TeamSTEPPS, or Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety, is an evidence-based teamwork system to improve communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. Its primary goal is to create a program for healt…

In a recent conversation with a senior risk leader about risk strategy, he expressed concern that the risk financing decisions made for his company's workers' comp exposure may not be optimal, especially given the shift in exposure magnitude from i…

Today we finish our series on building an employer framework for managing disability accommodation processes under ADA/ADAAA. In the first installment, I covered the high level aspects and provided some key areas of focus. In the second blog, we sh…

The primary objectives of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are to improve patient access to healthcare, enhance healthcare quality and patient safety, and reduce costs. When the ACA is implemented next year, millions of newly insured individuals will j…

Earlier today, I addressed the attendees of the 68th Annual Workers' Compensation Educational Conference and the 25th Annual Safety and Health Conference. I challenged each individual to continue the conversation for industry advancement and shared w…

Too often the conversation around predictive modeling begins and ends with the process of designing and building a model or series of models. The problem with this approach is that predictive modeling alone doesn't save money, reduce litigation, sh…

In part 1 of our series, we discussed the importance of C-Suite leadership and the need for the executive team to appoint an internal ADA/ADAAA process owner – someone to be responsible for leading program development. Often, this leader's first ta…

As I write this, Governor Christie has just vetoed a proposed change to the New Jersey workers' compensation statute that would have guaranteed benefits to a particular interest group and liberalized the law further in his state. I make no judgment a…

Addressing compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)/ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) has become one of the notable challenges employers face in the workplace today. Congress enacted the ADAAA, implemented in 2009, to reinforce their inte…

Big Data is a new catch phrase, not a new concept. It's about making sure you're utilizing all of the information you have available in order to make meaningful decisions about your business, your program…whatever you're driving toward, and …

Do you have a family member who is still working well past retirement age? You're not alone. A recent AARP study reported that 70% of U.S. workers plan on working past retirement age. In 2008, there were 28 million workers in the American work…

Claims management is the quintessential people business. It is people working with people during what can be their darkest hour after an unexpected event occurs. It is a time often fraught with uncertainty and fear. Sedgwick employs more claims pro…

Claims with comorbidities create some of the most difficult challenges claims examiners face. In workers’ compensation, comorbidities refer to those existing medical conditions that impact a person’s primary work-related injury. Such conditions often…

Workers' compensation, being the statutorily defined and administered animal that it is, may not appear to need a risk standard applied to its day-to-day management, but I maintain the opposite is true. All risk exposures lend themselves to better ma…

The country generally views California as the state where change in fashion or law happens first. Not so with the new Oklahoma workers' compensation alternate coverage law. Sedgwick released a white paper on June 4th highlighting the legislation, aut…