Workers' Compensation FAQs

Workers’ compensation is a type of insurance that provides benefits for employees who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses.  

Report all accidents, work-related injuries, work-related illnesses, or near misses (when you are almost injured as a result of an accident) to your manager/supervisor immediately. Provide your supervisor with information about what happened, when and where it happened, and any other pertinent information about the incident. If your manager/supervisor is unavailable, notify the next up-line member of the management team – or – any manager/supervisor designated as proxy when your direct manager/supervisor is away.

If emergency care is needed, call 911.

For non-emergent treatment, notify your manager that you plan to seek medical attention. If the situation is not an emergency, it is recommended that you contact Heidi Melton, in the office of Insurance and Risk Management Services prior to seeking treatment, so you can receive information about the workers’ compensation process and some things to consider when selecting a medical provider. Not all medical providers will treat workers’ compensation, so it’s helpful to understand what options are available.

1. The HR Advocate form will be completed by the supervisor.  This is also referred to as a Public Incident Report form.  This form documents the circumstances of the injury or illness.
2. The injured employee and supervisor complete the SAIF 801 form together. This form should be returned to Heidi Melton in the Insurance and Risk Management Services office.  ([email protected]) This form initiates a workers compensation claim with OSU’s insurance company, SAIF.

You have the right to choose your own medical provider, however, there are Oregon Workers Compensation laws that limit the treatment that can be received from certain providers.  The following link provides some general information from OSU’s Workers Compensation insurer about selecting a medical provider: https://www.saif.com/worker/medical-and-rx-help/choosing-a-doctor.html

You may find that not all medical providers will treat workers’ compensation claims, so we generally recommend selecting an Occupational Medicine Provider, who specialize in the treatment of workplace injuries and illnesses. If you are in need of a medical provider in the Corvallis/Albany area that treats workers compensation claims,  following is a list of Occupational Medicine Providers:

• Corvallis Clinic, Dr Christopher Swan (Albany) 541-928-6421; or
• Samaritan Health Services, (Corvallis) 541-768-6211 or (Albany) 541-812-5600.

If you are not able to get an appointment immediately with Occupational Medicine, Urgent Care offices for both Samaritan and the Corvallis Clinic are other options.

For student employees, you may also access care, when eligible, at Student Health Services.

Take the Employee Status Report form with you to your first medical treatment, and have the medical provider complete and return the form to you before you leave. This form can be especially hard to get after treatment at an Emergency Room, so please get a completed copy before you leave the medical facility. 

Employees must have an Attending Physician who is responsible to direct their care and treatment in their workers’ compensation claim, as well as address the employee’s return-to-work release status.

An attending physician must be:
1) A medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners for the State of Oregon or an oral and maxillofacial surgeon licensed by the Oregon Board of Dentistry, or a similarly licensed doctor in any country or in any state, territory, or possession of the United States; or
2) For a cumulative total of 60 days from the first visit on the initial claim or for a cumulative total of 18 visits, whichever comes first, to any of these medical service providers:
    a) A doctor or physician licensed by the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners for the State of Oregon or a similarly licensed doctor or physician in any country or in any state, territory, or possession of the U.S., or
    b) A podiatric physician and surgeon licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners for the State of Oregon or a similarly licensed physician in any country or in any state, territory, or possession of the U.S., or
    c) A physician assistant licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners for the State of Oregon or a similarly licensed physician assistant in any country or in any state, territory, or possession of the U.S., or
    d) A doctor of naturopathy or naturopathic physician licensed by the Board of Naturopathic Examiners or a similarly licensed doctor or physician in any country or in any state, territory, or possession of the U.S.
Except as otherwise provided for workers subject to a managed care contract, "attending physician" does not include a physician who provides care in a hospital emergency room and refers the injured worker to a primary care physician for follow-up care and treatment.

An Employee Status Report form is required in workers’ compensation claims at a minimum of every 30 days AND at any time the employee’s work release status changes from their Attending Physician. A work release status change may include:

• Being taken off of work
• Being released to modified work with specific restrictions
• Any change in work restrictions from the prior appointment
• Being released to return to work full duty
• Becoming medically stationary (meaning no further treatment or improvement in condition is expected).

It is the injured workers responsibility to obtain an updated release at the time of their appointment (remember to get the completed form back from the provider before leaving the appointment.)

OSU attempts to provide modified work whenever possible to employees with workers’ compensation claims, via our early-return-to-work program. Employees with restrictions are expected to return to available modified work. Immediately notify your supervisor and Heidi Melton, Workers Compensation Claims Professional with Insurance and Risk Management Services, if you are released to return to work with restrictions. The early-return-to-work program is designed to provide temporary modified work for employees with workers’ compensation claims. To facilitate this process, your supervisor and Heidi Melton must know your specific restrictions (so be sure that you have obtained an Employee Status Report form or similar medical release to verify your specific restrictions.) Heidi will work with your supervisor to verify and arrange for available modified work to meet your restrictions whenever possible. Injured workers are expected to return to modified work when made available to meet their restrictions under the early-return-to-work program.

Immediately notify your supervisor and Heidi Melton in Insurance and Risk Management Services. Provide an updated Employee Status Report form or similar medical release to verify your off work status. You are expected to follow your department’s call-in procedure, and to request time off via Emp Center. You will be expected to maintain contact with your supervisor and provide timely responses to Heidi Melton for requested information (check your OSU email address, as that will be the primary method of communication. Notify Heidi Melton if you wish to have a non-OSU email address or secondary email address added to communications.)

If you are expected to be off work for more than 3 days, make an online request for a new protected leave under Federal Family Medical Leave (FMLA), via Emp Center, by following the instructions below:

• Log into My Time website located at http://mytime.oregonstate.edu/
• Click on My time off
• click on create new request
• Select absences for FMLA, OFLA and military leave
• Answer the questions and submit the request

Yes, if SAIF has requested an Insurers Medical Examination, your attendance is required or your workers’ compensation benefits may be impacted.

Yes, SAIF will routinely ask you for information on past medical care in order to make decisions related to your claim. For additional questions regarding requests from SAIF, you may contact your claims adjuster at SAIF for more information at 1-800-285-8525.

Train your employees to report all accidents and incidents to their supervisor immediately. This includes accidents, work-related injuries and illnesses, and near misses(where an incident occurred but no one was injured). The University’s goal is to create a safe work environment. Timely reporting of incidents helps achieve that goal by providing an opportunity to remove hazards or take action to prevent future occurrences. It is recommended that supervisors provide training on incident and injury reporting to all new employees and then provide periodic refresher training on an ongoing basis.

Complete the HR Advocate Public Incident Reporting form within 24 hours to document all reported incidents. Be sure to use the radio button to identify the status of the person injured. This is particularly important, as the form is a smart form which will add required questions for employees paid by OSU, which includes faculty/staff, student employees (both undergraduate and graduate student employees), and temporary employees who are paid directly through OSU payroll (as opposed to temporary employees who are paid through a temporary agency.)

In addition to completing the HR Advocate Public Incident Reporting form, the work with your injured employee to complete the SAIF 801 form using the Manager/Supervisor Instructions for 801 Form, and return it to Heidi Melton within 24 hours. If the employee is unavailable, complete as much of the SAIF 801 from as you can based on the information you have (both the worker and employer portions of the form) and return it to Heidi Melton, in Insurance and Risk Management Services within 24 hours.

When an employee is scheduled for an Insurers Medical Exam (IME), the insurance company will pay for a reasonable amount of time to attend the appointment, which included travel time (this will generally not take the whole day, so the employee should likely not need an entire day off.) If the employee’s IME is scheduled when they are normally scheduled to work, the employee should request hours off work to account for appointment attendance via Emp Center, and track this on their timesheet as Leave without Pay (LWOP). SAIF will send the employee a form to complete to document the missed time, which requires employer signature to verify the missed time. Contact Heidi Melton in Insurance and Risk Management Services and she will assist with the calculation to use for the missed time.

Report any new employee injury/illness claims via the HR Advocate Public Incident Reporting form as usual, and contact Heidi Melton, in Insurance and Risk Management Services to report any concerns you may have about the injury/illness or the employee’s recovery.