Beyond Coverage: How Berkley Industrial Comp Delivers More For Our Insureds

In this special edition of Adjusted, the podcast joins the conversation of a recent Webinar that Berkley Industrial Comp shared with their insureds and agents-Beyond Coverage: How Berkley Industrial Comp Delivers More For Our Insureds. 

When workplace accidents happen in high-hazard industries, having the right workers' compensation partner can make all the difference. Berkeley Industrial Comp stands apart through their focus on expertise, service, and innovative approaches tailored specifically for businesses facing significant workplace risks.

What truly differentiates Berkeley Industrial Comp? It starts with their claims team, where adjusters maintain substantially lower caseloads than industry standards and average 15 years of experience. This expertise translates into proactive claims handling and creative solutions that optimize outcomes while staying within statutory guidelines. Their empathetic resolution model puts injured workers first, recognizing that caring about people leads to better results and lower costs for everyone involved.

The risk management team brings nearly a century of combined field experience from the very industries they serve. Unlike checkbox-focused inspections, Berkeley's safety consultants understand your operations because they've worn the boots and done the work themselves. This yields practical, achievable safety recommendations that actually reduce claims - as evidenced by clients who've seen 40% reductions in frequency and dramatic improvements in experience modification ratings.

Perhaps most uniquely, Berkeley's Business Engagement Unit eliminates the frustration of being transferred between departments or waiting for return calls. Their team answers live and is trained across multiple specialties to resolve issues on the first contact. The MedCall service provides 24/7 access to emergency room physicians with occupational medicine experience, ensuring injured workers receive appropriate care while creating documentation that protects all parties.

The results speak for themselves - from helping amputees return to heavy equipment operation through innovative prosthetics to engineering solutions that eliminate repetitive motion injuries. Berkeley Industrial Comp delivers on their promise to do right, think differently, and never forget to care about the people they serve.

Want to experience the difference? Reach out today to learn how Berkeley can customize their services to your unique needs and help you create a safer, more productive workplace with lower insurance costs over time.

🎧 Like, follow, and leave a five-star review to help us bring these insights to more listeners!

Season 9 is brought to you by Berkley Industrial Comp. This episode is hosted by Greg Hamlin.

Visit the Berkley Industrial Comp blog for more!
Got questions? Send them to [e-mail]
For music inquiries, contact Cameron Runyan at [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello everybody and welcome to Adjusted.
I'm your host, greg Hamlin,coming at you from beautiful
Birmingham, Alabama, and I'mexcited to share with you today
this special episode of Adjusted.
We recently had a webinar forBerkeley Industrial Comp where

(00:32):
we showcased how ourorganization is different and
what we offer our policyholders,and it was a pretty amazing
conversation where we reallyshowcased some of the things
that we do different that reallydifferentiate Berkeley
Industrial Comp from some of theother carriers that are out
there in the marketplace.
And so I'm excited to sharethis special episode with you
and hope you learn a little bitmore about what we do here at

(00:55):
Berkeley Industrial Comp, and Iremind you always to do right,
think differently and don'tforget to care.
Enjoy.
Thank you again for joining us.
We're glad you're here.
My name is Greg Hamlin, I am theChief Claims Officer for
Berkeley Industrial Comp andwe're going to be today
presenting a webinar on, beyondcoverage, how Berkeley

(01:17):
Industrial Comp delivers morefor our insurers.
And first, before I even gettoo far into introducing our
expert panel, I just want to letyou guys know I've been with
Berkeley Industrial Comp now fornearly seven years and it
really this is a specialorganization that really
provides some services that areoutside the box and I know

(01:38):
everybody feels like they're thebest at what they do.
But I'm really proud of theteam that I'm part of and I
think today you're going tolearn some of the things that
make us special.
So we're going to hear from ourexpert panel, who represent
different parts of ouroperations and what we offer to
our insureds.
I always say, hopefully younever need us because everything

(02:01):
goes smoothly, but in reality,we know that accidents happen
and when they happen we're herefor you and we reality.
We know that accidents happenand when they happen we're here
for you and we want to make surethat that's a seamless process.
So I'd like to go through andintroduce our expert panel so
you can get to know them.
I've already told you a littlebit about myself.
I'm the Chief Claims Officerfor Berkeley Industrial Comp.

(02:22):
I've been in the industry 20plus years and my claim to fame
is I'm an Indiana Hoosier andI'm crazy and have six kids.
So if you ever want to knowwhat that's like, feel free to
ping me outside of here and Ican tell you what it's like to
have a three year old and a 20year old at the same time and
everything in between.
So that's me.
Next up we have my good friendLuella Alcorn.

(02:45):
Luella and I go back.
We've worked across severalcompanies together and she is
amazing.
I'm going to let her tell you alittle bit about herself and
what she does here at BerkeleyIndustrial.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Hi, I am the Senior Business Operations Manager.
We have an office in Lexington,kentucky, and that's where I
sit.
It is beautiful in Kentucky.
Fun fact about me is I am nineof 13 children.
I'm born and raised in St Louisand that's where I attribute a
lot of my hard work.
That I learned it's fromgrowing up and being a hard
worker nine of 13.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Nice to be here.
See, you have to show me up.
I say I have six kids.
She goes.
I'm nine of 13.
You see how this goes.
But though, luella is amazing.
We're going to learn a lot fromher.
I'm really glad to have her aspart of my team and she adds a
lot to Berkeley Industrial.
Next up, my good friend ChrisDrake and Chris and I have the

(03:36):
opportunity to work together onthe claim side, and we also have
worked across a couple ofdifferent companies together,
and so, chris, I will let youintroduce yourself and put in a
few good words for our Hoosiers.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
First things first.
We probably need to change mypicture.
I look like I ate myself there.
But, chris Drake, I am a claimsmanager.
I've been in the work compindustry about 17 years.
I work remotely from theIndianapolis area.
I am a Pacers fan.
I am actually past the morningphase at this point.
I've been able to accept thatI'm moving on to the Colts.

(04:10):
But I'm like Greg who, I thinklow-key, probably still cries
himself to sleep in the Pacers.
I'm hurting.
I'm looking forward to the Coltscoming up in August and
September, but I'm not thatoptimistic with our quarterback
situation.
But I'm a glass half-full guy,so I'm not that optimistic with
our quarterback situation, butI'm a glass half full guy, so
I'm channeling those vibes.
If you're Colts fans, let's geton this train.
We're going to have a goodseason.
But looking forward to talkingto all you guys today.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Thanks, chris.
Chris is definitely an expertin the claims field, so we'll be
learning a lot more about whathe does and what we do on the
claims side from Chris.
Finally, I want to tell youabout my good friend, duane
hathaway, who also is inkentucky, as mentioned earlier
as people were logging in.
My favorite thing fun factabout duane is when he meets

(04:53):
with our insurers he always sayswe get in where we fit in, and
so I had to get that out therebefore he does, because that's
my favorite saying he's with oursafety safety team.
So, dwayne, I'll let you takeit from here and tell us a
little bit about you.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
Yeah, thanks, greg.
I'll talk more about where wefit in a little bit later in the
webinar.
But I too have several kids,not six, not 13, but I have four
and they range from one to 12,so quite a gap there.
If Greg doesn't have theanswers, maybe I do, so feel
free to ping me as well.

(05:27):
We stay busy fishing andplaying games.
And, funny fact, yesterday Iwent fishing with my son and
caught a nice bass, probablyfour pounds, and I picked it up
to show him and as I was leaningover the edge of the kayak it
completely flipped over on meand I lost my breath because I
wasn't expecting it.

(05:48):
But I made it back up, flippedit, brought it to the shore and
unloaded.
That water mitigated that risk.
And we'll talk a little bitmore about the services we have
shortly that can help youmitigate some of your exposure
in the realm of workers' comp.
But that's a little bit aboutme and my family.
Thanks for asking, greg.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Thanks, dwayne, we're glad to have you.
Dwayne's definitely an expertand we're lucky to have him.
So, as we go a little bitfurther, we're going to dive a
little deeper into each of theareas that we offer services we
offer to our policyholders andso we're going to talk through
those different areas and thenat the end we'll have a little
Q&A.

(06:25):
So we're going to start withour next slide, which should be
delivering more from claims.
So I'm a claims guy.
I started my career in claims20 years ago at the same place
that Chris did.
We learned a lot about workers'compensation and we've taken

(06:46):
what we've learned in theindustry and really innovated
upon it here at BerkeleyIndustrial Comp.
So I want Chris first just totalk a little bit about what
makes Berkeley Industrial claimsdifferent.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Absolutely, and I got put on a clock here so I'll try
to make it as brief as possible.
But if you look specifically atwhat we do and what our
appetite is, our exposure ishigh severity, low frequency.
As a result, the margin oferror is significantly smaller.
Every claim, not every injuryis going to be the same.

(07:25):
Each one of them is going topresent with their own set of
challenges.
So we acknowledge that everyinjured worker, insured has
varying degrees of experienceand knowledge of workers'
compensation.
You're going to have someinjured workers that may never
have had a claim before, andthen you're going to have those
unlucky few that literally needto go into work every day and
bubble wrap right.
So we're going to have someinsureds that just don't know a
lot about workers' compensationand others that have more
sophisticated risk programs.

(07:45):
It doesn't matter Wherever youare.
We're going to meet you whereyou are and we're going to
shepherd you through this claimsprocess.
We tailor our program based oneach individual insured's needs,
and then what we do is weleverage our adjuster's
technical expertise, as well asthe vendor partners that we work
with, to optimize some of theoutcomes.
So, greg, to get to your point,how do we accomplish this?

(08:05):
What is the biggerdifferentiators from the
customer standpoint?
First and foremost, I would saythat we have significantly
lower caseloads in the industryaverage.
That is by design.
We do it because of the levelof claims that we're going to
handle.
But secondly, it allows theadjusters the opportunity to
give the individual interworkersthe attention that they need.

(08:27):
We can also focus on theproactive claims handling.
We provide the adjusters withthe autonomy to handle the
claims, to make the decisions,and then we empower them to use
creative thinking to be able tofind solutions.
So if you think about howworkers' compensation works, the
statute really is the frameworkfor administering the benefits,
but what we want to do is wewant to explore the creative

(08:48):
solutions within the confines ofthe statute to help optimize
these outcomes.
So not only are we tailoringour programs to the insureds,
let's put that onto the injuredworkers as well.
Each one of them is going tohave their own specific case
facts and then we're going to beable to pivot as the case facts
change throughout the life ofthe claim.
To put this into a practicalexample, if you think about an

(09:08):
injured worker, they're givenlight duty restrictions and then
there has to be a decision madeat that point by the insured
Are you going to be able toaccommodate these restrictions
or not?
If they're not able toaccommodate those, we're going
to stop them right there and wewant to be able to address that
situation versus revisiting itagain at the next office visit.
Why that matters.
Every day of lost time is justgoing to add to the total

(09:31):
incurred on the file, which isgoing to impact their mod down
the road.
Secondly, you have to take theinjured worker into
consideration.
They're probably on lost timebenefits which aren't going to
equate to what they wouldnormally make with their regular
wages.
So, with that being said, we'regoing to have those discussions
with the insured.
We want to know okay, what isit that you can accommodate?
Let's take that, let's framethat, take it back to the doctor

(09:54):
and then try to negotiate adifferent release so that we can
accommodate those restrictions.
If that still doesn't work, wehave the opportunity to leverage
some of our external partners.
We use re-employability a lot.
They're an amazing company.
They help us with continuing toplace an injured worker into
temporary transitionalemployment.

(10:14):
That will bridge the gap fromthat light duty to where they
need to get, to the full dutyrelease.
So really, from that standpoint, it comes down to identifying
the needs of the insureds,developing the solutions that
will help to optimize theoverall outcome of that specific
claim but then also to mitigateon the future claims.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Oh, I was just going to say I love that, chris.
I feel like when you look atBerkeley Industrial Comp, this
outside-the-box thinking comesfrom the fact that our average
adjuster has 15 years ofexperience.
That's a lot of industryexperience and it allows us to
give them a lot of autonomy andfreedom that a lot of other
carriers wouldn't give theirstaff with those lower caseloads

(10:54):
, so we can really driveoutcomes.
Chris, as you start to thinkthrough some of the other things
that are special about us, talka little bit about our
jurisdictional expertise andwhat that looks like.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, I think what we try to do is we want to
minimize the number ofjurisdictions that each adjuster
handles.
That allows us to be experts inthe field.
We can leverage thatjurisdictional expertise and
we're spread across the country.
We have adjusters in all thetime zones that we ensure.
We encourage our adjusters toattend seminars specific to the
states that they handle, butthen also pursue continuing

(11:29):
education as well.
That's going to help them tosharpen their ax and hone their
crafts.
And another thing, greg, just tokind of go back to your point,
I want to hit on this with the15 years of experience, that is
significantly more than theindustry average.
And I think, if you think aboutwhat we do day in and day out,
we are high severity right.
We are equipped to be able tohandle those claims as

(11:50):
immediately when they come inthe door we're going to be able
to jump on them and deploy theresources.
Why that matters is otherpeople may not have that ability
to jump right.
Then it's a shock when they geta high severity or a severe
case.
The adjusters do this day inand day out.
They're calm, they're collectedunder pressure.
They know how to respond tothose.
And I think the other thing,too, is you have to take into

(12:12):
consideration the consistencystandpoint.
Workers' compensation claimshave a tail and it's rare in the
industry I think we can allagree to that to have one
adjuster handle a claim fromcradle to grave.
And if you put that in aninter-worker's perspective,
that's going to be extremelyfrustrating to get bounced
around and not have oneconsistent line of communication

(12:33):
.
They're going to get that inour model.
They know that they can trustthey're going to receive
consistent service, payment ofbenefits and also allow them to
focus solely on their recoveryand nothing else.
They also have that direct lineof communication.
So you're having injuredworkers, insureds, agents all
have that direct line directlyto the adjuster.
They can pick up the phone,they can call them.

(12:54):
They're going to get anadjuster on the line.
Also, we have the ability to dotexting.
So I wanted to go back to thatpiece because I think that's
something that we really want toshowcase that the adjusters do
differently.
And I think the fourth thingthat I would really try to
hammer on outside of thejurisdictional expertise, greg,
is the empathetic resolutionmodel.
I think this is probably by farthe most near and dear to me

(13:17):
and I think this is what is areal differentiator from what we
do.
If you think about an injuredworker from their perspective,
they're not going to get up thatday or go into work thinking
I'm going to get injured.
This is an absolute disruptionto their daily lives, their
well-being and their possiblefinancial stability.
So we're going to take theperspective of trying to look at
it from the injured worker'slens.

(13:38):
How would we want a claim to behandled if it was us that was
injured?
And then we're going to try toreplicate that on what we
deliver for the injured workersand also the service for our
insureds With our caseloads.
It allows us to be able to giveour undivided attention to the
adjusters and then also thespecific needs of the injured
workers and then their employers.

(13:59):
So some of the examples no, goahead.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
Chris, I was just going to say I have a friend of
mine in the industry that saidyou're the only company I know
that sends cookies after asurgery to injured workers.
And it really is true, becausewhen we think about our injured
workers, we care about them andwe really believe that by caring
about them and investing intheir recovery, we're going to
get a better outcome, we'regoing to avoid unnecessary

(14:25):
litigation and we're going togain cooperation, and
cooperation gained between thetwo of us.
That partnership is going toresult in less spend and a
better outcome.
But, chris, your thoughts onthat and another thing I wanted
you to talk about is just whathappens when we get a claim late
versus when we get a claimreported on time.

(14:47):
I know outcomes are importantto us and we have those times
where we get the claim a week, amonth, sometimes three months
late, and then we have the onesthat we get within hours.
What are some of the challengesin that?

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah, I think.
First, to go back to your firstpoint, another thing too we do
is we reroute the letters thatwe send in to workers, right?
So that's going to alleviatesome of the confusion with the
letters.
And then also we send out thewind chimes to people that lost
loved ones as a result of awork-related fatality, and then
also the handwritten notes.
I don't know if you mentionedthat, but we send out the

(15:23):
handwritten notes to injuredworkers just to give that
personal touch.
But going back to the secondpart of that question, if you
look at the late reporting theyclaim it's not only going to
impact the overall treatmentprocess.
You have the impact ontreatment overall, on lost time,
and then you have thesubrogation component.
So the overall treatment we vetour providers.

(15:44):
We have in-network providersthat we can direct someone to.
So when you're reporting theclaim timely, it allows us to
immediately jump in to get theminto a provider that knows
workers' compensation, that wecan work through the
occupational return to workprocess, but also that we know
is extremely vetted.
Then you have the light dutyand the work status component

(16:05):
that we can immediately start towork with the insurer to be
able to coordinate or, if weneed to initiate that
transitional employment.
And I think the third part ofthat too is your subrogation
piece.
It's all about preserving theevidence as well.
So if anything could bediscarded, destroyed, if you
have a potential violation witha substance abuse or something

(16:27):
like that, you're going to wantto have that immediate talk
screen.
So any of that is negated if wedon't have a claim reported
timely, and then we're going tobe chasing our tail.
At that point in time we canget creative, but it's always
better if the claim is reportedimmediately so that we can jump
in.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Great points, chris.
Well, I appreciate everythingChris shared on claims.
We're going to circle back inthe Q&A and also talk a little
bit about some case studies downthe road.
I want to switch gears here andtalk a little bit about risk
management.
Dwayne, as I said your famousquote we get in where we fit in.
So I know there are a lot ofinsurance companies that offer

(17:06):
risk management programs.
What separates us, dwayne, inyour experience, from what some
of our competition does?

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yeah, thanks for the question.
Really, the biggestdifferentiating factor is
industry experience.
Our team hasn't sat ininsurance risk management roles
their entire career, which iswhat you typically find with
most other carriers.
If you were to grab all theresumes and combine them, from

(17:38):
our team you're going to seenearly 100 years of industry
experience and then dozens ofyears of insurance experience.
But when you combine them youget a really effective,
high-impact risk managementconsultant, because we're able
to put ourselves in the client'sshoes when we're working with

(18:02):
them.
I'd say that's probably thebiggest differentiator, because
when we deliver these services,we're able to do it in the right
mindset.
We know what reasonablerecommendations are.
We know when we put somethingout there how achievable it is
and by in doing so, we're ableto find really effective

(18:26):
programming outcomes for ourclients when it comes to safety
programs and loss controlstrategies.
Now, a lot of our loss controlservices are centered around
on-site visits, virtual visits.
It's just going to depend onwhat the client's looking for
and what type of internalresources they already have.

(18:47):
And I'm getting to it, greg.
I'm getting there because weget in where we fit in.
We're dealing with a clientthat's got a full-time safety
director and a few safetyauditors and they've got a
handle on things.
We're going to provide servicewhere they need it or where they
ask for it, and that might becoming out once a year to do a

(19:10):
program review with them orvisit a specialty site that
they've got going on.
Conversely, we might have asmaller client that doesn't have
a safety manager or safetydirector.
You've got an HR manager thatis also tasked with safety and
they may lean on us a littleharder and that may be a couple

(19:31):
extra visits or virtualconsultations or working with
them remotely to develop asafety program.
We have a lot of clients and I'msure there's several on the
webinar right now that deal withIS, networld and Nevada as part
of the pre-qualificationprocess for a lot of their
larger clients, and we're ableto help them deliver solutions

(19:55):
for compliance in that realm,which they really appreciate.
We also have a resource calledthe Risk Management Center that
our clients have access to andwe have access to to help
deliver solutions.
It's an online complianceplatform targeted at small
businesses with safety andHR-related solutions.

(20:18):
It's got hundreds of videos,everything from housekeeping to
fall protection or USDOTcompliance, and the HR suite of
resources has got state-specificsolutions on drug screening and
sexual harassment.
So really, a comprehensivecompliance platform, and we pay

(20:38):
for that for our customers.
They don't need to pay a dime.
It's included in the premiumthat they pay to us.
And, the way we see it, thebetter they do, the better we do
.
So we're happy to do this forour clients.
We're happy to provide theresources and the expertise.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, no, dwayne, I've been out on a visit or two
with you in the past and one ofthe things that impresses me
with you, dwayne, and all yourteammates, is just exactly what
you said experience, that levelof experience, dwayne.
If I'm remembering right,you've got construction
background prior to ever gettinginto claims, and we've got
folks who've had miningexperience, who've been

(21:19):
underground, we've got safetypeople who have worked in these
high hazard industries.
So, rather than having somebodywith a clipboard come in there
with a check the box who doesn'ttruly understand the work that
our insureds are doing, you guyshave.
Not only do you understand it,you've done it.
Would you agree, dwayne?

Speaker 4 (21:37):
Absolutely.
I'm glad you mentioned thechecklist because I have been
absolutely worn out by checklistcarriers.
They come in and we'll drag youaround your premises checking
boxes and they got to make surethey get them all done.
Or the underwritingdepartment's disappointed when
they get back and it is a verydull process that doesn't

(22:00):
deliver many results to theclient.
It may bring back theinformation that they need for
underwriting, but the clientisn't winning and we want the
client to win because again I'llsay it again the better they do
, the better we do.
So it's important that wedeliver results that the client
is able to do something with andmitigate their exposures and

(22:24):
ultimately mitigate or minimizetheir experience modification
rating so that they're payingless for insurance.
They're having less losses.
Everybody wins.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Thanks, duane.
I definitely appreciate yourapproach, and I want to switch
gears again and this time, talkabout another aspect of what we
offer that is pretty importantand something I'm actually
really proud of, and that's ourbusiness engagement unit.
This idea came out of probablya lot of thought that went in

(22:55):
about four or five years ago ofhow the industry is changing,
and one of the things that Ifeel strongly about, passionate
about and I know Luella does soyou're going to hear from her in
just a minute is how importantit is that we're available for
the insureds and agents we serve.
That communication is key.
There is nothing morefrustrating for me than being

(23:18):
passed around like a Sundayplate and put on hold and
transferred five times and thenI still don't have an answer to
the problem that I have, and sowhen we created the business
engagement unit, we wanted toseparate ourselves from the rest
of the industry as someone whotruly understands how to service
our clients.
So, lua, I'd love for you totalk about how that starts right

(23:39):
at the onboarding phase.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
It's my favorite topic, as Greg mentioned.
I am very passionate about it,and the actual name of our
department says what we do.
We engage with you and you canchoose how you would like to
engage with us.
So I'd like to highlight a fewthings that I feel do set us
apart from other carriers.
Common times that you wouldhave a question, whether you're

(24:03):
an agent or a policyholder isonboarding, and that could be
new policies, but it also couldbe a renewal policy.
A payment plan could change, oryou could add states or class
codes and you might need someupdated information.
So our onboarding program iscustomized to you.
We customize it to your paymentplans, we customize it to the

(24:24):
effective dates of your policyand we customize the information
that you're going to need atnew or renewal, to what we feel
is important for you to knowabout.
Additionally, at renewal isbecause sometimes the
information has changed, sothat's a very important time for
us to make sure that you'reaware of any changes that have
been made to the last policyeffective date and now.

(24:46):
So then, in those emails, I wantto make sure that you're
understanding that we areoffering multiple options on how
do you wish to engage with theinformation that we provide you.
Is the email sufficient and youread it and the email gives you
all the information you need,and that's sufficient.
Or there's a video that we'vecreated.
It's me on the video, and so doyou want to digest the

(25:08):
information via a video where wenavigate our website and our
portal?
Or there is an option for youto click a link and schedule a
meeting with me, and so if youprefer to have a meeting
dedicated to me and you caninvite whoever you'd wish to
participate at your place ofbusiness, invite everyone, and
we can do a customized meetingfor you.

(25:28):
The other thing that are goahead.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
I was just going to say those kinds of meetings are
were created for people like mewho are a little technically
challenged.
The video is probably not goingto work, but if I have 15
minutes with Luella, I'm good togo.
I'll be ready to use our portal.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yep and again.
So that is how are you alearner?
And if it is a meeting, thebeauty of that is then I can
share my screen, you can shareyour screen right, and we can
walk you through access to theportal, any of the questions
that you have.
So, again, those are allavailable to you.
The other thing is like throughthe life of your policy, how we
support you.
There are multiple ways thatyou can engage with us there as

(26:05):
well.
We answer our phone calls live.
My department has shifts thatthey take and we answer the
phone calls live.
The only reason why we wouldn'tis if we're on the phone with
another customer, feelcomfortable in leaving a message
and we will return your call assoon as possible.
But we do that and we havetraining in all the different
topics.
So if you have a claimsquestion, we're trained to

(26:27):
answer those.
If you have an underwritingquestion, we're trained to
answer that.
If you have a finance question,we're trained to answer those.
So to Greg's point, we're nottransferring you to three
different people depending onwhat your questions are.
That's taken a lot of time toget our employees trained, but
we see the value in that whereyou can reach one person and get
your questions answered there.

(26:51):
Another thing that we supportyou with is in claim reporting.
That's another time where youneed us to be there for you.
We have partnered with a vendornamed MedCall, which is a
Teladoc service, and that is a24-7 available service to you.
If you call MedCall onChristmas Day, they're going to
answer the phone and they arenot just intake of the claim.
That sets up the claim for you.
But then you can have yourinjured employee speak with an

(27:12):
emergency room physician withoccupational medicine experience
, and that's really valuable.
They're going to be talking andspeaking to them and giving
them recommendations based ontheir industry, their injury and
directing them to theappropriate level of care for
their injury.
Do they need to be seenimmediately?
Can we schedule appointment andwait?
But that's a cost savings toyou and us making sure that

(27:36):
they're going to the appropriatelevel of care.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
I was just going to add.
Another piece of that med callthat sometimes gets overlooked
is those ER physicians.
Those visits are recorded andwe have access to those
recordings later.
So hopefully we live in aperfect world where no one's
story would ever change.
And they hurt their left elbowand their left elbow is the
claim and the left elbow iseverything.

(27:58):
But we've seen body creepbefore, where something's a left
elbow and now it's a right knee, and now it's a left shoulder,
where something's a left elbowand now it's a right knee and
now it's a left shoulder.
And what's wonderful aboutMedCall is part of that service
and we pay for that as a carrier.
But part of that service ismaking sure we have that

(28:20):
document where we can go backand listen to that recording
should we need to, and that'sreally helped us in several
different cases where there havebeen some questionable claims,
several different cases wherethere have been some
questionable claims.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yes, another item to a previous topic that you talked
about with Chris is thatdetails get fuzzy if you wait to
report a claim.
So that's another plug fortimely reporting.
And our supervisor's incidentinvestigation report actually
says report this in the shift.
The incident occurs If you letthat employee wait two or three
days.

(28:48):
It's not just the shoulder thathurts, now my neck hurts and my
back hurts as well.
So you want to report thatinjury as soon as possible.
And then to Greg's point, thenthose calls are recorded as well
.
So, yes, the last thing I wantedto mention is just making sure
that all of our customers,agents and policy holders would
have access to our portal, andwe have listened to the feedback

(29:12):
from our customers, the itemsthat they would like to see.
They've given us enhancementsuggestions and we've added
additional information ordetails to our portal based on
your feedback, so that thethings that you want to have
available to you are there foryou.
And the last thing I'll sayabout all of these items is this
is all based on the contactsthat we have for you at the

(29:33):
policy level.
So if we don't have the correctcontacts, we could be sending
these emails to the incorrectpeople.
Or if the correct people don'thave the correct contacts, we
could be sending these emails tothe incorrect people.
Or if you don't have thecorrect people, don't have
access to the portal, then weneed to make sure that we're
getting that.
So please make sure that you'reletting us know and anytime
that someone comes on to yourplace of employment that you
need us to have as far as acontact for your policy
information.

(29:53):
Please let us know to make surethat you're getting all the
information that you need.
Thanks, Greg.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
No, thank you, Luella .
So I think one thing thatresonated across all three of
our experts that I think reallysets us apart in the industry is
expertise and service.
And I think because we knowthat we write high hazard
industries that where dangerousjobs require services like what
we offer, we're prepared for itand we're not hope we.

(30:21):
Well, I think some carrierswrite policies and hope there's
never a claim.
We know that there are going tobe some losses and our goal is
to make sure that we get thebest possible outcome.
That Dwayne's team sets it upfrom the front end and we've
even done after action reviewswhen something has happened,
where our safety team can comein and make some suggestions on
what could be done in the futureto improve safety, Because

(30:43):
sometimes we're holding up thatbass and the kayak flips over
and we didn't see it coming andwe can go back and do that after
action review and say well, youknow what, maybe we should have
done something a littledifferent to hold it up.
How do we position ourselves toavoid that in the future when
something does go wrong?
So I want to move into thesecond part of this webinar,

(31:06):
which is talking about some ofthe real success stories that we
have.
So I'm going to ask each of youstart with Chris, and we'll
kind of go around the horn andtalk about an actual success
story where what we've justtalked about was live and in
action.
So, chris, we'll start with youfrom a claims perspective,
share a success story.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
I'm going to preface this by saying this is a really
complex situation so I'm goingto do the best that I can to do
this claim justice.
But there's a plug becausethere is a podcast that Greg did
on Adjusted with the adjuster,julie Greer, who's an amazing,
catastrophic adjuster.
So it's probably moreentertaining than the murder
mysteries or any crime types topodcasts you're going to listen

(31:50):
to.
So check it out.
But anyway, the injured workersustained a traumatic injury to
the below the wrist or to thewrist ultimately resulted in the
injured worker having anamputation below the elbow,
treated at a known center ofexcellence, highly motivated to
return to work as a heavyequipment operator.
The problem was the prostheticfittings were not resulting in

(32:10):
the function that would allowthe injured worker the
flexibility to be able to goback and do that pre-injury work
.
Unfortunately, the providerwasn't able to provide the
individual care that allowedthat to become fully functioning
.
So what we did this is aperfect example of thinking on
the fly, creative solutions.
We were able to incur the extracost of sending the interworker
across the country to aprosthetic company which was run

(32:33):
by somebody who happened toalso suffer a traumatic
amputation, as well as a numberof the patient advocates on
staff that were as well.
So not only was it anenvironment that was created
that was suited to dealingdirectly with the injured
worker's needs.
They truly understood what theinjured worker was going to go
through and what they needed todo to make that person the best

(32:54):
version of themselves goingforward.
So they provided real-timesimulation using heavy equipment
through partnerships that theyhad with the local companies,
and then the injured worker wasable to use that new prosthetic
on that equipment that theywould have normally used, and
then they were able to make thenecessary adjustments and added
attachments while the injuredworker was on site.

(33:16):
Ultimately, what ended uphappening?
You were staring down the barrelof someone never be able to go
back to that capacity ever again, but he was able to obtain full
functioning with thatprosthetic to be able to go back
to the pre-injury employment.
So not only are they able to goback to work, but you think
about it from the case value andhow much this would cost.
There was significant costsavings because of the cost of

(33:38):
the prosthetic.
Secondly, you're going to havecosts over time that would
continue to extrapolate and thenyou're going to have the onsite
care and the fittings, but itultimately led to the injured
worker being able to get back toa full duty job, and so I think
that kind of embodies not onlythe empathy piece and making
sure that we're taking care ofthe injured workers and being
mindful of the cost of the claimas well, but also getting

(34:01):
creative on the fly and doingwhat's best for the injured
workers.
So hopefully I did that justice.
This is an incredible win onour behalf, and I'm just so
grateful to work with adjustersthat put that level of care into
injured workers.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
It's a big deal, chris, and it was a big deal for
that injured worker.
His goal was to go back to workand he was able to do that and
he regained quality of life andthat was a true partnership.
Sometimes we get caught up inthe jurisdictions.
This particular jurisdiction usas a carrier had no control.
This injured worker could dowhatever he wanted, go wherever
he wanted, and the way weachieved that outcome was going

(34:37):
back to that empatheticresolution model.
And the way we achieved thatoutcome was going back to that
empathetic resolution model,creating a partnership.
And as we built thatpartnership that allowed for him
to be open-minded to somealternatives that, yes, we put
some money on the front end, but5,000-foot view, man, this was
the best outcome for the carrier, the best outcome for the
injured worker and the bestoutcome for the insured because

(34:58):
they kept an employee in theindustry.
So I love sharing that.
If you guys want to hear moreabout that, go find the podcast
Adjusted, that our companyoffers, which has stories about
that and others other topics aswell.
So thank you, chris.
I do want to remind folks, aswe move on to the next real
success story, to go ahead andstart putting out questions that

(35:20):
you might have for our Q&A,because that segment's coming up
next.
So if you do have somequestions, we want to get those
in that Q&A as a reminder so youcan type them in there and
we'll get to them as we moveforward.
So, switching gears to riskmanagement, duane, I want to
hear from you what's one of thetrue success stories that you're
proud of as you think aboutyour risk management team.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
Happy to share.
We had a battery manufacturercome to us a few years ago, greg
mentioned earlier.
We have a very unique appetitefor workers' compensation from
mining underground totelecommunications at height, to
battery manufacturing the listgoes on.
But it's really cool what we'reable to do for folks in tough

(36:04):
spots or that do hard work.
We're a great solution.
But this battery manufacturercame to us after having some
frequency issues, especially inthe area of material handling.
And what I mean by frequency isthey're having a lot of claims
of material handling, and what Imean by frequency is they're
having a lot of claims and thishad driven their experience
modification rating up to nearlyone and a half and they're

(36:26):
paying over 100 grand more ayear for workers' comp than they
needed to.
I got close with this clientright off the bat because they
were drawn to our services dueto the high mod and how much
they were paying for theinsurance and immediately got in
there again.
Boots on the ground.
We are wearing Carhartts andboots, not suits.

(36:49):
We are industry professionals,can't stress that enough.
So get out there, spend sometime with the client, come up
with a strategy, and thisstrategy involved a lot of
engineering and this company.
I'll just plug it BerkeleyIndustrial Comp is constantly
investing in its employees sothat we can better serve you.
2022,.

(37:09):
I wrapped up my Master ofEngineering at University of
Alabama, birmingham, and thecompany paid for that so that I
can better serve every one ofyou.
I took what I learned thereprimarily in prevention through
design and worked with thisbattery manufacturer, made
assessments, reviewed their dataand used different hazard

(37:32):
analysis techniques to come upwith additional safety trainings
, adjusted safety trainings aswell as better engineering
solutions in their processes,and the results were staggering.
Really, within a year,frequency was down 40% and
recordable injuries were down tozero Today.

(37:54):
I checked with the clientyesterday because I knew this
was coming up.
They're coming up on 1,200 daysrecordable free Frequency down
40%.
You've got to think deeper thanthat.
Productivity increased as well,because now we're not having
all the lost time that we usedto have and three years down the
road, that mod is now backaround one.

(38:16):
So this was a huge win for themand for us.
Although we're not taking in asmuch premium as we initially
were a few years back, we'rehanging on to most of it and
that's just as important.
So that was just a greatexample I wanted to share with
everybody about a win-winoutcome for the client and for

(38:39):
Berkeley.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
I love that story, dwayne, and really what we're
about, whether it's an injuredworker who has a difficult claim
or whether it's coming up witha creative solution on the risk
management side to help improveour insured's results.
At the end of the day, wereally believe our expertise
will drive down costs over timefor our insureds if they work
with us and partner with us.

(39:01):
Our combination of expertise onthe claim side, on the safety
side and on our businessengagement team really separates
us.
Well, I wanted to switch gearsa little bit and I know you feel
passionate about businessengagement.
This was something that didn'texist.
This was something we as anorganization thought where is

(39:21):
our pain point for our insurersand our agents?
And we started realizing it was.
Well, they've got all thesequestions and they need answers
to them.
And while you've spent so muchtime trying to problem solve
around, how do we make thingseasy for our agents, how do we
make things easy for ourinsurers and how do we actually
engage with them in meaningfulways?
So I'm going to pass the batonto you to talk a little bit

(39:45):
about what that success story ison the business engagement side
.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Happy to so.
As I mentioned, an option thatyou have on onboarding is that
you can click the link toschedule a meeting with me, and
so the success story I want toshare with you is about a
policyholder that did just that.
So we scheduled a meeting wherethey can share their screen.
I can share ours.
They have my undividedattention to answer any

(40:08):
questions that they have.
In this onboarding experience.
We highlighted the options onhow you can port a claim, and
MedCall, as we mentioned earlier, is one of those options, and
so they explained to me at thetime that they already had their
own vendor that they were using, that they were totally

(40:28):
satisfied with, and that they,at that time, were choosing, and
I said that is your decision.
I just want to highlight why wedo recommend MedCall and walk
through those steps with them,and I said think about that, and
at some point, if you want totry out MedCall, I encourage you
to try an experience withMedCall and then try an
experience with your currentvendor and see what the

(40:49):
differences are, to make aneducated decision on that.
Additionally, they are payingfor this service on their own,
and MedCall is included in theirpolicy with us.
So whatever it is that theamount, and they were able to
tell me in the end what thatamount was, that expense that
they were paying on their own,and they could transfer that to

(41:10):
us.
I said please keep those factsin mind as you're making these
decisions, so unbeknownst to me.
Then that policyholder did testout MedCall and, as a matter of
fact, did a couple, and thenthey scheduled another meeting
with me this is mid-policy whenthey said we're ready to start
making this change.
So the things I want tohighlight about that experience

(41:31):
was they thought that theywanted to make this switch, but
they said these are our concerns, can you please address them?
And so I want to make sure thatyou're aware that this is
available to you as well.
About MedCall, they had specialinstructions that they wanted
to provide.
If an injured employee calledfrom their policy about after

(41:51):
accident drug screening, wealways want them to go to this
place, and then we always wantto make sure that the HR
representative is notified aftera claim comes in, and then we
have special department code tobe listed if they're on second
shift and all of these differenttypes of concerns and wanting
to make sure that that was goingto meet their need.
We met all of them and thenthey successfully transferred

(42:15):
over to utilizing MedCall forall of their claim reporting at
that time and again they wereable to tell me the money that
they were spending and had spenton that outside vendor.
That had then been us.
Going back to the highlights ofMedCall again 24-7,.
They're there on the weekends,you know.
They're there on holidays.
They offer translation services, so sometimes that's a need for

(42:38):
our policyholders and ourinjured workers.
Again, what sets MedCall asideis that this is an ER physician.
A lot of the other vendors thatare out there are a nurse to a
physician, which is different.
They can diagnose things overthe phone.
They can write prescriptions.
They can do those kinds ofthings because they're a

(43:03):
physician.
They also customize, like Isaid, that they would be going
to a certain location at that.
So all of that is customizableand each policyholder can choose
what it is that they want tomake sure that their injured
employees are being told andcommunicated with.
Additionally, they're makingsure that they know about the
pharmacy card, our first fillcard, if they're going to go get

(43:25):
a prescription filled.
Having that first fill card ontheir person when they're going
to the pharmacy is making surethat they're not paying for that
out of their own pocket pocketand all of those details when
they need it, at the time thatthey're injured and they're
going to get care or they'regoing to fill a prescription,
that they have all of thatinformation at their fingertips
because they can text thatinformation to them and make

(43:46):
sure that they have it.
So in a really stressful timefor that injured employee,
someone is there to give themall of those details when they
need it.
We try to communicate that toyou in advance and make sure you
have it.
But then sometimes you can'tremember where that claim kit is
.
But MedCall has that.
So I count that as a hugesuccess story.
Where they already had a vendorthat they were using.

(44:08):
We said, hey, give it a try,and they were ending up able to
move their claim reporting overto MedCall.
So we're happy to have thatexperience.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Your claim gets set up when you call it in through
MedCall.
It's not something you need toredo in the portal or send in
through email.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yes.
So a lot of times when yourinjured employee is going to go
receive care, sometimes thespecialist won't even see that
injured employee until they knowwho the adjuster is and what
that claim number is, becauseMedCall sets that up.
Immediately you have a claimnumber and immediately you can
see who the adjuster is.
So that's another good pointthat a lot of times now ER, of

(44:48):
course, or an urgent carethey're going to see them
without a claim number, but manytimes they know this is a
specialized injury and you areimmediately transferred over to
a specialist.
You've got an immediate claimnumber and an adjuster assigned.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That's a great, great example, Luella, and I remember
when we made the move toMedCall and there was a
discussion about, well, how dowe want to handle this, Are we
going to build this like webuild medical providers?
And we made the internaldecision and I felt pretty
passionate about this that weshould cover that cost.
And the reason is we want tomake it easy for you to do the

(45:21):
right thing and report the claim, and we believe that if we can
get in front of claims, we'regoing to cut the cost down for
you and we want to make it aseasy as possible for you to
report a claim so that you don'thave to have somebody who's
well-trained and knows exactlywhat form to fill out.
We want to make it easy for ourpolicyholders to do the right
thing so we can get the resultsthat we want to obtain.

(45:42):
So great, great answer, Luella.
We're going to move to thequestion and answer, and I think
this one actually is right foryou, Luella, so I'm actually
going to kick this one to you.
The question is, if I'm an HRmanager and we know that with
some of our policyholders wehave smaller policyholders, that
some of them may not have asafety guy like Dwayne was
talking about, and maybe the HRdepartment is reporting claims

(46:06):
and handling safety.
So if I'm an HR manager that'spicking up after a policy's
initial onboarding and I'd liketo walk through an onboarding
experience that I'm fullyinformed, how do I go about
doing that?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
So you can reach out to me directly.
You can call us, you can, youknow, so we have a virtual
attendant and just say hey, I'dlike to schedule a meeting with
Luella Alcorn.
What I do when I send an emailto someone, it has the link also
in my email where it says booka meeting with Luella Alcorn.
So I'm happy to do that.
I'm assuming maybe our contactinformation can be provided at

(46:39):
the end of this webinar or afterthe fact.
But I'm here and we'reavailable and if, for whatever
reason, someone in my team needsto do that as well, anybody on
my team can handle any questionsthat you have.
The other thing that I'll pointout as to why this is important
that we have the correctcontacts Through the life of
your policy, an HR person couldleave and a new one could come
in, so we could have done theonboarding and you knew the

(47:02):
information at the inception ofyour policy.
But if then you have a changeor someone takes on new duties,
sometimes even through the lifeof your policy, you need another
meeting or you need anotherupdate on you know how to do
things.
We're happy to give all thatinformation whenever it is you
need it.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
That's exactly right.
So all you need to do is reachout to Luella and she will get
you taken care of.
We take a hands-on approach andwe were really proud of that,
and there are a lot of resourceson our portal that are very,
very helpful that you might notknow are even there, and Luella
can walk you through and showyou where those are and how they
work.
And our goal is to meet youwhere you're at, and that's when

(47:44):
we created business engagement.
That was the whole purpose ofthat was.
We know some people want thathands-on approach, other people
they want a video, other peoplethey want an email, and so we
want to meet you where you're atand we're committed to putting
in the time where you need it.
So I wanted to be sure that Ihighlight that those resources
are there and our goal is tomake it easy, whether that's our

(48:04):
safety person having somebodylike Dwayne come out and visit
and look and see what they cando to help you, or whether you
have that claim and you need anupdate.
Chris's team is going to be onit and we're going to make sure
that we get you the answers thatyou need.
One question that I saw come inand we don't have underwriting
represented here.
So I'm walking into deep water,but I'm going to do my very
best.
So there was a question thatcame through that asked a little

(48:27):
bit about how saving costs onclaims affects the future
premium.
And that's a really complicatedquestion so I'm going to try to
simplify it and make it as easyas possible to understand.
But basically, every industrythat there is has a class code
and those class codes representwhat the risk is for that

(48:50):
particular industry.
For example, my job sitting inthis office is a very different
risk than a heavy equipmentoperator and so premium is going
to be based on the general riskof that position and payroll
associated with that positionacross the board.
And then where it gets a littlemore complicated is that each

(49:12):
company has their exact resultsand that is compared to the
industry.
So let's say Dwayne has a teamthat does construction and they
are fantastic, they are waysafer than everybody else.
Then that's going to affecttheir experience mod and I'm not
going to go deep intoexperience mod training.

(49:34):
But on the flip side, let's sayChris has a team and they are
not safe at all.
They're getting hurt left andright.
Then Chris's team, theirpremium is going to be more
expensive, and the way that'sgenerally looked at is the last
three policy years, notincluding the current policy
year.
So it takes a little while, asyou have good outcomes, for that

(49:58):
to roll off.
But if you're consistent onchanging your safety behaviors
and you have a claims team thatis proactively handling your
claims so that they don't end upbecoming claims that explode
beyond what the exposure shouldbe, then over time that
experience rating is going to godown and that's going to result

(50:20):
in your premium going down, notto mention the added services
we've already talked about,where you have the ability to
call a guy like Dwayne and havehim come out and work with you,
or if you have a question aboutthe portal or how to report
something, you've got Luella atyour fingertips.
Or if you need that claimupdate and you have a question
about returning to work, chrishas got answers for you.

(50:40):
So we really believe that'swhere we separate ourselves as
relationships.
I will say we had an insured ofours and I love this story
because I think it highlightshow we're special.
They ended up and it wasn'ttheir HR person that made this
decision.
It was someone else, but theymade the decision to leave us
because of price.
They found someone to offerthem a lower price it wasn't a

(51:02):
lot lower, but it was a littlelower and they left us.
And I got a phone call a couplemonths later where they said we
need to have this claimreassigned.
This is the worst I've everseen.
The communication skills areterrible.
I can't get them to call meback.
The communication skills areterrible.
I can't get them to call meback.
My people are out in the field.
I've told them five differenttimes that I'm out in the field,

(51:23):
that you got to call my cellphone, and they keep calling the
office and they keep leavingmessages.
I'm demanding that you havethis claim reassigned.
And I said, ok, well, let metake a look into it.
Give me the claim number.
And as soon as I got the claimnumber, I realized it was their
new carrier.
And as soon as I got the claimnumber, I realized it was their
new carrier and I won't say whoit was, because we're going to
be friendly.
But he was so frustratedbecause he wasn't getting the

(51:43):
communication that he needed andhe had gotten used to the
expectation that we keep ourstaff here.
We answer our phones.
We solve your problems and wereally pride ourselves in that,
and we believe that over time,you're the one that will benefit
from that as a policyholder,because you're going to have a
lower experience amount overtime.
It might not be tomorrow and itmight not be next year, but we

(52:05):
believe if we have that kind ofpartnership, we can really make
an impact.
I just want you to know that, asfar as I'm concerned, I'm
really proud of what we do.
I tell my team every day that Iwork with the best people I've
ever worked with any time in mycareer.
Not only are they amazingprofessionals that are experts
at what they do, but they'retruly my friends, and work is a

(52:30):
lot more fun when you work withamazing people who have
incredible integrity and want todo the right thing and win
together.
And we really hope that ifyou're an agent out there and
you're listening to this, thatyou keep us in mind for future
opportunities.
That if you are insured and youweren't aware of some of the
resources that we have, that youreach out and check in with us

(52:51):
so that we can help you wintogether.
And we hope that in futurewebinars we're able to address
additional questions that youmight have, so please keep them
coming and let's keep ourcommunication channels open.
Thanks, everybody.