Workers Compensation Utah is a system of rules in Utah designed to pay the expenses of employees who are harmed while performing job-related duties. They are designed to ensure that employees who are injured or disabled on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses.
Workers Compensation Utah Works
All employers in Utah are required by law to have workers’ compensation insurance. Only some employees are excluded like some agricultural workers, sole proprietors, partners and members of limited liability companies, and real estate brokers. Employers are required to have workers’ compensation but it does not have to be the Utah state workers’ compensation program. Companies are allowed to purchase their workers’ compensation insurance through independent brokers.
How it works:
After an accident, the injured person should seek medical attention for injuries and notify his/her employer right away. The employer is then obliged to file a report with their insurance company within seven days.
Regarding medical care, if the employer or insurer has notified an insurance company of an existing “preferred provider organization” (PPO), they must go there for the initial medical appointment. The insurance company normally has 21 days to approve or deny your claim.
NOTE: For employees with any on-the-job injuries, the report must be submitted immediately after their injury. If they do not, they have up to 180 days to report their injury or illness. Then their employer must fill out an “Employer’s First Report of Injury or Illness” (Form 122) within 7 days of when the employee filed their report.
A doctor visit is needed to fill out a “Physician’s Initial Report of Injury or Illness” (Form 123) within 7 days of the first doctor’s office visit. The doctor you visit can only be changed once if you are unhappy with the one you currently visit. Also, an employee is able to choose a chiropractor as their doctor. However, beyond 8 office visits to the chiropractor must be affirmed through your employer.
General qualification for Utah’s workers’ compensation
- You have to be injured or ill due to work-related tasks or conditions
- Death occurring due to on-the-job tasks or the environment of the workplace
- Have to provide a convincing argument that the job may have afflicted your personal health
- Injury or illness was not intentionally done
- Illness or injury did not take place before employment with the company or business that you are filing for to get workers’ compensation
- Injury or illness was not self-inflicted
The above are only general qualifications to get the “general” compensation.
For severe and double workers’ compensation benefits, you must meet the following:
- Injury or illness was an effect of intentional misconduct by your employer
- Illness or injury was an effect of serious misconduct by your employer
Injuries often covered by Workers’ Compensation include:
- Mental instability
- Broken bones, joints, etc
- Burns, cuts, and scrapes
- Scars
- Injuries due to repeating stress
Utah’s Workers’ Compensation Laws
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Some Types of Benefits:
- Medical benefits: all reasonable and necessary medical expenses from authorized providers (Sec. 34A-2-417, 34A-2-418)
- Temporary partial disability: to compensate for temporary inability to work at full capacity; paid at two-thirds of employee’s average weekly wage (Sec. 34A-2-410 et seq.)
- Permanent total disability: payment where the employee is unable to engage in gainful employment (Sec. 34A-2-413)
- Vocational rehabilitation: services to help injured workers return to work (Sec. 34A-2-413.5)
- Death benefits: payments to surviving dependent(s) and up to $9,000 in funeral expenses if the employee dies from work-related injury or illness (Sec. 34A-2-414, 34A-2-418, R612-200-6)
Employer Rights & Obligations:
- Employers are required by law to provide workers’ compensation insurance for all employees, with limited exceptions (Sec. 34A-2-201, 34A-2-103 et seq.);
- Employer/insurer must report the injury to the insurance carrier within 7 days (Sec. 34A-2-407(5), R612-200-1)
The average cost of workers’ compensation per employee according to insure
This information is captured from Insureon
- The state(s) where your employees work
- Your annual payroll
- Your industry
- The type of work done by your employees
- Your claims history
How much do small businesses pay for workers’ compensation?
Insureon customers pay a median premium of $47 per month, or $560 annually, for workers’ compensation. Insureon typically lists median (midpoint) costs, as averages include extremes like high-risk construction businesses that pay much more for workers’ compensation.
The average cost of a workers’ comp claim is $40,000, according to the National Safety Council. A workers’ compensation premium is likely a much better deal for your business. That’s why small business owners might purchase it even when it’s not required by law.
30% of Insureon’s small business customers pay less than $400 per year for workers’ compensation insurance and 39% pay between $400 and $800 per year.
How Are Workers’ Compensation Premiums Calculated?
The amount paid for workers’ compensation is a specific rate for every $100 of the company’s payroll. Premium is determined by the type of work done by the employees (classification rate), experience modification rate (claims history), and payroll (per $100).
Employer costs for workers’ compensation per $100 of covered payroll range from a low of $0.54 in Texas to $2.27 in Alaska. However, these numbers are deceptively simple. They encompass all types of jobs, which means they don’t reflect the different workers’ compensation costs for low-risk versus high-risk work.
The formula is:
Classification rate x Experience modification rate x (Payroll / 100) = Premium
Read Also: Direct and indirect costs of workplace accidents
Workers’ compensation class codes
These are three- or four-digit codes insurance companies use to estimate rates based on the risks of the type of work an employee performs.
Some states have their own series of workers’ compensation class codes, but many states use the codes established by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), an independent organization that gathers and analyzes data on workers’ compensation insurance.
Follow this link to see the different Workers compensation class code
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