I recently spoke to the Alabama Self Insurers Association, in a session called “The Wild & Wacky World of Workers’ Comp”. A large portion of my message was that many people – in fact most – outside the workers’ compensation system either do not know what comp is or have no clue how it operates.…
When Siri Becomes a Cost Saving Medical Provider
I have a bad feeling about this. A friend sent me a video from a (relatively?) recent NBC report showing how the Smartphone may soon be used to speed medical diagnosis and lower overall costs. The report highlights Dr. Eric Topol, a Cardiologist and champion of wireless technologies that can replace expensive and time consuming…
A Blinding Glimpse of Functional Impairment
There is a college in northwest New Mexico that has a Health & Human Performance Center on its campus. Within that center is a large, well equipped fitness facility, which is available to the public for a nominal fee. I have used this facility numerous times over the years when visiting relatives in the area.…
Serving Sopaipillas as God Intended
It’s Friday. You’ve been knee deep in workers’ comp all week. Let’s take a break. Today I provide this non-workers’ comp related, yet crucial diatribe concerning a mainstay of mexican cuisine. You may read it, and then take the rest of the day off. You’ve earned it. My wife and I flew into Albuquerque, New…
The Wildebeest Injury Rate Coefficient
Speaking purely from a statistical perspective, there are not many people in this country who have been seriously injured on the job. Those same statistical methods show that even fewer people have been seriously injured by a wildebeest on the job. There are no reliable statistics on home based wildebeest induced injuries. A zookeeper at…
Selling Schmaltz on the Exhibit Hall Floor
There are effective ways to market and promote your business at conference exhibit halls around the country. Unfortunately for some companies, they haven’t learned any of them. While wandering the exhibit hall at the WCI Conference in Orlando this week I saw numerous examples of poorly conceived and improperly executed booth promotions. While promotion mistakes…
Does First Responder Lawsuit Spell the Death of 911?
Imagine this scenario if you will. There is a man in your house, high on bath salts and acting erratically. You are scared, and summon law enforcement by calling 911. The responding deputy is attacked and injured by the man, who is ultimately shot and killed when he reaches for the deputy’s gun. Then the…
A Duck Hunting Metaphor for Modern Day Medicine
It has been a hectic week, and next week will be even more so. I will be appearing on a national blogger panel at the WCI Conference in Orlando on Monday (1:00), so if you are attending please do try to stop in. I need to leave WCI early, because I have to fly to…
When Siri Tells You to Take a Hike
I should call this article, “When Technology Can’t Be Siri-ous, Part 2”. Some of you may recall when I wrote the original “Siri-ous” article, describing how my iPhone personal assistant Siri torpedoed my anniversary dinner by guiding my wife and me to a run down, hobo infested taco stand in San Diego. There is no…
Will Obamacare Charitable Care Restrictions Spell Trouble for Workers' Comp?
It is hard to believe that it has come to this point. I learned something last week that I find both amazing and appalling. Something you would not expect in a Democratic Republic. In a formerly free nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles, it is almost unfathomable. And it is something that may hold ramifications for…