The State and Federal Labor Law Posters should be arriving in your mail at the end of the month so be watching for them!

It is that time of the year when you will be receiving sales calls informing you that there have been important changes on the State and Federal Labor Law posters.We are aware of those changes and are in the process of compiling these updates ~ please expect your new 2016 updated labor law posters to arrive at the end of December.

By Megan Brown, Vice President of Sales & Marketing

As a followup to all of the announcements and details of our Annual Meeting, I thought that it would be interesting to give you an idea of how it went. We had the largest turnout in our 39-year history and my goal is to carry this momentum into our 40th year. The agenda was packed with presentations from Denise Williams, a Performance Consultant from the University of Michigan who discussed distracted workers and the effects that it has on work productivity. Martha Yoder, the Director of MIOSHA provided proactive approaches to creating a safe and healthful worksite. John Karlen and Chris Doebler presented details on the company overview and financial status. During the meeting, MTMIC also signed the 2016 MIOSHA Alliance which assists our members in raising awareness of MIOSHA’s rulemaking and enforcement initiatives, provide training and education as well as enhance communication and outreach related worker productivity. The food was excellent, the company was great and the meeting ended on time. We hope that you will join us next year.

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By Glenda Moyle, Premium Accounting Manager

Well, we have started working on the January 2016 renewals. I have been working on these for over 30 years and it’s hard to believe that another year has sped by.

If you have an effective date in January, you should have already received your payroll renewal form asking for new estimated payrolls for the 2016 policy year. The goal is to accurately estimate payrolls which reduces the chance of a surprise audit of additional premium.

A common question I hear is what do we do if the payroll estimate form is not returned to MTMIC? Well, we use the higher of your 2014 audited payrolls or your current policy (2015 estimated) payrolls for your quote. It is never too late to send the form back to us. We can always revise your payment schedule.

If you need another copy of the payroll form please contact me at Glenda.moyle@mtmic.com/blog

Have you registered for the Annual Meeting on October 15th?

Registration is now open.

Please contact Glenda Moyle at
(800) 274-5606 ext. 1315
with questions.

We look forward to seeing you there

The MTMIC Board of Directors is made up of 9 member owners that are from large, medium and small companies. Their individual companies duties consist of: Five of the nine are business owners, two are Chief Financial Officers, one a firm’s Human Resource VP and one is a retired shop owner. These Board members’ businesses receive the same benefits as your company when dividends are declared. As expected, their first obligation is to make sure the financial condition of the company is secure before dividends are declared.

At the August MTMIC Board meeting, Chris Doebler, our Chief Financial Officer reviewed our financial numbers through the first half of 2015. Let me share a couple of the numbers with you:

(Year over year)

• Number of Members: 771 – an increase of 3.6%
• Revenue: $9,438,000 – an increase of 3.2%
• Profit: $1,265,000

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By Ruth Kiefer, Loss Control Manager, MSc, ARM

Many of you have been with us for a very long time, and may remember when we first formed our safety alliance with the Consultation, Education, and Training (CET) Division of MiOSHA in 2007. This alliance was created in order to help our policyholders improve their shop safety and provide up-to-date education and safety training from former compliance officers. Who else would know better right?

Since that time, we have conducted over 122 joint visits with CET. Many of you have formed a valuable relationship with them and invite them back on a yearly or bi-yearly basis. Since we have found this to be a positive experience for the majority of our policyholders, we are renewing our alliance once again.

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The Annual Meeting is October 15th
11:30 am – 2:00 pm
at The Inn at St. Johns

Watch for more information to follow.

On some of my monthly notes, I try to answer questions that I get frequently from members. Here is one topic that comes up a couple times a month from different members. Question: What is the financial stability of MTMIC? Does MTMIC have a “Best” rating? If not, why not?

First, a common measurement of financial strength in the insurance industry is how much surplus a company has. Surplus is the amount of financial cushion a company has in the event that losses exceed the premium. As of March 31, 2015, MTMIC had a surplus account of $17,950,415. Industry experts often say that the ratio of surplus to premium should be one to one. MTMIC has $0.94 that is surplus for every $1 of premium.

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One of the most common questions during a member’s renewal process is “What is my experience modification? And how is it calculated?” Often this leads to another question that goes something like, “I had no losses last year but my experience mod went up, why?”

Let’s cover the big picture and the first question. The goal of the experience modification is to reward Michigan employers with lower than expected losses for their classification codes and payroll. The opposite is also true. Michigan employers with higher than expected losses in their rate classification receive a “debit” experience modification, which is a mod above 1.00. We have some members with experience modifications in the 60s, such as one today was .62. That employer at the very beginning of the rating process receives a 38% discount off of the standard rate. We also have a couple employers with experience modifications above 2.00. For these employers, their starting point in the rating process is twice the standard rate.

A critical part of controlling your workers’ compensation premium is controlling your losses. By the way, MTMIC is eager to help you with your loss control needs.

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By Chris Demeter, Senior Loss Control Consultan

Due to the changes to the Recordkeeping Standard, the OSHA “Job Safety and Health It’s The Law” poster was updated to reflect those changes. According to OSHA, previous versions of the poster is currently acceptable. The changes to the Recordkeeping Standard was addressed in the December 2014 MTMIC newsletter. Previous newsletters can be obtained through the MTMIC website: http://www. mtmic.com/blog/

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Martha B. Yoder, Director
Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration (MIOSHA)

MTMIC is pleased to announce that Martha B. Yoder will be speaking at our upcoming Annual Meeting in October. Martha will be discussing how to Be Proactive in Creating Safe and Healthful Workplaces.

On March 1, 2012, Martha B. Yoder was appointed Director of the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA). In that role, she oversees the MIOSHA program, which is responsible for enforcing workplace safety and health standards and providing consultation, education and training, and outreach services. She is also responsible for overseeing the Wage and Hour Program, which protects the earned wages and fringe benefits of Michigan workers.

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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…