How Dare You!

I'm sick and tired of all of the stupid stats that this industry throws out; all the crap about costs, and ratios, and this and that.

It's all BS.

Bowzer smells it, you should too.

Here's why - way too many in the workers' compensation claims field create the industry's own problems, and then misguidedly attempt to deflect blame and categorize the problems as some other's doings.

They're not. This industry can be, I hate to say, vile in the worst way. We're not only our own worst enemies, but we seem to thrive on that status.

We're not willing to admit it, or call out those who perpetuate such behavior, or point fingers at those who embarrass the rest of us trying to do the right thing.

Prolific workers' compensation blogger and CEO of workerscompensation.com, Bob Wilson, posted a personalized vignette a couple days ago about the villainous behavior this industry engages in.

Bob's story in a nutshell: he goes to a restaurant he regularly frequents as he has done for the past couple of years. The usual waitress is missing. Months later she emerges, the victim of a workers' compensation claim.

Turns out she had tripped and broken her leg. She had gone to the emergency room on the Friday afternoon of the accident, gets treated, and is advised by the ER doctor to see a specialist immediately the following Monday for further treatment to ensure a good healing process.

On Monday morning, before she could see a doctor for follow up, she gets a call from the claims adjuster who tells her that she will have to wait seven to ten days for authorization to see the specialist.

Seven days of waiting starts the indemnity clock in Florida.

Are you F'ing Kidding Me?!?

Why on earth was this injured worker jerked around like that? What is the problem with IMMEDIATELY authorizing treatment that a non-work comp doctor poignantly prescribed? Why does it take so long to get "authorization" and why is authorization needed in the first place?

Complete and utter BS.

Bob doesn't know what played out on the indemnity front - my guess is that this was a forced disability status since she wasn't at work for several months.

The waitress got care through her general health provider instead because, as Bob states, she wasn't willing to wait for her leg to get worse.

Neither would I and I bet neither would you. YOU would want immediate authorization to treat with the specialist - wouldn't you?

We make much ado about the lessons general health teaches us in the management of care: guidelines, fee schedules, networks.

But we can't seem to model general health's actual CARE of patients, which Bob says the waitress told him was "great; they took care of everything."

We go on and on and on about "costs" of this, that and the other thing.

Nobody talks about the costs that we create by our own stupidity, or selfishness - whichever is applicable in this instance.

In a separate conversation with Bob, he told me that, "one of her co-workers had a similar injury a week after hers (he ran into some recently moved equipment). He also got the '7 to 10 day' mandate."

A number of us try really hard to combat the negative perception of work comp. We nominate people that do good things for awards, we try to highlight success stories, we celebrate those that go above and beyond.

We should also be castigating those that engage in this kind of nonsense.

How about a little dignity? How about treating a PERSON like a PERSON? How about getting rid of these stupid, asinine rules that get in the way of good claims (heck - people) management?

How about DOING THE RIGHT THING?!

The Bob Evans Farms restaurant chain, incorporated in Delaware with its principal business offices in Ohio, is publicly traded on NASDAQ and a billion dollar company. It is self insured, and from what I can tell is self-administered too.

Public shame administered...

How dare you!