Workers’ compensation rates in Rhode Island have increased significantly in the past several years and state leaders are beginning to take steps to improve workplace safety and improve the efficiency of the system.

The state’s Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) had 80 employees out of work due to injuries this June, 7 percent of the department’s full-time employees and the highest share of any of the state’s departments.

In total, 200 active state employees were out on workers’ comp in June as well as 315 former employees. This is becoming increasingly costly for the state.

Workers’ compensation costs in Rhode Island were over $30 million in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, an increase of 54% from 10 years ago. There is even more money spend to backfill shifts and other assignments to cover employees who are out. Leaders in the state are making changes to try to improve the system for injured workers.

Michael DiBiase, director of the Rhode Island Department of Administration, says that the workers’ compensation system has become increasingly complicated and increasingly costly for healthy workers too. He says the more workers that are out, the more overtime other workers are required to work, and if they are over-worked, they may be more prone to injuries.

The Department of Corrections and BHDDH accounted for more than half the cost of overtime pay for the last fiscal year, which was reported as $84 million. Corrections is a 24/7 operation and employees may work up to 32-hour shifts, which can amount to a lot of overtime. BHDDH reported that 32% of their overtime costs were a direct result of covering employees who were out on workers’ comp.

Rhode Island has an established Workers’ Compensation Court where disputes between the state and employees may be reviewed, and the courts are often busy. There are 1,386 BHDD employees on the payroll and 660 open and closed cases involving a BHDD worker, that is almost one case for every two BHDDH employees on the state’s payroll. The median amount of time a BHDD worker is out on workers’ compensation is a year, but there is one state worker who has been out since 1988.

This past May Rhode Island hired Beacon Mutual to improve workplace safety and the workers’ compensation administrative process, which will increase the state’s administrative costs but hopefully decrease overall workers’ comp costs as a result of safer workplaces. State officials and employees are optimistic about this as they think it will make the process more efficient and get people back to work quickly.

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