District Workers Comp premium will go up
During yesterday’s meeting of the Picayune School District’s Board of Trustees, Justin Ladner of BXS Insurance (subsidiary of Bancorpsouth Bank), gave the board an update on their proposed rate for Worker’s Compensation insurance for the coming year.
Lisa Persick, Director of Finance for the school district, told the board that the MOD rate for the district went up and the premium payment for Worker's Comp will be higher. She said the premium quote (from LUBA) came back at approximately $300,000.00 and she stated that Ladner was able to work to get that down about $15,000.00.
Justin Ladner explains the district's current situation for Workman's Comp insurance
Ladner said that the rate is impacted by the last three years claims. Ladner explained that the district had over $500,000.00 in claims in 2017 while in the current year, claims are down to $113,000.00 and the district’s numbers are trending down for severity. He said there are 8 claims open for over $50,000.00., one of which just closed for $76,000.00.
The other 7 claims incurred according to Ladner are “slip / trip” claims and include: $97,000.00 - a cement parking barrier (tripped on barrier), $76,000.00 - lights were turned off in a classroom (tripped and fell), $76,000.00 -moved a machine away from a wall (popped shoulder), $86,000.00 – carrying ice chest (shoulder tear), $88,000.00 – hit an elbow on a mounted TV (while painting), $75,000.00 – snow related trip, for a total of $548,000.00 incurred.
Ladner pointed out that only $294,000.00 has been paid and he is working to get the other open $250,000.00 closed out. Since January 2018 through September 2018, Ladner said only $1,700.00 in claims has been paid. He added that while the district was looking at over $500,000.00 that was paid out last year, this year looks to be only around $113,000.00.
Ladner said the the MOD went up to 1.65 from 1.16 based on the three years.
From previous reporting (link to December 12, 2017 meeting), the rating was 1.46 for 2015 , in 2016 it was 1.30, and 2017 was at 1.12.
The experience modifier (MOD), is a numeric representation of your company's claim experience. MODs are based on how an entity (business) compares to others in that industry with similarly classified employees. An average MOD is set at 1.00. Employers with fewer and less severe accidents than average have a MOD of less than 1.00.
The board voted to approve the quote from LUBA, the current carrier for the district.
Also during the meeting, the board approved to accept grants from the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation Grants for:
Creating Tomorrow’s Scientists $7,030.00 –Mrs. Chrissy Rester, PJHS, will use the funds to purchase new science lab equipment and materials.
Pearl River County Robotics Team $7,095.72 –Mrs. Karen Balch, Pearl River County Robotics Team, will use the funding to help support their work in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Technology $8,975.00 – PMHS will use the funding to purchase Google Management System for 110 Chromebooks, 20 new Chromebooks, and Go Guardian software for 250 students.
