Risk roundup and other news of note

November 16th, 2011 by Julie Ferguson

Insurance Writer Nancy Germond hosts this week’s edition of Cavalcade of Risk and she has a seasonal theme: The Turkey Edition. Check it out.
Reminder – Tomorrow is Great American Smokeout day. More than 46 million Americans still smoke and if some of them are your employees, it is likely that smoking is taking a financial toll on your organization. It’s not too late to remind your employees: here are some printable tools, or you can just email a reminder about 1-800-QUIT-NOW, a free smoker’s quit line.
Wellness – Speaking of smoking or any other so-called lifestyle issue that is related to employee health, Roberto Ceniceros recently tackled the topic of wellness programs being adapted for workers comp in an article in Business Insurance, as well as at his blog. He notes a trend toward integrating wellness benefits into workers comp programs, which “…requires employers to transcend traditional corporate silos that typically separate risk management and workers compensation departments from those administering health benefits and nonoccupational disability plans.”
Sandy Blunt update – Joe Paduda recently featured a post on progress in clearing Sandy Blunt’s name. North Dakota Supreme Court’s disciplinary board has recommended that Cynthia M. Feland, the prosecutor in the Blunt case and now a judge, should have her attorney’s license suspended for 60-days and be required to pay court costs related to her failure to “… disclose to Michael Hoffman, defense attorney for Charles Blunt, the Wahl memo, and other documents which were evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tended to negate the guilt of the accused…” Next step, new trial? (For more background, see A Good Man Wronged). We had a chance to catch up with Sandy at the Las Vegas Work Comp Expo at the Medata reception. Sandy is serving as Vice President of Insurance Services with Cy King and crew. (Side note: if you are ever invited to a Medata reception, say yes. Three words: “nice people” and “yum.”)
Other notes from last week’s Las Vegas Workers’ Comp Expo – Kudos to Peter Rousmaniere, who collaborated with Sedgwick to produce a great video on the history of workers comp – we’ll bring it to you as soon as it’s available online.
Our fellow blogger Joe Paduda kicked off the show with an informative opening general session, part of which was a Point/Counterpoint style sparring between Joe and David North of Sedgwick and Davidson Pattiz of Zenith about pricing and billing transparency. You can see Joe’s reports from Vegas here and here.
Evan Falchuk was part of a panel on expert physicians. Falchuk is President and Chief Strategy Officer of Best Doctors, an organization that has been making quite a splash on the healthcare side. (Check out Falchuk’s blog, See First). While not as widely known as their general healthcare services, Best Doctors also offers services in the workers comp arena, which include help for legacy claims, complex care claims, and cases involving chronic pain, among other services.
Chris Brigham of Impairment Resources made an impassioned presentation on how we can and should be making a commitment to prevent the needless disabling of injured workers. He and his team were also exhibiting, side by side with their partner firm and our neighbor, Insurance Recovery Group, who were touting their subrogation services.
Other sightings: Colleague Jim Paugh was representing his new predictive analytics endeavor, WorkersComp Analytics; Mark Walls was the man of the hour, moderating sessions and hosting a reception for members of his popular linkedIn Work Comp Analysis Group; We also spotted Bob Wilson, another online pioneer, and were fortunate to spend time with Helen Knight of King Knight Communications, arguably the best PR person in workers comp; and a shoutout to Frank Pennachio (erstwhile guest poster) and Susan Toussaint of Work Comp Advisory Group, who we finally met in person. Finally, congrats to Nancy Grover, program chair, along with all the advisors and staff of LRP and Risk & Insurance for putting on a good conference.

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