We were honored to have Mark Walls of Safety National, Kimberly George of Sedgwick, Matt Condon of ARC Physical Therapy+ and Shelly Freeman of HROI, LLC take the stage for a series of informative presentations at the first-ever Kansas City Work Comp/Human Resource Summit on April 21.There were some common themes from each of our speakers. Mark and Kimberly mentioned the need for identifying the best providers and the importance of using outcomes as a measuring tool to find them. Mentioning that the industry is more open to value based medicine, Kimberly noted that the best providers have a more dramatic impact on claims cost than savings from networks and that they should be paid for their worth.
Matt highlighted the ability of work comp providers to act as a funneling point for data and outcomes to further drive the evolving healthcare market. “It’s about value and outcomes,” he said, “Not discounts and volumes.” We’ve seen the results of a managed care environment before. Savvy employers know the difference and are working with their providers to be proactive in directing care.
Finally, Shelly provided the audience with key legal implications of employee absence considerations. She noted that work comp situations are interdisciplinary and involve the coordination of different departments such as: risk management, safety, benefits, employee relations and payroll. Additionally, they trigger overlapping laws like: state work comp laws; FMLA (if you have at least 50 employees and the injured worker has worked for you for at least 12 months and works where there are 50 employees within 75 miles); ADA (especially if the worker is absent for more than the FMLA 12-week allotment) and GINA (when you send the worker to a doctor you retain). Compliance with one does not necessarily equal compliance with all. Communication between departments and employees is key to successfully navigating these challenging rules.
