Winning Workers Comp Claim Outcomes With The Team Approach

Hello, Michael Stack here, Principal of Amaxx, Founder of COMPClub and co-author of Your Ultimate Guide to Mastering Workers’ Comp Costs. Some great news was released recently, actually the Work Comp Roundup was ranked number one in the best blogs contest that was put on by WorkersCompensation.com.

 

I was super-excited about that, I was obviously very happy to hear that news, and I wanted to really say thank you. I wanted to thank the Work Comp Roundup community, I know how many demands are on your time, I know how much information is thrown at you on a day-to-day basis so to take the time to read our materials, to subscribe to our newsletter and specifically those who nominated our blog in that contest, I very much appreciate that. I very much appreciate you and want to thank you for your participation.

 

 

Winning Outcomes With The Team Approach – Managing Claims

 

For my lesson today, I want to talk about this concept of winning outcomes with the team approach and how this really functions in two different capacities in the claim side and then also how I use this on the Work Comp Roundup blog itself. Let’s talk about the claim side and how this should work in your organization and how it works to create those winning outcomes in your claims and in your work comp management program.

 

 

The technique to use here, the technique to implement and leverage is called Claims Calls or it’s also called A Claims Roundtable. The idea here is that you’re bringing together the expertise knowledge and perspective of different individuals to work together towards a winning outcome and a common goal. Again, you are bringing together the expertise, the knowledge and the perspective of different individuals to work together towards a common goal of creating a winning outcome in your individual claims.

 

 

Meet Regularly

 

Here is how this looks. You’re going to want to meet regularly. On this team that’s meeting regularly, those different perspectives, that different expertise and those different knowledge, that includes your adjuster, that includes your risk manager or a representative from your employer certainly, that includes your TPA account and case managers, and you’re also going to want a medical advisor in order to bring that medical perspective to this team that’s working together, meeting regularly towards that winning outcome, that common goal, so you are going to want to meet regularly.

 

My recommendation is that this is done weekly and you are going to set a specific time, be that Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., Thursday at 3:00 p.m., whatever that time is that works for your team, but set that time and have it on your calendars. If you are meeting monthly, that should be at a specific time, maybe it’s the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 a.m., whatever that time is, but have it on your calendar so there is that expectation that that meeting will occur.

 

 

Share Knowledge

 

Second thing is you are going to want to come to the table, those individuals that I reference are going to want to come to the table with the right attitude of sharing that knowledge, sharing that expertise and working together towards that winning outcome, that common goal. Finally, the agenda for each one of these calls, for each one of these claims that you’re discussing, and five to ten claims is a good place to start. Obviously the more claims that you can work on together, the better the outcomes for those claims, but five to ten is a great place to start. You are going to want to discuss the status of that individual claim, where the things currently stand now. You’re going to discuss the strategy for that claim, and then finally the action steps.

 

 

Discuss Status, Strategy, and Action Steps

 

You are going to want to discuss the status, the strategy and the action steps. Then for each action step, if you are meeting again the following week, you are going to discuss the status of those action steps and where things stand and continue to work towards pushing that claim forward towards that winning outcome. That team approach, gaining those perspectives will give you the best outcomes in your claims.

 

Now as I mentioned the Work Comp Roundup blog itself recently did have a winning outcome, and I want to let you know that I also leveraged this team approach in the creation of the content on the Work Comp Roundup itself. I want to recognize those individuals, those parts of mine who very willingly and openly share their expertise and share their knowledge to help in the creation of the content itself.

 

 

Winning Outcome With The Team Approach – Work Comp Roundup Blog

 

Those individuals include the senior leadership team at Broadspire: Danielle Lisenbey, the CEO; Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jake Lazarovic; and Senior Vice President of Medical Management, Erica Fichter. From Ringler Associates, the Senior Vice President of National Marketing, Duke Wolpert; from Express Scripts President, Steven Webb; Senior Vice President, Joe McCullison, and really the rest of the Express Scripts team on the workers’ compensation side; from Tower MSA, Rita Wilson, who is their CEO; from MedSource National President, Tony Riccardi. Last but certainly not least, the Executive Vice President at Medcor, Curtis Smith.

 

As I mentioned those individuals have very openly and willingly shared their knowledge, shared their expertise and opened up the doors of their organizations to share their best practices. Thanks again for your participation and the Work Comp Roundup community. Remember your success in workers’ compensation is defined by your integrity, so be great.

 

 

Author Michael Stack, Principal, COMPClub, Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their work comp costs by 20% to 50%. He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is co-author of Your Ultimate Guide To Mastering Workers Comp Costs, a comprehensive step-by-step manual of cost containment strategies based on hands-on field experience, and is founder of COMPClub, an exclusive member training program on workers compensation cost containment best practices. Through these platforms he is in the trenches on a working together with clients to implement and define best practices, which allows him to continuously be at the forefront of innovation and thought leadership in workers’ compensation cost containment. Contact: [email protected].

 

 

©2016 Amaxx LLC. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law.

 

Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker, attorney, or qualified professional.