Archive for the ‘Tools & Resources’ Category

Cool tools

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

From time to time, we like to share a mixed bag of useful tools ranging from health and safety resources to productivity enhancers. Here are our latest finds:
ComplianceState labor legislation enacted in 2007 – the Monthly Labor Review’s 29-page PDF offers a summary of major labor changes on a state-by-state basis, including minimum wage, immigration initiatives, child labor, worker privacy, and many other legal matters.
TruckingSafe Stat is a safety resource for trucking, transportation and fleet safety. It’s a Department of Transportation site that includes such features as SafeStat, Crash Profile, Program Measures, and Current Analysis Results.
CaliforniaPD Rater bills itself as “a free benefits calculator for California.
GeorgiaGeorgia Tech’s OSHA 21D Consultation Program provides a free, confidential, on-site consultation service for small companies (fewer than 500 employees) in Georgia that need assistance in occupational safety and health.
Spanish – Georgia Tech’s OSH program also offers construction safety information in Spanish: Seguridad en la Construcción. The program includes posters, fliers and PowerPoint presentations. Other Spanish safety programs are also available.
Annoyances – Do you ever make a quick call and find yourself stuck in a nightmare automated loop and you can’t access the service you called for? Grrr. Here are two services that might help. Get Human is a company-specific database of phone numbers that will bypass the robots and get you directly to a human customer service rep. Sometimes they provide a direct number and in other cases, they give you the magic formula code numbers that will get you through. I’ve used this service a few times and it works. Someone also recently pointed me to an alternative service along the same lines, except it will do most of the work for you. Bringo! allows you to choose a company that you’d like to call from a list, you enter your number, and Bringo will call you back and connect you after they get through the phone tree and reach a human.
Travel productivity – If you travel a lot for work, FlightStats might be a lifesaver. The site allows you to track lights in real time, check on airport delays and wait time, and a links to a variety of other flight-related tools.
Search – Google has more search tools and web tools than you probably realized, some tucked away in various corners of Google that you may not have occasion to visit. Simply Google lets you access all Google’s tools one page without having to poke around to find them.

Health Wonk Review and some handy new tools

Thursday, January 24th, 2008

A new edition of Health Wonk Review is being hosted by Vince Kuraitis at e-CareManagement blog, including posts about in-store clinics, physicians, problems and solutions in health systems, and cats, dogs and kangaroos. Suffice it to say that this is the first time kangaroos have surfaced in HWR, and I will leave it to you to discover why. This edition is Vince’s debut as HWR host, and he carries out his duties with style and grace. His blog focuses on issues and trends in chronic disease management and technology. While there, you might check out his take on Disease Management Megatrends for 2008, a post which is also available in a 20-minute podcast version.
New tools for our sidebar
In other matters, here are a few handy tools that have recently come to our attention – we’ll be adding them to our sidebar:
Health careHealthExecLynx is a huge compendium of links related to all things health care – an absolute must for your bookmarks. It lists thousands of links, including health care news sources, blogs, associations, governmental concerns, career resources, and more – an excellent resource.
Safety signsSafety Sign Builder 2.0 – this free service includes a number of web-based tools that facilitate the creation of custom general and safety signs. Each Sign Builder tool has unique options designed to make the creation of any custom sign quick and easy. Build Hazmat signs, ANSI signs, or OSHA-compliant Lockout Tags in English and in Spanish. Safety Sign Builder 2.0 is sponsored by St. Claire, Inc.
OSHA – OSHA recently announced eight new OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers. Current OTI Education Centers offer training courses on OSHA standards and occupational safety and health issues. The Centers provide safety and health training to private sector and federal personnel from agencies outside OSHA.

Brave new world: genetic testing and workers compensation

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

The good news is there are new technologies that hold the promise of ending fraudulent or inappropriate disability and workers’ compensation claims. The bad news is that you’ll need to get in the business of harvesting and tracking your employee’s DNA to get there, venturing into relatively uncharted legal waters. Workforce Management and BBC both discuss the new technologies in DNA Technology May Curb Bogus Disability Claims and DNA test hope over damages claims. According to the Workforce article:

Developed by the Cytokine Institute, a research and consulting firm affiliated with the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, the technology uses DNA to determine a link between exposure to a toxin and a serious illness. It does so by identifying a toxin’s unique DNA signature on a person’s affected cells.
The technology, launched in June, has already been used in two dozen civil lawsuits between workers and insurance companies to verify the connection between exposure to toxins and a serious illness, says CEO Bruce Gillis, a doctor specializing in medical toxicology.
“It will get rid of all the nuisance and frivolous lawsuits once and for all,” Gillis says.

In addition to the application for illnesses and exposures to toxins, testing may also be able to tell if an injury has even occurred. The Workforce article also discusses technology that can measure cytokines or small proteins in a person’s cells, which elevate when an injury occurs. Cytokines can be measured as a before and after baseline to verify that an injury has occurred.
Exercise caution when jumping in the gene pool
Before you get too excited, you might check in with your lawyers, many of whom are likely to advise caution due to potential problems with privacy and discrimination issues. While there are no federal prohibitions against genetic testing, at least 30 states have laws that may say otherwise. HR Hero sheds light on the status of federal legislation putting limits on genetic testing in Lifeguard on duty: Congress patrols the gene pool, excerpted from Arizona Employment Law Letter. While many of the legal prohibitions deal with matters related to hiring discrimination and insurance denial rather than work injuries, attorneys advise a conservative approach in matters dealing with employees’ genetic information.
Genetic testing is already a hot button employment issue. Its application to workers’ compensation and other disability matters is an issue that bears watching. For a handy reference guide, the National Conference of State Legislatures offers a chart on State Genetics Employment Laws.

Free Web seminars: Standard/Universal Precautions and Communicating with Spanish Speaking Employees

Monday, May 14th, 2007

We’ve learned about a few free seminars that we thought we would pass along to you. We don’t have any connection with either of these groups, but they are both sponsored by reputable organizations and sound interesting.
Standard/Universal Precautions: Compliance, Beliefs, and Barriers – Wednesday, May 16
The North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center is sponsoring a free NORA Interdisciplinary webcast on Wednesday, May 16 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm EST. Kathy Kirkland, Executive Director, Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics in Washington, DC, will present “Standard/Universal Precautions: Compliance, Beliefs, and Barriers.” The seminar can be viewed live via webcast, or an archive link will be available a few days after May 16 for viewing at your convenience.
Access the seminar here at 1 pm EST on May 16, and log in as a guest. Type in your first and last name and click the “Enter” button to launch the OSHERC meeting space. You may need to download the meeting plug-in (Flashplayer). There will be an interactive question and answer session. Slides and an evaluation form are available.
The seminar topic has been approved for 1.5 contact hours or 0.15 CEUs through the University of North Carolina. To receive the CE credit, you must complete a registration form (hard copy available only) and send a $4.00 check payable to *Friday Center for Continuing Education* to Susan Randolph by *May 25, 2007*; you must also complete an evaluation form after the seminar.
More info: Susan A. Randolph, FAAOHN Clinical Instructor Occupational Health Nursing Program University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1700 Airport Road, CB #7502 Room #337 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7502 – Phone: 919-966-0979
Improving Communication with Spanish Speaking Employees – May 24
Benefits Management Online Forum & Expo is sponsoring this free online forum on Thursday May 24 at 2:00pm EST. Register for attendance here
The notice for this forum states:
If you are an employer with Spanish-speaking employees, an HR director responsible for the success of Spanish-speaking teammates, or a benefits specialist who must communicate plans to Spanish-speakers, this online forum is for you.
Spend an hour with Melissa Burkhart, founder and president of the consulting firm Futuro Solido USA, as she shows why developing Spanish straight talk es muy importante. Melissa will explain the different workplace behaviors and values held by English-speaking and Spanish-speaking workers and reveal the secrets to successful trouble-shooting and team-building with Spanish-speaking employees.
In this presentation, you will learn about:
* Culturally rooted beliefs
* Common pitfalls and employer frustrations
* Strategic solutions for optimizing communication and building more effective teams

New tools & resources for our sidebar

Monday, March 19th, 2007

We’ve just completed some housekeeping on our sidebar resources, making a few additions and deletions to ensure things are up to date. If you haven’t noted this part of our blog yet, take a quick scroll through the column to the right – we’ve compiled hundreds of links in various categories to workers compensation and related resources. Here are some of the new resources we’ve just added:
Insurance Information Institute – Bob Hartwig is one of the nation’s most knowledgeable workers’ comp experts – we can’t believe we didn’t have this essential resource in our sidebar yet!
Ergonomics in the News – is a news blog by Usernomics featuring articles for workplace ergonomics, safety, and biometrics. In addition to sourcing some really useful articles like the one on kitchen foot protection, they also keep us up on some cool and futuristic technology innovations and tools.
The Naval Safety Center Photo of the Week features a new photo each week highlighting a frighteningly unsafe work practice. We’ve linked to it before, but we will be adding it to our sidebar.
Gruntled Employees is a blog by attorney Jay Shepherd. The blog’s premise is that “Managers, executives, in-house counsel, and HR people know all about disgruntled employees. They cost employers billions of dollars each year in lawsuits, attorneys’ fees, lost productivity, and wasted time. Here we discuss how to keep employees gruntled. We also talk about dealing with your lawyers.” Here at Workers’ Comp Insider, we’re all for gruntled employees!
Google Blog Search is Google’s blog-specific search engine, helpful if you want to track news on just the blogs.
In a bit of housekeeping, we moved Confined Space archives to our Safety Resources. It won’t be updated regularly, but the archives are very valuable. We hope our friend Jordan Barab is making progress in DC! On the safety front, we would also remind you to visit Weekly Toll. We also note the address change for Brent Hunsberger’s At Work blog from OregonianLive.

Linkapalooza – new tools and resources

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

Here are a dozen new links ranging from safety resources to tech tools. We’ll be adding most of these to our sidebar, where we have collected an ever-expanding array of organizations, publications, resources, and tools – check them out!
Florida Agsafe – a great resource page of agricultural safety and disaster information from the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department of the University of Florida and The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Workers’ Comp Executive – published 22 times per year and is the journal of record for the workers’ comp community in California.
Cal-OSHA Reporter – a Weekly Publication For The Occupational Safety & Health Community
Appeals Board Reporter – California workers compensation legal publication featuring up to the minute cases, objective status and reviews, a place to research issues and much much more.
Risk Manager’s Guide to All 50 States – links to state offices relevant to risk management.
Employer state labor posting requirements – a handy reference list.
State health facts – a resource from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states.
Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist – the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed this activities checklist to help large businesses be prepared for a pandemic or other emergency.
I want a freeware utility to… – 450+ free utilities to solve common problems and save money.
Periodic table of visualization methods – planning a report, training session or presentation? This handy chart will help you to think through data, concept, and information presentation.
Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources – research like a librarian using a variety of alternative search tools.
Common errors in English – an alphabetical list of common goofs.

Workers comp costs and benefits – Current state rankings

Monday, November 6th, 2006

Here’s a question for you: If you were to ask any employer in America how his or her workers’ compensation costs compare to similar employers in other states, what do you think the answer would be? Well, I’ve been doing that with employers I meet for a long time, and I have yet to meet one who thinks his or her costs are lower than those of employers in other states.
Moreover, if you expand the question to inquire about employee benefits, most employers will venture that indemnity benefits paid in other states are most likely lower than what’s doled out in theirs.
It’s the old, “The grass is always greener” thing. But is it really, and how would you know? And here’s one last question: Suppose those employers really wanted to know the comparative cost and benefit data for their state and decided to ask a room full of insurance professionals about it. What do you think the insurance professionals would say?
For many years, we at Lynch Ryan have tracked research reports from three highly credible organizations that produce state rankings of workers’ compensation costs and benefits, one a private actuarial firm, another an Oregonian governmental entity and the third a non-profit, Washington, DC, foundation.
Actuarial & Technical Solutions, Inc, an actuarial consulting firm located in Ronkonkoma, NY, has been publishing state cost and benefit data annually since 1992. Its 2006 report, Workers’ Compensation State Rankings – Manufacturing Industry Costs and Statutory Benefit Provisions, has been released within the last month.
The Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services publishes comparative cost data every two even-numbered years. Oregon’s 2006 Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary Report was released this past Friday, 4 November 2006 (the complete report won’t be published for another two to three months).
And the National Foundation for Unemployment Compensation and Workers’ Compensation (UWC), headquartered in Washington, DC, has, since 1984, published annual, and class specific, comparative state data in a report titled, Fiscal Data for State Workers’ Compensation Systems. In this report. you’ll find annual data and total indemnity and medical benefit payments over the last 12 years.
The UWC has also published a Research Bulletin called, State Workers’ Compensation Legislation and Related Changes Adopted in 2005. Perusing that somewhat eye-glazing, 77 page report offers up such tidbits as Maryland’s House Bill 461, which “Applies workers’ compensation occupational disease presumptions to Montgomery County correctional officers who suffer from heart disease or hypertension (my italics) resulting in partial or total disability or death,” effective 1 October 2005. Wow!
The Oregon reports are free; Actuarial & Technical Solutions charges $105 for a single report, and the UWC reports costs $25 for those who are not members of the Foundation ($20 for those who are).
The first thing you need to know about the three comparative cost reports is that, while they use different methodologies, they all pretty much arrive at the same place. For the most part their rankings are in general agreement. One state may be ranked #5 in one report and #7 in another. Personally, that’s close enough for me.
All three reports contain some rankings that appear predictable, but there are surprises and paradoxes, too. For example, notwithstanding changes to its law, most workers’ compensation professionals would expect California to be at or near the top of the cost rankings, and they’d be right. But who knew that my home state, Massachusetts, which so many of my conservative friends continue to call Taxachusetts, would rank way down at the bottom, either 43rd or 47th, depending on whose report you read? That’s a surprise, and here’s a paradox: Despite ranking as the least costly of the major industrial states in which to buy workers’ compensation, Massachusetts provides higher benefits than any other state except Nevada, which ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of cost.
We have found the data mined from these reports, as well as others, invaluable as we consult to employers and insurers around America. Searching out and understanding this research, and doing our own, as well, allows us to put costs and benefits in perspective and is very helpful in designing reasonable and achievable cost reduction targets for our clients.
I urge the workers’ compensation professionals among our readers to get and read the reports. It’s time well spent. If you’d rather not do that, but have some questions about them, you can email us at communicationsATworkerscompinsiderDOTcom (insert the @ and “.” where indicated – we avoid spelling it out to foil the spam bots). Or, if you’d prefer, call anyone at Lynch Ryan (my direct line is 781-431-0458, Ext 1). We’d love to hear from you.
By the way, if you do get in touch, let us know what you think of the Insider and if there’s anything you‘d like to see us do to make it even better.

News Roundup – WV, OH, WTC, hurricanes, and the billion dollar derriere

Monday, June 5th, 2006

West Virginia – Employers will be facing some confusion – and likely some change in rates – as BrickStreet Mutual Insurance, the entity that has replaced the prior state fund, switches over to the NCCI system of employee classification and rating. Under the prior state system, there were only 94 employee classifications, and under the new system there will be more than 470. Employee classifications all have different rates based on the risk of the work performed.
WTC Workers – Another sad story about the difficulty that Ground Zero clean-up workers are facing in securing workers compensation benefits. Many disabilities are surfacing now, but the statute of limitations was only for two years following 9/11. Mayor Bloomberg recently interceded to get benefits for a former deputy mayor who is suffering from debilitating respiratory illness.
Health care – Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters tells us to expect national health care within about five years.
New blog – Check out our newest addition to the blogroll – InsureBlog, written by H.G. Stern, LUTCF and Bob Vineyard, CLU. It’s new to our blogroll, but not new to the Web – it’s been up for 18 months. They are launching a new blog carnival called “Cavalcade of Risk” – we’ll keep you posted.
Ohio Coingate – More developments late last week – Terrance Gasper, the former CFO of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, is now facing federal and state racketeering charges for violating RICO by accepting bribes and laundering money. Thomas Noe gave Gasper $25,000 in exchange for Gasper’s funneling BWC investments to Noe’s rare coin company. Apparently, Gasper’s interest in investing public funds didn’t stop at the state border – he has also been named in an influence-peddling scheme associated with the New Hampshire Retirement System, activity that occurred after leaving the BWC. You might think he would have been treading a bit more carefully after the Ohio experience began making waves, but apparently not. If the New Hampshire allegations prove true, then perhaps Mr. Gasper should be nominated to this illustrious organization.
Meanwhile, things are heating up considerably for Thomas Noe. In addition to facing both federal and state charges for stealing millions in BWC monies, he is now facing serious violations of campaign finance law by using 24 friends and associates as conduits to illegally funnel more than $45,000 to the Bush presidential campaign. Both Noe and his wife Bernadette are former Lucas County Republican Party Chairs and Bernadette Noe was Chair of the Board of Lucas County Elections. The vote tally for Lucas County was hotly disputed in the last election – it’s not particularly reassuring to know we had this dubious crew minding the store, heh?
Ohio’s Coingate is a topic we have covered several times and will no doubt discuss again. Part of the shame in this whole sorry mess is the burden and stress that this puts on all the diligent workers who are innocent of any wrong doing. The Ohio BWC had a solid reputation and embarked on many progressive initiatives prior to this scandal. It must be difficult for all the good workers to see their place of employment subject to such unflattering and harsh public scrutiny. As the Enron workers learned, when the so-called leaders fail to lead, it’s often the workers who pay the steepest price.
Misc. Insurance news
The billion dollar derriere. Thanks to RiskProf for pointing us to an fascinating article in Slate on specialty insurance for celebrity body parts. Ah, the scintillating world of insurance!
Catastrophic events. Hurricane season is here, and Specialty Insurance Blog covers an recently released AM Best Hurricane Study – if there were a $100 billion plus catastrophic event, 20 to 50 insurers would be vulnerable to failure.

Readers reply: Premium comparison and safe patient handling

Friday, April 21st, 2006

State Premium Ranking – Thanks to Mike Manley for pointing us to the 2004 Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary, which offers a comparison of premium by state. Mike is the Research Coordinator at the Information Management Division of Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services. He also points us to some other workers comp studies that look very valuable – thanks, Mike.
Safe patient handling – Ann Hudson, RN, BSN commented on our recent post about Washington passes “Safe Patient Handling” legislation, noting that: “Substantial savings could be realized by insurance carriers and employers, and the nurse shortage could be eased, if workers’ comp carriers assisted employers to retain back-injured nurses in other non-lifting nursing positions.”
Her comment led us to the Working Injured Nurses Group or WING USA, a site that provides information, advice, and support to injured nurses. Anne is a founder of this group as well as co-author of Back Injury Among Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts. She has been active in championing the cause of back-injured nurses – both in terms of prevention and also in advocating for reemployment of injured nurses in positions that don’t require lifting.
We appreciate informed comments from our readers. If you have resources, information, or just opinions, we encourage you to jump in!

Short takes: HR resources & tools

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

Is a good employer also a good investment? That’s a question that Brent Hunsberger from The Oregonian’s At Work blog explores in some depth in a recent posting. Jerome Dodoson of Parnassus Investments noted that companies listed in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for regularly outperform the market. That’s a philosophy we ascribe to: doing the right thing is not just “nice”, it usually makes good economic sense too.
About.com’s Human Resources Guide, Susan Heatherfield, usually provides solid content that is well worth a read. One recent feature of note: Top 10 Ideas About What Employees Want From Work: Employee Motivation. For future articles, here’s the main Human Resources page.
Check out The HR Lawyer’s Blog – a new look and a new name for the Texas Employment Law Bulletin. The HR blog world keeps expanding – lots of great free resources and advice for employers that take note. George’s Employment Blawg keeps a good list of recommended HR blogs.
Compliance Aid e-Library provides a comprehensive list of links to federal, state, and general Web resources – worth a bookmark.
What’s the employment forecast look like over the next few years? The Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections home page offers information about the labor market for the nation as a whole for 10 years into the future.