Important studies

Top three practices for closing a claim

While workers' comp is a data-rich industry, it is only beginning to use the data to make better and smarter decisions. Rising Medical Solutions recently released a white paper that condenses the study's multi-year benchmarking data into the top three practices 'high performing' claims organizations use to excel. Performance ratings were based on claims closure ratio, a comparison of opened claims versus closed claims. A claims ratio of 100% means the organization is closing as many claims as they are opening.

Here are the top three practices:

• Focus on and measure medical management, disability / return-to-work (RTW) management, and compensability investigations

  While other competencies such as claims reserving and litigation management are important, these three are most critical to claims outcome. An employee's return to the same or better pre-injury functional capabilities was the number one classification of a "good claims outcome."

  However, just focusing on these factors is not enough. Higher performing claims organizations are five times more likely to measure their performance in core competencies, six times more likely to measure claim outcomes based on evidence-based treatment guidelines, and 10 times more likely to measure claim outcomes based on evidence-based disability duration guidelines.

• Invest more in people and claims advocacy

  As expected, the high performers cultivate talent by providing more training and career-long learning opportunities, raising performance expectations, fostering communication and critical thinking skills, and making available decision support tools known to improve claims outcome. "At a claim's outset, the adjuster is uniquely appointed to visualize and predict how the claim will resolve, and then adapt her or his strategy as new information emerges."

  Particularly important is embracing the historic shift from reactive, compliance-focused models of injured worker interaction to an employee-centric approach, known as claims advocacy. The importance of understanding and engaging the injured worker in the recovery process is a clear competitive advantage.

• Invest more in advanced tools and technology, including predictive analytics

  High performers focus on outcome management, rather than process management. They measure medical provider performance and use predictive analytics eight times more than others. While sometimes this has been a much-contested topic, predictive modeling warehouses data on injured workers, uses outcome-based data to improve treatment, and measures success.

  It can reduce claims costs by identifying potential complicating factors and creating a more proactive approach to the ongoing treatment plans. It identifies "routine" claims that have the potential to become complex. The same data and insights can be applied to a return-to-work plan to reduce the risk of re-injury.

On-the-job crashes up

Motor vehicle accidents are a troubling trend for the workers' compensation sector, according to data released recently by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). Frequency for on-the-clock car accidents increased 5 percent, in contrast to an overall decline of 17.6 percent for all claims in comp from 2011 to 2016. Alarmingly, over 40% of workers' compensation fatalities involved a motor vehicle accident.

Other findings included:

• Motor vehicle claims cost 80% to 100% more than the average claim because they involve severe injuries, such as head, neck and multiple body-part injuries.
• The rapid expansion of smartphone ownership since 2011 may have been a factor in the rise in accidents.
• Most accidents are the result of driving as opposed to being hit by a car. From 2000 to 2016, the split of "occupant vs. struck by" claims has remained "very consistent" at about 85% to 15%.
• Of the top 30 motor-vehicle classes reviewed, including that of trucking, the largest increase in frequency occurred in the "taxicab company" class, with a dramatic rise in frequency more than doubling from 2011 to 2015.

Opioids deaths linked to occupations

The opioid-related death rate for those employed in construction and extraction occupations was six times the average rate for all Massachusetts workers, according to a report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The report speculates that the higher rate of work injuries in these fields, as well as low job security, and a lack of paid sick leave could be contributing factors.

The study reviewed death certificates from 2011-2015. Other industries with higher than average rates of opioid-related deaths include farming, fishing, healthcare support occupations, food preparation, and the restaurant industry. The industries with the highest rates also varied by gender: for men, the highest rate was in construction. For women, serving-related jobs, food prep, and healthcare support had the highest rates.

The Department plans a larger study to see if there is a link between workers compensation and overdoses.

Opioids still present in polypharmacy claims

Even though efforts in the state to curb opioid prescriptions have had some success, opioids alone are the most prevalent type of drug found in polypharmacy claims that involve five or more concurrent prescriptions, according to a study by the California Workers' Compensation Institute.

Polypharmacy is the use of multiple drugs at the same time to treat one or more medical conditions in a patient. Oftentimes, they are used to alleviate risks and side effects caused by other drugs, but they can interact poorly and increase the risk of overdosing.

While only 4% of the claims analyzed were considered polypharmacy claims, 91.5% of them involved indemnity payments, 21.5% were at least ten years old, and they more commonly involve older workers. The top diagnostic category for polypharmacy claims (21.3 percent of claims) was back conditions without spinal cord involvement, including back sprains and strains.

Employees believe they get fat on the job

A recent survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder found that more than half of U.S. workers consider themselves overweight, and many believe their current job has played a role.

The survey included a representative sample of 1,117 full-time workers from multiple industries and different-sized companies. 45 percent said they gained weight while at their current job, with twenty-six percent gaining more than 10 pounds and 11 percent more than 20 pounds.

Among the reasons cited:

• Sitting at a desk most of the day (53 percent).
• Too tired after work to exercise (49 percent).
• Stress eating (41 percent).
• No time to exercise before or after work (34 percent).
• Workplace celebrations (13 percent).
• Skipping meals because of time constraints (12 percent)

The survey also found that 63 percent of workers eat lunch at their workstation, and 72 percent snack on the job.