By Megan Brown ARM, MIP, CWCP, CAWC
President

Throughout my time at MTM, I’ve often been asked a simple question: What makes MTM different?

In today’s economy, most business leaders wear many hats. Insurance isn’t something you think about every day — until there’s a claim. Whether it’s an injured employee, property damage, or a liability issue, that’s when your insurance partner truly matters.

The reality is that insurance rarely generates excitement unless you’ve chosen it as your career — and that’s exactly what we’ve done at MTM. Our long-tenured team is deeply committed not only to this industry, but to serving you — our policyholders — with expertise and care.

We also understand something important about our industry: when a claim is mishandled, news travels fast. Unfortunately, that can lead to the perception that all insurance companies are the same. At MTM, we work every day to prove that’s simply not true.

By Michele Gunderman, COSS
Senior Loss Control Consultant

As a policy holder who is reading this newsletter, you are likely involved with safety in some form or another. Safety is non-negotiable and being in a leadership role to support or implement strategies to reduce workplace accidents is key. For many employers they may not know where to begin, which involves understanding the reasons why accidents or incidents are occurring through effective root cause evaluation and implementing comprehensive safety measures in the workplace by providing regular training, and effective communication which can significantly reduce accidents in the workplace. Some key strategies are identified below.

By Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

Work related injuries, or workers’ compensation claims, tend to occur in “cycles”. What do I mean by that? We will see an influx of claims of the same type of injury for a certain period of time. What seems to be prevalent right now, are amputations. We are given ten fingers and ten toes for a reason. While being able to function perfectly well without an “appendix”, technically, even an appendix does serve a purpose.

Megan Brown ARM, MIP, CWCP, CAWC
President

It is hard to believe that I am writing this at the end of 2025, where has the year gone? As they say, time flies when you are having fun and/or are busy and the staff at MTM have had a busy year. I feel compelled to list some of the highlights from 2025 giving credit to a dedicated, talented and supportive MTM team:

Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

Starting a new year should bring new opportunities. Starting 2026 in the MTMIC Claims Department, we have a “new” adjuster handling claims. Well, she is not “new” to MTM, and she is not “new” to most of our insureds, but she will be new to the position of Claims Adjuster. Our Claims Technician, Marci Merath, will now be handling claims. Marci has been with MTM for quite a while and is moving on to the claims adjusting process. It should be an easy transition. As indicated, Marci is familiar with our insureds, reporting practices and claims procedures. You should see no difference as an insured filing a claim.

Continuing with fresh starts and changes – don’t forget about the Nurse Triage Program! An injured worker can be evaluated by a medical professional over the computer which results in immediate attention to the injured worker and their injury, the employee not missing time from work to go to the clinic (unless the Triage deems an outside evaluation appropriate) and detailed reporting of the incident within 24 hours. All with no cost to the insured! We make the arrangements for your on-site training – particularly helpful if you have more than one location. You, as the employer, are kept in the loop every step of the way. This also helps free up some time for your Human Resources Department. You can try it, use it, or don’t. No contracts to be signed, no commitments. Give it some thought, it could make your life a little easier.

Hope your New Year is off to a great start !32New Year

Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM
Vice President of Loss Control

As winter ramps up and we are already ahead of annual snowfall levels, it is time to remind your employees about walking safely in the parking lots. This is one of our most common winter claims that can be prevented if you learn to walk safely on ice and snow when entering or leaving the building. Here are some helpful safety tips:

A Positive Outlook for Mutual Insurers

By Megan Brown ARM, MIP, CWCP, CAWC
President

Last month, I attended the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) annual convention in San Diego, California. NAMIC, a 125-year-old organization that supports mutual insurance companies through advocacy, compliance, industry benchmarking, education, and networking. Recent research, presented at NAMIC reveals a notable shift in buyer sentiment and behavior within the commercial insurance market, with mutual insurance companies gaining favor and outperforming their stock counterparts across critical performance metrics.

By Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

I have been processing Claims my entire adult working career. And not just processing Workers’ Compensation claims. Many years ago I also processed property damage and motor vehicle claims. While working at my former employer, I had a middle management supervisor tell me “there is no such thing as an accident”. Think about that statement for a minute. I do not believe the statement means an incident that occurred was “intentional”, I think it means it could have been “prevented or avoided”.

By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM
Vice President of Loss Control

When you have a new hire, or you need to renew your employee’s industrial truck licenses have you ever wished you had a little assistance? Or a place for them to turn to have the class training? Well, I’m here to tell you we have that assistance for you!

Using our on-line portal, you may gain access to our video library on demand! That’s right, a huge video library made up of over 730 current safety video’s that are available 24/7 to use to help train your employees on various safety topics. Do you have an employee that continually has strain injuries, why not sit him in front of a monitor and watch a back safety video? Maybe you have a maintenance person, you have seen on the production floor and question his safety techniques while using a ladder, well, let him take 10 minutes out of the day, and sit him in front of the monitor to watch a short video on proper ladder use. There is a robust library to choose from and all the videos are current, short, and to the point.

By Megan Brown ARM, MIP, CWCP, CAWC
President

As we move through the second half of 2025, it’s clear that costs are higher than they were just a few years ago. Like many of our policyholders, we at MTM have also experienced increases in our operational expenses—including one of the most significant drivers: medical inflation.

By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM
Vice President of Loss Control

Partnering with Employers to Protect Workers

MTMIC has partnered with them for the past 19 years.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) partnered with Michigan employers who voluntarily participated in the 20th anniversary of the Take a Stand for Workplace Safety and Health initiative, underscoring a shared commitment to improving workplace safety and health.

By Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

By the time you are reading this, summer is technically over. Students return to class, fun in the sun vacation time is pretty much regulated to weekends only. Statistically, work related injuries increase over the summer. Thinking back on Summer 2025, with the heat we experienced, an increase in injuries involving outdoor workers would not seem unusual. Another statistic indicates approximately 40% of summer work injuries are sprains, strains and tears. Possibly these injuries are attributed to employees taking vacation time and co-workers having to pick up the slack. A “pre-injury” could have occurred while having fun on the weekend, thereby setting you up for a more serious injury as a result of work duties. The heat index, or thoughts about upcoming plans could result in simple inattention.

By Megan Brown ARM, CWCP, CAWC
President

Due to recent pending legislative changes, I thought that it would be beneficial to provide the history of workers’ compensation as well as where we are today.

Workers’ Compensation is a state-mandated insurance program that provides wage replacement, medical treatment, and rehabilitation benefits to employees who are injured while performing their job duties.

By Chris Demeter
Senior Loss Consultant

Young workers experience high rates of job-related injuries. According to the Department of Labor, in fiscal year 2020, teens aged 15 to 19 were treated in the emergency room for a workplace injury about every five minutes. These injuries often result from the numerous hazards present in the places where they typically work, such as sharp knives and slippery floors in restaurants. Young workers are particularly at risk for workplace injuries due to their inexperience, as well as their physical, cognitive, and emotional developmental traits. Additionally, a lack of safety training contributes to the high rates of injury. They often hesitate to ask questions and may fail to recognize workplace hazards.

To help address this issue, MIOSHA enacted the Youth Employment Standards Act 90 of 1978. The Act defines a minor as anyone under 18 years of age, including but not limited to employees, volunteers, independent contractors, and performing artists.

Megan Brown, ARM, CWCP, CAWC
President

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Board of Directors for the opportunity to serve as President of MTM. It is an honor to lead this dynamic organization as we celebrate our 50th year, building on the foundation of our 49-year legacy.

For those who may not know, I joined MTM 18 years ago as Director of Sales and Marketing, hired by former President Gary Wood. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing—and contributing to—tremendous growth across many areas: direct written premium, surplus, service offerings, policyholder count, and dividends returned to our customers. What’s particularly notable is that we’ve achieved this growth while retaining much of the original staff who were here when I started—an extraordinary accomplishment in today’s workforce landscape.

By Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

A little bit of a refresher course

How do we determine an injured employee’s Workers’ Compensation weekly benefit amount? To calculate an average weekly wage, we need 52 weeks of gross wages dating back from the date of injury. This includes overtime and bonuses. Of those 52 weeks, we pick out the highest 39 weeks. This gives the injured worker the highest possible average weekly wage. If an employee has only worked 20 weeks prior to the date of injury, the average weekly wage would be based upon 20 weeks of gross weekly wages divided by 20. If an employee is injured their first week of work (and yes, this does occur), the employee’s hourly rate is multiplied by 40 if the employee was hired to work 40 hours per week, to establish the average weekly wage. Based on the employee’s average weekly wage, tax filing status and number of claimed dependents allowed by Workers’ Compensation criteria, the State of Michigan provides the weekly benefit rate.

By Ruth Kiefer, MSc, ARM
Vice President of Loss Control

To help you stay up to date on the most cited serious violations from MIOSHA, I attended CET’s annual release of the top 20 that they provide at their annual Michigan Safety Conference. You should be aware that both the number of citations and fines have increased 18 percent since 2023. In 2024, MIOSHA collected approximately $2.62 million in serious violations alone.

On the General Industry Safety violation side, approximately 546 citations were issued in 2024. They collected $1.9 Million in fines, which averages out to $3,400 for the average safety citation. Now for the Health side of things, as there are always two parts. The health side issued 547 citations and collected $659,700 in fines. The average citation per location was $1,200. If you are unsure if you have a Health or Safety violation, please contact your Loss Control Consultant for more guidance of these most cited violations listed below. We are happy to help you stay in compliance.

Consecutive Years of Member Dividends – 11

On 12/31/24, our CFO was busy that evening transmitting to our actuaries our entire claims history. That data included date of injury, what was paid so far, and our estimate of what remains to be paid on every claim since 2006. There is lots of detail to send. This data is then sorted by our actuary and trended to get an estimate on the final claims costs for claims that may have just happened in 2024. By getting that assessment of the past 18 years’ worth and applying it to the known and unknown data of 2024, they come up with a final estimate of claims cost for 2024. This actuarial process takes about three weeks and involves them sending it to a second actuary to do a peer review of the entire calculation and data. The net result of this three-week project is a 110-page report that gives MTM the most scientific basis of plugging numbers into our 2024 financial statement. As a mutual insurer, for 11 years it has been the Board of Directors position that profits get returned to our members.

Sean Heinonen
Loss Control Consultant

So you’ve taken the time to identify the hazards in your workplace, now what is your next step in protecting yourself or your employees? Did you know there is a hierarchy of 5 levels for determining the most effective control methods? These methods include elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment.

Donna Motley
Vice President of Claims

I read a recent statistic listing the “most dangerous” jobs; they were :

1. Logging
2. Fishing & Hunting
3. Structural Iron & Steel Workers
4. Roofing
5. Aircraft pilots.

Dissecting these professions support the “danger” of the job. However, “danger” does not necessarily equal injury severity or frequency.