Category Archives: Risk Management

County Making Progress on Workers’ Compensation, Other Insurance Costs

At the March 12 meeting of the County Board of Supervisors’ Committee on Judiciary, Safety, and General Services, the Director of Risk Management provided an update on efforts to reduce workers’ compensation costs and reduce other risks.

Highlights of the Report, which can be viewed here, Include:

  • Since implementing a third-party administrator to administer workers’ compensation claims, there has been a 55 percent reduction in the number of claims submitted from the 5-year average for the months of January and February. This has been partially due to the implementation of a nurse care line, less severe winter weather, and stronger examination of claims to reduce fraud.
  • Prior to the implementation of the TPA, the County’s number of workers’ compensation claims were far higher than similar organizations; and the County has incurred a total of 3,061 claims at a total cost of $20.3 million between 2010 and 2014.
  • The County has taken aggressive steps to return injured employees to work, or to identify other opportunities in the community for employees to work until they can return to the County.
  • The Behavioral Health Division, Office of the Sheriff, and Parks and Highways Maintenance departments represent the majority of workers’ compensation claims.
  • The County has yet to experience a single property insurance claim in 2015; this compares to an average of 24 property claims during the months of January and February in recent years.
  • The County experienced 367 property claims between 2010 and 2014 with a total cost of $34.3 million, which was largely reimbursed by insurance. Not including the 2013 Courthouse Fire, there were 366 claims with a total cost of approximately $16.8 million.
  • The most frequent types of property insurance claims during the 5-year period were graffiti (87 claims), vandalism (78 claims), and water damage (71 claims).
  • The County experienced 656 general liability claims and incurred $4 million in liabilities between 2010 and 2014.

The County is implementing a comprehensive safety review and education program to improve safety, reduce injuries, and save taxpayer dollars for premiums and claims in all insurance areas including workers’ compensation, general liability

2013 Performance Data Submitted to ICMA

Milwaukee County is a member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Performance Measurement. The County joined this program in 2012. The Center for Performance Measurement tracks several hundred activity data and performance measures in a wide variety of major service areas. In Milwaukee County, these service areas include:

  • Parks & Recreation
  • Sustainability
  • Information Technology
  • Human Resources
  • Risk Management
  • Procurement
  • Facilities Management
  • Highway Maintenance
  • Fleet Management
  • Housing Programs

On March 17, the Office for Performance, Strategy and Budget submitted (thanks to the cooperation of several departments) the 2013 data for these service areas to ICMA. The ICMA compiles these data sets from dozens of cities and counties across the Country and makes them available to program participants. This data will be used to evaluate our performance against peer jurisdictions, such as Miami-Dade County, FL; Bernalillo County, NM; Alameda County, CA; and Fairfax County, VA; that also participate in the program.

Look for additional information on performance measures and comparisons with peer jurisdictions in future blog posts!