From Bob's Cluttered Desk

Just a very quick post today to share a highly inspirational story. Corporal Kyle Carpenter was 19 when he was severely injured serving the Marines in Afghanistan in 2010. An enemy grenade attack required nearly 40 surgeries to repair what could be repaired. This Medal of Honor recipient went on to complete the Marine Corps Marathon…

The more things change, the more they stay the same. After all the trouble, turmoil and tumult at SAIF in the wake of John Plotkin's termination, could that possibly be true once again? The agenda for the March 18, 2015 SAIF Board of Directors meeting shows that the Board, in a closed Executive Session scheduled…

Outside our industry, workers’ compensation is something that historically no one liked to write about. Its technical and legislatively controlled nature, in addition to jurisdictional variations, make it difficult to comprehend “at a glance” for many. I’ve often said that people outside our industry do not understand our system or our processes, and that hurts…

Last week the workers' compensation industry was rocked by a double blast of bad news, one in the form of an OSHA report on the failings of our industry, and the other from a combined effort of NPR and Investigative Journalism site ProPublica. The ProPublica article, which took a very dim view of the industry,…

A session on physician dispensing at last week's WCRI Annual Conference shows that, despite legislative gains in the fight against this practice, we still have a long way to go.Research indicates that doctors who are more concerned with their investment portfolio than their patients well being will get very creative in order to keep the…

I was only home from WCRI’s annual conference a little more than a day when I saw a reminder that “simpler” systems often offer more effective solutions than more complex ones that are supposed to make our lives better. It was a lesson that overlays easily on the world of workers’ compensation with it’s all…

Some people are in heaven here in Boston. There are statistics, graphs and extensive analysis, presented by skilled academics with many, many initials behind their names. The WCRI Annual Conference in Boston is the absolute Woodstock for Statisticians, Actuaries, and Cost Containment professionals, except this Woodstock happens every year, has bathrooms, and everyone generally leaves…

I could just as well have titled this article, “WSI, Just Give Dennis Whedbee His Goddamned Hand”. Investigative Journalism website ProPublica, in partnership with NPR, issued a scathing analysis of the workers’ compensation industry this morning, looking at what they term a continued degradation of protections and benefits for injured workers. The North Dakota monopolistic…

Personal interactions can be a complicated thing, and when the parties conducting the interaction are devoid of any acceptable level of perspicaciousness, the challenge of maintaining clear communication rises exponentially. Said more simply, when two people both suffering from Cranial Rectal Insertion cross paths, the sparks can really fly. After all, that's what happens when…

Perhaps I’ve been in Florida, a state where freeze warnings are issued if the temperature approaches 45 degrees, too long. Like many here in the Sunshine State, harsh winters, collapsing roofs and ice encrusted roads are but a distant memory. That makes the thought of leaving it in March a bit daunting when the rest…