Health Wonk Review & the ACA; plus a news roundup

December 5th, 2013 by Julie Ferguson

Our favorite Healthcare Economist, Jason Shafrin, is hosting this week’s compendium of posts from the health policy wonks: Health Wonk Review takes on Healthcare.gov – get up to speed on what the experts think about the ACA rollout.
The Warning Signs of Violence – Security and student safety have always been strong concerns for educational institutions – and heightened to the nth degree after the shooting massacres of Virgina Tech and Sandy Hook. There’s a good article recently posted on Campus Safety magazine on The Warning Signs of Violence, which includes a sidebar on the continuum of violence. This model – developed by Holmes and Holmes in 2001 – has three levels. Level 1 is intimidation, Level 2 is escalation and Level 3 is further escalation. The article also talks about the tactics of manipulation and how to trust your instincts. It’s useful reading matter for HR, risk and safety managers – as well as supervisors.
Related: 8 Verbal Indicators of Violence
Workers Comp Navigation – We really liked this article by Sarah Tayts in WorkCompWire: On the Road to Recovery: Who’s Driving? Her essay talks about many of the themes that we at Lynch Ryan long seen as vital to a positive outcome for all: maintaining good communication and treating the injured employee with respect and concern. Here’s a sampling: “We’re not dealing with claimants. We’re not dealing with plaintiffs. We’re dealing with people who have sustained a disabling event. Maybe they weren’t financially set before the injury, and a twenty-one day compensability determination period is really throwing a wrench into things. Maybe their boss reacted poorly to their report of an injury.”
Related: Top 10 reasons injured workers retain attorneys
NCCI – with Thanksgiving vacations, you may have missed NCCI’s latest Financial Update. One of the key findings: “At this year’s Annual Issues Symposium (AIS) , NCCI estimated an industry wide combined ratio for 2012 of 109. Actual data reported by the industry indicates a Calendar Year 2012 combined ratio of 108.1. The nearly one-point improvement was due to a small improvement in the underlying loss ratio as well as a slight decline in the dividend ratio. ”
And the survey says… – Global pandemics are the the most important extreme risk that the global insurance identifies as a long-term worry, according to a Towers Watson survey. At the III blog, Terms + Conditions, Clarie Wilkinson fills us in on the issues that weigh in as #2 and #3 in concerns, as well as other details about the survey.
Recapping the conference – Joe Paduda offers his thoughts on some of the key trends and takeaways from the recent National Workers Comp and Disability Conference: Recapping the NWCDC. We appreciate the wrap-up but were hoping for some conference tchotchkes, too!
A Christmas Story – You can always count on the inimitable Bob Wilson to ferret out the not-to-be missed news. This week, he has a seasonal offering: My Holiday Advice for Santa: Don’t Grope the Elves.
People notes – One happy, one sad. First, we congratulate our friend Roberto Ceniceros on joining LRP Publications as the editor for all workers’ compensation content. He’ll writing the workers’ compensation column and feature articles for Risk & Insurance and co-chairing the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference, writing and editing the soon-to-be re-launched WorkersComp Forum website.
Our second note is quite sad. We extend our condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of Dave Albertson on his recent passing. We first met Dave in his editorial role at Employee Benefit News – a true professional and a very nice human being who left us far too young. The write up on Dave has the very fitting title “A life well lived.”
News Briefs