WC California - Small Urgent Care Visits - Good or Bad
Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 10:25 am
I have a California client with Workers Comp. He does light industrial.
He has been sending his guys to a local urgent care facility for minor things like cuts, particle in the eye, headaches, etc.... He has been paying out of pocket. He averages about 4 to 5 visits per year.
I called the WC carrier and asked them if he should be running this through them. They gave me the text book answer of "All claims must be reported."
Naturally my client is concerned that if he files a bunch of small claims they are going to jack up his premium at renewal. And they will have a long paper trail to justify it.
Urgent Care visits average between $500 and $1000. Employees that go there typicaly return to work the next day with no further incident.
Second concern - he had one guy that injured his arm and had to go to the clinic a total of four times over several days for the same incident. Something like this seems like it could turn into a bigger issue.
So does he pay Urgent Care the $2,000 to $3,000 out of pocket every year and avoid using his WC, or should he file these with WC and not be so concerned about premium increases?
Any advice is welcome.
Thank you.
Christian Bevington
He has been sending his guys to a local urgent care facility for minor things like cuts, particle in the eye, headaches, etc.... He has been paying out of pocket. He averages about 4 to 5 visits per year.
I called the WC carrier and asked them if he should be running this through them. They gave me the text book answer of "All claims must be reported."
Naturally my client is concerned that if he files a bunch of small claims they are going to jack up his premium at renewal. And they will have a long paper trail to justify it.
Urgent Care visits average between $500 and $1000. Employees that go there typicaly return to work the next day with no further incident.
Second concern - he had one guy that injured his arm and had to go to the clinic a total of four times over several days for the same incident. Something like this seems like it could turn into a bigger issue.
So does he pay Urgent Care the $2,000 to $3,000 out of pocket every year and avoid using his WC, or should he file these with WC and not be so concerned about premium increases?
Any advice is welcome.
Thank you.
Christian Bevington