Newsletter Sign-up

Addressing the opioid crisis in the workers' comp system requires a global approach, pain management experts say. Increasingly, industry practitioners are realizing that an interdisciplinary pain management and prevention team offers the best chance for optimal outcomes.

Using a team approach to help injured workers avoid becoming permanently disabled is working for companies such as Corvel.

The vast majority of injured workers in California increasingly get outpatient treatment through network providers, according to a new study. However, the authors say recently enacted legislation may change the trend.

The Family and Medical Leave Act allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work to attend to a serious health condition -- their own or a family member's -- without fear of losing their jobs.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act. New research shows the FMLA can ultimately help companies reduce their disability costs and improve the bottom line.

Employers looking to reduce the incidence of hypertension among their workers may want to consider upping their wages.

As more veterans return to work, employers can minimize their risk of liability for disability discrimination by being prepared for the unique challenges associated with accommodating post-traumatic stress disorder, according to an expert.

By digging into workers' comp data, health claims, absence, and biometrics, employers can target the behaviors that most influence their workforces, and thereby drive up costs, according to a recent study by Aon Hewitt, the National Business Group on Health, and The Futures Company.

"With the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act and the president's re-election, employers have never had a better opportunity to re-examine their long term role in providing healthcare coverage," noted PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute in its 2013 annual report on the top health industry issues. "The year 2013 will likely be the turning point for the evolution of healthcare benefits over the next decade."

Health care providers unfamiliar with handling work-related injuries have a new resource. The New Clinicians Web page from OSHA is aimed at helping clinicians understand the requirements and procedures in dealing with such cases.

"Effective use of opioids must result in clinically meaningful improvement in function," says the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. "Continuing to prescribe opioids in the absence of clinically meaningful improvement in function or after the development of a severe adverse outcome is not proper and necessary care in the Washington state workers' compensation system."

In Georgia, an employer can seek relevant protected health information informally by communicating orally with a worker's treating physician.

Integrating safety efforts for patients and workers in health care establishments can be a win-win for all involved and improve the bottom line, suggests a new monograph. It says there is a connection between worker safety and patient safety and that synergies can be created to benefit both.

Workers' comp claims involving comorbidities add up to big bucks for payers, according to new research. NCCI says the medical costs for these claims are "about twice the $6,000 average for other injured workers' claims."

While only 2.6 percent of California's workers' comp claims are due to joint pain, nearly 7 percent of all system payments go toward these claims, says a new report. The data reflects the "subjective nature of many of these injuries."

Reducing costs and administrative delays are among the goals of the New York Workers' Compensation Board. The panel announced planned changes to the medical treatment guidelines adopted in 2010.

If adopted by the Workers' Compensation Administration, New Mexico would have treatment guidelines in effect for the workers' comp system before the end of the year.

"The institution of treatment guidelines appears to have had a useful effect on utilization of services in states where such guidelines have become an official standard," says a consultant's report to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development Division of Workers' Compensation.

Employers can take a better and more effective health management approach by focusing on total workforce and total population health management rather than on a limited set of strategies for specific diseases, says Thomas Parry, president of Integrated Benefits Institute.

Rather than shifting more health care costs to employees or focusing on a limited set of disease-specific strategies, taking a population health management tactic may result in better outcomes and a better bottom line.