There is a bill working its way through the legislative sausage process in Washington, DC that, if successful, will have profound positive impact on millions of people with disabilities. It is not a new layer of complex regulations, or a swath of new dependency inducing benefits. No, it is an opportunity for the government to…
Perhaps Accepting This Fraudulent Claim Was the True Nightmare
I read about a California nurse over the weekend who filed a workers’ compensation claim after injuring herself. She told her employer, a hospital, that she hurt her back “while waking up from a nightmare”. I wondered aloud how waking up from a nightmare could in any way be associated with her job. My wife…
Flatulence by Any Other Smell Is Still, Well, Flatulence
An entrepreneur in France has invented a pill that will give flatulence the smell of roses. I could just end this blog post with that statement, and let your wicked imagination take you for a ride, but no, that is not my style. You gots to get my opinion on the matter. Or in this…
For Workers' Comp Culture Change, How Do We Reach the Small Employer?
We had just finished the national bloggers’ panel at the National Workers’ Compensation Conference, where one of the things we had discussed was how employers can improve outcomes by being more engaged, concerned and communicative with their injured workers, especially early in the claim cycle. I was approached by an attendee who happens to be…
SAIF VP Ryan Fleming, Central Figure in Plotkin Scandal, Resigns
Yesterday morning employees of SAIF Corporation received an email from Interim CEO John Gilkey announcing that VP of Operations and Human Resources Ryan Fleming had resigned effective immediately. Fleming was indicated by company documents to be a central player in what is now being called Plotkin-Gate, where former CEO John Plotkin was terminated after just…
Colossal Near Misses and Butterfly Kisses: The National Blogger's Panel
It was about a week and a half ago, but it feels like only 10 days or so. Several of us gathered at the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference in Las Vegas to resurrect our role on the National Bloggers Panel; to once again save the workers’ compensation world from imminent destruction. Fellow bloggers…
Finding the Perfect Turkey
Well, the holiday season is officially upon us. The decorations are coming out, turkeys are being administered last rights, and by the end of this weekend some retail employee somewhere will have been trampled to death by an idiot mob in pursuit of cheap televisions. Ah, the holidays….. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, most of…
Is Medicare Denial For Open Workers' Comp Claims a Common Problem?
I stumbled across a news story out of Texas recently that surprised me a bit. It concerned a woman who had been denied treatment for her wrist by Medicare, because she had an open workers’ comp claim in the state. Even with all the talk and hullabaloo over Medicare and MSA’s the last few years,…
Workers' Compensation 101 – Oregon Style
Over 15 years I’ve attended what feels like a million conferences, and about a billion individual conference sessions. While there is a plethora of quality content available across the nation, in many situations the content for me is of a “been there, heard that” variety. That is not a criticism, just the lament of someone…
Spending My Birthday with SAIF Employees, and Throwing Water on the Witch
It turned out to be one of the most remarkable birthdays of my life, although the fact it was my birthday was a happy coincidence. I spent last evening with a group of SAIF employees, finally having the opportunity to put some “faces to the nameless” that I have come to know through the ongoing…