Schenectady, NY – The Workers’ Compensation Board is beginning a broad-based business process re-engineering project (BPR) designed to significantly improve the experience of injured workers and employers in the New York workers’ compensation system. Workers’ compensation in New York is a modern and sophisticated social insurance system operating on an infrastructure designed decades ago. This project will re-imagine workers’ compensation in New York and build a new infrastructure that takes advantage of new technology, best practices, and 100 years of experience. The goal of this project is to re-create a workers’ compensation system that will once again serve as a model for the nation.
Large, well-run organizations regularly conduct business process re-engineering to improve service and ensure they’re meeting fundamental goals. To that end, the Board released a Request for Proposal (RFP) in April 2012 to hire a BPR vendor to assist the Board and other workers’ compensation stakeholders in creating a shared vision for the next century. As a result of the RFP, the Board has retained the business advisory firm Deloitte to assist with the BPR. The assistance of an outside firm ensures impartiality, a fresh perspective on established processes, and business process re-engineering expertise.
The Deloitte team will help the Board with the first phase of the BPR: a comprehensive analysis of the current system and detailed envisioning of an improved future system. Antiquated business processes, a reliance on paper forms, and outdated technology have led to a system that falls short on basic performance measures and does not provide the service expected by injured workers and employers. This phase of the project is an opportunity for the Board and our stakeholders to step back and examine how the system as a whole functions today and propose comprehensive process and technology changes to drive vast, measurable improvement in system performance.
The Deloitte team will begin working over the next few weeks. This fall, the Board and Deloitte will begin dialogues with stakeholder groups to better understand their challenges in the system today as well as listen to their suggestions to make the system better tomorrow.
The BPR team will reach out to stakeholders through several means, including face–to–face meetings, video conferences, conference calls, broad–based surveys, and email. Additionally, you can email the BPR team with your improvement ideas at bpr@wcb.ny.gov. The workers’ compensation community has many constructive, intelligent ideas for improving the system, and the Board is eager to hear them. BPR events and updates will be published on the Board’s dedicated BPR web page (BPR Overview), via subject numbers and other announcements, and through the Board’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
After extensive discussion with system stakeholders and analysis, Deloitte will deliver its final recommendations to the Board in early to mid–2014. That report will serve as the Board’s strategic roadmap for implementing process and technology changes that will improve the system for injured workers and employers.
Your thoughts, questions and feedback are important.
For comments or more information please email bpr@wcb.ny.gov
or visit BPR Overview, NY SWCB Facebook, NY SWCB Twitter
Source: NY WCB