There was a time, not so long ago, when a Workers’ Compensation case in Bangor could easily turn into a lifetime affair.

If employees were disabled on the job, there was more than a fair chance they would receive a weekly check from the city for about two-thirds of their average wage, which was subject to annual cost-of-living adjustments. This could go on for years, and there was little or no incentive for the employees to return to the work force.

But Bangor, one of a few self-insured municipalities in the state, has been working to seize control of what for many companies and governments has been a burdensome boondoggle — the nearly incurable headache that is Workers’ Compensation.

The shift began about three years ago, when the city made a number of changes in its compensation policies, starting with a program of settling old cases, many of which had been on the books for a decade or more.

The city hired Charles Mitchell as a part-time consultant to work with department heads to form a program of helping injured employees return to work with light duty, and Mitchell aggressively follows up on the cases, checking with doctors on an employee’s progress and investigating potentially fraudulent claims.

Bangor is the only city with its own expert on the payroll — most hire third-party consultants — and Mitchell came to City Hall with a strong resume from nearly two decades in the field.

“I think that’s an important part of their program, having access to that expertise,” said Martin Hanish, director of finance for the Maine Municipal Association.

The city also began sending each department statements showing the cost of workers’ comp for employees assigned there, as well as histories of the cases so that officials could spot any trends.

It wasn’t long before the returns started to show.

Firefighters began to ask about exercise programs, Public Works inquired about safety belts, nurses checked on the proper ways to lift patients and so on.

“So, instead of just being reactive, we’re being proactive in trying to prevent injuries,” one city official said.

Injured employees who just a few years ago could have stayed at home collecting compensation checks now find themselves back at work, now that the city is providing them with incentive to do so. Often they receive training for another position, or even attend college.

At any given time, a dozen employees are working light duty, Mitchell said. Two injured nurses now work at the City Hall switchboard; a few Public Works employees are sifting goods at the recycling center; and some firefighters are spending rehabilitation time doing inspections at the code enforcement office.

The trick, officials said, is not to pigeonhole the employees or make them feel as though they’re a drain on the system. Working light duty, they said, brings the employees back into the work force and gives them a sense of purpose.

“I like to be out doing things rather than sitting around doing nothing,” said Penny Buckley, a former nurse who has been on the switchboard for about a year, and who supplements her training with night-school courses. Buckley, who injured her back, will never be a nurse again, she said.

It’s still somewhat early in the transition to determine exact financial savings, officials said, but the city’s goal is to reduce its liability costs by 10 percent a year. Even with the improvements, the city spent $178,000 last year just on medical costs associated with worker’s comp, such as surgeries and medical exams. It has budgeted $1.2 million for overall costs for this fiscal year.

Other statistics show that the plan seems to be working. Lost-time days decreased by 49 percent from July 1992 to July 1993, and so far this year they are down 34 percent. The injury rate for city employees is still more than one per workday, although about 75 percent don’t involve time lost from work.

And while looking to the future, the city must still deal with the past.

In the three or so years since the city sought to gain more control over its comp plan, about 20 outstanding cases have been settled, with the oldest one now dating to 1981. While it might be difficult for an employee who’s been out of work for five years to return to work even on light duty, a settlement is usually the last resort. Other factors are age — is the person near retirement? — and how long the city might be exposed to payments.

As it tinkers with the program, the city balances its own initiatives with changes mandated by the state, which lately have come from Augusta every year or so. Some of the most recent changes have aided employers, placing various caps on benefits.

Another new change allows employees to change doctors only once, which helps the city keep an eye on possible fraud cases. City officials stress that the vast majority of comp cases are legitimate, but there is the occasional fraudulent claim, such as the man collecting comp payments who was caught picking periwinkles on the beach.

“I think, for the most part, 85 to 90 percent are legitimate,” Mitchell said.

Yet another change made in the city’s program is that it re-established the reinsurance program, in which the city assumes the entire risk of any particular case for up to $500,000, while the rest is picked up by a secondary insurer.

By being self-insured, Bangor is following a statewide trend, according to Alison Webb, executive director of the Maine Council of Self Insurers, who said that about 46 percent of all statewide premiums are in-house, a figure that includes both the private and public sectors. The state Bureau of Insurance, she said, reported approving more self-insurance plans in the first half of 1993 than it did in all of last year.

But Bangor, like Portland and Lewiston, enjoys the luxury of being large enough to take the risks.

“There’s a point at which an organization is too small to self-insure,” the MMA’s Hanish said. “But the city of Bangor is doing wonderful things with their program.”