December 2009 Archives

From this point forward, I will close out the week with a "Freaky Comp Friday" blog post. It will be something out of the ordinary. Weird, odd, and at times, downright bizarre. It will serve to illuminate what "not to do" in the area of workers' compensation. I welcome your suggestions. If you have a topic that you think fits the title, please pass it along for consideration. Since next Friday is Christmas, I'll skip a week, and we'll start the New Year off with a Freaky bang!

Joe Paduda has done an excellent job of following and outlining this issue on his blog, Managed Care Matters -- a great blog to follow on all issues related to workers' comp and the insurance industry in general.

What's the issue? Unless payers rallied to get their comments in to the DWC this week for a hearing scheduled to review the proposed changes, a new fee schedule will soon go into effect which means payers will owe Florida hospitals 174% of Medicare for surgeries and 395% of Medicare for compensable charges. The bottom line, as Joe points out, is that hospitals and networks will be rolling in the dough, and if you are a payer, it means you'll be paying much higher costs.

Tom Lynch of Lynch Ryan recently revealed his perspective on preparing a workers' compensation scorecard. Metrics are always a hot topic, but deciding what and how to measure is key, and must be agreed upon and understood by senior management members. Interesting and valuable insight here by a veteran in the industry -- a must read if you have anything to do with measuring your workers' comp program.