Connell Insurors expands workers' comp focus

May 28 was Gammill’s last day as a safety consultant for the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation, a job he held for 12 years.

He’s now working for Connell Insurors in Branson, which is expanding its efforts in the workers’ compensation arena.

“We already have become what’s called certified work comp advisors,” said Tim Connell, one of the owners of Connell Insurors. Connell said that there are about 100 certified agencies in the United States and only five in Missouri.

After returning from a workers’ compensation advisors meeting, Connell attended a presentation that Gammill provided through the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation, and that’s how the two met.

In his work with the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation, Gammill said the biggest problem he frequently encountered was a lack of understanding by employers regarding what their rights were in workers’ compensation cases.

He said many employees don’t know what they are legally allowed to do to manage their clams and help reduce their premiums.

Many employers think safety is the big issue when it comes to workers’ compensation claims management, but that’s not the only thing involved.

“When I’m talking about managing claims, I’m talking about company physicians, working with your physicians, working (with) and training your supervisors and employees on return-to-work, like a light-duty work program, and getting employees back to work,” Gammill said.

Specific things that employers are allowed to do in workers’ compensation cases is to accompany the worker to workers’ compensation hearings and doctor’s appointments, Gammill said.

He added that most employers don’t realize how much influence they can have in workers’ compensation cases.

“They don’t realize that the employer actually has the control – not the carrier, not the agent, not the attorney, not the division – the employer has a lot of control,” Gammill said.

By bringing Gammill on board, Connell Insurors – a 33-year-old agency with roughly 30 employees – is hoping to help more employers understand their rights.

“Mainly, what we are trying to do is look at workers’ comp from the side of rights for the employers, and trying to make (workers’ comp) manageable. …” Connell said. “The complaint we hear more so than anything is, ‘I turned the claim over to the carrier, the carrier pays it. I don’t know anything about it. The next thing I know, they’ve paid someone (for what) I thought was a frivolous claim.’”

Self-insurance

While Gammill will sell workers’ compensation insurance policies, he’ll also help clients who want to be self-insured for workers’ compensation. Self-insurance entails having funds in place, being able to review claims … and, if needed, to pay for medical costs incurred as the result of a workplace injury.

“Right now, a lot of employers have large-deductible policies. We’ve always been trained that, like on your automobile insurance, the way to save money is to get a high deductible. But the fact is, a high-deductible in work comp saves you very little money, and if you’ve got a high deductible … a $500,000 deductible, you’re probably 10 times better off to just go ahead and self-insure because it’s a lot less expensive and you’re not really taking on any extra burden to self-insure,” Gammill said.

Companies that want to be self-insured must get approval from the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation, and in his old job, one thing Gammill did was to go out and meet with companies that applied for self-insured status and then report back to Jefferson City.

In his new job, he’ll help companies prepare for self-insurance.

“To become self-insured, you’ve got to know how to manage claims. You’ve got to have all that set up, you’ve got to have what’s called a third-party administrator to manage your claims, to administer everything,” Gammill said. “As an employer, you’ve got to find somebody to help you set up all those things.”

Right now, Gammill said, many workers’ compensation self-insured companies deal with brokers in larger cities, but he’s looking forward to being a local resource.

Fee-based structure

Sales of workers’ compensation plans come with commissions, Gammill said, but work toward helping a company become self-insured is fee-based.

“In other words, (clients) would hire us, fee-based, to go out and find the best third-party administrator … (or) the best access carrier … the best defense attorney … those are the three main components,” he said.

The fee will vary depending on the work involved, but the basic fee will be comparable to the commission on a policy with the same benefits as the self-insurance. There also will be compensation to Connell Insurors if a company saves above and beyond what’s expected when switching to self-insurance.

For example, Gammill said, most companies can save between 20 and 30 percent with self-insurance. Using that example, if a company were to save 40 percent or more, there would be additional compensation to Connell Insurors.

“If the employer isn’t saving at least probably 20 percent to 30 percent over what they were with … a policy, then we’re taking the base fee and that’s it. If they save 30 (percent), 40 (percent), 50 (percent) … we’re going to want to be compensated additionally, because there’s going to be a lot of work in that,” Gammill said. That work could be meetings with human resources staff, employees, attorneys or physicians, he added.

With employees, Gammill said, one issue is that many don’t understand what workers’ compensation is.

“They don’t realize that work comp is not a state-paid program. It’s an insurance, just like automobile insurance that their employer has to pay for, that covers them if they’re injured on-the-job. …. If you have a lot of claims, the cost is going to go up,” Gammill said. “And a lot of employees don’t realize … (that) in Missouri, anyway, work comp is not a government benefit. “

Gammill said the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation is searching for a replacement for his previous position.