During our time at NWCDC 2015, we had Workers’ Comp industry stakeholders participate in WorkCompWire’s “3 For NWCDC” series, focused on this year’s developments and on improving the system! Here’s what Liz Griggs, Co-founder and CEO of WorkWell Prevention & Care had to say:
1. Looking back on 2015, what do you believe was the most significant development for the Workers’ Comp industry? (If you did RIMS Review, how did your prediction pan out?)
2015 was a game-changing year for the Workers’ Comp industry. This was primarily driven by two key dynamics:
Industry Consolidation: This year we saw a number of companies merge together as a way to enhance their service offerings and roll out a broader base of solutions to the marketplace. The shift from providing just one or two specialty services, like only offering imaging or just providing physical therapy is well-underway. Now, companies are teaming up to offer a full-suite of services from wellness solutions, to onsite ergonomics, to functional job analysis, to a wide-array of early intervention programs. Rolling out more robust and comprehensive programs will help companies provide an even safer and healthier workplace for years to come. WorkWell Prevention & Care (WWPC) was a major player in industry consolidation this year as NextImage merged with WorkWell to form our new company WWPC.
More Focus on Prevention: Also, this year we saw a big focus on prevention. The big theme of the year for us at WWPC was “how to stop the claim from occurring in the first place”. The current model in workers’ comp is very reactionary – meaning that issues are only addressed after incidents have occurred. However, the prevention model allows us to explore ways to stop incidents from occurring in the first place, and to keep those incidents from during into very costly train wrecks. Moreover, our prevention solutions help employees to perform their jobs better, while also helping companies to mitigate the high-cost of injury claims.
2. What do you think Workers’ Compensation as a concept/industry really needs now, and into the future?
Workers’ Comp right now needs to continue to find ways to address deeper, root causes in workers that can drive on-the-job injuries. Addressing root causes will help us to better “predict” on the front end, if an employee will be the next workers’ comp claim. For example, at WWPC we are starting to explore the impact of obesity, depression, psycho social issues, opioid addiction – and how these dynamics play into a worker turning into the next injury. In fact, at WWPC we are exploring programs and solutions that will target obesity and psycho social issues as this will be the next frontier for driving the future of prevention and early intervention in workers’ comp.
3. What is one thing you’d like to promote?
The primary thing that we need to continue to promote is prevention and early intervention. These two components are so vital to reducing the high cost of workers’ compensation. Workers’ comp is a $70 billion a year industry (driven by high medical costs and disability costs). However, by taking simple steps to prevent an injury, companies can save a lot of money. For example, this is especially important if you consider that doing a $165 pre-work screen on a candidate is a small prevention investment, as compared to having to pay a $50,000 medical bill for an injured worker, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in ongoing disability costs if the worker never returns to the workplace. We have to start shifting our industry from a post-Injury mindset, to a prevention mindset.
Disclosure:
WorkWell Prevention & Care is a WorkCompWire Ad Partner.
This is not a paid placement.