We had the inaugural episode of The Hot Seat Webinar this last Friday (replay available here). I am not going to say much about it other than it appears to have been a tremendous success. I believe David Langham will be writing about it in short order, and for now I will leave the details…
My Day on "The Hot Seat" Has Arrived
Today we launch our long-planned webinar series, “The Hot Seat”. It will be a new and unique venture for me, but I am very excited to get it off the ground. The Hot Seat will be a quarterly webinar presentation where we will have direct and open discussions on important issues facing our industry. My…
I've Said It Before: A Manure Pit is a Crappy Place to Die
The clarion call went out in 2011. Ok, it wasn’t really a clarion call – it was just a simple blog post – so it was more like a softly whimpering acknowledgment. I wrote about a Mennonite family of four that had been overcome and killed by fumes from their farms manure pit in 2007.…
When Lawyers and Doctors Own the Pharmacy
We’ve talked a great deal in recent years about the inherent ethical conflicts of physician dispensing; doctors writing and fulfilling their own prescriptions. I have defined arguments defending that practice as attempts “to scrub the indelible stain on the soul that prescribing for fun and profit undoubtedly brings.” The issue, of course, is that drugs…
Workers' Comp Hot Seat – The Tech Check Blooper Reel
Ok, it really isn’t a blooper reel, but it certainly may be a harbinger of things to come. We have been busy preparing for the inaugural episode of the “Hot Seat”, a webinar designed to provide valuable information for the workers’ compensation community in a lively and entertaining format. The Hot Seat will not use…
God Vacations in Sarasota, or, What I Learned from Hurricane Irma
I have joked about it, but am really beginning to believe it. I think God vacations in Sarasota. We say that because for at least the last 100 years, despite occasionally insistent predictions of the meteorological community, our area has avoided any significant impact of a major hurricane. While we had some minor flooding and…
Pinning Hope on a Rainbow
I have lived on the west coast of Florida for the better part of 33 years. During that time I have never been a person consumed with what I consider unreasonable fear regarding hurricanes. That doesn’t mean I do not respect them, or do not pay attention. It doesn’t mean we do not prepare for…
Are SAIF Reserves Safe from Oregon Pols?
It is an age-old problem. Government overpromises. Financial crisis follows. And politicians, instead of fixing the mistake, simply grab whatever cash they can get their grubby little mitts on. That is the feeling you get when you look at what is happening in Oregon right now. The state has what can be considered, by all…
Are Florida Appellate Fees Unappealing?
A decision issued late last week has largely skated under the radar, but has the potential for another big impact in the world that is Florida workers’ compensation. Florida Judge Mark Massey issued a decision on August 25th, in the case Napoles v. Kendall Regional Medical Center, that will maintain the status quo in the…
The Word Undocumented Still Doesn't Make It Legal
Last Thursday this site ran the first in a series of articles looking at how different states workers’ compensation systems handle injured workers’ who are not legally able to accept employment in the United States. The series, headlined “Undocumented and Unprotected?”, started with a look at California’s fairly liberal laws that provide specific protections for…