A story out of south Florida that went viral this week highlights just about everything that can go wrong today in our hyper-connected society. It is a story of inconsistent policy and major overreaction, as well as just plain stupidity. And it all centers around a man who wore underwear as a face mask on a recent…
Evolving Christmas and the Battery Daddy
As part of a Christmas holiday ritual, my wife and I watched a couple of well-known classic movies on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Those movies were the perennial holiday favorites, “A Christmas Story” and “Home Alone”. I am still trying to figure out how to get that holiday feel-good romp “Die Hard” into the…
Bob's Top Ten Fitness Tips for Optimum Health
As a virtual paragon of fitness and health, I am at times encumbered by the knowledge that many of the people in my life, both near and distant, are not blessed with the excellent physical stature and well-being that I have managed to attain. Since all within the workers’ compensation industry could benefit from positive…
Do We Work For, With, or On Behalf of Injured Workers?
A session at the recently concluded WCI Conference in Orlando, focused on the “significant need to provide better behavioral health support for injured workers who suffer from injuries with compounding behavioral health challenges,” presented many good ideas, as well as generated provocative questions worth our consideration. One of those questions was, essentially, how do we…
A Big Win for WCI, and for Workers' Comp
Finally, life felt normal again. No video conferences. No remote meetings. Just a smattering of masks. This year for the Workers’ Compensation Institute in Orlando, their behemoth of an educational conference rose like a Phoenix from the desolate ashes of a detested pandemic. And not only did they manage to pull off a successful in-person…
Mass Termination Could Have Been Handled Better(.com)
Video streaming technology has been around for a number of years, although its use has certainly exploded during the pandemic. Many people, I included, have touted the potential benefit of streaming video as a communication platform and to expand the availability of medical services. However, it is not a panacea. There is potential for abuse…
For Workers' Comp, Defunding the Police Can Be Mighty Expensive
2020 was, by all standards, a tumultuous year. Riots and looting, along with a massive increase in shootings and violent crime, gripped many major cities across the nation. This happened, perhaps not coincidentally, in tandem with a major push in some of those cities to “defund the police,” a movement purportedly designed to rethink how…
Mission Impossible: Webcam Model Shoots Self in Private Parts
With the dramatic shift in workplace strategies since the pandemic, we have been warning workers’ compensation professionals that employment-related injuries in the home will start presenting unique challenges to the industry. A dramatic on-the-job accident earlier this month in Georgia really drives that point home. It seems a home-based “webcam model” accidentally shot herself in…
At WCI This Year, the Word is Safety
The 75th Annual Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference is fast approaching, scheduled in Orlando, FL from December 12 – 15, 2021. It is a production of the Workers’ Compensation Institute (WCI) and is unquestionably the largest and most comprehensive event in the nation for the workers’ compensation industry. This year is different in a variety of ways, but…
The Long Predicted Gray Tsunami Has Arrived – As Regulators Suffer Most
For years experts have been talking about the “gray tsunami” that threatened the workers’ compensation industry. The crushing wave said to be coming was not one of earth temblors and overwhelming waves, but rather a current of retirement from an aging and long-entrenched workforce. And in the aftermath of Covid and the “great resignation” now…