From Bob's Cluttered Desk

I have said it numerous times, both in my blog and at many speaking engagements around the country. People outside of workers' compensation, the employers and employees we serve, have no understanding of who we are, what we do, or how we do it. Workers' comp is a mystery to those outside the system; a…

Well, the rumors are true. Oregon Insurer SAIF has made it official. They are looking for a new president & CEO. They posted the position almost a year from when the last one started the job. I hope they can have one hired by the anniversary of his departure. That is just three short months…

If you watched the Super Bowl, you likely saw the ads. There were two of them; the first a rather vague reference to a “new way to pay” coming to a McDonalds Restaurant near you. It showed happy, laughing, dancing and prancing people all ostensibly having the time of their life ordering a Big Mac…

Business Insurance is reporting that an Australian woman has been denied a claim she says is related to an injury she suffered on the job. She claimed a work injury caused her to gain weight and as a result she is in need of breast reduction surgery to alleviate the pain she is experiencing. The…

Timely response and clear communications are critical elements for handling workers’ compensation claims. However, when it comes to gathering information and managing a claim properly, “timing” might be just as important as “timely”. A story out of Ft. Worth, TX this morning highlights the fact that proper communication and timing should be part of a…

In this day and age of instant information, journalists, bloggers, researchers as well as the casual web surfer have at their disposal a plethora of information resources. For those who are interested in medical research and the latest in medical technologies, there are a multitude of prestigious medical journals offering the latest in advanced methodologies…

I am in Clearwater Beach, Florida this week, speaking at the 24th Annual Health Benefits Conference & Expo. The event draws employers from across the country, and deals with a wide variety of employee management and benefit issues. As conferences go, this is a bit of a departure for me. It is not your usual…

Alas, the cluttered desk, the symbol of my personal style and intellectual mediocrity, not to mention the brand around which I built this blog, is no more. At least for this week anyway. It may not take long for my new one to become cluttered, but there is a lot less space on this one…

I remember seeing a photo in a magazine when I was a child. It was taken in a town that had been completely devastated by a tornado. Within the photograph was, as far as the eye could see, total and utter devastation; debris and remnants of peoples lives scattered about the landscape. Near the front…

I have it on excellent authority that major changes to the Wisconsin workers' compensation system will be proposed with the release of the state's budget bill on February 3, 2015. The rumored changes are said to be significant, with some viewing it as a complete dismantling of the current workers' comp system there. In the…