From Bob's Cluttered Desk

If ever there was a reason to head to Las Vegas a day early for the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference, this is it. For the first time in its more than 25-year history, there is a charity golf tournament timed to occur before the event. Kids’ Chance of Nevada will be hosting its…

Well, it has been an interesting week in the news. We learned that people who drink their coffee black have a higher chance of being psychopaths. A drunk baggage handler took an unexpected flight to Chicago when he passed out in the cargo hold of an American Airlines jet. A half-naked woman fell through the…

Welcome to what will undoubtedly be the most read article I have posted in some time. To be fair, the title of the article that originally caught my eye read, “Male Stripper Loses Damages Claim Over Rear-Ending Injury, ” but I probably clicked on that link with the same tawdry imagination and giddy interest in…

I was in Boise, Idaho, last week, where I spoke on “Workplace Violence” at the annual Workers’ Compensation Seminar produced by the Idaho Industrial Commission. I think it went well in the sense that no one threw anything at me. Any presentation on workplace violence that doesn’t turn into a real-life example of workplace violence…

This year’s All Committee Conference for the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) is scheduled for November 13 – 16, 2018, in Colorado Springs, CO. The event “represents an opportunity for state regulators from 22 jurisdictions across the ‘south’ & industry professionals across the nation to discuss the hottest issues facing workers’ comp.” Of course, we’ve…

In all honesty this post is shear speculation. I haven’t spoken with anyone regarding today’s topic. I haven’t “asked around” for any super-secret insider information. As someone interested in the leveraging of new technologies to improve the workers’ comp experience, I’m just stating an opinion based on observation and common sense. That opinion is this:…

I like technology as much as the next person. Ok, I probably like technology more than the next person, but enough is enough. Sometimes we just become too dependent on technology in our personal lives, and someone just has to stand up and say something. It’s bad enough that I have a watch that tells…

Seriously, people, there are some things in workers’ comp that you would think, after 100 or more years, would have been settled by now. Yet we keep wasting time in court fighting the same battles. A story out of New Mexico last week shows that to be the case. I understand that some court cases…

When a professional snake catcher comes across a professional people crusher, things can get a bit dicey. That is exactly what happened to a woman who makes her living catching and relocating snakes down under last week. Her experience provides the perfect example of the old adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” She had been called to “relocate” a…

Recently we discussed what I referred to as the “medical billing shell game,” writing about what appeared to be the lack of correlation between confusing retail medical bills and what is ultimately paid by Medicare or a private insurer. The gist of that discussion was that the people least likely to financially cope with a…