Greetings, hope everyone had a good 4^th.

Couple of pending pitfalls today and later this month:

1. Today- look out for 1 time changes from late Thursday or over the weekend.  Review everything carefully, watch out for anything saying “an alternative physician” or simply “a physician per 440.13(2)(f)”.  I got one at 4:30 Thursday, after we closed early.
2. 7/31- unless the US Congress acts, the $600 CARES Act increase in Unemployment benefits ends, and Florida returns to our state maximum of $275.   That will change your offsets, and we may see a push to return to work. 
3. AWW issues- many people who were laid off or furloughed lost their health insurance.  If they are rehired and are returning to work light duty, make sure their HI is still active or you need to increase the AWW by the employer’s cost of the HI.  It doesn’t matter if the claimant was the one to discontinue the HI, you have to add it to the AWW after it cancels.

• They must have been enrolled in the employer’s HI on the date of the accident or you don’t need to include it.
• If the HI ended, you need to include the employer’s cost of the HI at the time of the accident.  Its not the current cost, its whatever it was at the time of the accident, and it can make a big difference if the accident is a few years old.
• Be sure to calculate 80% of the AWW including the HI if it ended to avoid TPD.
• If there was an underpayment, pay penalties and interest to avoid attorney fees.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Morgan  Indek | Managing Partner