This issue of RxInformer magazine is a timely one, coming shortly after the publication of our fifth annual Workers’ Comp Industry Insights Report – which explores the different challenges, priorities, barriers, and driving factors of complexity that are top of mind in the workers’ comp industry. It also launches at the 2023 RISKWORLD Conference, an insurance industry event focused on embracing disruption to best minimize new and evolving risks.
It's why, in this issue of RxInformer, we have included discussion of some of the risks impacting our industry today at multiple levels, providing our readers with strategies to address and overcome those risks.
Patient-specific risk factors continue to impact and complexify claims, whether that be comorbidities, mental health, or any other behavioral or social determinant of health. A Moment of Clarity: Alcohol’s Impact Across Workers and Medical Management explores how problematic alcohol use can create financial risks in the workplace, increase risk of injury, and cause health risks that impact claims and medication management.
According to our industry survey, mental health was ranked the number one most concerning factor of claim complexity. A Golden Opportunity: The Physical Therapist’s Role in Behavioral Health explores how physical therapists – a provider who experiences significant face-to-face time with patients – can serve as insightful sources of information for uncovering potential mental health concerns that can pose a risk to outcomes and recovery.
Switching focus to financial risks in our industry, workers’ comp is not immune to larger inflation patterns in the economy. Our industry survey found that ongoing healthcare provider and service shortages were ranked the number one industry challenge in workers’ comp. An already concerning problem grows more complex amidst rising inflation, creating greater financial pressure on workers’ comp programs. Unpredictable Costs: How Will Healthcare Price Inflation Impact Workers’ Comp? explores this issue in more detail, offering tips for containing medical costs across workers’ comp care.
Some of today’s current prescribing trends present both cost and safety considerations. More Than Skin-Deep: Untangling Topical Drug Classes and Costs focuses on dermatological drugs in workers’ comp. These agents are making up greater portions of drug spend, and while many are relatively safe and affordable, some come with unnecessarily high costs and safety concerns. Our infographic helps unpack the good, bad, and the ugly of the different drug classes and types that comprise dermatologicals to help delineate areas for greatest opportunity.
And finally, in today’s technology-forward world, cyber risk presents an ever-present and growing threat for organizations at every level of the workers’ compensation supply chain as malicious actors continue to evolve their tools and techniques. Protecting sensitive data in this industry is paramount, a priority made more challenging amid a global shortage of IT talent. Build Your Army: Maintaining Cybersecurity Amid the IT Talent Gap explores this in great detail.
I hope you find this edition of RxInformer to be a strategic resource as you address the risks – both old and new – facing your workers’ comp program, helping you to view them as opportunities that drive your programs forward.
Daryl Corr is Chief Executive Officer at Healthesystems. Mr. Corr has long been a technology innovator developing new ways in which to improve the delivery and quality of medical services. His focus on innovation has helped improve performance across the industry by automating various manual functions and improving transaction efficiency. His efforts to make disparate processes and systems work together helped transform the organizations he managed. Under Mr. Corr’s leadership, Healthesystems has grown into one of the largest workers’ compensation pharmacy and ancillary medical benefits management providers in the market.
