be Six Secrets. I will write a quick post after the other two are added to the list.

I may change this post as I write the ones for Medical and Expense Reserves. Check back on this post when you are reading the upcoming ones.