The report listed below shows the number of initial payment cases for 2004 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 20.92%.

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, and adds additional costs to the agency in having to process these forms.

If you have any questions about this report, please contact Kathleen Rademacher at (517) 322-1438 or e-mail her at kradem@michigan.gov.

Type	Total Claims	Claims w/o 107's	Claims w/107's	% Disputed Claims
Insurance Companies	16,517	12,866	3,651	22.10%
Self-Insureds	8,331	6,837	1,494	17.93%
Group Funds	2,950	2,281	669	22.68%
Total/Average	27,798	21,984	5,814	20.92%