The national guide explains the workers' compensation bargain and the standard policy: Part One pays statutory benefits, Part Two is employers liability, and premium is based on payroll by class and the experience mod. Colorado's rules come from the Workers' Compensation Act, C.R.S. Title 8, Articles 40 to 47. Colorado is a competitive state: employers buy from private insurers or Pinnacol Assurance, or they self-insure.

Who runs it

• The Division of Workers' Compensation, in the Department of Labor and Employment, administers the Act (C.R.S. 8-47-101). The Division of Insurance regulates the insurers.
• Pinnacol Assurance is a political subdivision of the state that operates as a domestic mutual insurer (8-45-101). It may write only workers' comp and employers liability for Colorado employers, and it may not refuse any Colorado employer because of risk or premium size.
• Ways to secure coverage (8-44-101): Pinnacol, an authorized stock or mutual insurer, a self-insurance permit, or an approved self-insurance pool.
• Employers pay the whole cost. Requiring an employee to pay any part of the premium is unlawful (8-44-101(2)). Workplace posters must say so.
• Rates: the rating organization's pure premium rates are Type I (prior approval). Insurers' expense and profit loads are Type II (10-4-401(3)).

Who must be covered

• Any employer with one or more employees must provide coverage (8-40-203).
• A person paid for services is an employee unless free from control and customarily engaged in an independent business. Nine statutory factors apply, such as not being paid a salary or hourly wage (8-40-202(2)). A written independent-contractor document must conspicuously say the contractor gets no workers' comp benefits, and the signatures must be notarized.
• Statutory employer: a business that contracts out its regular work is liable for its contractors' employees, and may charge the insurance cost back to the contractor (8-41-401).
• Exclusions and elections:
  • Domestic workers in private homes are excluded unless they work full time (40+ hours or 5+ days a week) (8-40-302(4)).
  • Casual maintenance or farm and ranch labor is excluded if wages are no more than $2,000 a year and there are no other covered employees.
  • A homeowner who hires out work on a qualifying residence is not the employer (8-41-402).
  • Corporate officers and LLC members owning at least 10% who control the business may reject coverage in writing. The notice goes on the Division form by certified mail and is effective the day after receipt. Rejection can't be a condition of employment (8-41-202).
  • Sole proprietors and working partners may elect to be covered by endorsement (8-40-302(5)).
• Exclusive remedy: a complying employer and its insurer face no other liability for the injury (8-41-102).

Benefits

• TTD ends at the first of: maximum medical improvement, return to regular or modified work, a written release to regular work, or failure to start offered modified work.
• A monthly wage converts to a weekly wage as × 12 ÷ 52 (8-42-102).
• Mental impairment claims need support from a psychiatrist or psychologist. They don't arise from good-faith discipline, evaluations, transfers, layoffs or terminations.

Deadlines

• Employee notice of injury: in writing within 10 days. Each day late can cost a day's compensation (8-43-102(1)).
• Occupational disease notice: within 30 days after the first distinct manifestation.
• Employer report: lost-time and other reportable injuries within 10 days. Fatalities immediately (8-43-101).
• Claim filing: within two years, extendable to three with a reasonable excuse. Certain radiation and dust diseases allow five years (8-43-103(2)).

Exam traps

• Colorado is not monopolistic. Pinnacol competes with private carriers but can't turn employers away.
• The benefit rate is 66 2/3%, and the cap is 91% of the state average weekly wage.
• 3-day waiting period; benefits are paid back to day one after two weeks of disability.
• 10 days for the injury notice, 30 days for occupational disease notice, 2 years to file a claim.