Important Claims Coordinator News
Last week, SORM conducted an overhaul of internal legacy systems and migrated the state’s workers’ compensation claims data to a new cloud-based Risk Management Information System. With this new migration, we have a few important announcements to share with claims coordinators regarding entering new claims, upcoming training, and the status of the former legacy system.
DWC-1S Form Completion
Claims coordinators must now ensure two important fields are complete on the Employer’s First Report of Injury or Illness Form (DWC-1S) to ensure claims are processed. The State Payroll Classification Code (field 34) and Occupation of Injured Worker (field 35) must be completed to avoid delays in claims processing. Previously, employers were allowed to enter “TBD – to be determined” as a placeholder, which is no longer an accepted option. Claims coordinators can find employees’ classification codes by contacting their human resources departments, or by visiting the State Auditor’s Office website to search for appropriate codes and job descriptions.
Online Worker’s Compensation Claims Coordinator Training
Claims coordinators will soon be able to complete the Workers’ Compensations Claims Coordinator Training online through our new learning management system (LMS). This self-paced training is broken into four sections – an interactive slideshow that includes all slide content with a glossary of terminology, and a three-part series of pre-recoded videos to walk you through the training. This course will be available as needed and is intended for claims coordinators who are new in their roles or those who need a refresher. A separate notification will be sent to all claims coordinators once the online training is available. Please note that this online course does not offer continuing education credits.
Retired Legacy Claims Management System
With the successful migration of claims data into our new cloud-based system, the former claims management system (CMS) is no longer maintained or updated. CMS is being permanently retired and will gradually be disabled to external stakeholders. Most agencies are not affected by this deactivation; however, we are exploring potential opportunities for agencies that are interested in acquiring self-directed information and reports. While it is unknown at the present, what types of access are available to the new system, or what the associated costs will be, we do know some agencies are interested. We will continue research on this topic at a later implementation stage.