Drug prices — especially the cost of specialty drugs — are on the rise. This trend affects all areas of health care, but especially workers’ compensation. Average drug costs related to workers’ comp claims are going up, Stephanie Goldberg writes for Business Insurance. Continue reading
When it comes to workers with chronic conditions, employers should focus on providing accommodations and support rather than managing a disease, an expert said during the Disability Management Employer Coalition’s 2015 conference in San Francisco.
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At least 10 states require health care providers to access a prescription drug monitoring program before prescribing opioids, but workers compensation payers in all states should request providers do so to curb overprescribing, drug monitoring advocates say. Continue reading
One in five small-business owners don’t feel prepared to identify workers compensation fraud, according to a survey by workers comp insurer Employers Holdings Inc.
Around 13% of small-business owners said they are concerned that one of their employees would commit workers comp fraud by faking an injury or illness to collect benefits, and 21% said they’re unsure of their ability to identify workers comp fraud, according to the survey, released Tuesday. Continue reading
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is increasing, “in part reflecting larger restructuring of business organizations,” wrote David Weil, the administrator of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, in his blog post entitled, “The Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s ‘Suffer or Permit’ Standard in the Identification of Employees Who Are Misclassified as Independent Contractors.” Continue reading
As you may have heard, the on-demand car-service juggernaut lost a case early this month before the California Labor Commissioner on whether a driver was an independent contractor or an employee, and thus eligible for expense reimbursement. Uber is appealing that ruling in court, but it already faces a class-action lawsuit over the same issue in federal court in California and similar fights in Florida and Massachusetts. Continue reading
Cost savings, better access to care, immediate triaging of injuries and faster claims closings are just some of the benefits of telemedicine, according to workers’ compensation experts, who also say its use is growing.
Telemedicine could potentially deliver more than $6 billion a year in health care savings to U.S. companies, but only if the technology is widely-adopted, according to a 2014 report by Towers Watson. Continue reading
Risk Management is a process that involves identifying a company’s risk by an in-depth analysis. Once the risks are identified a business should then try to reduce, eliminate, or transfer the risk. As a business, simply having insurance is not enough. Risk management is a crucial part of a business’s structure. If you don’t know where you have a risk, then how can you properly be protected? Continue reading
