Numbers Games: Workers Comp & Baseball
Major league baseballs mania for collecting every statistic related to each players time on the diamond has now expanded to count the athletes strains, sprains and other injuries in a bid to reduce workers compensation claims.
The statistics gathering process is "a very sophisticated program that is in its infancy," explained Pete Eshelman, the chief executive officer of American Specialty, in Roanoke, Ind., a risk services firm that manages the medical aspect of major and minor league worker injury claims.
Factoid: pitchers are more beset by injury than infielders, according to American Specialty data. A bit more on this later for stat addicts.
Mr. Eshelman explained that his company handles claims for the 30 major league teams and 210 minor league clubs in partnership with GAB Robins, which is the licensed third party administrator that handles the indemnity claims for lost income by baseball employees.
Jeff Aycock, senior vice president for risk management and managed care services with GAB Robins, said his firm has a corps of adjusters "totally dedicated to handling athletes' claims."
The 30 major league teams are insured for workers compensation with ACE USA. Bob Davis, senior vice president for risk management business development in ACE USAs New York office, said the company began writing all 30 teams in January after a majority vote by the owners.
Mr. Davis said there is a $500,000 per occurrence deductible. "Its not a self insurance program, but with a deduction that large the clubs are providing [for] the bulk of the exposure.
He said broker Marsh brought ACE the business. And "theres no adverse selection. Its a homogeneous exposure," he added.
Most standard major league contracts guarantee salary for injured players for the balance of the year and there are often multiyear payout arrangements negotiated for big name players, according to Mr. Eshelman.
"Medical is a different ballgame," he said, distinguishing the medical from the wage loss (indemnity) component of injury claims. What makes it unique with baseball, he said, is that players have constant medical care and treatment from club trainers.
Statistical tracking by American Specialty finds that there is a quantifiable difference in trainers abilities. "Some do a better job and get [players] back quicker," explained Mr. Eshelman.
He said baseball is developing a set of treatment practices so that all trainers can benefit from the best treatment methods.
American Specialty has put its statistical medical findings together in "Redbook," a 100-page volume authored by Tim Eshelman, American Specialty executive vice president.
Anthony Avitable, risk manager for major league baseball, said the book, which goes to each club, tracks all the players and teams downtime for injury with a breakdown by injury type, age of player and position of player. "It helps you identify where the problem areas are."
Tim Eshelman said his company converts the figure for player time on the disabled list, which involves 15 or more days, into lost salary, and "over the past five seasons $1.2 billion was paid" to major leaguers on the 30 teams.
The good news, he said, is "days on the DL are going down."
His statistics show that pitchers are injured more frequently than other players and stay on the disabled list longer.
The least injured position?
Shortstops. "Im not sure why," he confessed, but he said the numbers were only slightly lower than for most other positions.
Susan McAlister, American Specialty vice president for injury management, said that at the end of this June they had logged 800 player injuries that required outside care.
She said big league players represent big assets and the company will do whatever it takes to get injured players to the best physicians to heal them quickly. "We will fly them across the country."
The economics are simple–the sooner star players are back at work in the ballpark, "the more hot dogs we sell," she explained.
Stadium food vendors are also covered, Ms. McAlister said, as well as mascots, scouts and other non-player personnel. Some teams that dont own their stadium have less covered staff, she said.
Among players, according to Ms. McAlister, the major injuries generally involve shoulders, elbows, knees and rotator cuffs.
With stadium employees there are slips and falls, burns from food handling, heat exhaustion, sunburn, and bug bites.
With all the stats and studies are injuries going down this year?
"We hope so," said Mr. Avitable.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 18, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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