How to Get Reimbursed by Washington's Stay-at-Work Program

What Employers Lose When They Miss the Filing Window

Picture this: eight months ago, a forklift operator at your warehouse strained his lower back. You put together a transitional duty assignment — packing orders from a seated workstation — and he worked modified duty for eleven weeks before his attending provider cleared him to full duty. The claim closed cleanly. No lost-time indemnity. You were pleased.

Then your TPA mentions, in passing, that Washington's Stay-at-Work program would have reimbursed roughly half of what you paid him during those eleven weeks. You never filed. The one-year application window has closed. That reimbursement — potentially several thousand dollars — is gone.

Washington's Stay-at-Work (SAW) program exists specifically to offset the wage cost of keeping an injured worker employed during recovery. Since January 1, 2025, the reimbursement ceiling is $25,000 per claim, covering up to 120 days worked at 50% of the worker's base wages — nearly double the prior limits. A second program, Preferred Worker, can extend the total opportunity to $75,000 per claim across both programs combined. (AGC of Washington, 2025; WA L&I, 2025.)

The catch is operational: reimbursement accrues only on documented, approved days. One clerical error — a shift worked outside approved hours, a job description that was never countersigned by the attending provider — can disqualify an otherwise valid day. The purpose of this guide is to walk you through the filing path so that none of those days slip through.

By the end of this article you will know which employers and claims qualify, how to build an airtight day log, how to assemble the reimbursement packet, and where the most common disqualifying errors occur.

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Who Qualifies for Washington Stay-at-Work Reimbursement

Employer and claim eligibility

SAW is available to Washington State Fund employers — those covered by L&I's industrial insurance fund rather than a self-insured arrangement. If you carry workers' comp through a private carrier rather than L&I's State Fund, the SAW program does not apply to those claims. Confirm your coverage type with your broker or L&I account representative before investing time in a SAW filing.

The injured worker must have an open L&I claim. The transitional duty assignment must be medically approved — meaning the attending provider has reviewed and signed off on the light-duty job description in writing before the worker performs that work. Verbal approval does not satisfy the requirement. The written approval typically appears on or alongside the Activity Prescription Form (APF), the L&I document on which the provider records specific physical restrictions and approved work parameters. See the WA Activity Prescription Form guide for a detailed walkthrough of that form.

The light-duty job you offer must genuinely fall within the restrictions the provider has specified — hours, physical demands, task types. If the provider approves four hours of sedentary work per day and the worker performs six hours on any given day, that day is ineligible for reimbursement. (ERNwest, 2025.) This is not a technicality L&I overlooks; it is a direct disqualifier.

What the program reimburses

The SAW program reimburses 50% of the worker's base wages for each approved day worked in a transitional duty assignment. Overtime, shift differentials, and bonuses are excluded from the base-wage calculation — confirm the exact wage definition with WA L&I before building your estimate. The reimbursement is capped at:

• 120 days worked (for injuries on or after January 1, 2025; the prior limit was 66 days)
• $25,000 per claim (for injuries on or after January 1, 2025; the prior cap was $10,000)

These expanded limits were enacted by House Bill 2127 and took effect January 1, 2025. (WA L&I GovDelivery bulletin, 2024.) For injuries that occurred before that date, the older limits apply — verify the applicable cap with L&I based on your claim's date of injury.

A partial day counts as one reimbursable day, provided the day is otherwise valid. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.) This matters in early recovery when a worker might only tolerate two or three hours. You do not lose the day simply because the worker left at noon.

The Preferred Worker Program

Once a worker reaches maximum medical improvement (MMI) and retains a permanent partial disability (PPD) rating, the Preferred Worker Program (PWP) becomes available as a complementary incentive. Together, SAW and PWP carry a combined reimbursement ceiling of $75,000 per claim for injuries with a date of injury on or after January 1, 2025. (AGC of Washington, 2025.) PWP eligibility, documentation, and filing requirements are distinct from SAW; the overview of both programs and how they sequence is covered in the state RTW incentive programs overview.

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The Five Steps of the SAW Filing Path

Step 1 — Obtain written provider approval before light duty begins

The attending provider must approve the transitional job description in writing before the worker performs a single hour of light duty. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.) Do not start the clock until you have that written sign-off in hand.

Practically, this means:

1. Draft the transitional duty job description in enough detail that the provider can assess it against the worker's physical restrictions — task list, physical demands (lifting limits, postural requirements, walking/standing durations), hours per day, and days per week.
2. Submit the description to the attending provider. L&I recommends submitting it as early as possible in the claim, not waiting for the worker to plateau. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.)
3. Receive the signed APF or equivalent written approval. File the signed document.

If the provider modifies the job description — reduces approved hours, adds restrictions — update your offer letter and your tracking log immediately. The approved parameters as of the day work is performed are what govern reimbursability, not the original offer.

Step 2 — Log every approved day as it occurs

The reimbursement application requires documentation of each day worked. Do not reconstruct this log at filing time from payroll records alone. Build it in real time, capturing:

• Date worked
• Hours worked that day
• Approved hours for that day (per the APF in effect)
• Whether hours worked ≤ approved hours (pass/fail)
• Tasks performed (matching the approved job description)
• Supervisor confirmation

Any day where the hours worked exceed the approved hours is ineligible. (ERNwest, 2025.) Flag those days in your log — do not include them in the day count you submit.

This is the most operationally demanding part of the SAW process. Payroll systems record hours paid; they do not record approved hours or flag deviations from the APF. That cross-reference has to happen at the supervisor or coordinator level, on the day the work occurs. The approved-dates-only tracking guide goes deeper on how to structure this log so it survives an L&I audit.

Step 3 — Track the filing deadline in parallel

The reimbursement application must be submitted within one year after the light-duty work is completed. (WA L&I, 2025.) L&I does not reimburse for dates worked more than one year before the application date. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.)

In practice, this means the deadline is driven by the last day of approved light duty, not the date of injury or the date the claim closes. If a worker performs transitional duty over a span of several months, then returns to full duty, the one-year window runs from that last light-duty day.

Set a calendar reminder the day the worker returns to full duty or when the light-duty assignment ends. Do not wait for the claim to close — L&I will not reimburse for any days after claim closure, and claims sometimes close without advance notice to the employer. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.)

"No reimbursement after claim closure; no reimbursement for dates worked more than one year before application." — WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024

Step 4 — Assemble the reimbursement packet

When you are ready to file, the standard SAW packet includes:

Document	Purpose
SAW Employer Application (L&I form)	The primary reimbursement request form
Signed transitional-duty job description	Proves the assignment was in writing and provider-approved
Signed APF(s) covering the period	Establishes the approved restrictions and hours for each phase
Approved-days log	Lists each reimbursable day with hours worked vs. hours approved
Payroll records for the period	Verifies the base wages paid on each approved day
Offer letter sent to the worker	Documents the written offer made

Confirm the current SAW application form version with WA L&I before submitting — form versions change and L&I may reject an outdated form. The agency updates forms periodically; always pull the current version from the L&I website or MyL&I portal rather than using a saved copy.

Organize the packet so that an L&I reviewer can match each day on your log to the corresponding payroll record and APF. Disorganized packets slow processing and increase the likelihood of a back-and-forth request for supplemental documentation.

Step 5 — Submit through MyL&I and track the response

Submissions go through MyL&I, L&I's online employer portal. Confirm the current submission path with L&I before filing, as portal workflows are updated periodically.

After submission, track the application status in MyL&I. If L&I requests supplemental documentation, respond promptly — delays on your end can push the application past the one-year window for any days that are close to it.

If L&I denies a day or a group of days, the denial notice will specify the reason. Common reasons include hours worked exceeding approved hours, job tasks outside the approved description, or missing provider sign-off on a portion of the period. Review the denial reason against your log before deciding whether to accept or dispute.

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The Most Common Disqualifying Errors

Understanding why SAW applications get reduced — or why employers never file at all — is worth a separate look. The errors cluster around four patterns.

Verbal provider approval. A supervisor calls the clinic, describes the light-duty assignment, and the nurse says the doctor thinks it sounds fine. No signed APF, no countersigned job description. That period is not reimbursable. Written approval in hand before work begins is a hard requirement, not a best practice.

Hour-count drift. The approved APF says four hours per day. In week three, the worker feels better and stays for five hours. The supervisor does not update the job offer or obtain a revised APF. Every day in that period where the worker exceeded approved hours is ineligible. (ERNwest, 2025.) Real-time logging — not end-of-month payroll reconciliation — is the only way to catch this before it happens.

Late filing or post-closure filing. The claim closes while the employer is still gathering documents. Or the RTW coordinator changes jobs and the open application is never submitted. L&I does not reimburse after claim closure, and the one-year window is absolute. (WA L&I Complete Stay at Work Guide, 2024.) Treat the filing deadline the same way you treat a statute-of-limitations date.

Inconsistent or reconstructed logs. Payroll records show the worker was paid for light-duty hours. The employer has no contemporaneous daily log. The packet is assembled after the fact from memory and payroll exports. L&I may accept it; L&I may not. Reconstructed logs are harder to defend if any day is questioned, and they create audit exposure that a real-time log does not.

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What the Numbers Mean for a Typical Claim

The SAW program does not require a calculation to file — you submit actual wages and L&I applies the 50% rate. But it helps to understand the scale of what is at stake.

Consider a worked example (illustrative, not a guarantee of outcome): a worker earning $1,200 per week in base wages performs approved light duty for 60 days — roughly 12 weeks. At 50% of weekly base wages, the employer's estimated reimbursement is approximately $7,200 for that period. Under the current $25,000 cap and 120-day limit (for injuries on or after January 1, 2025), there is substantial headroom for longer assignments.

For context, the NSC/NCCI Injury Facts report (2025) puts the average U.S. workers' comp claim cost at $47,316 across all claims. SAW reimbursement does not reduce that figure directly — it offsets the employer's out-of-pocket wage cost during modified duty — but it meaningfully lowers the net cost of keeping a worker employed rather than on full indemnity.

A worker who leaves the job entirely and goes on lost-time indemnity creates both an indemnity cost and a frequency impact on your experience modification rate (EMR). Frequency matters disproportionately: five $10,000 claims raise EMR more than one $50,000 claim. (PolicyBenchmark, 2026.) Keeping the worker on modified duty — and recovering SAW reimbursement — addresses both the direct wage cost and the EMR frequency question at the same time.

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How Documentation Discipline Protects the Reimbursement

The SAW program rewards precision. Every reimbursable day is a documented day — a day with a matching APF, a matching payroll record, and a confirmed hours-within-approved-hours check. Every ineligible day is an undocumented or out-of-bounds day.

The challenge for most employer coordinators is that this documentation discipline has to operate across every open claim simultaneously. A manufacturing operation with five or six concurrent claims is maintaining five or six day logs, five or six APF files, and five or six one-year filing deadlines. Doing that in a shared spreadsheet is possible; it becomes fragile when a coordinator is out sick, takes a new role, or manages an unexpected spike in claims.

The return-to-work case management guide covers the broader architecture of an employer-side RTW program, including how SAW documentation fits into the wider case record. The state reimbursement programs hub covers Washington alongside Oregon, Ohio, and Texas — useful if you operate across state lines.

If you are building or rebuilding your SAW documentation process now and want a ready-to-use structure, the Transitional Duty Case Tracking Workbook provides the day-log format, packet checklist, and deadline tracking in a single employer-side file designed around the approved-dates-only requirement.

For coordinators managing multiple concurrent claims who need workflow tracking, deadline alerts, and a persistent case record that survives staff changes, Transitional Duty Manager is available for a free trial. The platform documents and tracks the employer's RTW process — it does not adjudicate claims, determine benefits eligibility, or replace the attending provider's judgment. Every duty assignment is a coordinator-reviewed recommendation, not an automated action.

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Before You File: A Quick Readiness Check

Use this checklist before assembling your SAW packet. Each "no" answer is a gap to close before submission.

Readiness item	Yes / No
Claim is under an open L&I State Fund policy
Attending provider signed the light-duty job description in writing before work began
APF(s) on file for every phase of the assignment
Daily log built in real time (not reconstructed from payroll)
Every logged day confirms hours worked ≤ approved hours
Filing deadline calculated from last day of light duty
Claim is still open (no post-closure days included)
SAW application form is the current version from L&I
Payroll records for the period are assembled and match the log
Packet organized for day-by-day traceability

If every row is "yes," you are ready to submit. If any row is "no," address it before filing — an incomplete packet slows processing and may result in partial denial.

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Confirming Current Figures with WA L&I

The parameters in this article — 50% of base wages, 120-day limit, $25,000 per-claim cap, one-year filing window — reflect publicly available WA L&I guidance as of 2024–2025. Program rules, form versions, and portal workflows are updated by L&I periodically.

Before filing, confirm the current applicable limits, form versions, and submission process directly with WA L&I. The appropriate contacts are the L&I Stay-at-Work unit and the MyL&I employer portal. Do not rely on this article as a substitute for current agency guidance.

This article describes the employer-side documentation and filing process. It is not legal advice, claims advice, or a compliance certification. Verify compliance obligations with qualified legal counsel or your L&I account representative.