The Third Concern

Subrogation has a kind of quirky standard definition. To me, it is the possibility of another party having to share the monetary responsibility of an insured incident or accident.

I give the example in my manual of a company salesperson on sales calls being hit by another car in the back bumper and sustaining Workers Compensation injuries. The driver of the other car should pay for the damages sustained and reimburse the Workers Comp carrier.

We usually see two errors being made during our file reviews:

• We often see the subrogation funds being added back into the file after the file has been closed. However, the amounts reported to NCCI may not change. The funds could greatly affect a company's Workers Compensation E-Mod.
• The Workers Comp adjuster may not have enough time to pursue subrogation or may take a small % of the liability settlement.

Both instances are E-Mod killers. As I pointed out in my manual, there are 13 basic functions of a claims adjuster. Subrogation is one of the lower priority tasks.

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