May 20, 2008
Noteworthy blogs and tools
Time for a blogroll and sidebar update! We're always looking for new resources to keep things fresh - we've been told we have the best compilation of workers' comp link resources on the web - we hope it's useful to you. Noteworthy blogs The Safety Blog - this blog is sponsored by Safety Services Company. Since December, they've been offering...April 9, 2008
Are bloggers the new occupational risk group?
If you have bloggers on the payroll, both you and they may be at risk for work injuries - or even death! At least that's the word according to a recent article by Matt Richtel in the New York Times, In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop. Richtel describes a growing work force of sedentary workers...March 27, 2008
Calvalcade of Risk is Up
Ernesto the Insurance Geek is hosting this week's Cavalcade of Risk at InsuranceYak.com. He has sifted through a whopping 18 submissions, thereby providing easy access to anyone with an interest in risk - and that is just about all of us. Check it out....January 28, 2008
Weblog roundup: recession and WC; cost of physicians; undocumented workers; and heath & safety
Recessions effect on WC - Joe Paduda offers his analysis of what the recession will mean for workers comp. Citing a 2002 Minnesota study, he notes that costs rise during recessions for two reasons: claims rates and disability duration both increase. He notes that other factors may well have a larger impact on costs than the recession. Some of these...November 8, 2007
Risky Business
Cavalcade of Risk is up, hosted by MyWealthBuilder. It's a delectable potpourri ranging from personal risk (auto and health insurance choices, avoiding Alzheimers through diet) to global issues (a history of the subprime mortgage mess). The wide ranging subject matter reminds us that risk management is something we all do, every day, even if we limit our thinking to professional...September 17, 2007
Happy Birthday To Us!!!
Today marks the fourth anniversary of Workers' Comp Insider. Since the Insider was the first insurance blog, and by extension the first workers' comp blog, in the nation, I thought that perhaps a moment of reflection might be in order. Jon gave his thoughts on "why we blog" a few days ago, but I wanted to share my thoughts...February 9, 2007
Kudos to "Working Immigrants"
Congratulations to Peter Rousmaniere on his one year "blogiversary" - it's been just over a year since he launched Working Immigrants to serve as resource for the exchange of information and ideas about the business of immigrant work: employment, compensation, legal protections, education, and mobility. To commemorate his one year mark, he's compiled a post listing notable entries from the...December 4, 2006
Monday morning matter: intriguing new blog discoveries
When we launched this blog some three plus years ago, finding related topical blogs was quite the task - the landscape was fairly barren. But it seems that nearly every week now, we are discovering terrific weblogs that are either new or that we just hadn't found before. We thought we'd share a few of our recent discoveries: Effect Measure...August 17, 2006
Weblog roundup: work fatalities, HR, language barriers, psychiatric disability, and more
Blog carnivals - catch up on news from the blogosphere. Stop by My Money Forest, which features this week's edition of Cavalcade of Risk. Also, we are bit tardy in pointing out last week's edition of Health Wonk Review, hosted by The Health Care Blog. Workplace fatalities - Jordan Barab of Confined Space brings us the good news and the...March 9, 2006
New Health Wonk Review posted at THCB
The biweekly roundup of the best blogging about health care policy, business, and technology - Health Wonk Review - is freshly posted at Matthew Holt's The Health Care Blog. With more than 57% of the claims dollar now spent on medical benefits rather than indemnity, the trends and costs of health care are worth watching. In terms of the total...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...February 27, 2006
News roundup: McCain guest worker bill, Rx repackaging, trench deaths, chromium exposure, and more
Peter Rousmaniere is watching the developments in the McCain guest worker bill, along with a rundown of the bill's supporters and opponents. How big is the issue of immigrant workers? Check out his recent posting on an estimate of the number of undocumented workers by state and their workforce share. Joe Paduda covers the latest in the Ohio Bureau of...February 24, 2006
The launch of "Health Wonk Review"
Stop by Joe Paduda's blog today to check out the first edition of Health Wonk Review, a compendium of the best of the health policy blogs with posts from health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers, including our own Jon Coppelman. These roundups are a great way to learn about new blogs by sampling "the best of the...January 27, 2006
Day Labor: Undocumented, Unprotected, Unconscionable
From time to time the Insider has focused on the many compelling issues relating to undocumented workers. If you enter the words "immigrant workers"in our blog's search engine, about 30 responses pop up. There are probably 10 million undocumented workers throughout the country, performing some of the most hazardous and least desirable jobs. They usually work without the protection of...January 13, 2006
Weblog roundup: news and views from around the blogosphere
Workplace health & safety is good for business (PDF). So says the Ontario's Ministry of Labour, which has established the goal of "reducing workplace injuries by 20 per cent by 2008. That would translate to 60,000 fewer injuries a year. The ultimate goal is to eliminate all workplace injuries and deaths." To back up this commitment, 200 inspectors are being...December 29, 2005
Weblog roundup: bad faith suit, TX networks, and "what were they thinking?"
We are catching up on blog reading after an erratic holiday schedule, and offer this grab bag of interesting posts from our fellow bloggers. Legal matters - Michael Fox of Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer has recently posted on suits involving workers comp issues. The first is a recent $15 million judgment involving a safety incentive program run amuck. This...November 22, 2005
News roundup: SC, CT, safety, HR, healthcare, and more
S.C. Carrier to Stop Writing New Workers' Comp Policies - The Companion Property and Casualty Insurance Group, a Columbia-based subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, announced that as of December 1, it will have a moratorium on new policies, blaming the decision on five years of losses and deteriorating business conditions. The company says that it will...November 8, 2005
Grand rounds: a smorgasbord of the medical blogs
Want to sample some interesting new blogs and find out what the hot news and trends are in the medical arena? This week, Rita Schwab at MSSP Nexus is hosting Grand Rounds, a rotating weekly roundup of eclectic posts from medical bloggers. Even though none of us at Lynch Ryan are medical providers, Rita was kind enough to ask us...October 14, 2005
Weblog roundup: Gulf recovery workers, managed care, pay for performance, and FMLA
Addition to the blogroll. We welcome the Brooklyn Dodger to our growing list of resources in the sidebar. Brooklyn Dodger comments on research in occupational and public health and current events in politics related to public health, occupational health, and the environment. The blog reports on studies and articles from Journals that may not be readily available. Here's a sampling...October 7, 2005
Results of readership survey
Thanks to all those of you who have taken our reader survey - the survey is still active if you'd like to take it, but we thought we would report on results to date. So far, we've learned that 63% of the survey respondants visit daily or several times a week; 84% rated the blog as excellent or good; 61%...October 5, 2005
Weblog roundup: health care costs, OSHA, safety, case law, brokers, trends, & more
Medical inflation - B. Janell Grenier at BenefitsBlog links to and comments on the 2006 Towers Perrin Health Care Cost Survey. One excerpt: "Employees are paying 64% more in health care costs today than they spent five years ago. Employers, meanwhile, are paying 78% more in health care costs today than five years ago." OSHA - thanks to Mike, one...September 19, 2005
Happy birthday to us - two years and counting...
We don't often toot our own horn but we're in a celebratory mood after marking our second anniversary of blogging this past weekend. When we embarked on the blog, we weren't entirely sure what level of interest we'd find for our news and commentaries, but we were gratified to break the 10,000 visitor mark last month. We thank you, our...September 6, 2005
Weblog roundup: In the aftermath of a disaster
Local reports from the blog community: Noted legal weblogger Ernie the Attorney, a New Orleans resident, has been posting his perspective of Katrina-related events, along with resources and links to reports from other local bloggers. We're relieved that he is OK, and we extend our condolences to him for the tragedies that are befalling his beloved city. GruntDoc is a...August 23, 2005
News roundup: health, safety, HR, and other stories from the blogosphere
Danger Flying Objects. M.R.I.'s Strong Magnets Cited in Accidents is a fascinating yet scary article from the NYT about safety concerns surrounding MRI equipment. It linked to a site with incredible images of wheel chairs and other objects being sucked into the MRI machines. Yikes - a safety hazard for patients and workers alike! (via MetaFilter). Ohio Coingate. Investigations into...July 28, 2005
Healthcare weblogs added to our sidebar
We'd like to welcome two new weblogs to our sidebar. We nicked them both from Joe Paduda's blog, one of our frequent reads. DB's Medical Rants is a blog by an academic general internist who comments on medical issues and the current state of medicine. Recent posts range from how patients are increasingly participating in decision making to physician report...July 11, 2005
Weblog roundup: safety, market dynamics, scandals & more
I'm just back from a 10-day vacation jaunting around Quebec, Maine, and Cape Cod. I am suffering from that addle-pated fuzziness that so often occurs on work re-entry, so in this foggy state, I quite enjoyed Michael Fitzgibbon�s post about vacations at Thoughts from a Management Lawyer. He presents some interesting factoids: "30% of employees do office-work during vacation" and...June 23, 2005
New weblogs added to the resource sidebar
When we first started Workers Comp Insider, related weblogs were far and few between. We are pleased to see new entrants are joining the so-called blogisphere almost daily now - be sure to visit our expanding blogroll to check out blogs that we find of interest. Here are a few that we've added today: We're pleased to see that our...May 21, 2005
Weblog roundup: Fishing safety, hearing loss, BP disaster & more
Fishing Safety Strategic HR Lawyer points us to Dangers of the Deep, an article in which Alex Markel of USNews.com recounts the sad story of last December's sinking of the Northern Edge, a scallop boat fishing in the waters off Nantucket. Five fishermen drowned and one survived. The article discusses attempts to impose safety standards on the industry. "Fishermen are...April 29, 2005
Weblog roundup: AIG, FMLA, CA, OH, employment law issues & more
AIG Probe - Business Insurance reports that New York officials are appointing an outside consultant to audit insurance premiums at American International Group Inc. because workers compensation premiums were improperly booked for more than a decade, according to a Spitzer spokesperson. Law Professors Peter Henning and Ellen Podgor discuss this in greater detail in Ignoring Legal Advice at AIG on...April 26, 2005
Business blogs - do they work?
If you are reading this post, you are among the 27% of Americans who read blogs...that means you are a relatively early adapter. If you are reading this over an RSS feed or a service like Bloglines, NewsGator or My Yahoo, you can count yourself among the ranks of the geek elite ;-) According to Business Week, there are now...April 11, 2005
New tools and weblogs for our resource sidebar
Today, we have an array of new widgets and reference materials to add to the "Cool Tools" section of our sidebar, along with a few new weblog discoveries to add to our ever-growing list. Want to know what the cost of a poor hiring choice is? Compute the cost of a bad hire or calculate the cost of turnover -...March 28, 2005
Weblog roundup: business reads, prescription drugs, functional capacity, & more
Sometimes it�s good to look at the forest, and other times it�s good to look at the trees. To get a take on macro economic and business trends that affect the day-to-day work place, check out Library Journal's recommendations for Best Business Books of 2004 . Managed Care Matters reports that the Second Annual Survey of Prescription Drug Management in...March 3, 2005
Weblog roundup: workplace violence, volunteers, unions, smoking restrictions & more
Diane Pfadenhauer at Strategic HR Lawyer offers workplace violence prevention resources and Michael Fox at Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer reports on a $2.25 million award in a recent case revolving around violence in the workplace. Professor Martin Grace at Risk Prof comments on our discussion about volunteers. Ted Frank at Overlawyered has been following the $17M award against Archdiocese...January 30, 2005
Weblog roundup: unions, healthcare costs, employment at will & more
Strategic HR Lawyer offers a reminder that as of February 1, employers have annual OSHA posting requirements for job-related injuries that occurred last year. Phillip Wilson of Laboring Away at the Institute links to a recent BLS report on union membership. Last year, union membership in the private sector fell to less than 8%; in the public sector, it fell...January 21, 2005
Weblog roundup: TRIA, actuarial news, resume fraud & more
The Comp Expert is a new workers comp weblog by Texas Workers Comp Specialist, Cary Duke. He features an excellent update on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) and a recent report on TRIA by the Congressional Budget Office. TRIA is scheduled to expire this year, and Duke points out that a failure to renew the act would lead to...December 20, 2004
Weblog roundup: news from fellow bloggers
Lots of interesting news from our blog friends this weekend...we'll just rely on short pointers. CA doctor, attorneys find widespread denial of care for workers "A physician and an attorneys' group said Thursday that efforts to overhaul California's workers' compensation system have led to widespread denials of care for employees who suffer job-related injuries." The folks at HealthLawProf Blog point...December 5, 2004
New weblogs added to our resource list
We're delighted to see that the numbers of business weblogs keep increasing. In particular, we are happy to see new bloggers cropping up in the workers comp, risk managment, and labor relations area. Here are a few "neighbors" we've added to our blog list: Managed Care Matters is a blog by Joseph Paduda that focuses on managed care, covering health-care...December 2, 2004
Looking for the Best of the Web? We’re It!
We were very pleased to learn that the November 29, 2004 issue of Business Insurance magazine named LynchRyan’s “workers comp insider” weblog as “best of the web” for safety and loss control services. Each year, Business Insurance editors surf the web to “identify sites that they regarded as interesting, informative and innovative.” To be eligible for consideration, a Web site...October 18, 2004
Additions to our resource and weblog sidebar
It's been awhile since we added any weblogs or tools to the sidebar, but we've been collecting some excellent new links. If you haven't checked out the sidebar over on the right, make sure you do...we try to dig up some of the best workers comp-related web resources. Take the time to browse around every now and again - you'll...July 22, 2004
Weblog roundup: subrogation, TB in DC & VA, CFO survey, PBMs, robots, & more
Construction site injury - can someone other than a comp carrier be liable? - subrogation case law from Michigan Comp Law. A few recent offerings from Jordan Barab at Confined Space: TB Control in DC and VA and Immigrant Worker Fatalities - the Facts Duke University CFO Survey - Duke University�s Fuqua School of Business polls the CFOs of both...July 9, 2004
Weblog roundup: exit interviews, settlements, tort reform, & disease prevention
George Lenard reminds us that exit interviews are important and points us to this sample exit interview from Workforce. Ronald Ryan tells us how workers compensation settlements are calculated in Michigan. Are personal injury lawyers in Pennsylvania looking to workers comp after tort reform? A cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice liability cases seems to have attorneys looking for...July 2, 2004
Weblog roundup - "concierge medicine," trench deaths, and other news
Asking us if we have lost our capacity for outrage, Tom Mayo reports on the disturbing trend of concierge medicine in a post at HealthLawBlog. The nub of the story is that a class of medicine is emerging where those who can afford it essentially pay an additional premium - or "a bribe," as some have called it - to...June 22, 2004
Weblog news roundup
The Weekly Toll - In his Father's Day post, Jordan Barab at Confined Space recounts last week's workplace deaths, noting the children who must grow up without fathers and the fathers who must bury their sons. It should serve as a sobering reminder to all of us who work in this business what our work is really all about: keeping...June 2, 2004
New business weblog discoveries
We'll be adding the following weblogs to our sidebar under business weblogs: Business Opportunities Weblog - Dane Carlson blogs entrepreneurial ideas and opportunities. Labor Blog - a labor and employment weblog from the Institute of Industrial Relations Library, University of California, Berkeley. Michigan Comp Law - a weblog hosted by the law firm of Ryan, Jamieson, Morris, Ryan and Smith...April 21, 2004
Blawgs - legal resources on the web
As if the word blog weren't hideously unattractive enough, now we also have blawgs. Blawgs are law blogs, get it? We have a few excellent blawgs listed in our sidebar disguised as business weblogs, and we'd encourage a visit to any of them. Despite an innate propensity to caution, the legal profession seems to have taken to weblogs in a...April 16, 2004
10 rules for corporate blogs
Carole Matthews at Fresh Inc. points us to this story on 10 rules for Corporate Blogs and Wikis from Nick Wreden at Marketing Profs. If you have a corporate blog, or would like to have a corporate blog, the article offers some good counsel, examples of companies that are using weblogs effectively, and links to other resources. Also of interest,...March 30, 2004
A tip of the hat...
Kudos and confetti to Jordan Barab at Confined Space who marked one year of fine blogging yesterday. He is a dedicated and tireless voice for the safety of the worker and we learn something new and important (albeit disturbing) every time we visit his site. Thanks for your efforts, Jordan -- it's excellent and important work that you do --...March 25, 2004
Business blogging: It's a blog world after all
Fast Company has an interesting series of articles on the corporate weblog as a knowledge management tool. The primary article makes the case that weblogs are a cost effective, flexible, and efficient way for teams to communicate via intranet. It cites one example of use by an insurer: The Hartford Financial Services Group is already finding success using blogs in...March 17, 2004
State resources - Ohio, Utah, Pennsylvania
Ohio - KivaCom is a useful site that aggregates workers' comp news extracts on such topics as health and safety issues, ADA, HIPAA, labor news, and legal news. The site also provide Ohio legal case summaries. While geared to workers' comp practioners in Ohio, the news abstracts cover national topics and are culled from a wide-ranging list of sources -...February 24, 2004
Where are all the corporate weblogs?
In a recent article entitled Business Blogging, Jack Schofield of The Guardian ponders the reasons why more companies don't have weblogs. He points to " ... a few pioneering American examples, such as Walt Disney and the state of Utah, but otherwise blogging seems to be a personal rather than a corporate stratagem." One potential reason that he suggests: "Businesses...February 4, 2004
Employment law weblog
For an expert legal perspective on the ADA, discrimination, harassment, and a variety of other workplace legal issues, check out George's Employment Blawg. George is an employment attorney in St. Louis. Among the many interesting items that I found on my visit to his site: Workforce Management conducted a survey ranking workers comp high on a list of regulatory issues...January 18, 2004
Check out our new business weblog discoveries
We've added a few new corporate weblogs to our resources sidebar: adjuster.com, featuring claims adjusting news. The Small Business Blog, a weblog for and about small business. BusinessPundit, a weblog focusing on corporate strategy, economics, neuroscience, and more Business 2.0, a weblog maintained by the editors of Business 2.0....January 13, 2004
Good business reads from the blog world
One of the best things about weblogs is the news filtering function they fill - they find good things for you. Here are a few items we might have misssed but for our fellow bloggers. 40 government sites you can't live without via The Small Business Blog "Whether it's a loan, a contract or regulatory information you seek, these sites...January 4, 2004
New year's news roundup from fellow 'blogs
PA Judge Robert Vonada of PAWC points to an article in the New York Times about two different treatment options for back pain and the methods hardware manufacturers use to market their products to doctors and hospitals. Would you be surprised to learn that the more expensive treatment is prevalent, despite lack of evidence that it is more effective? We...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 16, 2003
HIPAA Blog added to sidebar
Workers' compensation, insurance, workplace health & safety and HR weblogs are far and few between so we were delighted to chance upon the HIPAA Blog. This is a weblog that bills itself as "a discussion of medical privacy issues buried in politcal arcana." Besides frequent news updates, it has an impressive list of links to HIPAA-related resources. (for the unitinitated,...November 6, 2003
