From Bob's Cluttered Desk

There is a lot of conversation surrounding how and when to return people to the workplace as the numbers related to COVID continue to decline across the nation. Employers have been left to look for answers to many open questions. Masks or no masks? Do we require vaccinations? Do we treat the vaccinated to a…

Today I venture away from our normal workers’ compensation / employment risk theme for a personal notation. Please forgive the unexpected variance. You see, today is our 24th wedding anniversary. Although, to be honest, if you were to speak to my wife, she would tell you we have been together for 31 years and she “wants…

NCCI has been conducting their Annual Issues Symposium this week, and as usual they have provided a slick presentation format filled with highly accurate and useful data for the industry. The numbers they have been reporting are undeniably encouraging. The industry is profitable, incident rates are down, and, most critically, Covid did not have the…

In a classic scene in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a cart carrying corpses is being wheeled through the muddy streets of a peasant village. A crier managing the cart exhorts the locals to “bring out your dead!” so they may ostensibly be carried away. A local carries out an obviously alive old…

Yesterday the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) announced that their Annual Conference scheduled for this summer would be an in-person event. It will be held July 12 – 16 at the Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, VA. Hot damn. A live event with people and everything! I can barely contain my excitement. Our long…

Mitchell International, Inc., as reported in PropertyCasualty360.com, recently released the results of a survey regarding the adoption of technology in the workers’ compensation sector. As is often the case with such surveys, there were results we found surprising, while others aligned with our own observations. The most surprising result was the finding that: “Telemedicine was the…

Many companies employ consumer surveys these days. They are everywhere. They come in the form of a voice query after a service phone call, or in your email following a particular sale. The most ubiquitous, it seems, now come on the receipt from a purchase of some sort, all of them beckoning you to “Tell…

I’ve made it very clear that I have come to detest the term “disabled.” It is, as a term, a vehicle of economic and societal construct; a label that is applied to individuals announcing to the rest of society that a person is no longer capable of normal living. It is negative by its very…

Last week we had the opportunity to opine on the “Silly Season of Legislative Activity” by discussing California’s thoroughly misguided AB 1465, which would require the administrative director of the state’s workers’ compensation system to establish a statewide medical provider network called the California Medical Provider Network. It is a horrible idea that will provide no…

The New Jersey Supreme Court just issued a decision that requires insurers and employers to reimburse injured workers for the use of medical marijuana. In the case, lawyers for an employer argued that reimbursing for medical marijuana would in effect be “aiding and abetting and conspiracy liability under federal law.” As Nancy Grover reported on this site yesterday, “the…