From Bob's Cluttered Desk

3 weeks ago I wrote about a woman in Arkansas named Lauren Eason, who had been denied a change of physician, even though her dear doctor was now dearly departed – as in dead as a doornail. It seems the woman had already changed physicians once, and in accordance with Arkansas law, she was not…

There is much discussion around the nation surrounding the topic of prescriptions and their related costs within the workers' compensation industry. Of all the issues, none has as simple and clear a solution as those surrounding the process of physician dispensing. That solution? Don't  allow physicians to fulfill their own prescriptions. Problem solved – but…

Editors Note: This letter was distributed this morning to hundreds of workers’ compensation professionals, business people and government representatives in North Dakota, as well as major media outlets across the nation. An open letter to the press, business community and people of North Dakota: The authors of this letter are journalists, columnists, bloggers and content…

I was very pleased this week to see that our CompNewsNetwork system passed the 10 million article view count. To be more specific, since I am a stickler for accuracy – as of this writing – the system has served 10,084,966 articles up for our visitors. To be fair, I am not such a big…

It was good to see a LexisNexis review published a couple weeks back that gave rave reviews for Rebecca Shafer's book “Workers Compensation Management Program: Reduce Costs 20% to 50%”. Shafer is an industry stalwart and one of the best known cost containment experts around. Additionally, she is a prolific writer (a veritable content machine),…

Wednesday there was a fairly impressive display of solidarity and influence by a collection of web based entities opposing the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation that is moving through Congress at this time. Many websites, including Wikipedia, went “dark” for the day, signaling their opposition to this particular legislation. Google's response was, in my view,…

It's a cold, bitter winter in this barren land. Resources are scarce, “man camps” spring up to shelter the workers who can find no homes. The government, considered one of the most corrupt in the region, seems incapable of addressing the challenges. North Korea? Nope. Welcome to the Peoples Republic of North Dakota, the PRND.…

An article published this week reveals that some educators are now beginning to see what HR professionals have recognized for several years. It seems that “empty praise” and meaningless accolades may not actually produce an intelligent human being after all. For probably the better part of two decades the education mindset in this nation has…

Lauren Eason's Doctor is dead. Permanently horizontal. Assumed room temperature. Checked into that big waiting room in the sky. Still, despite this apparently minor complication, the State of Arkansas says she cannot have a new doctor. She must, apparently, stick with the dead guy. And you thought your health plan sucked….. The problem, it appears,…

(Warning: This article discusses a sensitive topic and contains content that some may find offensive.) The underlying premise was a serious one: a move was underway to protect workers from bio-hazards in the workplace. The fact that it is in an industry that one never normally thinks of from a workers' compensation perspective is what…