DFWP and Workers’ Comp

With marijuana now available as a legal recreational and/or medical drug in many states, the potential implications are still being evaluated and one area under review is workers’ compensation.  The NCCI recently published a report as an initial attempt to evaluate the potential implications of the legalization of marijuana on WC Drug Free Workplace Safety Programs.

Three researchers, Chun Shyong, Barry Lipton and John Robertson, reviewed results for eleven states that provide premium credits to employers with DFWP (Drug Free Workers’ Comp) programs for policy years 2009 to 2016.  The eleven states included: AL, AR, AZ, FL, GA, ID, KY, MS, SC, TN, and VA. To be eligible for a credit, the DFWP must provide notice, education, employment related drug and alcohol testing or similar procedural requirements.  A wide array of drugs might be tested for; those that might impair an employee’s ability to do his/her job and or increase risk of injury to the employee or a co-worker.  The expectation with a DFWP program is that the number of claims should be lower with such a program in place.

Lost-time claim frequency for workers’ compensation policies both with and without DFWP premium credits was compared and the findings of this review were two-fold.  “In the NCCI States reviewed, WC policies with DFWP credits did not have lower claim frequency than comparable policies without DFWP credits.  There is no clear pattern at the class code level for the relative frequency of claims for policies with and without drug free credits.”

In their report, the researchers acknowledge there is a wide range of possible underlying motivations for an employer to seek out a DFWP credit in the first place and therefore it that makes it difficult to generalize on the efficacy of these programs.  Additionally, there are differences in the administration of the DFWP statutes across states, for example, the timing of drug testing which can impact efficacy as well.  The researchers do speculate that DFWP are likely effective in some situations but not in others.  Until more research is done , employers will likely have continued concern over drug use and its ability to impair a worker.