City Of Tulsa Hopes To Save Millions In Workers Comp Claims

The City of Tulsa is starting a review of workers comp claims in hopes of saving millions of dollars by preventing accidents.

The ongoing management review process is looking next at the payouts for accidents, which turn into workers comp claims. With 4,000 employees - those claims are a huge cost for taxpayers

Mayor Bartlett says the charts tell the story of a big problem in city government. Workers compensation claims sometimes cost $10 million dollars a year. Most of the claims are in public safety and public works.

"Things break, people slip, they fall, and something comes out of the sky and hits them in the head, different things happen. But a lot of them, I think, could be avoided. Wearing a helmet, using the correct tool," Bartlett said.

The fire department, police and water and sewer have the majority of the claims, reflecting the nature of the job. The most expensive claims are in the $300,000 range, but most are under $10,000.

"In the big picture of things, each one is not a lot, but when you add hundreds together, the numbers really add up," said Pam Marrs of the city workers comp division.

Workers compensation claims cost the City of Tulsa $27.4 million in the last three years. In 2010, there were 405 claims. That's 3 times as many incidents as Oklahoma City and Wichita.

Bartlett says the city has been unable to create policies to reduce the accidents and the claims.

"And for some reason it hasn't quite clicked yet, so we've hired this outside firm to give us whatever is necessary to get everybody's attention," Bartlett said.

Bartlett signed a $71,000 contract for a consulting firm to work on the problem. He's expecting them to cut the claims in half - through safety training - and culture change.

"And I think really it's the culture. The culture at the city is that it's the cost of doing business," Marrs said.

Bartlett wants that to change, although he expects it to take several years.

The mayor says the expected timeline is about 3 years to see the savings, of maybe $4 - $5 million a year.