At the 2016 PARMA Conference, Jeff Rush from California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (JPIA) and DeAnn Wagner from York Risk Services Group discussed how identifying the root cause of the workers’ compensation claims leads to a better approach with loss control measures, increased accountability and improved enactment of safety protocols and policies. Generally, there are three causes to every accident: the immediate cause, the contributing cause and the root cause. For example, if an employee slips on a wet floor and fractures their arm, the immediate cause was the fall, the contributing cause was the wet floor, but the root
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At the 2016 PARMA Conference, a panel discussed the interaction between workers’ compensation and disability accommodation. Many of the facts in this presentation apply to California law on these issues.  The panel was: Anthony Carlton from Chula Vista Elementary School District Marc Liebowitz from Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLC Robert Cutbirth from Tucker Ellis In recent years, there has been a significant increase in litigation involving the interplay between workers’ compensation and leave of absence programs. Attorneys are not only filing disability accommodation claims but are also filing retaliation claims associated with workers’ compensation cases. This increase in litigation
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At the 2016 PARMA Conference, Kathy Espinoza, board-certified ergonomist from Keenen, discussed how to build an effective safety culture focused on millennial employees. Millennials tend to be good at group work, team work, creativity and multi-tasking ability. They are very civic-minded and they were born and raised with technology. But they also have very bad ergonomic habits, including poor posture and a lack of proper typing skills. As an ergonomist, you have to work to change these bad habits, which can be very challenging. Habit-changing efforts include safety incentives, training sessions and behavior-based safety. Ergonomics are focused on making the
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Conference Chronicles will be blogging from the PARMA Annual Conference held February 23-26, 2016, in Indian Wells, CA. The Public Agency Risk Managers Association (PARMA) was the first organization of its kind – formed to provide a forum for California public sector risk managers to share ideas on how to perform their duties in this emerging field. Today it has grown to an organization that spans the entire state of California, with members in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada, and is now comprised of over 600 members in six local chapters.

At the 2015 Comp Laude Gala, a panel discussed The Image of Workers’ Compensation and What We Can Do About It.  The panel consisted of: Moderator: Dave DePaolo – Work Comp Central Christine Baker – Director, California Department of Industrial Relations Dan Walters – Political Columnist, The Sacramento Bee Steve Cattolica – Director Government Relations, CSIMS Mark Sektnan – President, ACIC Question: Are the media portrayals of the workers’ compensation system accurate? Answers: Yes, they are accurate. However one thing that the media is not taking into account is the impact that the political process has on workers’ comp. In
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At the 2015 Comp Laude Gala in Burbank, CA, David DePaolo, President and CEO of WorkCompCentral presented his thoughts on the state of the workers’ compensation industry. Dave feels the fundamental purpose of workers’ compensation is to make it affordable for an employer to take care of it’s injured workers and to provide security to injured workers to protect their lives in the case of a workplace accident. There is a constant evaluation of the costs vs the benefits under workers’ compensation. Over time, the costs to provide workers’ compensation benefits has consistently increased relative to the amount of benefits
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At the 24th Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference, some of the workers’ compensation industry’s most-prominent bloggers gathered to debate industry trends. The panel consisted of: Moderator: Mark Walls, Vice President Communications & Strategic Analysis, Safety National David DePaolo, J.D., Founder, President and CEO, WorkCompCentral.com; Author, DePaolo’s Work Comp World blog Joseph Paduda, Principal, Health Strategy Associates; Author, Managed Care Matters blog Rebecca Shafer, J.D., President, Amaxx Risk Solutions Inc., Author, ReduceYourWorkersComp.com blog Robert Wilson, President and CEO, WorkersCompensation.com; Author, From Bob’s Cluttered Desk blog Is workers’ compensation still that grand bargain between employers and workers? ProPublica, OSHA and
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At the 2015 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference, Adam L. Seidner, M.D., Global Medical Director, Travelers Insurance Co. and Silvia Sacalis, PharmD, VP Clinical Services, Healthesystems presented how a comprehensive view of an injured worker’s medical history and treatment course ensures appropriate claims decisions, resulting in optimal care and functional restoration. Silvia started the session by giving a few stats regarding prescriptions. 20%-30% of prescriptions are never filled and 50% are never taken as prescribed. Many patients have comorbidities that hinder their recovery. The more medicines that are added to their treatment the more that they are not taken
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Established medical guidelines recommend urine drug/toxicology screenings to help ensure the safety of patients prescribed opioids long term and to identify any aberrant use. However, a study conducted by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute shared new research that reveals the growing practice of urine drug screening is overused and abused, driving claims expenses for services that do not benefit injured workers. This session at the 24th Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference highlighted best practices on how urine drug monitoring (UDM) data should be used. Speakers included: Alex Swedlow, President, California Workers’ Compensation Institute Mark Pew, Senior Vice President,
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At the 2015 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference, a panel presented a session titled “Workers’ Comp Future – Recruiting and Retaining the Next Generation of Claims Talent.” The panel included: Jennifer Burkhart, National Workers’ Comp Claims Leader, Westfield Insurance Dan Holden, Manager of Corporate Risk & Insurance, Daimler Trucks North America Rick Thompson, VP of Talent Management & Administration, Rising Medical Solutions’ Let’s take a look at the corporate world 10 years ago: no cell phone at work business formal dress code very little schedule flexibility or work from home employee handbook over 100 pages annual reviews less than
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