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The Freedom Nurse

Insurance, Managed Care, Utilization Review

 

There are a lot of paths that people take before landing in workers’ compensation as a profession. Most paths are unexpected and mostly underwhelming. Not so for Cynthia Ortiz, Captain in the U.S. Army and Utilization Review Nurse for Risico Total Managed Care. Her journey to workers’ compensation has been nothing short of heroic and in the purest form of service via an accomplished military career in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Captain Cynthia Ortiz’s military service career began when she was seventeen years old, a junior in high school. Motivated by the love of her country and the military’s promise to support young recruits with higher education opportunities and funding, she made the courageous decision to enlist. Thirty years and five deployments later, she stands at the door of retirement of her military career gazing back on her years of service with immeasurable pride and gratitude.

Her ability to fulfill her commitment to the U.S. military, and thrive over the years has been made possible by the support of her biological family and her work family. Cynthia is married to her high school sweetheart of twenty-eight years and has a fifteen-year-old son, a twenty-five-year-old daughter, and a four-year-old granddaughter. She has been employed by Risico Total Managed Care for nearly twelve years and has been deployed twice during her tenure at the Utilization Review Organization (URO) – once for nine months to Central America and once for three years domestically as part of Homeland Security.

“The support of my family at home, and my family at work, has been greatly influential in my ability to give my very best to the country I love and the individual soldiers that I’ve served over the years. The value they’ve placed on what I do has allowed me to realize one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life in service to the troops,” says Cynthia.

Cynthia wears many hats in the Army Reserves. Her career started as a paramedic, a Staff Sargent for twenty years, and currently serves as a surgical nurse, an Officer of the U.S. Army (Captain) for the past ten years. Cynthia has held leadership positions ranging from Commander, providing medical readiness training, establishing and setting up field hospitals, as well as offering counseling to the troops.

Cynthia recalls, “As a child, I always felt a strong sense of fulfillment when nursing and caring for people, as well as animals.”

Her innate love of animals initially drew her to consider becoming a veterinarian. However, the educational path to obtain a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) was longer than what Cynthia was comfortable with.

Having grown up in a family surrounded by professionals in the medical and nursing fields, she witnessed first-hand the level of fulfillment that can come from nursing ill, or injured individuals, back to health. It was this first-hand exposure that inspired Cynthia to pursue a profession in nursing.

Her introduction to workers’ compensation and utilization review came by way of her husband, who works in the physical therapy field. She knew quickly that workers’ compensation would provide opportunities for her to do what she’s passionate about by helping make the journey to recovery smoother and easier for injured workers.

Kind, caring, benevolent, compassionate. These are just a few words that are used to describe Captain Cynthia Ortiz by individuals who know her best. With these personality traits, it should surprise no one that she not only enjoys serving her country, but is passionate about the humanitarian efforts that the Army coordinates and deploys abroad.

Cynthia’s most recent deployment placed her in the heart of Central America. Her group was tasked with providing medical care and screenings to remotely located communities, throughout Honduras, Guatemala, Columbia, El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica, where routine care was not readily available. They administered care for minor medical procedures and provided important medications to local nationals, civilians, and local military personnel assigned to support Cynthia’s group.

“The humanitarian services that the U.S. Army Reserves provides beyond our borders is my favorite aspect of serving this great country. Most times, the troops providing the service to the locals get as much, if not more, out of the experience. There are moments that I will fondly remember for the rest of my life.” states Cynthia.

One such moment that Cynthia shared was during her time in Central America. Her group was assigned to visit and deliver medical care and supplies to a community so remotely located making ground transportation impossible. Army choppers were used to transport Army personnel and the supplies needed to deliver the aide.

Upon wrapping up and preparing to depart for the evening, Cynthia and her colleagues learned that choppers were being held back due to the extreme rainy weather. The troops were forced to scramble and were able to set up for the night in a local clinic.

“Within ten to fifteen minutes of learning that we were stranded, local families began to bring us blankets, mattresses, and other items to make our stay comfortable. They didn’t have much, but each family joyfully gave of the little they had to feed us – 1 egg, a little bit of sausage,” recalled Cynthia. With tears swelling up in her eyes she continued, “They did not hesitate to share of little they had. And, they did it willingly and happily. I will never forget that experience.”

Cynthia confesses that retiring from a military career that spans three decades is going to be challenging. She will miss the troops, the service, and the sense of fulfillment that it brought. Her family, on the other hand, will be glad to know that she will no longer be called away for extended periods of time for potentially dangerous assignments.

Amy Skinner, Director of Nursing for Risico Total Managed Care, states, “Our whole team is so very proud of Cynthia. She is as dedicated to her job in utilization review as she is with her role in the Army. I’m very humbled by the sacrifices she has made for our country, especially in the time of the pandemic. Thank you, Cynthia!”

It would not be an overstatement to say that Cynthia is a real-life hero – a freedom nurse.

As an organization, we are immensely proud of her accomplishments. We are humbled and honored that an individual with her character, compassion, and commitment to service tirelessly advocates for injured workers on the front lines of workers’ compensation.

This Fourth of July, Risico celebrates Captain Cynthia Ortiz and every other workers’ compensation professional who serves, or has served, in the U.S. Armed Forces. Thank you for your service and thank you for inspiring us all.

June 24, 2020/by Carlos Luna
https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/TheFreedomNurseHeader.jpg 625 1200 Carlos Luna https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/risico-logo-web.png Carlos Luna2020-06-24 08:29:442020-11-23 21:25:31The Freedom Nurse

ACOEM Publishes COVID-19 EBM Practice Guideline

Insurance, Managed Care, Occupational Health, Utilization Review

 

Academics have been fervently working to uncover trustworthy scientific evidence on which to base COVID-19 treatment protocols and business response recommendations. ReedGroup’s MDGuidelines, publishers of the evidence-based occupational medicine practice guidelines independently researched and developed by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), announced this week its publication of the very first evidence-based medicine (EBM) practice guidelines for Coronavirus (COVID-19) for occupational health. MDGuidelines has made the guideline available free of charge.

The announcement comes at a critical time as state jurisdictions fight to mitigate the pandemic’s effects on their respective economies and workforces. The ACOEM guidelines are adopted, in whole or in part, as the presumptively correct standards for treating occupational-related injuries and illnesses in two of the nation’s hardest-hit markets, California and New York.

Dr. Avrom Gart, Risico Total Managed Care’s Medical Director states, “The new ACOEM guideline on Coronavirus (COVID-19) is important to Occupational Medicine because it establishes a starting point in writing for medical providers to consider. There is too much opinion in the public domain about what could work, or should work, but nothing that provides a transparent base of evidence. At the end of the day, individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 will have to consult and listen to their doctor for the best course of care.”

A Guideline for All Stakeholders

The guideline’s intended audience includes, occupational and other physicians, health care professionals, insurers, employers, attorneys, non-occupational specialists, and all other stakeholders in worker health and workers’ compensation systems. Guidance provided in the guideline for these groups includes information pertinent to contagiousness, incubation, clinical presentation, mortality rates and more.

Employers throughout the country may be particularly interested in the employer considerations section of the guideline. The guidance provided here includes recommendations related to employee contact, general principles and recommended planning for businesses.

ACOEM’s guideline also dives into disability considerations qualifying its findings by stating that while disability will be better defined with studies to come over time, there are major concerns based on preliminary data and information from analogous diseases. In other words, we are still learning about COVID-19’s disability and recovery expectations which will need much attention.

The guideline points out that there are no quality data on disability for patients without hospitalization and estimates recovery from post-infection fatigue to take about two to three weeks for mild cases. For patients with mild to moderate pneumonia treated with oxygen supplementation, recovery is estimated to take four to eight weeks after hospitalization or clinical recovery.

The prognoses for severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are much worse. Approximately 50% of survivors may be projected to not return to work within a year of survival of the acute infection, based on prior experience from diseases that have similar symptoms as ARDS.

Hydroxychloroquine for Treatment of COVID-19

A debate around the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 has developed in the media. Outlets have published concerns about the drug’s potentially dangerous side effects, including sudden death. The drug’s prominence in the public domain came after President Trump expressed confidence in the drug as a promising treatment option for COVID-19.

ACOEM’s new COVID-19 guidelines lists hydroxychloroquine as a “Recommended” treatment of COVID-19 for “select patients”. The recommendation’s Strength of Evidence is listed as Level C, describing the limited evidence-base with at least one randomized study of moderate quality.

The rationale for ACOEM’s recommendation of the drug for select patients is due to the quality evidence available for the efficacy of chloroquines (especially hydroxychloroquine) for the treatment of COVID-19. ACOEM qualifies that the medications are low cost, and adverse effects are minor for short courses of treatment at commonly used doses. Based on the available limited evidence, earlier treatment appears to be important for efficacy versus administering with treatment in an ICU after viral replication has ceased, according to the guideline.

Patients who may be good candidates include those who are moderately to severely affected with COVID-19. However, ACOEM found that there is no quality evidence supporting the drug’s efficacy when used after ARDS is established.

Patients with multiple comorbidities, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, COPD may also benefit from the use of hydroxychloroquine when administered early and the effects of COVID-19 are milder but worsening.

This along with other treatment considerations are included in the guideline. ACOEM’s recommendations, or non-recommendation, of specific treatment protocols are substantiated by the studies considered and the scoring of those studies. These elements provide the transparency required by a trustworthy EBM development process.

The Development of the COVID-19 Guideline

ACOEM’s EBM Practice Guidelines are developed in compliance with the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines and Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE). Pursuant to these standards, the development of the guidelines includes the use of various teams and panels throughout the process.

A critical part of each guidelines’ development process is the designation of the Evidence-based Practice Panel. Pertinent to COVID-19, the panel members represent expertise in occupational medicine, internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and infectious disease. ACOEM’s complete development methodology is available on its website.

MDGuidelines’ ability to produce high-quality EBM guidelines so quickly is a monumental undertaking. Generally speaking, a trustworthy, high-quality EBM guideline can take up to two years to develop and to publish comprehensive content updates according to emerging research.

Provided that MDGuidelines and ACOEM can remain agile with updates to this guideline, this trustworthy EBM Coronavirus (COVID-19) guideline, and its subsequent updated versions, will be an immensely useful tool for users around the globe involved in health and business recovery efforts.

April 17, 2020/by Carlos Luna
https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/COVIDGuidelinesBlogCover.png 750 1500 Carlos Luna https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/risico-logo-web.png Carlos Luna2020-04-17 08:25:542020-10-05 19:47:41ACOEM Publishes COVID-19 EBM Practice Guideline

Let the People Choose

Insurance, Managed Care

 

I’m continuously inspired by the journeys that leaders in workers’ compensation take on their path to the industry. Such rich, diverse, and in some cases heartbreaking backgrounds serve as the ideal bedrock for a system that serves people who have been injured on the job left feeling vulnerable, mourning, and in dire need of empathy.

On September 24, the Comp Laude® Awards and Gala featured eight industry leaders as part of the People’s Choice Awards, which is quickly becoming the signature event of the conference. This group of individuals represented the legal, medical management, client services, and marketing business verticals in workers’ comp. One presenter, a past injured worker himself.

All excellent orators. All inspiringly passionate. All perfectly human.   

Knitted Together in Purpose 

The idea of eight various stories delivered by eight various individuals at eight various tempos and styles is enough to make the most patient listener uneasy. This is, in my opinion, where the People’s Choice Awards has staked its claim as Comp Laude’s premier event.

People’s Choice Awards emcee, Greg McKenna is irreplaceable; he is highly skilled at taking each individual presentation, a colorful segment in and of itself, and masterfully knits it together with the others to form a collective body of work – nothing short of a piece of art.   

Each year brings with it a unique collective theme. This year, the stories were arranged in order to mirror the rise and fall of energy – the propellant of change. The theme of “change” is apropos on so many levels within the context of workers’ compensation.

The Psychology of Change 

The various stories merged together through what mental health professionals call the “Change Curve.” The term describes the pattern of energy that routinely commences after a change agent, or incident, is introduced into and disrupts one’s environment (physiological and/or psychological).

The Change Curve is frequently used in the context of mourning segmented by three major phases:  Endings (Stage 1), Transitions (Stage 2), and New Beginnings (Stage 3). In this context, the end is actually the beginning. The journey in moving past, or moving forward, ends once a new beginning comes to fruition. Experts have validated that major life events can trigger a mourning-like process in an individual:  Loss of job, physical injury, divorce, etc. Enter workers’ compensation.

Dr. Geralyn Datz, Mississippi-based Licensed Clinical Health Psychologist, offered the following insight respective to grief within the context of workers’ compensation, “When a worker is injured there is an absolute grieving process, over the injury itself initially, because no one wants to be hurt. Many times, this resolves.

For those who progress to chronic injury or illness, there is another grieving process that has to do with the loss of identity that can occur in work injury. To go from working to not, able versus not, and have shifts in roles at home and with friends, is a major challenge for most people. This is a real process that deserves understanding and time.

To the extent that we can support the injured worker and help them get the rehabilitation and other supports needed to transform the injury from a loss to an opportunity – an opportunity to overcome a life challenge, to develop new skills, and adapt to a new normal – is the way that we will help them treat their injury as a new beginning instead of an end.”

The Presenters

Together with the horizontal axis, labeled Time, and the vertical axis, labeled Emotional State/Action (a.k.a., Energy) in the diagram below, the People’s Choice Awards presentations were strategically positioned to personify each milestone that comprises the Change Curve:

  • H. George Kagan, The Admiral and I – Time
  • Nina Boski, Clear and Connected – Energy
  • Laura Thomas, Three C’s of Workers’ Comp – Shock/Denial
  • Diann Cohen, Obstacles vs. Accomplishments – Acceptance
  • Amy Holcomb, Opioids: The Cascading Effect on My Family – Low Mood/Depression
  • Paul Gold, Adversity & Inspiration – Experimental
  • Yvonne Guibert, A Ft. Lauderdale Summer – Decision
  • Doug Clark, There is Good in Everyone – Engagement

This variation of the Kubler-Ross Change Curve charts the phases of emotional state and action against time, in three stages. Source: https://newsfeed.mosswarner.com/change-management-communications/

Each presenter was polished, knowledgeable, and made it tough for the voting audience to select the 2019 People’s Choice Awards’ recipient. I’m not able to recap every presentation for practical reasons. Instead, I will share the moments that stood out to me as a member of the voting audience:

The Admiral and I

H. George Kagan is a Defense Attorney in the state of Florida. He is soft-spoken, humble, and speaks with profound wisdom. He is a very likeable fellow that can carry a conversation with just about anyone about nearly anything in life.

Mr. Kagan took the audience through an engaging sequence of events that included his involvement in a workers’ compensation claim that ultimately ended with the injured worker succumbing to his injuries and passing away. Years later, the injured worker’s father, a Navy Admiral, invited Mr. Kagan to visit with him and his wife on the West Coast.

What started as a chance meeting, initiated by the Admiral, between parties on seemingly opposite sides of the workers’ compensation process (Mr. Kagan a Defense Lawyer and the Admiral being the parent of the injured worker) has evolved into a friendship, founded on mutual respect and appreciation for doing what is right, between two very accomplished individuals.

H. George Kagan, P.A.
Photo Courtesy of William M. Zachry (Used by Permission)

Opioids: The Cascading Effect on My Family

Amy Holcomb oversees utilization review for a prominent workers’ compensation company. She has a delicate presence about her that instinctively draws the audience in for a closer listen.

“This is the first time that I have ever shared this story,” started Ms. Holcomb. “115177 is my son’s name in the Federal prison system,” she continues.

Immediately, the room was still and silent, and seemingly without oxygen as gasps from the audience became audible. I recall my heart rate elevating at the thought of what she would say next. Ms. Holcomb invited the audience, as one would a close trusted advisor, in to a difficult and intimate experience involving her son’s struggle with opioid addiction and the collateral damage sustained by her family unit.

Her son’s experience was not uncommon – diagnosed with a soft tissue sprain/strain and was given a polypharmacy prescription for hydrocodone and soma. Her family immediately spiraled down the slippery slope that most workers’ compensation professionals only read about. Yet, here she was. One of our own sharing her personal heartbreaking story of how prescription narcotics punished her family with an impact that may be felt for generations to come.

After time, homeless and desperate for a fix, Ms. Holcomb’s son turned on his own family. Becoming verbally and physically abusive, he burglarized the very place he once called home while victimizing the people who advocated most for his recovery, his family.

Ms. Holcomb’s courageous recount of the events was difficult to listen to without becoming personally vested. After all, prescription opioid/addiction-speak has become so commonplace in our line of work that at times the real-world implications are taken for granted.

Ms. Holcomb’s final declarations to the audience were delivered with gut-punch power, “You have the power to help stop this. You have the power to save a family.”    

Amy L. Holcomb
Photo Courtesy of William M. Zachry (Used by Permission)

A Ft. Lauderdale Summer

Yvonne Guibert is a marketing consultant that has worked with numerous national workers’ compensation brands. She has consistently supported WorkCompCentral and has been a very visible supporter of the Comp Laude® Awards. A seasoned public speaker, Ms. Guibert’s presentation delivery was eloquent and powerful.  

She placed the audience in a time capsule and ushered them through an exciting childhood experience with her father. It was a time of innocence and adventure with the rock in her life, a real-life super hero.

Ms. Guibert’s childhood was made memorable by water skiing outings as a toddler in her father’s arms to zip-lining on a back-yard course made just for her. The stories were enough to make every thrill-seeking adventurer in the room jealous and every hardened heart melt at the picture of a tough, outdoorsman loving on his adorable baby girl.

Much like the plot of a best-selling novel, her stories of warm family outings were contrast by a dark and hurtful backdrop. Ms. Guibert’s time on the water and in the loving arms of her father was only half of the story. She was a victim of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of a step-parent. The depths of the pain and struggle that she had to endure were as impacting as the highs of the joy she felt when visiting her father’s Ft. Lauderdale home in summer time.

Admittedly, Ms. Guibert’s story broke my heart. My emotions betrayed me as tears streamed down my face in rebellion. I wasn’t alone. The room filled with sniffles as young and old, men and women, people from all walks of life felt the pain that young Yvonne felt.

A seasoned story teller, Ms. Guibert did not end her story on a low note. She proudly declared that better times have come upon her. She is no longer a victim of the her past, rather a victor basking in her future. She has continued on her own adventure. Her goal now is “to find herself as she once was at 10 years old. She was a total bad a**.”

Yvonne Guibert
Photo Courtesy of William M. Zachry (Used by Permission)

Without a doubt, we live in era where trust is not easily given. Love and compassion seemingly elude society on large scale. The People’s Choice Awards, and Comp Laude in general, is a much-needed reminder that the workers’ compensation system is filled with extraordinary people who have, in their own right, endured unfathomable storms in life.

Broken, robbed, and victimized at times, our people continue to rise to the challenge of caring for those who may in fact find themselves broken, feeling robbed and possibly victimized – injured workers.

If the People’s Choice Awards Class of 2019 presenters are any indication of the workers’ compensation community at large, I can’t help but feel that our injured workers are in good hands. The future is indeed bright.

Thank you to everyone involved in organizing the Comp Laude® Awards and Gala, and more specifically the People’s Choice Awards. Thank you to the courageous individuals that are willing to be vulnerable by sharing their intimate stories.

I am equal parts inspired and challenged to do more, to be better. I hope you feel the same.

October 1, 2019/by Carlos Luna
https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Let-the-People-Choose_Small.jpg 689 1800 Carlos Luna https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/risico-logo-web.png Carlos Luna2019-10-01 08:16:472020-10-05 19:46:20Let the People Choose

California Employers & Work Comp Stakeholders Sound Off

Insurance, Managed Care

 

The nation’s largest workers’ compensation community came together recently in Dana Point, California to attend one of the country’s more prominent trade conferences. To kick off the event, a panel of work comp subject matter experts, representing system stakeholders and employers, was assembled to address issues ranging from California’s chief public official’s appetite to tamper with seemingly sound system reforms to automation and technology’s role in workers’ compensation.

The panel was moderated by Kurt Leisure, The Cheesecake Factory Vice President of Risk Services and included:

  • Bruce Wick, California Professional Association of Specialty Contractor Director of Risk Management;
  • Karen Townsend, Sodexo Senior Manager, Health, Safety & Environment;
  • Jeffrey R. Einhorn, Non-Profits’ United Chief Executive Officer; and
  • Karen Fry, Commerce Casino.

The following is a synopsis of the panel’s reaction to key issues raised during the conference’s opening session.

The Governor’s Agenda for Workers’ Compensation

Question:  The California workers’ compensation system has been through multiple reforms over the last decade, do you feel that our new Governor’s administration will “turn back the clock” and undue some of the progress that has been made?

The inauguration of Governor Gavin Newsom brought with it important questions about the future of workers’ compensation reforms enacted under Governor Jerry Brown’s administration. The general consensus from the expert panel reflected mostly uncertainty with a modest level of confidence that California’s new Governor will not address any major work comp issues during this session.

Panelists explained that for the time being labor advocates are not “clambering” for change; labor representatives perceive California’s system stability as a good thing for injured workers. Notwithstanding, it is expected that applicant attorneys will continue to make their argument opposing certain workers’ compensation statutes fueled by the perception that work comp does not take care of California’s injured workers.

Due to an abundance of issues that rank higher on Governor Newsom’s priority list, no major changes are expected in workers’ compensation this session according to the expert panel.

Seeking Areas of Improvement in California’s Work Comp System

Question:  Where do you believe that more work needs to be done and do you think that the California WC system has an influence on whether employers stay, move out, or expand/contract in this State?

With the exception of the loss adjustment expense “mess” in California, the panel mostly focused on the rampant issues in Cumulative Trauma (CT) claims as an area overdue for improvement. The severity of the issue varies by region:  Northern California, the Central Valley, Southern California – and more specifically Los Angeles area.

Karen Fry of Commerce Casino provided an impassioned description of their experience with CT. “We’re on fire,” she explained.

Commerce Casino is located in Commerce, California just 8 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The casino employs approximately 2,400 individuals in occupations that include table game dealers, housekeeping, food-service, maintenance, and office administration.

It is estimated that 78% the casino’s claims are for CT. “It’s a money problem. Attorneys seemingly throw random things against a wall and wait to see what sticks. With Judges ruling in favor of the claims, it is becoming more difficult to determine what is real and what is not,” Fry explained.

Commerce Casino has implemented various programs and tools aimed at preventing inappropriate CT claims and to help employees feel valued. Programs include access to onsite clinical services, onsite chiropractic services, an open-door policy, and more.

According to The Cheesecake Factory’s Kurt Leisure, a primary challenge with CT claims is determining what is a legitimate claim and what is not. The panel concurred adding that with the cost to settle these claims ranging from $25,000 to $100,000, a sit-down is desperately needed to explore a more “equitable” approach to CT issues.

The panel agreed unanimously that California’s severe CT issues warrant immediate reform by the state’s legislature; no other state in the U.S. faces issues of this magnitude pertinent to CT claims. The panel further suggested that in order for a legislative effort to be successful, large prominent employers in Los Angeles will need to raise the issue by clearly communicating how CT impacts their business.

Even with all of its issues, the panel of experts agreed that California’s workers’ compensation system is making strides in the right direction. When asked if the complexities in the state’s work comp system has an influence on employers coming or leaving the Golden State, the expert panel mostly agreed.

The majority of industries are not adversely influenced by California’s workers’ compensation landscape. The ability to do business and tap into the world’s 5th largest economy (surpassing the United Kingdom) outweighs the challenges in the state’s work comp system. (LA Times 2018) Some restaurant chains, however, have expressed concerns and are “cautious” about doing business in California.

Automation in Workers’ Compensation

Question:  We hear a lot about automation coming into the workers’ compensation system from streamlining billing, telemedicine, wearables, predictive modeling, etc.  In your opinion, where does technology fit in best with respect to the administration of our workers’ compensation benefit delivery system and where do we need to make sure that it does not go too far?

The value of automation and technology, as expressed by the expert panel, is multidimensional. There are gaps in communication where technology fits in very naturally.

Technology can be immensely valuable in helping to communicate effectively with injured workers who do not speak the English language. Technology, such as Telemedicine, is making great strides in solving access to medical care issues created by California vast geographic footprint.

While some technology has produced undeniable benefits in some areas, there are notable limitations. The panel identified a growing challenge with automation technology developed for the purpose of engaging the injured worker – it is being ignored by workers and therefore rendered ineffective.

Consensus among the experts concluded that the successful administration of workers’ compensation benefits to injured workers heavily relies on human intervention. “Injured workers are people,” explained Jeffrey Einhorn of Non-Profits’ United. “They must be reached and have work comp explained to them on a human to human basis. If workers are not the most valued asset, we have a problem,” Einhorn continued.

With the erosion of the human element comes a greater risk of the injured worker feeling alienated and lost in the process. The likelihood of litigation increases as the level of support for the injured worker decreases. The business of workers’ compensation at the core is built around people. Automation and technology can simplify certain tasks, create efficiencies and bridge important gaps, but it must never replace human intervention.

Well Done!

The stakeholder and employer panel provided one of the more insightful presentations of the conference. All presenters were engaging, charismatic, and well-informed.

Numerous other questions were addressed that are not covered here, but will be included in future blog posts. Organizers of the event, and of this particular panel, should be commended for pulling together a great group of subject matter experts who clearly care about the ongoing improvement of California’s workers’ compensation system. Thank you for a job well-done.

  • Employer & Stakeholder Panel: State of California’s Workers’ Compensation System 
September 13, 2019/by Carlos Luna
https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Smallshutterstock_283766747.jpg 977 1500 Carlos Luna https://risico.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/risico-logo-web.png Carlos Luna2019-09-13 08:13:402020-10-05 19:45:16California Employers & Work Comp Stakeholders Sound Off
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