The report listed below shows the number of initial payment cases for 2001 in which a Notice of Dispute (Form BWC-107) has been filed. Only voluntary payment claims were selected for this report and we have excluded any claims in which a Form 104A or 104C has been filed or in which partial benefits were initially paid. As noted on the chart below, the average for all companies is 19.60%.

We urge you to examine the report and compare your company's percentage to others in your grouping as well as to the statewide average. While I appreciate that there are going to be situations where payment of compensation should be disputed, there certainly is no excuse for filing Notices of Dispute in a high percentage of payment cases. We ask that you examine your company's current policy on this issue and remind your claims department that filing unnecessary Notices of Dispute may do more to encourage litigation rather than prevent it.

If you have any questions about this report, please contact Kathleen Rademacher at (517) 322-1438.

Type	Total Claims	Claims w/o 107's	Claims w/107's	% Disputed Claims
Insurance Companies	21,613	17,055	4,558	21.71%
Self-Insureds	10,274	8,645	1,629	15.86%
Group Funds	2,934	2,297	637	21.09%
Total/Average	34,821	27,997	6,824	19.60%