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…

From Dictionary.com:dis- 1. a Latin prefix meaning “apart,” “asunder,” “away,” “utterly,” or having a privative, negative, or reversing force (see de-, un-2); used freely, especially with these latter senses, as an English formative: disability; disaffirm; disbar; disbelief; discontent; dishearten; dislike; disown. I’ve come to hate the word “disability.” It is a word used freely in our…

My wife and I recently submitted our DNA samples for analysis by 23andme.com. I was mostly curious about the genetic makeup of my ancestry, while my wife, who was adopted and knows nothing of her genetic lineage, was interested in the various health reports that these tests can identify. Yesterday I got my results, and I…

A 30-year veteran of the Norwalk, CT Police Department was accidentally shot last year by a fellow officer during a routine training exercise. The 9mm bullet is still lodged in his chest. Complications he has experienced include blood clots, a partial blockage of his heart and permanent nerve damage in his right hand. His doctors also say…