Trying a new idea out today – a post that is
a) a quick overview of the latest research on stuff that’s important (at least to me) and
b) my thoughts on what it means to you.
Disability
A new report documents the results of a very robust study of work comp patients done in Washington State. It found that “reorganizing the delivery of occupational health care to support effective secondary prevention in the first 3 months following injury” reduced long term disability by 30%.
Briefly, patients treated in the State Centers for Occupational Health and Education were significantly less likely to become permanently disabled than those treated outside the COHE system.
This means – find out what the COHEs are doing, and replicate it.
Hat tip tp Gary Franklin MD MPH, Medical Director of Washington L&I
Employment
We’ll need all those workers back on the job, if the World Economic Forum’s forecast that automation will create millions more jobs than it will destroy. The report claims there will be 58 million more new jobs than lost jobs as companies shift to more automation – and this is within 5 years.
HOWEVER – these jobs will go unfilled if trained and capable workers aren’t around to staff them.
This means – companies best invest in training for tomorrow’s jobs. And integrating this with return-to-work would be pretty damn brilliant.
Monday Claims
More in the string of great stuff from NCCI, this week the Boca brainiacs released a study of “Monday morning claims.” The news is..there’s no news. The implementation of the ACA (THANK YOU for not mis-calling this “Obamacare”) did not change the percentage of claims that were reported on Monday, even in those states that had the largest decrease in the uninsured population post-ACA.
This means – we need to stop talking about Monday morning claims – which aren’t a thing.
More to come next week
Joe. good stuff but I am not sure how to read your response on “Monday morning claims”? If I remember the thought was a reduction in people seeking comp with he advent of the ACA? I am more concerned as to a reduction of the ‘perceived’ idea of cost shifting to taxpayers from the comp system when claims are denied. need more studies there. thanks as always
Hey Troy – good to hear from you as always, thanks for the note. You’re right, my wording was a bit obtuse (to quote the Shawshank Redemption’s Andy Dufresne).
What I was trying to convey is this: As there was no change in the percentage of claims reported on Mondays AFTER a lot more people got health insurance, it certainly appears that this has not been a problem in the past.
Does that help?