July 1, 2008
ADA: The Fix is Fixed
Back in February we blogged a rather drastic proposal to "restore" the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by expanding eligibility to just about anyone. We feared that blurring the lines between transient conditions and impairments that "substantially limit" major life activities would paralyze American business, clog the courts with trivial cases and divert attention away from the truly disabled, who...June 30, 2008
Teddy Awards: A Pat on the Back for Comp Management
Risk & Insurance Magazine has announced the 2008 competition for the Teddy Awards, given to organizations demonstrating a long-term commitment to improving workers compensation performance. Creativity and teamwork are major considerations. Four awards will be given: one for a company; one for a nonprofit or government entity; a third award will honor a federal government entity (that will be interesting!)....June 20, 2008
Brendan Doyle: Return-to-Work Person of the Year
You probably have never heard of Brendan Doyle, a Rhode Island state trooper, but his story, as told by Amanda Milkovits in the Providence Journal, belongs in the hearts and minds of anyone involved in disability management. He exemplifies what great medicine, combined with ferocious determination and discipline, can accomplish. Just over a year ago, he was punched to the...June 19, 2008
Looking for Fraud...In the Mirror
Imagine you are an attorney in Massachusetts looking for a little work. The Office of Labor and Workforce Development (OLWD), a state agency, hires you and 10 other attorneys to examine applications for unemployment insurance. Normally, this work would be performed by state employees, but the combination of cost-efficiency lay offs and a bad economy has caused a surge in...June 4, 2008
Setting Limits in California
California had a long-standing reputation as a workers compensation nightmare: not because injured employees received generous benefits - they did not - but because doctors and lawyers exploited the system to generate enormous fees. Governor Schwarzenegger, AKA the Terminator, put an end to that with his extensive 2003-04 reforms. In the effort to contain costs, the reforms for the first...May 28, 2008
Docs Give Grading System a Failing Grade
The Group Insurance Commission (GIC) in Massachusetts came up with a nifty idea: let's grade physicians based upon efficiency and competence; we'll reward those with high marks and penalize those who are (relative) failures. (The GIC administers health plans for public sector employees.) The GIC worked with the MA Medical Society (MMS) and a number of insurance carriers to come...May 22, 2008
Cavalcade of Risk is Up
What do Bank of America, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have in common? If you said they all have lost billions in absurdly risky loans, you would be right, but that's not the answer we are looking for. We learn in the latest edition of Cavalcade of Risk, ably hosted by Jason Shafrin of Healthcare Economist,...May 12, 2008
Workers Comp and Wellness: Partners at a Distance
Bill Thorness has written an interesting article for NCCI on the relationship of wellness programs to workers comp costs. In some respects, it involves a "duh" thesis: wellness programs can significantly lower comp costs, because healthy workers are less prone to injury and, once injured, recover more quickly than their out-of-shape co-workers. Conversely, obese and out-of-shape workers are more at...April 7, 2008
Privatizing in Nassau County: A Good Idea, But...
Nassau County in New York is currently paying about $10 million a year for the partial disability claims of former county employees. They would like to settle these claims, but as with most municipalities, their budget process offers no opportunity for fronting the costs of settlement. It's cheaper to keep paying the claims from year to year, pushing the problem...March 14, 2008
RTW resources from Australia
The RTW Knowledge Base Website is a free service from Australia providing research based information and links to external resources on work disability prevention. We received a notice about this site from Mary Wyatt, an Occupational Physician based in Melbourne Australia. She offered a good overview of the site's features, so we will take the liberty of using her description...March 12, 2008
Return to work and disabled vets
The Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of war represent the largest deployment of civilian soldiers since WWII. Of the 1.5 million troops that have served, approximately one in every four is a National Guard member or a Reservist. While the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act offers legal job protections, the road back will not be an easy one for...March 4, 2008
Farewell to a Management Guru
Joe Juran died this week, at the ripe age of 103. You may or may not know him by name, but his remarkable contributions to management are visible in worksites around the globe. In 1937, he coined the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, which states that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. As a theory...March 3, 2008
The Most Dangerous Job in Philadephia?
If you were to guess which jobs for the city of Philadelphia resulted in the most workers comp claims, you'd probably start with police and fire. These are high risk jobs, for sure, but the losses in these departments pale beside those of the Parking Authority. Patrick Kerkstra at Philly.com provides the numbers on the cost per claim: : Firefighters...February 29, 2008
Ohio State University (Finally) Discovers Modified Duty
We came across an article in the Columbus Dispatch by a reporter with the irresistible name of Encarnacion Pyle. It's about the "novel" use of temporary modified duty at Ohio State University. With its workers' compensation costs nearing $10 million a year, OSU finally discovered the idea that has been circulating among enlightened managers for 20 years or more: "moving...February 25, 2008
S. 2044: Obama weighs in on independent contractors
The fact that a U. S. Senator has filed a bill on independent contractors is not a major news item. But the senator is Barack Obama, and the bill, S. 2044, is entitled "Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act." Obama has zeroed in on an issue of abiding interest to the Insider - and to all who deal with employment issues...February 19, 2008
PPOs: Size Matters but Quality Rules
Our colleague Peter Rousmaniere has a fascinating article on PPOs in the current issue of Risk & Insurance magazine, entitled "Has Competition Vanished?" Coventry has become the 900 pound gorilla of workers comp medical services, with 4,700 hospitals and 580,000 doctors. Through the aggressive use of acquisitions and partnerships, Coventry is approaching monopolistic status. The question, of course, is what...February 5, 2008
Connecticut Privatization: Good Idea Gone Bad
Workers comp in the public sector is like an iceberg: what is visible from year to year does not really tell you how big the problem is. With the budget funding cycle running fiscal year to fiscal year, there is no incentive to close out open claims. It's actually cheaper - in the short run - to keep paying on...February 1, 2008
Tom Brady and the Art of Hiring
As the Super Bowl looms over the weekend, our thoughts turn toward the challenge of personnel management. Most of us are periodically involved in hiring decisions: for some, it's a major responsibility, for others, an occasional task. Some applicants come across as a perfect match (and turn into a bust) while others are nervous and unimpressive, yet turn into the...January 29, 2008
Independent Contractors: New Hampshire Defines, FedEx Whines
New Hampshire has come up with their own 12 step program to determine whether contractors are truly independent or just employees. Meanwhile, the IRS has come down hard on FedEx, hitting the company with a $319 million fine for misclassifying drivers as independent contractors. Let's start in New Hampshire. The state has come up with 12 criteria for determining independence,...January 23, 2008
Shooting Lawyers the Bird: The Tribune's Employee Handbook
If it isn't clear by now, the Insider believes in a sense of humor. A few laughs help us get through the working day. So it is with some ambivalence that we tackle the issue of the Tribune Newspaper's new Employee Handbook. Written by a non-lawyer, the handbook attempts to present the myriad issues contained in a handbook in a...November 7, 2007
Late for Work: When Does It Really Matter?
For 17 years, Tommy Holly worked for Clairson Industries, a plastic injection molding company, as a mold polisher. At age 20, Tommy was in a motorcycle accident which left him a paraplegic. Despite the disability, Tommy established himself as an excellent employee. His job reviews were consistently positive. He was neat, meticulous and well organized. He had one problem: because...October 22, 2007
Safety for Spanish-speaking workers must address cultural as well as language barriers
Hispanic workers suffer fatalities and serious injuries at significantly higher rates than other workers and this is due in large part to language barriers. Previously, we've discussed the importance of keeping the multicultural workforce safe by ensuring that your safety programs address language barriers. We've also discussed how qualified interpreters can save lives. Recently, some of our readers who run...October 15, 2007
Wisconsin Volunteers: Look That Gift Horse in the Mouth
Back in February of 2005 we blogged the case of Margaret Morse, a member of the Legion of Mary, a volunteer group affiliated with Christ King church in Wisconsin. In the course of delivering a statue of the Virgin Mary to a parishioner, she ran a red light and crashed into a vehicle driven by Hjalmar Heikkinen, an 82 year...September 12, 2007
Why We Blog
As we approach the fourth anniversary of the Workers Comp Insider (September 17, 2003), it's a good time to step back and ask a fundamental question: Why are we doing this? Four years ago Tom, Julie and I observed that there were a lot of bloggers tackling a lot of issues, but they mostly involved isolated individuals pursuing a particular...September 4, 2007
Sole Proprietors: A Comp Welcome Mat in Massachusetts
What better way to herald the end of summer by returning to the issue that just won't go away: workers comp coverage for sole proprietors and independent contractors. Massachusetts has just taken an extraordinary step that provides a strong incentive for sole proprietors to "opt in" to the comp system. Under the old rules, any sole proprietor seeking comp coverage...August 13, 2007
Independent Contractors: Delaware Backs Down, New Jersey Ups the Ante
Workers comp coverage for independent contractors is the issue that just won't go away. A while back we blogged reform efforts in Delaware, which almost became the first state to require comp coverage for sole proprietors. Almost, but not quite. Delaware has a long-established (and well-deserved) reputation for being a comp disaster zone. That may no longer be the case,...July 23, 2007
Department of Amplification: Clarification on the Improper Use of Modified Duty
Back in June we blogged the interesting case of Tony Boyle, who was awarded over $600,000 for wrongful termination after his employer, Weyerhauser, put him in a modified duty job that aggravated his work-related condition. I half expected to hear from the employer, defending their modified duty program. Instead, I am on notice from Mr. Boyle's attorney that we have...June 26, 2007
Unsuitable Modified Duty, Wrongful Termination and Attorneys with Cash
On September 10, 2001, just one day before this country's sense of security collapsed along with the World Trade Center towers, a smaller world collapsed around Anthony Boyle, an employee of the Weyerhauser Company in New Jersey. A 600 pound bale of waxy cardboard material fell from a conveyer belt. Boyle used his back to prop it up. He suffered...June 12, 2007
Pre-employment Testing: Between a Rock and a Very Hard Place
Frank Lima works for the Los Angeles Fire Department, where he oversees the screening of recruits. Back in 2004 he was supervising a training drill that involved hoisting heavy ladders against a building. A woman trainee later complained that she was singled out and harassed during the drill. Soon after, Assistant Fire Chief Andy Fox told Lima that women have...April 9, 2007
Racist Clerk Puts Dillard's on the Defensive
Dillard's is a major department store chain, with 330 stores in 29 states, mostly in the south. Their motto is "The Style of your Life." I am not sure what that is supposed to mean, but one thing is clear: Dillard's does a lot of hiring. Their website, featuring a handsome African American in a three button suit, tells you...March 26, 2007
The Delusion of Multitasking
I was in an Asian restaurant last week, enjoying a meal with my extended family. At a nearby table, I noticed a dad with two young children, a boy about 6 and a girl about 4. The boy was leaning against his dad and gazing at the ground; the girl stared listlessly into space. Dad was scrolling through his emails...March 16, 2007
DWT/Driving While Texting: An Idea Whose Time has Went
As if we don't have enough distractions as we hurtle ourselves from Point A to Point B in four ton vehicles, we read that DWT - driving while texting - has become an issue of sufficient magnitude to warrant legislative intervention. Lawmakers in Washington state have moved to establish stiff fines for this absurdly dangerous practice. You can make a...February 5, 2007
The Saga of Ted Johnson: Sports Medicine with a Bitter Taste
Ted Johnson was a linebacker for the New England Patriots. His specialty was stopping the run. As any viewer of the recent NFL playoffs knows, run stoppers use their heads: first, to think strategically -- where to go in the course of a given play - but then literally: torpedoing head first into the body of an opposing player. That's...January 12, 2007
Treating Strains and Sprains: Don't Just Sit There, Get Moving!
Gina Kolata has a provocative article in the New York Times (free registration required), which outlines a very proactive approach to the treatment of strains and sprains. Dr. William Roberts, a sports medicine specialist, says "we want to keep you moving." Dr. James Weinstein, an orthopedic surgeon, hurt his back while lifting a box. He was in a lot of...January 2, 2007
Commercial Drivers: Unsafe at Any Speed?
We begin the new year, alas, with a nightmare: You're barreling down a three lane highway at 70 mph, when a tractor trailer rig pulls up behind you. All you can see in your rear view mirror is the ominous grill of a Mack truck. What runs through your mind? Do you console yourself with the notion that the driver...November 6, 2006
Workers comp costs and benefits - Current state rankings
Here’s a question for you: If you were to ask any employer in America how his or her workers’ compensation costs compare to similar employers in other states, what do you think the answer would be? Well, I’ve been doing that with employers I meet for a long time, and I have yet to meet one who thinks his or...October 30, 2006
The View from the Summit: Aging Workers in the 21st Century
The Insider recently participated in the Aging Workforce Summit, a meeting of the minds focused on retirement in America. The conference took place on the 80th floor of the Aon Center in Chicago. The views of Chicago and Lake Michigan were supposed to be spectacular, but for the duration of the conference the building was socked in a fog, so...October 2, 2006
"Crackberry" Addicts: One More Email for the Road...
It's only Monday, so it might be too early in the week for this. But the Insider is committed to keeping our readers informed on the latest developments in risk and human resource management. Today, we confront the physical, emotional and legal time bomb of BlackBerry addiction. We first tracked the health implications of using tiny keyboards in our "BlackBerry...September 28, 2006
Morbid Obesity: What Should Employers Do?
We recently blogged a ruling in the U. S. 6th District Court, in which the judges determined that morbid obesity is generally not a disability. The judges’s thinking in this particular case appears to have powerful implications for the ADA and for all employers with obese workers who have difficulty performing their jobs. HR professionals might be tempted to assume...September 20, 2006
Everything Changes: Transition Planning for an Aging Workforce
In our three years of blogging, the Insider has developed a few persistent themes, one being the impact of an aging workforce on risk management. We know that older workers tend to work safer - they have lower frequency rates for injuries - but once injured, they are slower to recover. The older you are, the longer it takes...September 8, 2006
NIOSH study on nursing home lifting equipment: benefits outweigh costs
Does an investment in mechanized patient lifting equipment pay for itself? Yes, according to a recent NIOSH study. In an article entitled Making the Case for a Safe Lifting Program in Nursing Homes, Josh Cable discusses the NIOSH study in Occupational Hazards. The agency's six-year study encompassed 1,728 nursing personnel at six nursing homes ranging in size from 60 to...August 29, 2006
Management Lessons from Ghengis Khan
As the summer draws to a close, it's a good time to step back and take the long view. In this case, the view goes all the way back to 1200 AD. My daughter's high school summer reading included an intriguing book entitled: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. The great Khan's name probably...May 8, 2006
United we Fall: Preparing for the Next Pandemic
The Insider is determined to do its part in preparing the nation for a flu pandemic. Although the President did not specifically mention bloggers in his mobilization plans, we think that blogs offer a unique tool for getting out the word and for maintaining communications under adverse circumstances. Best of all, you don't have to come within three feet of...May 2, 2006
Bill Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management, Revised and Annotated, with Proper Citations
The Insider is feeling a bit annoyed with plagiarists (not that we're aware of anyone copying us lately). We think it is very peculiar that talented people borrow the work of others writers and then immediately forget they did it. These same people never forget who owes them money. They never forget the name of a reporter (or blogger?)...April 27, 2006
Protecting Homes, Humiliating Employees
Alarm One Inc. is in the home protection business. They install and monitor security alarm systems - serious business, or so you would think. A former employee, Janet Orlando, 53, is suing the company for $1.2 million in damages for the embarrassment of being spanked in front of coworkers. She quit her job in Fresno CA and sued, alleging discrimination,...March 7, 2006
Blogging in Bentonville
As part of its public relations offensive, Wal-Mart has taken to the blogwaves. They are encouraging bloggers sympathetic to their cause to publish positive news about the ubiquitous company. According to an article by Michael Barbaro in today's New York Times, the bloggers are using the tidbits, but not necessarily identifying the source. Here's a sample: One blogger in Iowa...January 17, 2006
The Hazards of Subcontracting: A Cost-Cutting Plan Goes Up in Smoke
In today's ferociously competitive marketplace, it's all too easy to drive bids to a rock bottom level. We've blogged Walmart's"big squeeze" strategy that forces cost-cutting deep into the subcontractor level. But everyone - not just Walmart - loves a bargain. Sometimes the penny wise strategy to cut costs leads to the pound foolish result of a cherished building in ruins....December 12, 2005
Tips for Calling the Employee's Own Doctor
Our colleague Peter Rousmaniere, a regular contributor to Risk & Insurance Magazine, raises an interesting issue in a recent column. How do you establish productive lines of communication with the employee's own doctor, especially when you meet with resistance? Peter presents the recommendations of Joseph Fortuna, an occupational physician working for (pension-troubled) auto-parts manufacturer Delphi. One of the most challenging...December 8, 2005
How Long should a Disability Last?
One of the most important questions confronting disability managers is how long a disability should last. During Lynch Ryan's 20+ years in the business, we have seen the loss of a finger tip turn into a permanent total disability, while the loss of three fingers resulted in only a month of lost time. One employee injures his back and is...November 11, 2005
Pittsburgh (almost) Gets It!
Workers comp can be frustrating for employers of all sizes -- from the mom & pop store on main street to Fortune 500 giants. But somehow most problems in the private sector seem pretty managable when compared to public sector entities. Take the city of Pittsburgh. We read in the Tribune Review that they have an annual budget of $23...November 2, 2005
Pre-Employment Strength Test: When the Test Fails the Test
A federal judge has ordered the Dial Corporation to pay over $3 million to resolve a sex discrimination suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against The Dial Corporation's Armour Star Meat Packing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa. Fifty two women who were rejected for entry-level production jobs because they had failed a strength test will be offered...October 20, 2005
Rules of Management, Written and Otherwise
Bill Swanson, CEO of Raytheon, has become famous for his leadership at the company. In an article published in US Black Engineer and available as a PDF at Raytheon's website, Swanson receives high praise for his support of minority engineers. The article also presents his "25 Unwritten Rules of Management." Not to quibble, but if I can read the rules...October 18, 2005
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Older Workers...and Insider Bias?
The Insider has written with some frequency about older workers. With a majority of the workforce now over 40, employers and risk managers face a new set of challenges in keeping older workers healthy and productive. One recent post notes the increase in the incidence of rotator cuff injuries among older workers. We also have blogged the financial necessity that...August 22, 2005
Rapid cognition: framing injured workers
Malcom Gladwell, author of a book called Blink, was recently on a news show discussing the tragic death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent Brazilian who was erroneously killed by British police in their zeal to prevent another London subway bombing. Among the many interesting observations Gladwell made was one that particularly resonated with me. He noted that once...August 1, 2005
The Costco story: good employers get good results
Early in my working life, I was employed for a local plastics manufacturer. Among my responsibilities, I was charged with the happy task of planning an annual recognition dinner for longterm employees. It was a big event because we had many 15-, 20-, and 25-year veterans in the work force. Sadly, the concept of longterm employment seems almost quaint today,...July 29, 2005
Summer Hire Turns Tragic
A little over a year ago we cautioned employers to be careful with summer hires. Make sure summer hires are qualified to do the work. Don't allow them to operate heavy equipment. And perhaps most important, don't just "toss them the keys" when driving is required. Today we read in the New York Times (registratoin required) of a tragic accident...June 1, 2005
The X Factor: creating a safety culture
Ever wonder why your loss costs continue to rise despite your organization's strong safety programs? Or why one of your company's locations has a much stronger safety performance than another? Larry Hansen does, and he has written an excellent and lengthy article entitled Stepping up to occupational hazards in this month's edition of Occupational Hazards that explores these issues. He...May 12, 2005
Intoxicated employee = Employer liability?
We have been tracking a tragic accident in Michigan that illustrates a very open-ended liability for employers. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, Thomas Wellinger was a well-regarded employee of Unigraphic Solutions, a high tech company in Michigan. After his marriage failed last year, he apparently developed a drinking problem. On May 3, a little after 3...May 9, 2005
Qualified interpreters can save lives
We've blogged before about language in the workplace, the impact that language has on safety, and the increased risk of death that non-English speaking immigrants face at work. We've also talked about the need for cultural competence in health care in the face of changing worker demographics. In a post entitled People are dying because of their language, Jordan Barab...May 4, 2005
Giving employees what they want
Many large companies that would do anything possible to outperform competitors may be overlooking a surefire path to success: having motivated, enthusiastic employees who are committed partners in achieving the company's goals. If you are a business owner or a manager, take the time to read this excellent interview with David Sirota, co-author of the book The Enthusiastic Employee: How...April 21, 2005
Terminations: Seating the 800 Pound Gorilla
In working with thousands of employers across the country, one of the refrains we have heard all too often after a lost time injury is: "I was planning to fire him, but I never got around to it." We advise our clients to terminate employees who are not working out before they get hurt. After an injury, workers are protected...March 31, 2005
"What are my rights?" Employer frustration with workers comp
A reader asks: Is there a guide for employers' rights? Who makes the final decision to award a disability retirement? Who checks to insure that there is no fraud being committed? The short answer to these questions is "prevailing state law." All jurisdictions have variations in the laws that govern the rights and responsibilities of both the employer and employee....March 24, 2005
What is Disability Management?
At the heart of workers compensation is – or should be – the concerted effort to treat workplace injury and illness and get people back to productive employment. Sounds reasonable, but how do you do it? What exactly is “disability management?” Our esteemed colleague, Dr. Jennifer Christian, host of the informative WebilityMD website, takes a shot at defining disability management,...March 11, 2005
Follow up: Haste and Waste in Airport Security
Yesterday's blog on the extraordinarily high injury rates for airport baggage screeners came at an interesting time for me. I had just spent 7 hours waiting for a plane in the Philadelphia airport, for a 40 minute flight to Harrisburg that could have been (and next time will be) driven in two hours. The rule of travel these days seems...February 22, 2005
Employee retention is important to safety
During the recent tight job market, employers were calling the shots, but in 2004, turnover exceeded 20% for the better part of the year. In addition to some of the obvious problems created by high turnover - reduction in productivity and quality, increased costs for training and recruitment, decrease in morale - a very significant problem we see with high...January 6, 2005
Trends and issues at the start of a new year
As we embark on the new year, many weblogs and business publications have been recapping 2004 or making predictions for the coming year. Here are a few we've noted. George's Employment Blawg suggests that a good way for employers to begin the new year is to update the employee handbook and offers some tips for key areas to address. Rough...October 6, 2004
When incentive-based compensation programs and bonuses backfire
George's Employment Blawg (which, incidentally, is always a good read) treats the legal downside of incentive-based compensation, pointing us to an article by Chiree McCain of the Birmingham Business Journal entitled Compensation systems also have legal negatives The article uses examples of bonuses that may inadvertently encourage drivers to short-shrift safety or drive beyond legal limits and bonuses for accident-free...September 28, 2004
Going back to basics in workers' compensation
Twenty years ago, as I was founding Lynch Ryan, the nation's workers' compensation crisis was beginning to bubble to the surface. As I interviewed employers, a couple of things amazed me. First, for most of them workers' compensation represented the biggest insurance check they would write. Second, those same employers knew next to nothing about the subject. Since then, employers,...September 13, 2004
Ford, UAW targeting absenteeism
Ford Motor Company has been tallying up the cost of chronic absenteeism and finding that it is taking a toll on the bottom line. For every one percentage point change in absenteeism, the company states that it spends $100 million. In an article discussing the automakers and UAW partnership to target chronic absenteeism, The Detroit News recently reported that: Absenteeism...September 8, 2004
Employer communications - an increasing credibility gap?
A Towers Perrin report entitled Is It Time to Take the SPIN Out of Employee Communication? (pdf) reveals that in a survey of 1,000 working Americans, only 51 percent believe that their company generally tells the truth in its communications to employees, and one in five employees believes that their employer generally does not tell the truth. Among the other...August 13, 2004
When the Employer Plays Doctor
The Associated Press has a fascinating story of a lawsuit being brought against UPS by a former employee who was ordered by UPS to stop taking a legally prescribed medication for anxiety. The story reveals that the employee had completed an alcohol treatment program (and thus likely qualifies as an individual with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act)....July 26, 2004
Top 10 reasons injured workers retain attorneys
The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) has a wealth of resources on its site so we'll be adding it to our sidebar under "organizations." In digging through the site we came upon a symposium topic that was presented last December by Massachusetts plaintiff attorney Alan S. Pierce entitled Top Ten List as to Why Injured Workers Retain Attorneys. (pdf) The...July 19, 2004
Driving and Talking: Are headsets the answer?
If you want to talk on a cell phone and operate a motor vehicle in Washington DC, New York or New Jersey, you have to use a head set. A number of other states are contemplating requiring these head sets. But a July 19, 2004,article in the Wall Street Journal questions whether these headsets really make talking safer. Written by...July 13, 2004
Company Outings -- Compensable fun?
The business section of the New York Times features a light-hearted look at the problem of misbehaving at the company picnic. While this article focuses on controlling damage to your career, LynchRyan has traditionally focused on keeping injuries at social events off of workers compensation loss runs. This is the season for company outings -- picnics, golfing, perhaps even an...June 7, 2004
Caution on Summer Hires
As we near the summer hiring season, LynchRyan reminds employers that workers compensation laws do not distinguish temporary hires from regular year-round employees. Anyone who works for you, no matter for how long, is protected by workers compensation. This is as it should be. We caution employers to hire carefully. There is no such thing as an unimportant hire. When...April 19, 2004
Reputation management and corporate social responsibily (CSR)
In the April issue of Risk Management, Morgan O'Rourke discusses protecting your reputation as a risk management strategy, and makes the case that reputation management is just plain good business sense. "A good reputation can convince the undecided to choose a certain product or service and dissuade existing customers from moving to a competitor. But a damaged reputation can be...April 6, 2004
You're fired! Should you terminate an employee who is on workers compensation?
Donald Trump's TV series has everyone joking about firing or being fired, although for anyone who has ever been on either end of the equation - as the manager who fires, or as the employee who is fired - it is rarely a joking matter. Some would make the case that in today's litigious society, most companies don't 'fire' employees...April 2, 2004
Can "talking the talk" hurt your workers compensation program?
It's long been our contention that when there is bad blood between employers and employees over workers comp, the issue is often one of communication. It might be helpful if employers thought and spoke in terms of "injured workers" rather than the depersonalized "claimants." Similarly, employers and insurers often speak in terms of "incidents," an officious euphemism that can trivialize...March 29, 2004
Cultural competence in healthcare and beyond
Is your workers comp provider network culturally competent? If not, you may fostering needless disability. Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society has an excellent article on the issue of cultural competence in healthcare, and defines the concept as "the ability of providers and organizations to effectively deliver health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of...February 11, 2004
A new prescription for back pain
I have long suspected that the way this country treats back pain for work-related injuries is not only ineffective, it's actually destructive. I have seen countless back claims degenerate into permanent and total disability following surgery. We are now beginning to see data that bears this out. In an article with profound implications for employers, insurers and workers with lower...January 29, 2004
Study shows active recovery fosters return to work
A recent study on lower back pain and return to work was conducted by a Dutch research team, and the findings were unsurprising to those of us who espouse the idea of an active rather than a passive recovery whenever possible. In the study, workers with nonspecific low back pain who engaged in a graded activity program returned to regular...January 20, 2004
When Disaster Strikes...
When disaster happens, every decision made by management is scrutinized. After a recent oil tanker crash which killed four people on Interstate 895 in Maryland, investigators opened the books on the company's safety record (below average) along with a careful review of the employee's driving and health history (inconclusive). While the primary goal of the investigation is to determine the...January 15, 2004
The Cost of Lag Time
One of workers' compensation's overarching principles was driven home to me today when a colleague asked me a question. He had attended a marketing meeting at a New England insurance carrier's headquarters. During the meeting, a carrier representative passed out a one-page memo addressing the benefits of timely reporting of injuries. The carrier's memo asserted that prompt reporting, on its...January 6, 2004
Measuring Success 2
As I've said previously, a company that wants to have low workers' compensation costs has to have effective ways to measure the performance of its safety and injury management efforts. In December, I wrote about the Cost of Losses per Full Time Equivalent Employees (FTE). Today, it's time to talk about the Severity Rate. In nearly all cases, time away...December 29, 2003
Communication pays dividends
From Wisconsin, land of many lakes, come three refreshing case histories depicting the many benefits that can accrue when employers heighten communication with employees. The unifying theme? "Aggressively listening to employees pays huge dividends." At a local corrugated box plant of the Weyerhaeuser Company, an employee-based safety campaign reduced accidents involving lost work time from 20 in 1999 to none...December 28, 2003
Business blog added to linklist
We're adding Small Business Trends to our "blogroll" over to the right. It's a weblog that tracks trends impacting small and midsize businesses. While not specific to insurance, it appears to have varied and interesting content. One recent item of note is a posting on Forrester Research's top 10 predictions for healthcare in 2004....December 4, 2003
Measuring success
I've always thought that a company that is serious about controlling workers' compensation costs and losses must be serious about measuring its performance, or else how will success be known? The problem with traditional measurement protocols is that they take years to develop in order that conclusions can be drawn with any level of actuarial certainty. The four-year development of...October 12, 2003
