Thirteen years ago, in 2012, I had what seemed to me at the time to be a fairly simple idea: What if we stopped calling this industry “workers’ compensation” and started calling it “Workers’ Recovery” instead? Now, before you dismiss this as merely semantic navel-gazing from an industry blogger with too much time on his hands, hear me out. The idea was never about slapping a new label on an old product,…
Those of you who have been reading this blog for any length of time know that I’m not shy about trumpeting accomplishments – mine, those of people I work with, or those of the broader industry when it gets something right. Today is one of those days. This week, January 12th and 13th, something historic is happening in Tampa, Florida. The Medicare Secondary Payer Accreditation (MSPA) certification program, the brainchild…
For the past seven months, I’ve been viewing the world through what I can only describe as several layers of industrial-grade Saran Wrap. My right eye, which had faithfully served me over numerous decades, decided last June that it had seen enough of my shenanigans and essentially went on strike. Two weeks ago, I had surgery to address the problem, and I’m pleased to report that I am apparently healing…
It is once again that time where I dust off my prognosticative pen, shake loose the cobwebs from my crystal ball, and pretend I have any idea what the coming year will bring. Regular readers of this blog, or anyone with a memory extending back more than twelve months, will recall that my predictive abilities have historically been somewhere between those of a Magic 8-Ball and a drunk meteorologist. My…
For years, those of us in the workers’ compensation trenches have watched claims spiral out of control not because of the severity of the physical injury, but because of what’s happening between the injured worker’s ears. Now WCRI has done us all a favor by quantifying what every seasoned claims professional has suspected: psychosocial factors are rampant in workers’ comp claims, and they’re wreaking havoc on recovery outcomes. The new…
A Note from Bob: While writing this article I decided to get AI’s take on the topic. The response was prescient, on point, and damn frightening. Turns out I wasn’t needed for this article at all. It is enough to scare the crap out of anyone… ________________________________________ While it has not yet been defined as a clinical diagnosis, an emerging issue known as “AI Psychosis” has been causing concern among health…
There is no doubt that we are, as a society, in the midst of dramatic technological change. AI and automation are changing the way we work and live, and the dramatic impact of robotics on our personal lives is not far behind. It is important to remember however, that some things will likely remain the same, and that the actual need and desire for productive human interaction will remain an…
There are times I just don’t know what we would do without the news media. Think about it. If they didn’t exist, we would likely never know about the dire state of the world in which we live. But, of course, in addition to feeding the narrative of constant peril and crisis, they occasionally serve up a useful gem that helps guide us to a happier tomorrow – happier, that…
At the Workers' Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) Annual Conference in Phoenix yesterday, researchers presented findings on how changes in the medical workforce are impacting workers' compensation systems across the United States. The presentation highlighted significant shifts in who provides care to injured workers and what these changes mean for claim outcomes. The panel began by addressing widespread concerns about healthcare provider shortages that have been amplified during the pandemic. While…
Thursday, at the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) Annual Conference being held in Phoenix, AZ, Keynote speaker Lanhee Chen, Ph.D., from Stanford University offered a comprehensive analysis of the US healthcare system’s trajectory. His presentation, “The US Healthcare System in 2025, Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and What’s to Come ” provided insights into past transformations and projected future developments. Chen opened with a central thesis: after a period…
