It is not the accident severity or the injured body part that always determines the length of time an injured worker spends away from work. It is how the injury is managed by the patient, doctor, employer and claims administrator. This session at the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference highlighted strategies for defining key stakeholders’ roles and the interaction needed for a successful return-to-work environment. Speakers included: Kathy Schroeder, Senior Director, Global Risk Management, Office Depot William Zachry, Senior Fellow, Sedgwick Institute There are many exposures driving loss time. Factors like an aging workforce, co-morbidities and opioid addiction
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Growing societal acceptance of marijuana and its increased use raise many legal and medical considerations for workers’ compensation and disability. This session at the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference provided updates and professional opinions on the legal and medical aspects of marijuana. Speakers included: Stuart Colburn, Esq., Shareholder, Downs Stanford Marcos Iglesias, MD, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Broadspire The Law Ten states, DC, PR and Guam have legalized recreational marijuana use and 33 states currently offer medicinal marijuana, however, it is still illegal federally. For workers’ compensation, seven states will currently preclude reimbursement and six will
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In the healthcare sector, patient data and cybersecurity are major concerns. Not only is the healthcare industry a preferred hacker target, but the management of workers’ compensation claims frequently requires sharing sensitive claimant data among service providers. This session at the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference uncovered best practices for mitigating growing insider and third-party healthcare cybersecurity risks. Speakers included: Kevin Harried, Chief Risk Officer, One Call Adam Solandor, Partner, King & Spalding, LLP Healthcare data is extremely valuable because the content of the information lends to a variety of fraud. Trends show increased sophistication of automated attacks
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At the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo a session discussed the interplay between leave of absence laws and workers’ compensation. The speakers were: Marti Cardi, Esq – VP Product Compliance, Matrix Absence Management, Inc. Rich Montarbo, Esp – Law offices of Richard Montarbo FMLA is very challenging because it has so many explicit rules and regulations associated with in. In contrast, what makes ADA so challenging is the lack of explicit rules because it is designed to be very expansive and focus on specific scenarios. Layered on top of these two laws is a variety of
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At the 2018 National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo, a session discussed some of the key concepts that executives new to overseeing a workers’ compensation program need to understand. The speakers were: Paul Braun – Managing Director, AON Monica Manske – Senior Manager Workers’ Compensation, Rochester Regional Health Workers’ Compensation Advocacy This concept has gained a lot of traction the last few years. As an employer, your employees are your greatest asset. When they are injured on the job, how are you helping them manage the workers’ compensation claims process? How can you help the injured worker have
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At the 2018 SAWCA All Committee Conference, Bob Wilson from WorkersCompensation.com hosted a panel discussion looking at issues that make him go hmmmm. The panelists were: Dr. Robert Snyder – State of Tennessee Frank McKay – State of Georgia Paul Tauriello – State of Colorado Debrah Watkins – Care Bridge International Identity Theft In an era where there is significant concern about identity theft, a large percentage of state workers’ compensation forms require the use of a social security number. Changing that is something most states consider impossible because of the costs required to reprogram all of their systems. Georgia
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At the 2018 SAWCA All Committee Conference, Laura Hart Bryan from NCCI discussed her thoughts on how the recent election will impact workers’ compensation systems around the nation. One of the key things to note about the 2018 mid-term election was the high voter turnout. Around 113 million people voted, which was a 30 million voter increase compared to the last midterm. This is still less than half the eligible voters. Polling and reporting numbers showed a sizable increase in the number of women and younger voters compared to prior elections. These two groups tended to favor Democratic candidates. There
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At the 2018 SAWCA All Committee Conference, a panel of carrier representatives discussed a wide variety of issues that are impacting the workers’ compensation industry. The panel was: Tom Hebson – York Risk Services Group Mark Walls – Safety National Shawn Mackey – Midwest Employers Tom Glasson – AIG Recent Election Impact on Workers’ Compensation The first thing that is impacted are regulators and administrative law judges that are appointed by governors. When a new governor is elected, this usually means a turnover of these positions. This can cause disruption in the system and change the way statutes are enforced
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At the 2018 SAWCA All Committee Conference, a session discussed the state of the Grand Bargain of workers’ compensation. The speakers were: Wade McGuffey – Attorney, Goodman, McGuffey Beth Aldridge – Commissioner, Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission Rita Hedrick-Helmick – West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Board Scott Beck – Chair, South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission Amy Kingston – Manager of Claims Management, State of Colorado The Grand Bargain of workers’ compensation started over 100 years ago. The “bargain” was workers giving up their right to sue in civil court for work injuries in exchange for a no-fault system that provides indemnity and
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At the 2018 SAWCA All Committee Conference, a session discussed presumption laws in workers’ compensation. The speakers were: Karl Aumann – Chairman, Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission Robert Stokes – Attorney, Flahive, Ogden & Latson (Texas) Many states have presumption laws for first responders including firefighters, police officers, and EMTs. The purpose of these presumption laws is to shift the burden of proof on medical causation so that the disease is “presumed” to be work related unless rebutted by the weight of the evidence. Overcoming the presumption of compensability is very difficult as you have to prove that exposures outside of
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