State of RI Claims FAQ

Report a claim as soon within 48 hours of becoming aware of the injury. The claim can be reported on BEACONNECT. Click here to Report an Injury online.

Yes, any work-related incident should be reported. This way there is a documented record of the event. If your employee ultimately receives treatment for this incident, Beacon will already have a claim set up in our system, which will allow us to process any related medical bills as they are submitted. Incident claims are reported for record purposes only.

Once your claim is reported to Beacon online you will receive a claim number, which will be your reference number for future calls or correspondence. The claim number can be shared with your employee as they may need to provide it to the doctor’s office if they seek treatment for their injury.

You should have the following information available when you report an injury online: employee name, address, date of birth, social security number, date of the incident, where the injury occurred, injury type, location of the injury (body part), a description of injury, witness information, and the place where medical treatment was administered.

The first report of injury application times out after 30 minutes of inactivity. We recommend that you save the draft of your report if you are interrupted while entering a first report of injury to ensure that you do not lose your work.

If you have questions regarding your reported claim, contact your assigned claim representative. If you do not know who your representative is, call (401) 825-2667 and ask for Claims. You will be directed to the proper party. You can also send your question now by filling out a form on the Contact Us page.

The additional contact fields on the First Report of Injury application are optional. You can include an additional contact here who may have more information about the claim you are reporting. You can also add a member of your department so that they will receive a copy of the confirmation page in this section of the application. This may be helpful for coverage of the claim while you are on vacation or out of the office.

[Send Secure] is a secure email system that the State of Rhode Island will use to send secure documents externally. [Send Secure] must be in the email subject line. You may send any documents related to your workers’ compensation claim to Beacon Mutual via [Send Secure] including witness forms, dependency forms, doctor’s notes or other related documents.

No, once the First Report of Injury has been submitted to Beacon Mutual online, you will not be able to make changes electronically. To make any changes to the claim information, contact the Beacon Mutual claims representative with your assigned claim number. Your claim representative can assist with changing the claims status or adding any additional information to the claim.

All claim information will need to be entered every time. All information entered during the First Report of Injury submission application will come from the Incident Injury Form. The online system does not allow you to access information about the individual during the entry process. Claimant information is stored online in our secure system which is accessed by our claims representatives only.

During the First Report of Injury submission process, you’ll be asked to enter the social security number twice to confirm the accuracy of the information. If the claimant with the same name, social security number and date of injury is entered in duplicate, you will receive a warning message to inform you that this may be a duplicate claim entry. You will be asked to call the Beacon Mutual Claims Department to verify the claimant information over the phone.

No. As a BEACONNECT user, you will be able to see the history of the claims that you enter, but you will not be able to see those that your colleagues enter for privacy reasons. Managers and staff will need to coordinate to ensure that claims information is not entered in duplicate.

You will receive the printed forms. The first part of the incident injury form will be completed by the injured employee and the second part will be completed by the supervisor. Then the form will be given to the individual who will enter the First Report of Injury form online.

Yes. Your confirmation page will include the claim number and assigned claim representative and can be sent to the injured employee and supervisor.

Beacon Mutual has been able to coordinate with the State of Rhode Island’s IT department to ensure that there are no firewall or connectivity issues between the State’s network and Beacon’s secure online portal.

The martial status is used to calculate the amount of wage replacement and indemnity in the injured employee’s workers’ compensation claim check. You do have the option to select “unknown” for marital status.

If your claim is accepted by Beacon Mutual, you might qualify to receive the following types of benefits:

1. Medical benefits, which cover treatment that is reasonable and necessary to cure, relieve, and rehabilitate you from the effects of your work-related injury or occupational disease.
2. Indemnity benefits, which is coverage that might pay you for lost wages if you are medically disabled for more than 3 calendar days. A note or disability slip from a doctor is needed to support your time out of work and needs to be provided at regular intervals to support the ongoing disability and eligibility for wage replacement benefits.

You must report the injury or occupational disease promptly to your employer. Seek treatment if needed. If you are treated by a medical provider, or are out of work for more than three days, your employer must report your claim to Beacon Mutual online. See the information on How to Minimize Life and Work Disruption Due to an Injury at Work.

If you are disabled from working (according to a medical provider) for more than 3 calendar days as a result of your work related injury and your claim is accepted, you will receive your wage replacement benefit from Beacon Mutual. There is a mandatory 3-day waiting period under the RI Workers’ Compensation Act and Beacon Mutual does not pay you for that time. Payment for the first three days may be available directly from your employer.

If your claim is only for work-related medical treatment, you are usually not contacted unless Beacon has a question. The billing for your work-related injury treatment will be processed and payment will be made directly to the medical provider.

If we are made aware that you have lost more than 3 days from work, you will be contacted by a claim representative within 24 hours after Beacon received notification of your claim. Your claim representative will obtain more information from you about your work-related injury and will verify the information that was reported. If you are losing time from work and have not been contacted, please contact our office at 401-825-2667 to speak to a claim representative.

Yes. By law, you initially have the freedom of choice to obtain health care from any qualified health care provider. This provider may refer you to a specialist without prior approval from your employer’s Third-Party Administrator (TPA), Beacon Mutual. Your first visit to an emergency facility is not considered your first choice. However, if you see a provider more than once and then decide to change doctors, you must select a provider from the  Beacon Mutual/State of Rhode Island’s Preferred Provider Network (PPN).

If you had to pay out of pocket for any prescribed medications for your accepted work-related injury, you can submit the prescription details and receipt to your claim representative for reimbursement. For accepted claims with work-related medical treatment, you will receive a card from the Beacon Mutual pharmacy benefit management company, Mitchell Script Advisor. This card provides access to quality pharmaceutical care through a trusted network of more than 67,000 pharmacies nationwide. Fill a Prescription.

If you are in treatment with a provider in the Beacon Mutual Preferred Provider Network (PPN), the medical provider can refer you to a specialist within the PPN. All treatment referrals, authorizations to see a specialist, diagnostic testing or physical therapy should be requested directly by the provider from Beacon Mutual’s Managed Care Unit at 401-825-2989, or the provider can fax the request to Beacon at 401-825-2854. If the type of specialist you need is not listed in the PPN, the provider should contact the Beacon Mutual claim representative for further instruction on how to make the referral.

You can contact your claim representative at 401-825-2667 between 7:45 p.m.-5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. There might be a delay if there is a holiday during the week that you expect your check.

Our goal is to pay accepted claims within 10 days of our notification of a work-related injury.

Effective May 1, 2019, any benefits due, including lost wage benefit replacement as well as medical benefits will be paid by The Beacon Mutual Insurance Company on behalf of the State of Rhode Island. Your last indemnity check from the State of Rhode Island will be paid through May 11. Beacon will begin paying your weekly indemnity on May 12 and your first check from Beacon will be mailed on May 21. The date that you receive your checks from Beacon may differ; however, there will not be any interruption in your benefits.

Early access to your prescribed medications can have a positive impact on your recovery. Beacon partners with Mitchell ScriptAdvisor to give you access to quality pharmaceutical care through a trusted network of more than 67,000 pharmacies nationwide. Your new pharmacy card will be printed and mailed to you prior to May 1.

Beacon’s approved Preferred Provider Network (PPN) is comprised of participating physicians and other healthcare providers who are experienced in treating work-related injuries. Download the list of providers at www.beaconmutual.com/state-of-rhode-island/find-a-doctor. You are not required to change your medical provider; however, if you would like to select a new physician you can select from the PPN.

You should receive your claim number when the Beacon Mutual claim representative contacts you. Your claim number is also noted on forms that you will receive from Beacon Mutual for work-related injuries for which you have lost time from work. You can also call 401-825-2667 and ask for Claims to request your claim number.

If you wish to get another medical opinion to confirm a diagnosis or treatment options communicated by your treating physician, call your claim representative to discuss at 401-825-2667.

You should notify Beacon Mutual of any change to your address as soon as possible. This will ensure that you receive your benefit checks or other important information about your claim, in a timely manner. To notify us of any address change, call 401-825-2667. We also suggest that you submit a change of address form with the US Postal Service. For additional information about changing your address, visit the US Postal Service website.

For a detailed explanation on how your benefit is calculated, visit the Department of Labor and Training website to view the Calculation of Comp Rate Brochure, or visit the RI DLT website for more information about workers’ compensation for injured workers.

You do not receive a W2 or 1099 form from Beacon Mutual for your weekly wage replacement checks. For specifics on any personal tax-related reporting questions, it is recommended that you contact a tax professional.

Frequently Asked Questions.

By law, an injured employee initially has the freedom of choice to obtain health care from any qualified health care provider. Beacon Mutual does have an approved Preferred Provider Network (PPN) comprised of physicians and other health care providers who are experienced in the care and treatment of work-related injuries. You can refer to the PPN available on the State of Rhode Island’s Find a Doctor page. There are Urgent Care and Occupational Health Centers and the injured worker can choose one that is most convenient.

Beacon encourages you to report ALL alleged work-related injuries. The earlier we are made aware of a potential claim, the sooner we can initiate communication and investigation to preserve facts in the event of future litigation. If you have concerns about a claim that you wish to discuss with a claim representative, please be sure to mention this when you report the claim.

Any legal correspondence that you receive, which references an allegation of a work-related injury, should immediately be sent to your Beacon claim representative for review via [Send Secure] email. Many of these documents are time sensitive and need a response as soon as possible.

Under the RI Workers’ Compensation Act, there are certain instances in which the injured employee has a right to reinstatement. Please contact your claim representative for more information.

If you have questions regarding your reported claim, contact your assigned claim representative. If you do not know who your representative is, call (401) 825-2667 and ask for Claims. You will be directed to the proper party. You can also send your question now by filling out a form on the Contact Us page.

For all lost-time claims, you can expect to receive a call from the assigned claim representative within 24 hours. If the claim is reported as a medical-only claim, you are not usually contacted unless it is requested. If your employee misses more than 3 days of work, you will be contacted by a claim representative. If you do not hear from Beacon, please call to make us aware that your employee is losing time from work.

Make sure the employee gets proper medical attention. Next, gather all of the pertinent information about what happened and document it, and obtain the names of any witnesses. Consider taking photographs of the scene of the incident to preserve the facts. If someone or something else caused the injury, obtain all the information by securing police reports, identification of a property owner or manufacturer of the product or machine that caused the injury. Collect any operator manuals, recent work or service orders or agreements, and obtain any contracts that might exist between you and the responsible party. Then, report the claim to Beacon online. Click here to Report an Injury online.

Keep in touch with your employee when he or she is out of work and throughout the claim. Keep the lines of communication with your employee open and ongoing. Communication is the key. In addition, you will receive ongoing communication from the assigned claim representative with regard to the employee’s ability to work and if they are capable of either modified or full duty. See the 12 Quick Tips for Managing Your Employee’s Work Related Injury.