Last month I wrote you about the fun of delivering 2.5 million dollars’ worth of member dividend checks. We had 544 member checks. The average check amount was $4,596.00 which equates to 19.6% of the individuals paid premiums. Probably another interesting statistic, for 106 members their dividend was greater than 50% of their annual workers compensation premium. As a reminder the dividend had two parts, part one was a loyalty dividend for all members with policies by 12/31/12 that were still insured on February 19, 2015. The second part of the dividend was based on the loss ratio of your individual account. The Board thought, all members should be rewarded and those will great loss histories should get a bonus.

Many wonderful stories came out of our “surprise” deliveries. I had many myself. Special fun with Julie Grimm at Star Cutter Company, Celeste and Dennis Johnson at Thread-Craft, Inc., the management team at Symmetry Medical, and Maritza Gaskin at AB Heller. Regarding the loyalty piece, I should mention that both Star Cutter and AB Heller have been with MTMIC and the Trust before since 1976. Yes 39 years.

Just as important as old “news” is new “news”. Please mark your calendar on October 15th for the MTMIC annual members meeting. It is a quick moving 2 hour luncheon at Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. At this meeting, not only do we have two speakers, we will also complete the first review for the next dividend. It will be interesting.

Please plan to attend.

Denise Williams, PhD, MS, SPHR, SHRM-CP

We are excited to announce that one of our speakers at the MTMIC Annual Meeting will be Denise Williams, PhD., MS.SP
HR, SHRM-CP. Denise will be speaking on The Distracted Worker: A Hidden Risk to Employee Health and Productivity. Denise is a Performance Consultant serving the staff of the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (HHC.) In this role, Denise collaborates with leadership and employees to create, support, promote, and optimize a culture of inclusion, equity, and diversity that welcomes and supports the health of staff and patients. Her liaison work supports recruitment, employment, education, training, and retention of superior staff to position the University of Michigan Health System as a national exemplar in the areas of health equity and inclusion.

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Are you going back to the Inn at St John’s in Plymouth? We are.

The 2015 annual members meeting is October 15th.

More information to follow…

What does giving MTMIC members $2,500,000 look like?

At the February 19, 2015 MTMIC Board meeting, after assessing the financial strength of the company, the Board approved a dividend of $2,500,000 payable to members in March. The dividend was made up of two parts: Part 1 – $1,000,000 goes to all members with policies prior to 12/31/12 who are active members as of February 19, 2015. Part 2 – $1,500,000 goes to the members with the same dates as Part 1, but who also have great loss histories for the years 2010 – 2012. With these Board parameters, the staff of MTMIC went to work on the project. On March 10th staff produced 548 member checks. When looking at the check amounts, staff decided delivering these checks would be a great way to say congratulations to members and also thank them for their loyalty. So the account assignments were made and 5 MTMIC staff members job for the next two weeks became check deliverers similar to “Publisher Clearing House” check delivery types. From the pictures you could see we were well received.

Many fun comments came out of the visits. A couple members asked if the check was real. While I was making surprise check deliveries, I also checked in with staff to see how their visits were going. Our Loss Control Representative, Chris Demeter, wrote me “It’s all good. I think after they hear the amount and see the check, my hair could be on fire and they wouldn’t notice.” On one of my deliveries, the female owner said, “I know who you are.” I replied, “Really, we have never met.” She went on to say, I am “cuter” in person than the picture in the Newsletter. She won the award for kindness. It is the Board’s desire that this dividend is not a one-time event. Staff will remain focused on claims adjudication and Loss Control input. You are the most important part of managing MTMIC Claims. For an early heads up, the first review of the 2016 dividend will occur at the MTMIC Annual Members luncheon which is Thursday, October 15th, at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. We hope you will attend and get the first preview for what is in store for March of 2016.

Finally, thanks for a terrific 2014 year. Staff will stay focused to do a repeat in 2015.

GREAT NEWS TO ANNOUNCE!

A benefit of being part of a small mutual/owner directed insurance company is that the profits that are generated are owned by its members. This is in contrast to commercial carriers where profits are owned by the stockholders. After writing about this topic for the last three months, the MTMIC Board at their February 19th meeting reviewed the 2014 results and determined that a policyholder/member dividend is in order. The Board of Directors, the management team and staff are proud to announce a $2,500,000 dividend. $1,000,000 is to be shared by all members with a policy inforce on February 19, 2015 that had coverage 12/31/12 and prior. An additional $1,500,000 dividend is being shared by members that meet this criteria plus have a loss ratio of below 40%.

We thank you for these great results. This dividend is the result of aggressive claims management, hands on loss control practices and most importantly our policyholder member’s commitment to reducing loss costs.

Dividend checks are being delivered by MTMIC staff, your brokers and the post office beginning as early as March 10th. The MTMIC Board also made it clear that they want to distribute dividends in the future as long as company results warrant it. Congratulations on the MTMIC 2014 results.

Great news to start 2015. As mentioned in previous newsletters, the MTMIC Board approved a dividend resolution late last year directing management to prepare required documentation for a 2015 members/owners dividend if the 2014 financials supported such. As Chris Doebler, MTMIC CFO, and our actuary wrap up the claims numbers for December 31, 2014, I am pleased to say that is the case. MTMIC management has the resolution and supporting detail for the Board to review and vote on at the February 19th Board Meeting. It is anticipated that the Board will approve a plan that includes members’ payments to go out in March. I also expect consistent with the Board’s prior instructions that the dividend will be member loss ratio based. That is the accounts with good loss ratios will be included in the distribution. Their instruction “let’s make sure that the members who contributed to the good results get the benefit of it”. The dividend will also likely have a years of service credit. The longer the account has been a member the larger the dividend.

I hope the above gives you a clue of what is coming. I do not know the final chosen parameters or exact amounts. The Board will determine those at their meeting. I can tell you that giving back profits to member companies is what a small mutual company is about. We operate to provide our members/owners with the best service we can at premiums that are financially sound and excess profits earned belong to members/owners.

By Chris Doebler, CPA, Chief Financial Officer

Did you know that you can make your monthly premium payments without ever having to write or mail a check? Over 1/3 of our policyholders remit over 1/3 of our monthly premiums via AutoPay, and you can too! Your payments will be spread over 12 months instead of 10 and will automatically be debited from your checking account on or about the 10th of each month. All you need to do is return the Authorization for AutoPay form that is included with your annual renewal package and we’ll take it from there. You can even sign up mid-year by directing us to take your remaining scheduled payments via AutoPay.

If you have any questions about AutoPay or wish to sign up and need an Authorization form email Chris Doebler at chris.doebler@MTMIC.com or call (248) 488-1172 ext 1012.

We hope you had a wonderful holiday. The holidays at MTMIC are always hectic. Over half of all our members’ renewal December and January. Because of this, there are many customer questions to answer, policy documents to send, new state regulatory posters and notices to send to all members. As we start our 39th year of service, this peak in MTMIC work is an annual tradition.

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By Glenda Moyle, Premium Accounting Manager

Wow, can you believe another year has gone by. And what that means is that it is final audit time for our January renewals which is coming up shortly. When we issued your policy, we based your premium on the estimated payrolls by class codes which you provided. Now the final audit will give us actual payrolls, by class codes, to see if you owe us more premium or we owe you a refund of premium. About half of our policyholders will be going through the annual audit process in the next few weeks/months and will be contacted by The Aprise Group by the end of January to schedule your audit.

When you received your renewal documents you should have received a one page flyer titled Guidelines for your Premium Audit. It also included the list of inclusions and exclusions that is used in the Remuneration as the Basis of Premium. Use these items for reference for your audit.

For over 30 years I have been helping you with this process and I continue to be ready should you have any questions.

The MTMIC Board of Directors is pleased to inform you that at the last Board Meeting the Board Members unanimously passed a resolution setting the stage for a Policyholder’s Dividend in the first quarter of 2015. Final determination of the dividend will be made in February 2015 once the 12/31/14 financial results are finalized. It is anticipated that the Policyholder Dividend will be based on policyholder premiums paid with eligibility determined by account loss history. While we do not yet have year-end results and final determination of the dividend, the Board Resolution is the first step in the process of a Dividend Declaration for early 2015.

2014 MTMIC Annual Members meeting:

Location: St. John’s, Plymouth

Surveys were given to each attendee. The comment on the meeting location – all checked “Excellent”. Hand written comments added “St. John’s is Awesome”, “Very Nice, and “Keep the same location”. Food also had unanimous “Excellent” grading.

Our guest speakers were: Keith Castora, Workers Compensation Claims Magistrate and John Harris, President of Shadow Investigations. Both were informative. John had interesting investigations stories that were enjoyed by all. For full disclosure, a couple surveys commented that the audio system needed to be turned up for the Magistrate as he was soft spoken and hard to hear. We will have a more rapid response to the speaker system next year.

General comments about the meeting:

“The meeting location was beautiful. I enjoyed my first time at the annual members meeting.”

“I was happy I attended and wish I had come in the years past. It (the meeting) moved quickly and was time well spent. Also I enjoyed the networking opportunities with other members, including Board Members.”

“This was my first time attending the Annual Meeting and it was a very positive experience! The site, food spectacular and the hospitality was excellent. Looking forward to 2015.” The plans have already begun for next year as we have already reserved our meeting rooms at St. John’s. When it gets closer to the meeting date, we will give you specific information and hope you will put this on your list of things to do.

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It’s hard to believe summer is over and with that the MTMIC staff started the annual task of preparing for January 1 policy renewals. Nearly half of all MTMIC policy holders renew on January 1. I should mention that before we start the individual account review, some significant big issues are taken care of. The first is regarding an overall company rate change: great news is that since February 1, 2013 we have not had a rate increase. Secondly all employer experience modifications have been ordered from the state rating agency. When our policyholders talk about workflow peaks and valleys, we fully understand the challenges. For each renewal, we contact you or your broker for the 2015 estimated payrolls, we review current Loss Control reports, study loss history and contact you with any questions we might have. The end goal of this whole process is to make sure we properly renew your account and use all the available discounts you are entitled too. Thanks for your help in this process.

On another item, the MTMIC annual members meeting is going to occur on Thursday, October 16th. This year the meeting is being held at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth. The meeting begins at 11:30, wraps up by 1:30 and includes lunch. We promise to use your valuable time efficiently. Our guest speakers for this year are Workers’ Compensation Magistrate Keith Castora who will present an “Update on the Workers’ Compensation Mediation Process”. John Harris from Shadow Investigations, Inc is our second speaker and will discuss “Social Media Impact on Workers’ Compensation Investigations”. We think you will find their presentations interesting and helpful. We hope you will join us as all MTMIC staff will be in attendance.

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming Annual Meeting on October 16, 2014. This year the meeting will be at:

The Inn at St. John’s ~ Nazareth Room
44045 Five Mile Road
Plymouth, MI

Invitations will be going out in the next couple of weeks. Please contact us in the meantime if you have any questions.

It is no surprise that MTMIC Board Members have a depth of experience in product production, especially due to our company name. All ten of our Board members own, have built, manage or are senior officers of Michigan manufacturing facilities. The 38 year history of the company is based on small, medium and large Michigan manufacturers. With this type of Board member, our sole goal is to support Michigan manufacturers with the lowest cost workers’ compensation coverage consistent with financial stability to pay future claims.

In the last few months I have asked Board Members for a profile. As successful as these 10 men and women are, they don’t care much about talking about themselves. But after enduring a little push back, the management team “won” recently when we profiled our newest Board Member, Karen Schluckebier from The Rogers Group in Clare.

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Some good news – MTMIC’s last general rate increase was January 1, 2011 and with current loss trends we don’t see a need for one in the future (sorry my crystal ball has a forward looking limit of only one year).

Let me tell you more about our/your loss trends. Of course you would expect that we keep data by type of loss, classification of loss, by month, and year since we converted to MTMIC January 1, 2007 from the MTA Self- Insured Fund. That gives us over 7 ½ years of experience to rely upon. This data is used to direct Loss Control efforts, build claims research files, study underwriting issues as well as in financial/rate making tasks.

Here’s some loss frequency numbers from 1/1 – 7/31:

Medical Only:
2014 – 805
2013 – 969
2012 – 847

Time Loss:
2014 – 114
2013 – 120
2012 – 116

What makes these numbers more impressive than just the raw data, is that we grew (exposure base) in 2013 and 2014. Growth in 2013 was 13.12% larger than 2012 and our estimate of growth in 2014 vs 2013 is 5.88%. The offset to this great news of reducing claims frequency is that the claims that do happen are costing more. There continues to be an upward trend on medical care costs and time loss.

We hope you find the monthly articles from the Loss Control and Claims Departments useful and hope the safety video library on our company website is beneficial to your organization. By the way, our 750 policyholders viewed our library of safety videos 3,235 times in the last year. I would like to thank our Loss Control Consultants in this effort and want you to know that our Claims people vigorously review every claim for compensability and then if compensable, every claim dollar is watched like it was their own.

Thank you for your Loss Control efforts, which are noticed and do effect rates. Now back to work, with safety goggles on, hearing protection, safety shoes, machine guards, proper lifting techniques …

As a MTMIC policyholder and mutual company member, it is important I give you management updates on the company similar to my reports to the MTMIC Board of Directors. Our mid-year review is a perfect time for a MTMIC 2014 update business plan goals such as sales, loss control visits, claims activity, underwriting service and company investment status. All of these are important service standards for MTMIC policyholders.

When reviewing with the Board I use a “Green Light”, “Yellow Light” and “Red Light” approach. “Green Lights” signifying that we are on target with our goals and barring some significant change, we will meet these business goals. “Yellow Lights” informing the Board that the goal is in jeopardy and that management is refocusing and moving resources to achieve these goals. “Red Light” meaning the goal for some business reason is no longer valid or costs of the goal have exceeded the budget and the goal needs reassessment.

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While I normally provide our newsletter with current issues in Michigan Workers’ Compensation, this month is different. I am asked regularly about MTMIC ownership and governance. These are great questions for a small, specialty driven workers’ compensation carrier like MTMIC. For our first 30 years of operation, we operated as a Self-Insured Fund. Since January 1, 2007, we have been licensed as a member owned mutual insurance company. Everything we do is based on what is in the best interest for our member owners and we have no outside investors that direct our pricing decisions or we pay fees to. I report to the 10 member Board of Directors, many of them have a long history with the company. The ten Board members include:

6 – Business Owners
2 – Chief Financial Officers
1 – Human Resource Vice President
1 – Retired Business Owner

Their firms cover the range of 10 to 400 employees. Some have business in other states and a couple have business in other countries. Needless to say, my “bosses” have a wide and vast range of skills and experiences. My focus and the company course is set by the Board. In the next few newsletters you will see profiles of these important people as they are an integral part of the MTMIC success story.

In fact this is a time to give you an early invitation of the Members’ Annual Meeting which is Thursday, October 16th. This year the meeting is at The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth and lunch begins at 11:30. MTM Board members and the entire staff attend the meeting. Feedback from members who have attended previous meetings is that it was time well spent. In the next couple months, I will have more meeting details.

It is June; and impossible to believe that nearly half of 2014 is gone. You might remember me, I am Gary Wood; I was the COO of the MTMIC and the Administrator of the MTA Workers’ Compensation Fund from 1998 to 2013. Last year I made the decision to step back when I recognized two things; 66 is more than a number and after 15 years there needed to be a new stimulus for growth.

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Early in 2014, MTMIC obtained its first independent rating organization evaluation. The rating agency is Demotech, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio and has nearly 30 years of insurance industry rating experience with a proven track record. Their review included analysis of MTMIC financials, investments, claims history, actuarial reports, reinsurance and staff experience. On April 22nd, Demotech, Inc. distributed an industry press release summarizing their review with an announcement that MTMIC was assigned an “A” (Exceptional) 2014 Financial Stability Rating

We, the MTMIC staff, are proud of our Demotech, Inc. rating in that it confirms what we know about the strength of MTMIC.

…that you can now receive an email from us notifying you when a claim is received in our office and when that claim is closed? In order to receive the email alerts from us, please log in to the Client Portal at www.mtmic.com/blog. Select the Contacts tab and enter the email address of the individuals that would like to get the email alerts. For additional information, contact Patty Allen at patricia. allen@mtmic.com/blog.

By Glenda Moyle, Premium Accounting Manager

MTMIC is updating our Officer Exclusion procedure. Effective immediately, renewal policyholders will NOT have to fill out a new Officer Exclusion form. We will automatically renew the officer exclusions unless we hear different from the company or the company’s agent. Polices for new companies will still require the Officer Exclusion form. We hope you find that the elimination of the Officer Exclusion form on renewals will improve efficiency and effectiveness of the renewal process.

Just as a reminder, it is very important that you double-check your documents from us and let us know of any corrections that need to be made.