Dr. John F. Burton, Jr. died on August 12th at the age of 91. If that name does not immediately register with you, and you work in this industry, I would gently suggest that is a gap worth closing. Give me a few hundred words and I will try to close it. Let me start with the part of the story I own, because it is the only part where…
A claim can become adversarial long before a dispute is formally filed. It often starts with silence after the first report of injury, a confusing medical referral, or an injured employee who cannot explain what happens next. The best injured worker engagement tactics address those moments directly. They make communication a claims-management discipline, not a courtesy, and connect a better worker experience to measurable outcomes in recovery, return to work,…
A claim can turn in a single early conversation. When an injured worker does not understand the process, cannot reach the right person, or receives inconsistent information, uncertainty quickly becomes friction. That friction can delay treatment, impair return-to-work planning, increase attorney involvement, and add cost. An insurance carrier training academy should be designed to prevent those failures at scale - not simply distribute continuing education credits. For carrier leaders, the…
A missed first report of injury is rarely just an administrative error. It can delay medical care, weaken the employer’s credibility, frustrate an injured worker, and create an opening for attorney involvement. The top workers comp compliance risks operate this way: a small breakdown at intake can become a larger financial, regulatory, and human problem as the claim develops. For carriers, TPAs, self-insured employers, and provider organizations, compliance is not…
We measure everything in this industry. We measure lag time, closure ratios, average duration, medical spend per claim, litigation rates, attorney involvement, reserve accuracy, and the number of days between the injury and the first indemnity payment. We have dashboards. We have benchmarking studies. We have entire conference tracks devoted to measuring things, and then a networking reception afterward where we talk about what we measured. Every one of those…
A claim can become materially more expensive before the first medical bill is fully understood. A missed conversation with an injured employee, an unclear work restriction, or a supervisor who does not know what to say can create distrust that changes the direction of the claim. That is why self insured employer education cannot be limited to understanding deductibles, reserve reports, and vendor contracts. It must build the organizational capability…
A Medicare Secondary Payer error is rarely just a technical mistake. It can disrupt settlement timing, create repayment exposure, frustrate an injured worker who needs clarity, and consume hours of senior-level review. The best MSP training courses prepare professionals to make sound decisions before a claim reaches that point. They connect Medicare compliance requirements to the daily realities of claims handling, medical management, communication, and return-to-work planning. For organizations, the…
A new adjuster can close a claim in the system before they understand the human and financial consequences of the decision. That is why the best adjuster onboarding checklists do more than confirm system access, policy acknowledgments, and course completion. They establish the habits that drive sound investigations, timely communication, statutory compliance, lower attorney involvement, and appropriate return-to-work outcomes. For workers’ compensation leaders, onboarding is not an administrative event. It…
An injured worker says the claim has been ignored, a provider office cannot get a clear authorization answer, and an employer demands an immediate restriction decision. None of these moments begins as a litigation file. Yet each can become one when uncertainty, delayed communication, or a dismissive interaction raises the temperature. Claims escalation de escalation training prepares workers’ compensation professionals to recognize that turning point and respond before conflict becomes…
Episode 25 of Straight Outta Workers' Comp features Bob Wilson and his co-host Mark Pew in conversation with Chelsea Strawn, founder of Lighthouse Comp, a Tennessee-based case management firm built on the conviction that processing a claim and actually caring for an injured worker are two very different things. Chelsea shares her remarkable path into the industry—a catastrophic work-related accident of her own that broke her back, cost her a…
