The Best Tidbits of News From the Workers Comp Community

Special Discount to Attend the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference

Worker’s Compensation Expert Rebecca Shafer will be presenting at the 21st Annual National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference^® in Las Vegas, November 7 – 9.

Rebecca would like to invite you to join her there and be a part of the nation’s leading training event for workers’ comp and disability management professionals. And, more importantly, to benefit from all the great strategies and best practices you’ll learn that will help you solve the biggest challenges facing our industry.

The organizers have given Rebecca a special discount to offer you– $320.00 off the on-site rate – even larger than the discount advertised in the brochure. You can attend all the sessions and networking events over the two-and-a-half days for only $975.

To attend at this special $320.00 discount, register by Oct. 22 using Promo Code SPKR12 (all caps). Register at www.WCConference.com

News From Lexis Nexis:

“The New Mobile Workforce: Telecommuters, Alternate Worksites, Traveling Employees, and “Extreme Mobile”, by Stuart D. Colburn, Esq.

The new mobile workforce raises many unique challenges in the world of workers’ compensation. With respect to telecommuters, Larson’s states: “When reliance is placed upon the status of the home as a place of employment generally, instead of or in addition to the existence of a specific work assignment at the end of the particular homeward trip, three principal indicia may be looked for: the quantity and regularity of work performed at home; the continuing presence of work equipment at home; and special circumstances of the particular employment that make it necessary and not merely personally convenient to work at home.” Read more.”

At the 21st Annual National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference®, Nov. 7-9, Stuart D. Colburn will speak and moderate onThe New Mobile Workforce. Joining him are Roger A. Levy, Esq. and Alan S. Pierce, Esq.

“Court Bars Medical Expert Testimony on Sick Building Syndrome, by Thomas A Robinson.

It is axiomatic that reliance on lay testimony and administrative expertise is not justified when the medical question is no longer an uncomplicated one and “carries the factfinders into realms that are properly within the province of medical experts”. On the other hand, just because a party has a purported export willing to testify as to the medical question at stake, that does not mean the expert is free to express his or her opinion; the opinion must be based generally upon generally accepted scientific and medical standards. Illustrating this important point, a Maryland appellate court recently…read more about this case and other cases on wrongful death, retaliatory discharge, and unexplained fall.”

Changes to TXCOMP Health Care Provider System

The Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (TDI-DWC) has made changes to the TXCOMP Health Care Provider system

Health care providers’ access to submit applications to be certified as a designated doctor, or apply for recertification has been discontinued.
Access to update License/Certifications and Specialties for health care providers who are certified as a designated doctor or have applied to be certified as a designated doctor is restricted to TDI-DWC staff only. Read More…

Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.

WORKERS COMP MANAGEMENT MANUAL: www.WCManual.com

Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker or agent about workers comp issues.