Inside Workers' Comp

Workers' Comp Alternative Transitional Duty: A Win-Win for Employee, Employer and Community April 11, 2022 Statistics show the longer injured employees are out of work, the more difficult it is for them to return. But, what happens when injured employees aren’t physically able to return to work right away? What can be done to help them stay engaged in work and their recovery, especially if there are no light duty options available in the workplace? Well today, Paul Bode, vice president, at Genex, joins us to explain a creative program designed to help injured employees engage in purposeful activity during recovery. It’s called alternative transitional duty (ATD).

When an employee sustains a significant injury which requires inpatient care and rehabilitation, going home is often the first major goal of recovery. But the comforts of home may not be so comforting if the person requires a wheelchair or other assistive devices to get around. On today’s Inside Workers’ Comp, we talk with Nicole Usher of Apricus who explains how home modifications can make an injured employee’s house home sweet home again.

In December 2020, an act was signed into law, which will change the way some reporting entities coordinate Medicare benefits. This PAID Act will go into effect before year's end, but CMS is busy preparing for the change. In today’s podcast, Deborah Robinson-Stewart, joins us to explain.

There’s a heightened awareness in our industry on how psychosocial factors impact an injured employee’s recovery. But what’s the best way to approach and address these issues? In the fourth and final installment of our mental health in comp podcast series, we ask Nikki Wilson and Tammy Bradly to share some best practices.

None of us have gone untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially true for frontline workers who care for the critically ill. So, in part three of our series on mental health’s impact on workers’ comp, we’re going to look at the psychosocial effects the pandemic continues to play on our society and how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a term used more often in our industry. Joining me today are our experts, Nikki Wilson, Tammy Bradly, and Mariellen Blue.

Traditionally, the term mental health has been treated as a claims pariah in workers’ comp, as it’s been associated with delaying recovery and sending costs spiraling out of control. Yet, ignoring the reality that psychosocial factors exist in mostly all claims is perhaps the biggest cause for these problems. In part two of our mental health podcast series, we ask Tammy Bradly and Mariellen Blue if addressing mental health in the initial assessment and throughout the claim can actually have a positive effect on claims management.

Hello and welcome to the first of a four-part podcast compliment to the Mitchell | Genex | Coventry thought leadership eBook, Strategies for Combating Mental Health Challenges in Injured Employees. Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be joined by Mitchell | Genex | Coventry experts Mariellen Blue, National Director of Case Management Services at Genex, Tammy Bradly, Vice President, Clinical Production Development at Coventry, and Nikki Wilson, Director, Pharmacy Product Development at Mitchell, to dig deeper into the mental health issues covered in our eBook

Quality assurance is a vital part of any workers’ comp claim. No more so than in case management, where details and communication matter most. In today’s Inside Workers’ Comp, I’m joined by three Genex experts — Judy Speirs, Case Management Senior Product Manager, Linda Mastropaolo, Case Management Product Manager, and Linda Wolf, Case Management Senior Product Manager — to discuss how case managers ensure quality in their cases and why it’s so important to meet these objectives.

Over the last few years, New York has been implemented new reforms to increase the speed and efficiency of its claims process. In today’s Inside Workers' Comp, Dr. Lisa O'Connor, Genex's Associate Clinical Director, Utilization Review, tells us about one of them, OnBoard, New York’s new online web portal for processing workers’ comp claims.

2020 will go down as one of the most difficult years many of us have experienced. After living through months dominated by a pandemic, economic downturn, natural disasters and a divisive election, most of us can’t wait to turn the calendar on Jan. 1. As you sit down to a much smaller Thanksgiving table this week, will you struggle finding much to be thankful for this year? We asked that question to Genex’s Rich Leonardo, Dr. Lisa O’Connor and Mariana Diaz. Their answers may surprise you. Take a listen.

As employers are looking for efficient ways to keep work environments safe from COVID-19, Optis has developed Safe2Work, an app-enabled, web-based health screening program designed to help stop the spread of workplace illness. In today’s Inside Workers’ Comp, we talk with Bryan Stonecipher, president of Optis, and Jacob Sipko, vice president, at Genex Services, about how this program works.

Technology is playing a larger role in helping comp claims progress. In today’s Inside Workers’ Comp, Bobbie Doyle, director of utilization management at Genex, explains the ins and outs of a program designed to do just that. It’s called Referral Expert.

The independent medical exam (IME) is a valuable tool to move claims forward, unless your IME provider doesn’t have a strong quality assurance (QA) process. Even the slightest error can make a big difference in determining whether your report is considered valid. In today’s Inside Workers’ Comp, Donna Bradshaw, vice president of IME services at Genex, explains how to determine if your IME provider’s QA process is up to snuff.