The Department of Labor & Industries' Self-Insurance

Claims Administrator Continuing Education Credits

After a ten year campaign, the Department of Labor & Industries finally agreed to allow Continuing Education Credits as a methodology to maintain certification other than by re-testing every five year.  The Department requires that 75 credits be earned, in a variety of categories, during that 5 year certification.  Courses are submitted to the Department, either by the curriculum provider or the certified person, and the Department's Curriculum Review Committee evalutes the programs and awards credits.  Eventually, the Department will post the number of credits they have awarded for programs, and will implement an electronic, web-based approach for certified people to post their credits.  That will not happen for some time.

HOWEVER, WSIA will maintain that information, for all programs that we submit to the Department, here at the WSIA website. The link below will take you to the updated chart of all CEC's awarded by both the Department for Claims Administrator Certification, and WSIA's Washington Workers' Compensation Professional.  All of the information you need will be in ONE spot.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact WSIA Training Coordinator Bonnie Prater at bonnie.prater@wsiassn.org or WSIA Executive Director Dave Kaplan at dave.kaplan@wsiassn.org, or at the WSIA office at 800.736.7296.

Here's the current table of credits awarded by WSIA's Industrial Insurance University toward maintaining your WWCP designation, AND the list of credits awarded by the Department to maintain your state Certified Claims Administrator status.  Only those programs with credits next to them in the yellow columns have been awarded credits by the Department, though nearly every program has been submitted to them for review.

WSIA's CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS TABLE

(contains both WSIA and DLI Continuing Education Credit information)

as of July 2008

DLI's CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT TABLE

(contains only DLI Continuing Education Credit information)

as of May 2008

The Department has begun to publish Continuing Education newsletters summarizing and updating the elements of the program as they see it.

DLI CONTINUING EDUCATION NEWSLETTER #1

DLI CONTINUING EDUCATION NEWSLETTER #2

as of 11 April 2008

The Department has finally produced a form for you to submit your Continuing Education Credits, for maintaining your Certification.

DLI SELF-INSURANCE CONTINUING EDUCATION

REPORT OF COURSE COMPLETION

(for Certified Claims Administrators to submit their credits)

as of 6 March 2008

SCHEDULE OF CREDITS NEEDED

There has been a number of questions regarding the Continuing Education option, as an alternative to re-testing, for maintaining the state's Claims Administrator Certification.  Hopefully this will clarify and answer most of those questions.

If your certification expires before October 1, 2008 you MUST take the Certified Claims Administrator test.  There are no exceptions to that.  No grandfathering.  You MUST take the test again.  Once you are certified, you will have five years to either collect a minimum of 75 Continuing Education Credits (20 in claims processing/procedures; 20 in legal issues; 20 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 13 in elective topics), or take the test again.

There is a tiered structure for those people whose certification expires between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2012.

If your certification expires between October 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009, you must earn a minimum of 30 credits (8 in claims processing/procedures; 8 in legal issues; 8 in medical issues; 1 in ethics; and 5 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between April 1, 2009 and September 30, 2009, you must earn a minimum of 35 credits (10 in claims processing/procedures; 10 in legal issues; 10 in medical issues; 1 in ethics; and 4 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between October 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010, you must earn a minimum of 40 credits (11 in claims processing/procedures; 11 in legal issues; 11 in medical issues; 1 in ethics; and 6 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between April 1, 2010 and September 30, 2010, you must earn a minimum of 45 credits (12 in claims processing/procedures; 12 in legal issues; 12 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 7 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between October 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011, you must earn a minimum of 50 credits (14 in claims processing/procedures; 14 in legal issues; 13 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 7 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between April 1, 2011 and September 30, 2011, you must earn a minimum of 55 credits (15 in claims processing/procedures; 15 in legal issues; 15 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 8 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between October 1, 2011 and March 31, 2012, you must earn a minimum of 60 credits (16 in claims processing/procedures; 16 in legal issues; 16 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 10 in elective topics).

If your certification expires between April 1, 2012 and September 30, 2012, you must earn a minimum of 65 credits (18 in claims processing/procedures; 18 in legal issues; 18 in medical issues; 2 in ethics; and 9 in elective topics).

The Department will assign credits to courses that are submitted by education providers.  A Committee meets monthly to review the submittals, and then makes recommendations for the number of credits to be awarded.  WSIA has already submitted all of our training programs for review, and will submit all of our Region meetings, conferences, and even non-WSIA programs that we are made aware of.

As noted above, the Department will eventually maintain a web-based database for for Certified Claims Administrators to track and report their credit hours.

For more information, consult the rule at http://www.lni.wa.gov/rules/AO06/19/0619Adoption.pdf.