Category: The Rx Professor

At this year's Southern Association of Workers' Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) Annual Convention, one theme surfaced repeatedly across multiple sessions: access to care. It wasn't discussed simply as a healthcare issue or a reimbursement issue. It was presented as one of the defining challenges facing the future of workers' compensation itself, and its implications were discussed from multiple perspectives throughout the week. The theme was top of mind at the event’s…

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Imagine walking into a clothing store and being told there is only one size available. It doesn't matter whether you're tall or short, narrow or wide. Athletic or not. Male or female. Everyone gets the same shirt. Most of us would immediately recognize the flaw in that approach. Yet when it comes to professional education, we do it all the time. Organizations spend significant amounts of money on training programs…

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If you had told me fifteen years ago that opioid prescribing would eventually become one of the defining healthcare issues of a generation, I would have believed you. If you had told me that we would spend more than a decade collecting mountains of data, implementing formularies, changing prescribing guidelines, introducing prescription monitoring programs, restricting access, educating physicians, and dramatically reducing opioid utilization, I would have believed that too. I…

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There was a time when earning a professional credential meant something very specific. It meant you had invested time, demonstrated competence, and met established standards. It meant you had proven a level of mastery that distinguished you from others in your field. The credential itself wasn't valuable because of the paper it was printed on. It was valuable because people trusted what it represented, the combination of its credibility and…

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If you've spent any time in workers' compensation, you've probably attended a conference or training program that looked successful on paper. The room was full. The instructors were engaging. The PowerPoint slides had graphs and graphics. I’ve seen, from the stage, attendees nod in agreement and take notes. Everyone left feeling like they learned something, and the instructors felt like they made a difference. Then Monday arrived, and very little…

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Nobody who files a workers' compensation claim expects it to become a catastrophe. Yet every day, a strained back becomes surgery, a minor sprain becomes disability, and a routine claim becomes a six-figure reserve. Over the years, I've come to believe that many of these situations can be explained by a concept increasingly discussed in healthcare as the "medical cascade." The idea is simple. One event triggers another. One decision…

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For an industry that spends a lot of time talking about indemnity and medical benefits, RTW, litigation, and now artificial intelligence, it is remarkable how often the biggest factor influencing outcomes comes down to something much simpler. Human connection. That was the central theme of a session I attended at the Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Annual Education Conference on June 11. The session, Working for a Brighter Day: Rewriting…

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When people hear that someone has joined an organization, they often focus on the individual. I tend to focus on what the addition says about the organization. Every hire is a signal, revealing where an organization believes the future is headed. That is why I am particularly excited to announce that Dr. Waqas Buttar has joined WorkCompCollege.com as our Medical Director. While this certainly is a story about Dr. Buttar,…

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Best estimates are that work comp accounts for 1-2% of overall healthcare costs in the US. We are close to a rounding error when compared to private health insurance (28-31%), Medicare (20-23%), Medicaid (18-20%), private pay (10%), and other government programs (5%) like the Veterans Administration, Tricare, and Indian Health Service. Although we're small in the big picture, broader healthcare trends almost always find their way into work comp eventually.…

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The term “new normal” has been used - some might say overused - since it became popular after the 2008 financial crisis. It was used then to reset expectations of growth from before the crisis to after the crisis. Since that time, it has become the pop-culture way to describe a permanent shift after a major event. The work comp industry has often used this phrase to describe what happens…

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