At the heart of workers compensation is — or should be — the concerted effort to treat workplace injury and illness and get people back to productive employment. Sounds reasonable, but how do you do it? What exactly is “disability management?”
Our esteemed colleague, Dr. Jennifer Christian, host of the informative WebilityMD website, takes a shot at defining disability management, in response to a simple question from someone new to the field. Just click on her link for the February Q & A. We think her casual outline deserves wider notice.
Comp Benefits
Dr. Christian’s list begins with the effort to control indemnity losses. Over the past two decades, this effort has centered in state legislatures across the country. Once workers comp came onto the national radar screen, legislatures tried a variety of strategies to lower costs. These ranged from the highly successful Qualified Loss Management Program (QLMP) in Massachusetts, to Governor Schwarzenegger’s recent efforts in California (where a 10% rate reduction is finally in the offing). In the ongoing effort to cut costs, it’s always tempting to cut benefits, which many states have done. (We happen to believe that you control the costs of comp without cutting benefits — but that is fodder for another blog.)
Workers Comp and Medical Care
Dr. Christian looks at three areas related to medical care, not surprisingly, as she is Board Certified in occupational medicine. First, she thinks that vocational rehabilitation programs represent a missed opportunity in many instances. We agree. The problem may be in the current disconnect between the employer where the injury occurred and future employment. There should be a better way to tie voc rehab to real employment opportunities.
Dr. Christian next examines the need to speed up medical care, specifically, through the prudent use of nurse case managers. While recognizing the utility of nurse case management, she believes strongly that these services require more than just a conventional nursing background. The key is developing a strategy for every open claim — a strategy that maximizes the return-to-work probabilities.
In addition, Dr. Christian takes a very interesting look at her own profession. I especially enjoyed her laundry list of the ways doctors can be the problem: they can be incompetent, disorganized, enabling, erratic, inattentive, neglectful, inappropriate, corrupt, greedy and unethical. She singles out the “predatory physicians” who provide serial, unnecessary services to unsuspecting and often innocent workers. (This has been a huge problem in California.) Needless to add, she has much to say about the positive role of doctors in solving the disability problem.
“Delayed Recovery”
Finally, Dr. Christian focuses on what may be the single greatest cost driver in the entire workers compensation system: we often use the word “malingering,” — injured workers staying out of work longer than is medically necessary — but Dr. Christian has coined a more neutral and more compelling terminology: “delayed recovery.” Under delayed recovery, even though there is no medically necessary reason for people to be out of work, they do not return to work. These delays may stem from actions (or inactions) of the employee, the doctor, the employer or even the insurance carrier. And as injured workers drift on their own through the medical maze, they begin to lose their identity as workers. They often succumb to a “disability syndrome” and begin to believe that they are never going to be able to work again. Dr. Christian sees the need for a multi-disciplinary assessment, one that looks at more than just an injured body part. Through such an assessment, we can identify the people most at risk for delayed recovery and plan effective interventions so that the delays are minimized.
The Employer Role
Dr. Christian recognizes the importance of employer involvement, without which success in controlling losses will remain a distant goal. Educated employers know how to respond to injured workers. They secure first rate medical treatment and use temporary modified duty to accommodate medically necessary restrictions. Educated employers treat every injury with a sense of urgency, because they care about their people and because they understand the risks involved in a “delayed” recovery process.
Even though Dr. Christian’s brief paper is just the beginning of a working definition of disability management, there is plenty of food for thought for all of us. Every once in a while, we need to step back and refocus on the big picture. We need to redefine what we are trying to do in managing disabilities and the best ways for accomplishing our goals. Dr. Christian’s paper is an excellent starting point in this effort.
Tags: case managers, doctors, occupational medicine, physicians, recovery, return to work, vocational rehabilitation
