Deborah Pfeifle, CEO of Gould & Lamb, and Rafael Gonzalez, Director of Medicare Compliance and Post-Settlement Administration, are featured speakers at the upcoming PARMA conference next week in Rancho Mirage, California. Ms. Pfeifle's presentation, "Taming the Prescription Drug Beast in Workers' Compensation", will focus on managing prescription drug programs, cost and mitigating the risk of prescription drug abuse. Mr. Gonzalez will present "An Update on Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance", which will focus on strategies for when and how to take Medicare's interests into account. Read more…
As policymakers and other system stakeholders wrestle with the rapid growth of health care costs, the debate about unnecessary medical care in the U.S. and in workers' compensation is taking on a new urgency. Due to the importance of this topic, WCRI has dedicated a whole section of the conference on it. Join Dr. Rebecca Yang, WCRI, and Professor Thomas Wickizer, Ohio State University, for a discussion about Unnecessary Care and the Impact of Treatment Guidelines. Read more…
CID Review is pleased to see a report in the Wall Street Journal about the NFL and work-related injuries. After all of the media attention to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that appears to happen after concussions, the WSJ story features a picture ofRobert Griffin III (RG III). He suffered a knee injury during a game recently. Instead of sitting out the next game (a playoff), as he undoubtedly should have, he played with a knee brace. He had his knee re-injured towards the end of the game and had surgery the following week. Apparently, he had torn the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). He had also had an injury to the ACL during his college career. Read more…
The percentage of older workers planning to hold off on retiring has increased 20 points within the past two years, according to a business research association analysis released Friday.
The Conference Board Inc. report titled “Trapped on the Worker Treadmill?” found that despite improvements in the U.S. economy over the past two years, 62% of workers were delaying their retirement plans due to financial considerations in 2012 vs. 42% in 2010. Read more…
Effective today, the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS) has commenced the annual Responsible Reporting Entity (RRE) re-certification process for 2013. This process requires that the Authorized Representative at the RRE send an email to the Coordination of Benefits Contractor (COBC) EDI Representative confirming the contents of the four page Profile Report.The ProfileReport is included as an attachment to the Re-certification Email Notice and summarizes the information on file at CMS for the RRE. The email will come from 'cobva@ghmedicare.com'. Read more..
News From Lexis Nexis
Workplace Wellness Programs Return on Investment and Implementation Tips by Rebecca A. Shafer, J.D., Michael Stack, Robin E. Kobayashi, J.D.
“Of the many workers' compensation cost reduction initiatives available to employers today, wellness programs are by far the one of greatest interest. Employers seek statistics on ROI (return on investment), as well as costs of implementation of such programs, they hunt for information on how to implement such programs and which vendors provide them. How much can we save? What is the ROI? How quickly will I see the savings? Those are the primary concerns of employers today. Of all the articles I have written in the last 25 years, those on wellness programs have by far been most widely read and most requested for reprints.” Read more…
“The Supreme Court of Kansas recently affirmed an award of work disability benefits to an undocumented worker who was ineligible for gainful employment under the Federal immigration laws. The employer contended that under Federal law, it was illegal for McDonald's (or any other employer) to reemploy the worker and that any wage loss she suffered was unrelated to the work injury but rather to her legal inability to return to work. McDonald's further contended that the award of work disability contravened public policy. The high court indicated resolution of the issue was a matter of statutory construction…” 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.
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