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Employers that have their top tier executives involved in pre- and post-loss efforts have a better chance of preventing and mitigating workplace injuries than companies that are uninvolved, say two workers' comp veterans.

As employers increasingly see the effects of opioid treatment among their workers, many are wondering what, if anything, they can do.

As veterans have returned home from Afghanistan and Iraq to a difficult job market, many have faced steep challenges in shifting from military to civilian life.

This year's National Ergonomics Conference and Expo saw excitement building over new products designed to reduce pain and improve efficiency among desk workers. Armed with ballots, attendees walked the expo floor and voted for the new products they believe offer the best opportunity to increase productivity and profitability while improving workplace health and safety.

An attendee at the recent National Workers' Compensation and Disability ConferenceŽ & Expo observed that "there were a plethora of private equity folks and related people circulating around the exhibit floor and attending sessions."

Employers considering eliminating prehiring drug tests may want to first ponder one company's 14-month ordeal. Its decision led to staggering statistics and skyrocketing costs for its workers' comp program -- possibly as much as $2 million.

While home-based employment can be a win-win for employers and workers, legal experts offer cautionary insights.

"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.

Companies with human resources and risk management departments need to get the lines of communication going ASAP or risk major liabilities, says a disability management/return-to-work expert.

An injured worker who had spent most of a six-year period in a recliner taking methadone daily after a spine fusion now walks several miles a day, taught his son to fly fish, and returned to work. Another, a stressed-out invalid for most of a decade, had a medication tab upward of $10,000 a year and is now feeling optimistic, reducing her medications, and walking every day for exercise. A third was bed-bound for 10 years and prescribed 400 mg of morphine equivalents daily, but now does her own housework and shopping, exercises at the gym daily, and is largely pain-free.

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.

The marriage of art and science is helping companies identify and intervene in claims involving opioids (and other prescriptions) that are likely to turn into high-cost, chronic cases with the potential for medication misuse and/or abuse.

This year's nearly three dozen breakout sessions cover a variety of the latest challenges facing the workers' comp and disability arenas.

"It is quite clear that even today, most bill review systems are not fully and seamlessly connected with medical management -- utilization review, precertification, case management, etc.," wrote Joseph Paduda.

Older workers are using workers' comp to bridge their retirement gap in at least one part of the country. Comorbidities are driving many employers to seek help getting their workers into wellness programs in another part. Those are among the discussion topics attendees may be privy to during regional-focused sessions at the National Workers' Compensation and Disability ConferenceŽ & Expo.

Chronic pain, disability mind-set, and the upcoming ex-mod change are among the topics for breakout sessions at the National Worker's Compensation and Disability ConferenceŽ and Expo.