Insights & Resources

February 12, 2024 | Alerts

OSHA’s New Reporting Requirement for Certain Employers

OSHA’s New Reporting Requirement for Certain Employers

Highlights:

  • The new OSHA rule requires certain health care providers to annually report workplace injuries and illnesses via an electronic tracking application.
  • The deadline for submission and compliance is March 2, 2024.
  • OSHA is preparing to post non-personal information to a public website.

The Rule and Timing:

As of January 1, 2024, employers with 100 or more employees in certain high-hazard industries, including some defined health care providers (see below), must submit electronically to OSHA detailed information concerning workplace injuries and illnesses reported on their OSHA Form 300 Log and Form 301 Incident Report from the previous calendar year via OSHA’s new Injury Tracking Application.  The electronic system is in addition to the already existing reporting and recording requirements (OSHA Form 300 and Form 301) for workplace injuries/illnesses required by OSHA. To improve data quality, establishments are required to include their legal company name when making electronic submissions to OSHA from their injury and illness records.

On January 2, 2024, OSHA’s new tracking system started accepting 2023 injury and illness data. Affected employers must complete their initial submission to OSHA by March 2, 2024.  The submission requirement is annual.

The submission must include data concerning the date, physical location, and severity of the injury or illness; details about the worker who was injured; and details of how the injury or illness occurred.   Further, employers must ensure that they do not provide OSHA with any personal identifying information in these submissions, including any employee number or code, telephone number, health care provider information, family member information, email address, or information that could incidentally identify an employee (ex. their race, gender, ethnicity, or job title). Compliance will require employers’ to review their OSHA 300 and 301 logs to ensure no personal identifying information is included in the electronically required submission. Except that, submissions must include injured or ill employees’ date of birth which OSHA’s electronic system will convert to an age to disguise employees’ identities.

Affected Health Care Entities:

Health care entities considered “high-hazard” industries for purposes of this reporting requirement include:

  • General Medical and Surgical Hospitals;
  • Ambulatory Health Care Services;
  • Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly;
  • Other Residential Care Facilities;
  • Vocational Rehabilitation Services;
  • Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Facilities;
  • Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities);
  • Specialty (except Psychiatric and Substance Abuse) Hospitals; and
  • Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Hospitals.[1]

Next Steps:

Affected health care providers should prioritize submitting their initial electronic report to OSHA by March 2, 2024.  This is also a good opportunity to verify existing reporting and recording record keeping policies required by OSHA.

For more information on these requirements, please see the Fact Sheet OSHA recently issued here.  Should you have any questions regarding compliance with these new requirements, please contact the authors or the Garfunkel Wild attorney with whom you regularly work.


[1] The United States Census Bureau’s definitions for these categories of industries may be accessed here.