Written by: Patrick A. Johnson
As a simple reminder, to calculate Supplemental Earnings Benefits, you need to convert the Average Weekly Wage into an Average Monthly Wage. Since no SEBs are owed if the wage-earning capacity identified – through vocational rehabilitation, a job offers extended by the employer, etc. – exceeds 90% of the Average Monthly Wage, you need to calculate that threshold. Also, since Supplemental Earnings Benefits are subject to the maximum compensation rate, you also need to figure out the maximum monthly SEB payment by multiplying the maximum compensation rate by 52 weeks and then dividing it by 12 months.
These calculations represent a lot of math that needs to be conducted each month on claims in which your claimants are receiving Supplemental Earnings Benefits. Since every time you form that calculation in a case, you increase the potential for a mistake, and in a worst-case scenario, a mistake that leads to an underpayment of benefits.
So, it may be a good idea to keep these calculations and the thresholds either in your claim notes in a location that you can refer to quickly, somewhere on your desktop, or in a separate note pad that you keep near your computer. Rather than having to redo the calculations each month, it would be both safer and faster for you to refer to this “SEB cheat sheet.” You can simply figure out the claimant’s wage-earning capacity or wages earned for that month and compare it to the prior calculations that you have performed. While it may not make the calculations easier, it will at least make it less painful each month when you must do these calculations.
Naturally, if your company has limitations on where claims information must be stored, we defer to those requirements, but at a minimum you should eat these calculations somewhere Handy that you can refer to later.
Patrick
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