MTA’s Busload of Claims
By Robert Warne - August 26, 2002The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has earned the dubious distinction among big city public transit agencies of having the highest workers’ compensation expenses in the nation.
It is estimated that MTA pays 10 times more than New York City and twice as much as other transit agencies in California, per employee, for workers’ compensation costs. For MTA, approximately 10 percent of the cost to run a city bus goes towards workers’ compensation.
To put the breaks on its surging costs, which are expected to top out at $60 million this year, management is taking a proactive approach.
One such program is its whistle blower program that encourages employees to turn in co-workers who file fraudulent claims.
Officials are alarmed at the current situation because it’s affecting long-term planning as well as daily operations.
For the quarter ending June 30, there was an average of 223 new claims per month.
For the 2002 fiscal year, there were over 111 thousand lost workdays due to on-the-job injuries, up from the 2001 fiscal year statistics by 2.5 percent.
MTA is also making an effort to close out its pre-Travelers Property Casualty Corp. self-insured claims to get a handle on its expenses. The inventory of their pre-Travelers self-insured claims decreased from 1,599 to 1,490 this quarter. And for the 2002 fiscal year, a net of 712 pre-Travelers self-insured claims were closed.
According to company reports, the staff continues to monitor Travelers’ handling of these claims to ensure cost effective and appropriate settlements.
With an emphasis to aggressively curtail fraud and a commitment to closely monitor claims, MTA officials hope to get workers’ compensation costs back on track. | 
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