Definition: In Texas, whenever an injured employee has disability (i.e., “lost time” from work), workers’ compensation insurance carriers are required to pay the employee “Temporary Income Benefits” during each period of disability. Workers’ Compensation Temporary Income Benefits (TIBS) replace a portion of wages lost whenever an injured employee has “disability” because of a work-related injury or illness. An injured employee may be paid TIBs if the work-related injury or illness causes the employee to lose all or some wages for more than seven (7) days. Temporary income benefits are equal to 70 percent of the difference between the employee’s average weekly wage and the wages the employee is able to earn after the work-related injury. The employee becomes eligible for TIBs after losing eight (8) days from work. TIBS are not paid for the first week of lost wages unless lost time lasts for two (2) weeks (14 days) or more. TIBS are paid until the injured employee reaches “Maximum Medical Improvement” (MMI), which is defined as the earlier of:

• the earliest date after which, based on reasonable medical probability, further material recovery from or lasting improvement to an injury can no longer reasonably be anticipated; or

• the expiration of 104 weeks from the date on which income benefits begin to accrue.

Importance: TIBS are a significant cost driver in the City’s workers’ compensation self-insurance program. It is important to measure the percentage change in TIBS paid in order to determine trends in benefit payments. A downward trend indicates cost control measures in workers’ compensation are being effective.  TIBS are not paid to Civil Service employees, they receive Occupational Injury Leave Benefits instead.

The TIBS comparison also measures the effectiveness of the City's Return to Work Program.

The Workers' Compensation Manager is responsible for creating and maintaining this data. The Data Source is the City's contracted workers' compensation claims administrator's web-based "YCEa" claims management reporting system. The City's TPA has established a custom report, “Generalized Payment Export" that provides the data. Reported data includes those claims in which any workers’ compensation benefit type has been paid.

An authorized UserID and unique password are required from the TPA to access this system. Steps to access these reports are as follows:

1. Open an Internet Explorer web browser  and navigate to the following website and enter your UserName and password: htttps://iclaimsexpert.com; YOUR unique username and password.
2. At the Main screen, click on “Functions” in the left margin of the screen
3. Select the "Exports Menu"
4. Select the "Generalized Payment Export"
5. Enter desired date range for "Issued Period" (i.e., 07/01/2019 - 12/31/2019)
6. in "MP Code", select "010125 - Temporary Total (TX)"
7. Select "Request Export" at bottom of page
8. Select "Download" on far left margin
9. Retrieve  the Excel spreadsheet
10. Total the TIBS Payment for each Quarter
11. Calculate the percentage change via website:  https://www.bing.com/search?q=...
12. Analyze report data for reasons or causes of change
13. Enter data into KPI data report file

(TIBS Paid in Current Qtr – TIBS Paid in Previous Qtr) / TIBS Paid in Previous Qtr)