We are all in this business to help people when they need help the most. To be the person that our community can count on, we need to be ready to meet the challenges of the work that is needed to help them. Most of us know that being ready means to have trained and prepared to get the job done. The truth is, however, that when we break things down and define the pieces that go into the idea of being “fit-for-duty”, there are many important components that need to be satisfied in order for us to be truly “ready”. If we are not paying attention to all those parts, we find ourselves not up to perform the job safely or not fit to help our team and community. Let’s look at what being ready really means by first breaking it down into its parts and then looking at what goes into each part.

So, what does it mean to be “Fit-for-Duty”? If we break it down to the main components, we can look at our readiness as involving the following parts:

• Training Readiness
• Medical Readiness
• Behavioral Readiness
• Ready Now

Some of these pieces are things that our department is responsible to help us with such as providing training, establishing policies and providing resources. Others are up to us to pay attention to and look after ourselves to be safe and a reliable resource. Let’s break down what each of the above pieces consists of.

Training Readiness

Our training readiness is the foundation of our ability to be fit for duty. For most of us, it goes without saying that if we don’t prepare to perform the essential tasks we are assigned, we aren’t ready and able to do the job. Our respective agencies should have a clear policy addressing all aspects of required training to participate in operations and to attend department functions.

For all of us, this starts with the initial training and orientation we receive when we make the commitment to pursue a role in emergency services, such as our Firefighter I & II, SCBA certifications, basic EMT, OSHA and other foundational training. Additionally, we need to engage in proficiency training that needs to be performed periodically such as our annual OSHA and mask confidence updates or your periodic EMT refreshers and the “keep sharp” drills to maintain muscle memory and knowledge. Additional training, we all need to take part in is what I prefer to call “good citizen” training. Most states have mandates that require an annual review of training that relates to prevention and response to harassment, discrimination, workplace violence and sexual harassment. It includes learning about how diversity and inclusion can enhance our agencies and our lives. Many in our line of work don’t understand why we need to do it. The answer is simple: we have been acting badly for years. I would argue that while some say this is how firefighters and EMTs are, the truth is we have been wrong all along. The reason we are told we must have this training every year is also simple: we are still doing it wrong. These topics address how we keep our organization safe and inviting so everyone can contribute without fear or harm.

Medical Readiness

Our ability to perform our duties safely depends on whether we are physically capable of executing our assigned tasks without risk of injury or illness to ourselves or others. Like our training readiness, the department policies must guide what being medically ready means and how we measure it. This is why we do initial and periodic occupational physicals with qualified medical professionals. When I have a new medical condition that will take time to resolve, I must ask myself, “Am I healthy enough to be relied upon to do my job?”. If there is any doubt that we are honestly able to be safe when we work, we should report the changes to the department medical officer and work out the solution. All too often, we see a LODD report that a medical condition took down one of our brothers or sisters. I often ask, as horrible and tragic that is, “was that person hiding a condition, and how many others did we put in danger when they ‘fell out’”?

Medical readiness is a shared responsibility of your department and of the individual member. Do not hide a condition that could make things bad for you and for others. Follow policy regarding reporting of illness or condition that makes you unfit for duty. Another critical point is we must make sure the department physician or medical staff are qualified and understand the strenuous nature of our work that on occasion requires athletic levels of activity. We don’t need a doctor who thinks we sit around to be clearing people with serious conditions.

Lastly, while we talk about medical readiness, let’s look at your physical fitness. More than ever, the physical fitness of our team is being seen as a major function of our being fit-for-duty. Like I said before, most of the injury and loss of life in the fire service is related to medically related problems, and many of them are attributed to questions around the fitness of the victim. Our work often asks us to operate at the same activity level as a high functioning athlete. If we are not doing what we need to regarding physical readiness and nutrition, we are setting ourselves and our teammates up for failure. It’s up to all of us to get some exercise and eat right so we can be flexible, strong and have the stamina to get the work done without injury.

 Behavioral Readiness

We do not often think about behavioral readiness, but I think it is important that we should. As many are aware, responders are exposed to a great deal of critical and traumatic stress in the routine performance of our duties. Advances in study of how we handle that stress have shown us that we need to protect ourselves from its short- and long-term effects. Our best defenses are to have ourselves in a “good space” when we respond to these calls. Ways to ensure this are partly through education and partly through keeping our own lives in order and knowing when we need help when things aren’t going well.  We also need to be humble enough to know when we need more help.

The department is responsible to ensure you have had training that prepares us for those times when we are placed in “high stress” situations and to give us the tools to cope during those times and in our lives in general. There is increasingly more work being done today to provide resources to do just that. Encourage your agency to have an active “behavioral health” program. You are responsible to recognize that there will be days when you will be safer focusing on your personal, professional, and family lives and to choose not to respond because you are already operating at an elevated level of stress. The external stressors may include challenges we all face within our families, other professional responsibilities, and financial challenges such as reduced or lost income, experiencing an expensive loss like a car or home repair, or simply not being able to focus on things and needing a break from the responder stressors.  We cannot afford to have you attempt high risk activities if you cannot provide 100% focus or are already in the “danger zone” because you’re having trouble coping with the cumulative effects of our work.

Ready Now

The last, particularly critical component of our ability to be fit-for-duty is all about our own character and ability to be self-aware and accountable to ourselves. After considering our training, medical and behavioral readiness, there is still the need of us to individually recognize we are up for the job and can perform safely when it is time for duty. For example, when was the last time you might have been fighting a pretty tough cold or flu, and when the bell rang for that big emergency, you still got up and went to the call? Were you ready and safe? Were you truly “Fit-for-duty”? Probably not. We need to be aware of our ability to be safe, whether it is a temporary medical condition such as a cold, flu, or injury. The same is true if you are having a tough day at home or in other parts of your life. Can you focus on the job, and can the rest of us depend on you to be paying attention in the days following the loss of a family member or during other significant life events? Accept that sometimes the answer to that question is no, and you need to sit “this one” out.

The last “Ready Now” concern is a big one. You are celebrating a holiday, a graduation, or a birthday. You may have had a few drinks or indulged in recreational use drugs. Maybe you are experiencing a temporary medical or dental condition that requires the use of medications that have a sticker on the label or packaging that says “May Cause Drowsiness”, suggesting they can impair you. Are you safe to be working for your fire department or EMS agency? Absolutely not. Too often we see people “answer the call” when they are using drugs and alcohol and the outcomes are tragic. Team members are senselessly injured, the community is harmed because a responder was impaired and ineffective, and the credibility of the agency is forever scarred. This one is on us. Simply accept that that fire or “big call” will not be the last one in your career, and you are just a single person who is not operating at 100%. They don’t need you. Take the night off and sit this one out.

Conclusion

Being fit to perform our duty as a responder requires both our departments and us to be making sure all these pieces of the puzzle are in place. We need to be trained up, medically ready and in a good place emotionally and behaviorally to operate at the expected level of a professional first responder. If any of these pieces are incomplete, we are not fit-for-duty. Lastly, it is everyone’s responsibility that when that call comes in or when we report for duty, there is nothing standing in the way of us being the people that our teammates and our community count on to meet the call for help and take care of the problem safely. Most of the things we have discussed here are in our control. Accept that sometimes there are things that are not and do what you need to so you can safely return to being fit for duty. Take the responsibility to be ready, when we need you ready and humble enough to know and accept when you are not.

By: Lee Price, Training Education Manager

In June of 2020, New York State Legislation was adopted which allowed local government sponsors of Service Award Programs to adopt resolutions to award up to five ‘COVID points’ per month to active volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers during periods when, due to the COVID 19 pandemic, so called ‘Special Response Rules’ were initiated by volunteer fire companies and volunteer ambulance squads. The Special Response Rules included fire and ambulance station closures, restrictions on which volunteers could respond to calls, cancellation of volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker activities, etc.

The governing boards of these municipalities specified the number of points to be awarded each month during the Special Response Rule period in the resolutions they adopted. Many also specified in their resolution the date the Special Response Rule period started and, in some cases, when it ended. The only restriction was that no points could be awarded before March 7, 2020 or after June 24, 2021 which were the beginning and ending dates of the governor’s emergency declaration.

If your Special Response Rule periods ended after December 31, 2020, the COVID points earned by active volunteers, and any new volunteers, during 2021 when the Special Response Rules were still in effect must be included in the 2021 year-end calculations showing which volunteers earned 50 or more points in 2021 and which did not. Remember, no COVID points can be awarded for Special Response Rule periods which ended after June 24, 2021.

Of note, a few of our clients adopted resolutions that lowered the number of COVID points to be awarded after a specified date within the Special Response Rule period. For example, five points per month through February 1, 2021, and two points per month thereafter. If your municipality did that, be sure to reflect it in the calculation of the total points for 2021.

Jason Cyboron
Sr. Manager of Business Development & Accounts 518-783-6933 ext. 15 direct
518-401-5195 cell
jcyboron@penflexinc.com

Max LOSAP Service Credit May Now Be 50 Years!

A little over three weeks ago, Governor Cuomo signed Bill S1091A which extended the maximum number of years of credit a volunteer firefighter could earn under the Service Award Program point system from forty years to fifty years.

When our clients originally adopted their Service Award Program, many allowed their volunteers to earn up to forty years of credit in the program which was the maximum number allowed under Articles 11-A of the New York State General Municipal Law. As a way to minimize the initial cost of their program, many sponsors of volunteer firefighter Service Award Programs limited the maximum number of years credit a volunteer could earn under the point system to thirty, twenty or even fewer years.  That way, when the cost of the so called ‘buyback’ was paid off by the sponsor, the sponsor could hold an election to increase the max number of years of credit to up to forty years. The associated net cost increase to go to forty year max credit was usually less than the cost while the buyback was being paid down.

We followed this new bill before it made its way to the Governor’s desk.  Together with NYS attorneys, we helped draft the final version of the bill with the staff of NYS legislators. 

Now that it is law, our major concern is that we believe the bill is being misunderstood.

The earliest a program may have been established in NYS was as of January 1, 1990.  For those programs which were established effective January 1, 1990, 2020 was the 31st year of the program.  For those programs which included up to five years credit for the ‘buyback’ for service before 1990 (the vast majority of 1990 programs did that), the most service credit any participating volunteer could have earned as of August 31, 2021 is 36 years. That means it will be at least 3.5 years from now before a volunteer could possibly earn forty years of credit. For those programs effectively established after 1990, it will be at least 4.5 years from now before a volunteer could possibly earn forty years of credit.

So, if your board of fire commissioners, town board or village board is considering increasing the maximum service credit to fifty years, there is no need to rush and hold the election (mandatory referendum required). In addition, the cost increase to make this change to your program will depend directly on the number of volunteers participating in your program who have close to forty years of service credit. How many will continue to be active? How many will earn 40+ years of service credit under the point system?

So, don’t rush to make this change and by so doing give us at Penflex Actuarial Services enough of a time frame of point system experience to calculate a realistic estimated cost of making this change to your program (you will need to disclose that estimated cost in the voter proposition used for your mandatory election). Moreover, if you are considering making other changes to your program (like increasing the Service Award from $20 to $30 in a defined benefit program) it might make most sense to seek voter approval of both changes in the same election (i.e. increasing the Service Award AND increasing the maximum number of years of servicer credit a volunteer can earn in the program in one election). At this point, we don’t expect that the cost increase to allow a participant to earn 50 years of service credit will be significant. Asking your voters to approve two amendments in one election (especially one with a small price tag) may be prudent.

Edward J. Holohan

President & Senior Actuary

Penflex Actuarial Services, LLC

In the wake of the pandemic there are many things that have changed in the insurance marketplace. Rates are on the rise, exclusions are being added, and most of these changes are out of your and your client’s control. One issue that you can address, and which has recently come up in our office, is the increase in the cost of construction due to material and labor shortages. A Bloomberg article recently published concerning construction costs stated: “In some cases, the price increases have topped 100% since the pandemic began.” (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-us-housing-construction-costs/)

Have you spoken to your clients about coinsurance and how the increase in the cost of construction could affect their insurance coverage? It is a tough conversation to have given the current state of most small businesses, but it is one that needs to happen to ensure your clients have the proper coverage. COVID litigation and the decision of whether there is direct damage is a process that will work itself out in court, but insufficient property limits and explaining this to your clients is in your control.

Most renewal business in the insurance industry is bound using the existing coverage in place. I strongly recommend researching the current cost of construction in your area and updating values to reflect any increases you find. With the inconsistency of construction estimator tools in the insurance industry, I suggest you talk to one of your customers that is involved in construction and ask for help in determining the local increase in cost.

The increase in construction costs has been in the news recently, but most insurance buyers will not understand the impact it may have on their coverage and potential claims settlements. Throughout my 35 years in the insurance industry, I have had the privilege of meeting many of our agents and know that you are always working to find ways to add value for your customers. Use this as another opportunity to show your clients and prospects the value they get in working with you. Price is fleeting when a client has an unexpectedly bad claims experience, and you must tell your client: “Your building was not insured properly, but we can fix that next time.” The next time will be with their new agent, and you will have an E&O claim for this time.

Bob Barber

Chief Underwriting Officer