Life & Health

Finding the right physicians for injured workers requires objective analysis of actual past performance, not patient opinions. Medical proficiency can be measured in terms of outcome, with the most positive outcomes evidenced by return to full work and reasonable medical costs. However, in Workers' Compensation even more focus should be placed on the course of the claim from the non-medical standpoint.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), repetitive strain injuries are the nation's most common and costly occupational health problem, affecting hundreds of thousands of American workers and costing more than $20 billion a year in workers' compensation costs.

The Supreme Court's ruling upholding the individual mandates of the Affordable Care Act means that employers need to update their health plans to comply with current federal requirements, as well as begin preparing to cope with radical changes in their health plan-related responsibilities scheduled to take effect in 2014.

If the Insurance Rate Public Justification and Accountability Act is to fix the healthcare cost problem, then it is taking action on a symptom of the problem, not the real cause. There are multiple reasons why health insurance premiums increase. Regulating the carriers alone doesn't solve any of the underlying problems. It restricts the behavior of one of the middlemen. It doesn't get to the core problem.

Your ability to retain control over the medical treatment of your injured employee is a given unless you do not follow the rules regarding the treatment of an injured employee. It is in the initial stages of the claim that you are most vulnerable and subject to having your control taken away.

The current regulatory oversight and monetary implications surrounding a loss of private health information means that firms in the healthcare arena should be more aware than most of privacy enforcement and how to protect their clients, constituents, reputation, and organization.

Our 20-year experiment with modern day corporate sponsored health and wellness has not saved money. While some people have been helped by it, in the end it has not been effective in controlling health costs.

In an attempt to bring some finality to the issues presented in the Valdez decision (at least for the time being), the California Court of Appeal recently addressed the admissibility of non-Medical Provider Network (MPN) reports.