Layoff's Due to High Workers' Comp Costs

"A Milwaukee-based temporary staffing company has laid off nearly 500 employees in Illinois, blaming the high cost of the state's workers' compensation system."

In a down-turned economy companies are continually looking for ways to lower their costs. I have heard of closing locations due to the cost of overhead, cutting back on travel, and even what I think is the most ridiculous, cutting advertising, but I have never heard of this one; laying off employees specifically because of the high cost of Workers' Compensation.

Here is an interesting article by Ameet Sachdev, a Chicago Tribune reporter Staffing firm laying off nearly 500 in Illinois - Parallel Employment Group cites state's high cost of workers' compensation.

What will the impact of higher Workers' Comp costs? In this case higher Unemployment. Trading one cost to add to another is not a solution to a long term problem.

Workers' Comp - Time for a New Approach?

Business Insurance
Rising medical costs and loss development, coupled with reduced payrolls, are inflating insurers' combined ratios past the point of tolerability

NewsOK.com

More workers' comp fraud investigators are needed, Oklahoma official says

Insurance News
In today's economy, workers' compensation costs are undergoing renewed scrutiny as employers find it increasingly challenging to maintain the status quo with fewer employees and less money.

Westfair Online

Workers' comp carriers ask for hike;
After rocketing up the ranks of the states where workers' compensation insurance costs the most, Connecticut's rates could climb higher in 2012.

If you own a company or manage the workers’ compensation insurance for your company you have seen these headlines, heard them, or experienced them first hand. A new year is soon approaching and we will be heading into 2012 (can you believe it?). If you still haven’t been able to get the control you want over your costs for injured workers perhaps this New Year you may want to take a new approach. Consider your options and choose the best plan of action for your company.

Join The SRS Group, LLC and meet our knowledgeable and friendly staff as we exhibit at this years National Workers' Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo. Visit us at booth 249.

Meet our field of experts:

Joycelynn Brady, MA, CRC, CDMS, CCM, LPC is the VP of Professional Services. Having over 35 years experience in the field of case management brings a perspective only experience can. Ms. Brady spent 16 years with Continental Insurance (now CNA) as a Case Manager and then Branch Manager. Now in her 16th year with The SRS Group Joycelynn directs Professional Services as our Vice President.

Lisa Wulderk, RN,CRRN, CCM, CAOHC is a Medical Liability Supervisor, Medical Case Manager and Medical Liability Specialist. With 31 years of experience Lisa has a certificate in Life Care Planning and is a Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist and Instructor for the American Red Cross. Lisa is a Conference Board Member and was a keynote speaker to Self Insured’s several year’s ago.

Barbara Stevens, RN, CNN, MBA a nurse case manager, certified nephrology nurse, with 29 years experience provides Nurse Case Management Services for the state of Ohio. Barb is a previous Board Member of the Ohio LPN Advisory Board, Ohio Renal Association and the Stark County Chapter of the Red Cross.

Alix Lockhart, BS, RCC, ADBA, ABVE Associate has over 22 years experience as a Vocational Case Manager, 15 of which have been at The SRS Group. Alix has unique experience as a specialist working with multilingual claimants under the National Defense Base Act.

Join us this year as we introduce our Injured Worker Triage Services and Critical Injury Management.

The National Workers' Compensation and Disability Conference^® & Expo is the nation's leading event for anyone involved in the workers' comp and disability management industries. Hundreds of your colleagues gather each year to expand their knowledge and gain new solutions directly related to their workers' comp, disability and return-to-work programs.

Ohio Self Insurance Conference

Join The SRS Group LLC, at this year’s Ohio Self Insurance Conference:

37th Annual Workers' Compensation. Conference 2011. Cleveland, OH June 15th – June 17th, 2011

If your company is affected by higher and higher workers' insurance compensation premiums and costs (and what company isn't), learn how you can lower your workers costs.

Stop by and meet:

Lisa Wulderk, RN, CRRN, CCM, CAOHC & Barbara Stevens, RN, CCM, MBA

Lisa Wulderk is a Medical Liability Supervisor, Medical Case Manager and Medical Liability Specialist. With 31 years of experience Lisa has a certificate in Life Care Planning and is a Certified Occupational Hearing Conservationist and Instructor for the American Red Cross. Lisa was a keynote speaker to Self Insured’s at last year’s National Workers' Compensation & Disability Conference.

Barbara Stevens, a nurse case manager, certified nephrology nurse, with 29 years experience provides Nurse Case Management Services for the state of Ohio. Barb is a previous Board Member of the Ohio LPN Advisory Board, Ohio Renal Association and the Stark County Chapter of the Red Cross.

Lisa and Barb as seasoned nursing professionals with their many years of experience can share what works in managing medical costs and saving workers' compensation dollars.

Join The SRS Group, LLC at the Ohio Self Insurance Conference

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

The symptoms associated with TIAs or minor strokes are the same as for major strokes, but they may last only a few minutes.

They include any one or combination of the following:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arms, or legs, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden trouble speaking or understanding
• Confusion
• Sudden vision problems in one or both eyes
• Dizziness, loss of balance, or sudden trouble walking
• Severe headache with no obvious cause

In an effort to educate the public about stroke symptoms, the National Stroke Association launched the "Act F.A.S.T." campaign early last year.

Act F.A.S.T. stands for:

• Face. Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
• Arms. Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
• Speech. Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence. Does he or she have trouble or are the words slurred?
• Time. Time is critical. Call 911 immediately.

Visit the National Stroke Association for more information

http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SYMP

How to Lead Your Company to Understand the Communities they Serve

Does Your Company Know Who It Is Serving?

Do YOU Lead Your Company By Knowing the Communities You Serve?

Culture today is interesting because as much as it is changing, it still remains essentially the same. Why? Because people are people, and motivated by their world view. It is important therefore that you and your companies staff understand the people they serve, and YOU train them to lead.

A great read on the topic of Leadership and understanding the groups, communities or tribes we serve is Tribal Leadership : Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization

by: Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-wright, Halee Fischer-Wright

I highly recommend this book.

It discusses 5 Levels of Leadership by the way people view their life, their circumstances and their ability to control their future. How we are motivated depends on our view and the role we feel we can play in life.

Is there a life's purpose other than personal success? How we answer that question determines for many we pursue life and how energized we stay when we meet the challenges of life.

For people our companies serve it helps us understand what does and does not motivate them and why, and how we can help them change their view of them and their circumstances to change their life.

Who knows.... in the process we just might change our own.

Workers' Comp Abuse in Government Agency

When half of your employees file Workers' Compensation claims shouldn't that be a "Red Flag" that there is abuse of a system.

Is this another scandal where a government agency can't seem to regulate itself. How many private employers would not notice that half of their employees file Workers' Compensation claims? Is this another issue lack of concern over third party (taxpayer) money?

Insurance Journal reports below:

Midwest News

Illinois Official Calls for Probe of Workers' Comp Claims at Prison

January 4, 2011

The head of Illinois' workers' compensation commission is calling for an investigation of nearly $10 million paid out in claims to more than half the staff of a southwestern Illinois prison over the past three years.

The Belleville News-Democrat reported the figures involving claims paid by state taxpayers to 389 guards and other workers at the maximum-security Menard Correctional Center in Chester, about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis.

More than 500 claims filed since January 2008 include one involving a $75,678 payment in June to the prison's warden, Dave Rednour, according to the newspaper.

A message seeking comment was left with Rednour at the 3,500-prisoner lockup, and he does not have a listed home telephone number. Sharyn Elman, a state Department of Corrections spokeswoman, has said Rednour's case was a "personnel issue" she could not publicly discuss.

Roughly 290 cases are pending.

When told of the newspaper's findings, the chairman of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission says he has called for an investigation of the claims. Mitch Weisz said he has asked for a meeting with Illinois Department of Insurance Director Michael McRaith to discuss a possible fraud probe.

"I'm surprised that with all the different agencies that are involved, that it's taken you guys to bring this to my attention. My eyes are wide open," Weisz told the newspaper. "It's hard for me to imagine it's all kosher."

But Elman said the Department of Corrections is not involved, noting that "we don't approve or disprove these claims." She said she was unaware of any plans to review working conditions at Menard.

More than 230 prison workers contend that their injuries were caused by repetitive actions such as manually locking and unlocking cells. The prison, which opened in 1878, doesn't have electric locks, meaning workers must use keys and crank a heavy wheel to open a row of cells. The Department of Corrections said installing electronic locks would be too expensive.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office is reevaluating all such repetitive-trauma cases to assess their validity and appropriateness for compensation, especially those from Menard and other prison sites, said Madigan spokeswoman Cara Smith, a deputy attorney general.

Smith also said reviews of work conditions at Menard and other prisons were planned to pinpoint if such injuries could be prevented. She said fighting the repetitive-trauma cases could be an "uphill battle."

It was not immediately clear whether any of the awarded judgments could be rescinded.

Thomas Rich, a Fairview Heights attorney whose office has handled the bulk of the prison's compensation claims since 2008, said his records show that an overwhelming proportion of repetitive-trauma claims by state workers were approved without opposition. Madigan's office represents the employer if it is a state agency, in this case the Department of Corrections.

Rich said the approval rate has reversed since the state Legislature held recent hearings on reforming the workers' compensation law - and since the Belleville New-Democrat's recent articles about repetitive trauma claims from Menard.

Claims settlement records from the commission show that 86 of 98 claims for repetitive trauma filed in 2009 for Menard workers were brought by Rich's office and were handled by the same lawyer from Madigan's office, as well as the same state arbitrator or judge.

Data shows that since January 2008, $5.9 million was awarded in settled claims in which a prison employee, typically a guard, reported injury due to repetitive trauma due to working manual locking systems and keys, among other things.

An additional $2.2 million was doled out because of accidents and overextension-related injuries, while $1.6 million was paid to workers recuperating from injury, according to the newspaper.

Exact totals for medical bills, which sometimes topped $100,000 for a single repetitive-trauma case where there may have been complications, were unavailable, said Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission spokesman Nick Velazquez.

"This is a scandal that nobody knows about," said Gene Keefe, whose Chicago law firm specializes in defending employers against workers' compensation claims. "If you're an outsider looking in, you can't get your arms around this."

Information from: Belleville News-Democrat

Read more: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2011/01/04/116112.htm#ixzz1AJen11wx