Let's say that you have an employee that has a driving record that includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, and two failures to stop for a police officer. Now let's say that this employee not only must drive as a part of their job, but is actually responsible for highway safety in your state. Could…
Welcoming Heather Schwartz to the Blogwire
I would like to take a quick moment to welcome the newest contributor to our Workers’ Comp Blogwire, Ms. Heather Schwartz. Heather is Corporate Counsel for PMSI Settlement Solutions. Her primary responsibility with PMSI is the education and assistance of compliance with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act. She has lectured on this topic to the…
The Road to Hell Part 2 – More Unintended Consequences of Workers Comp Reform
Who could have seen this coming? The state of Pennsylvania last year passed a law requiring insurers to cover certain cancers deemed work related in firefighters. Specifically, the law “provides that firefighters can receive workers’ compensation if they develop cancer and can establish it was caused by direct exposure to carcinogens at a fire or…
Sex in the CIArcus: Send Out the Clowns
I have a simple question. If you are head of the CIA, and you can’t keep your own extramarital affair secret, how safe are our country’s other secrets? For those of you who have been under a rock, detained at Guantanamo, or simply trying to navigate security at O'Hare the last couple weeks, there is…
If You Fake an Accident, But No One is there to See It, Is It Still a Crime?
It was announced this week that a Sarasota, FL police officer who was under investigation for workers' compensation fraud resigned to avoid being fired by the department. I don't know the particulars of his case, but living in Sarasota I can tell you it must be serious. It takes an act of God in this…
From Bob's Flustered Wife
Editors Note: The following is a first ever “Guest Editorial” for “Bob’s Cluttered Desk”, and is in direct response to his recent article “Basic Rules for Marital Bliss When Dealing with Boblivious Behavior“ To those of you who think Boblivion sounds like a blissful place to live, let me introduce myself. I live with Bob’s…
Feeding the Disability Beast
As has been fairly well publicized, I recently had the opportunity to sit on a bloggers panel at the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference in Las Vegas. Much of the discussion surrounded the nature of workers comp in today’s environment, and what we would like to see changed in the system. One thing that…
Basic Rules for Marital Bliss When Dealing with Boblivious Behavior
I have a theory that says if I prove adequately incompetent at performing basic household chores my wife will eventually stop asking me to perform them. Despite my initial impressions of a very high level of intelligence when we first met, she appears for all ostensible purposes to be a very slow learner in this…
Let Us Bloggers Run Workers Comp
I learned something at the special blogger session at the National Workers’ Compensation Conference this week. I learned that the 5 of us who were on the panel should just be allowed to run the entire workers’ comp industry, since we apparently know everything there is to know. In reality it would not likely improve…
Leaving Las Vegas
It is 5:00AM, and having just left the National Conference hotel I am at McCarran International. I have safely navigated security, where my friendly TSA agent, a man whose name tag disturbingly reads “Two Finger Lou”, assured me that I am still polyp free. He did say something about eating more roughage, however. I must…