Workers' Compensation & Managed Care
Charting a Course for the Future
A Discussion of Tomorrow's Challenges in Workers' Compensation
Panelists:
James Palmer, Associate Director of Employee
Benefits, Human Resources; and Associate Director of Integrated Risk
Management, Procter and Gamble, Cincinnati, OH.
James Ellenberger, Assistant Director, Department
of Occupational Safety and Health,
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Washington, DC.
Shelda Harden, J.D., M.A., Program Manager, The
National Conference of State Legislatures, Denver, CO.
Linda Rudolph, M.D., Medical Director, State of
California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers'
Compensation Managed Care Program, San Francisco, CA. |
This panel session provided a forum for discussion between four diverse panelists and the general audience.
James Palmer
began the session by discussing innovative efforts underway within Procter and Gamble designed to:
- Improve communication.
- Place a greater emphasis on prevention.
- Improve the efficiency of workers' compensation-related activities.
In addition, he discussed broader efforts being undertaken by the State of Ohio to increase communication with
workers about their rights, providers, benefits, treatment planning, and return-to-work expectations, with the objective of
producing the best possible outcomes and rapid return to work.
From his perspective, James Ellenberger identified a number of future issues that he feels need to be addressed in order
to protect injured workers, including:
- Ensuring a choice of provider.
- Using occupational medicine doctors.
- Promoting patient protection legislation.
- Establishing the freedom to use legal remedies for inappropriate care.
- Implementing national health care.
Mr. Ellenberger also mentioned that the AFL-CIO is currently working on developing a health purchasing vehicle
for members that addresses these issues.
Shelda Harden discussed some of the major issues that States will continue to face, including:
- Data collection strategies.
- Developing a consistent workers' compensation vocabulary.
- Quality assessment.
The National Conference of State
Legislatures (NCSL) is addressing some of these issues through an educational outreach initiative funded by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation, a series of focus groups with insurance commissioners to determine the issues that regulators
and legislators need to know, and research with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to answer the
question of how stakeholders are collecting and using workers' compensation data.
Dr. Linda Rudolph discussed how State government will continue to play a critical role in improving workers'
compensation systems. According to Rudolph, this role should include:
- Educating employers and employees about prevention.
- Facilitating data standardization and availability.
- Enforcing basic quality standards.
- Ensuring that all stakeholders communicate and reach consensus on standards for system tools and procedures.
Reference
Ellenberger JN. Remarks on Medical Care for Injured Workers in Review, Regulate, or Reform? What Works to
Control Workers' Compensation Medical Costs, ed.
Thomas W. Grannemann. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Workers Compensation
Research Institute, 1994.
Current as of August 1997
Previous Section Contents
Internet Citation:
Workers' Compensation and Managed Care: Challenges and Opportunities in a Changing Health Care System. Workshop Summary, July 30-August 1, 1997. User Liaison Program, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/ulpwrkrs.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850