The loss run is the single most important financial document in your safety program, and most operators have never been walked through one. It is the raw input to your EMR, your renewal pricing, and every prequalification questionnaire you fill out. Request it from your carrier or broker quarterly — you are entitled to it.
The columns that matter
| Column | What it means | Why you should care |
|---|---|---|
| Claim number / DOI | Identifier and date of injury | Groups claims into the correct policy year for EMR |
| Status | Open or closed | Open claims carry reserves that inflate your incurred total |
| Paid | Money actually spent to date | The only number that is already sunk |
| Reserve | Carrier's estimate of remaining cost | The most challengeable and most inflated figure on the page |
| Incurred | Paid + reserve | This is the number that feeds EMR |
| Type | Medical-only vs. indemnity (lost time) | Indemnity claims count at full weight; medical-only is discounted |
| Cause / body part | Injury mechanism | Where your actual pattern lives |
The analysis that takes twenty minutes
- Sort by incurred, descending. The top five claims usually make up most of the total — but check whether they are one severe event or a repeating pattern.
- Count claims by cause code. Frequency by cause is what tells you where the program is failing.
- Count claims by body part. Three shoulders in a year is a materials-handling problem, not bad luck.
- Flag every open claim older than 12 months with a reserve above $10,000. Those are your reserve-review targets.
- Compare medical-only vs. indemnity counts. A high indemnity ratio usually means a missing return-to-work program.
- Map claims to department, shift, and tenure. New-hire claims concentrated in the first 90 days is an onboarding failure with a cheap fix.
The four questions to bring to your carrier
- What is the basis for the reserve on each open claim over $10,000, and when was it last reviewed?
- Which of these claims are candidates for settlement or closure before the next unit statistical filing date?
- Are our payroll class codes assigned correctly, and has anything shifted since the last audit?
- What specific leading indicators would you like to see from us at renewal?
Know your unit statistical filing date — typically about six months after your policy expiration. Loss values are captured on that date and locked into the EMR calculation. Reserve corrections made after it don't help until the following year.
Turning the review into a program
A loss run review is only useful if it produces a corrective action list with owners and dates. Three shoulder strains in receiving becomes a materials-handling redesign with a named owner and a 60-day deadline. Without that step, the review is just a report you read once a year at renewal, which is exactly when it's too late to change the number.
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