Quick catch up

Watching our granddaughter this morning which precludes lengthy opining or research.

MedRisk is expanding

The leading physical management company in work comp added two well-respected and quite talented execs.  Sri Sridharan will join MedRisk’s C-Suite as Chief Client Officer. I’ve known Sri for more than a decade; he has one of the sharpest minds I’ve ever come across.  As Chief Client Officer he will head up account management and analytics. functions that fit him quite well

Daad McGovern will join MedRisk in the newly created position of Senior Vice President of International Operations…the company is expanding internationally and Daad will lead those efforts.

Employment is booming.

As in growing by more than 400,000 a month for the last year (well, 11 months to be totally precise).

From NYTimes

The economy has recovered more than 90 percent of the 22 million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic’s lockdowns in the spring of 2020…

the share of adults who were working or actively looking for work rose to 62.4 percent, just a percentage point below the level on the eve of the pandemic. Among people in their prime working years, those ages 25 to 54, the return has been even stronger. [emphasis added]

That being reality, why are Americans so grumpy?

There’s concern about inflation – although wage increases are almost keeping up with those costs.

Then there’s the complaining about gas prices…which, btw, are due almost entirely to the economy recovering from COVID and Putin’s war on Ukraine.

C’mon people, we can all pay more for gas to keep tightening the screws on that genocidal murdering bastard. Think of it as our contribution to the Ukrainians…

Construction workers are among the most vulnerable to economic problems – with wage theft a major driver.

39 percent of all construction worker families rely on at least one public assistance to make ends me compared to 31 percent of all working families.  The cost to federal and state taxpayers is $28 billion.  The authors of the report attributed this high degree of reliance on low wages, wage theft and other abusive and illegal employment practices in the construction industry.

This results in taxpayers – me and you – paying more to help these people because they aren’t paid a living wage.

RTW

Solid piece from NCCI on return to work…based on interviews with several “insurance professionals”. Not surprisingly, the key factor was employer buy-in and support.  That means real, persistent commitment – which might be a big help in these days of labor shortages.

Ivermectin

Well, the final word is in – Ivermectin isn’t useful for helping patients with COVID.

For anyone who’s been following the issue, that comes as a stunning non-surprise. The study results published in JAMA are incontrovertible:

Treatment with ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of Covid-19 or of prolonged emergency department observation among outpatients with an early diagnosis of Covid-19. [emphasis added]

What does this all mean for you?

Higher wages and more employment = higher work comp premiums

Science always wins.