The Rural Health Care Impacts on Workers’ Compensation Losses

In the past two decades, nearly 200 rural hospitals across the United States shuttered their doors, leaving millions of residents without local access to essential healthcare services. Hospital closures not only impact injured workers, but they also place additional pressure on rural industries. Farms, ranches, factories and energy producers rely on a healthy and stable workforce to attract talent and maintain productivity.

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Addressing Social Determinants of Health Can be Gamechanger in Work Comp Claims

The physical and/or emotional injury in a workplace injury or illness is just the start of any workers’ compensation claim. Managing injury claims is a complex process. Carriers are continuously improving their injury management processes. If adjusters fail to consider Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), they often inadvertently delay the claim process. This may mean failing to close claims where comorbidities or other issues, such as transportation problems or lack of access to nutritious food, delay healing.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), “It is estimated that 50% of all health outcomes can be attributed to SDOH, while clinical care impacts only 20% of county-level variation in health outcomes.”

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To Service or Sell – That’s the Difference to Success

Insurance agents, brokers, and /or producers have a lot to worry about these days. Insurance itself has become more complicated, and the standards expected of agents by the consumer continue to dramatically increase. One might think that personal lines insurance is uncomplicated and is driven solely by price. All too often, we are bombarded by advertisements about how we can save money with one insurance company over another. That mistaken approach implies that all policies are the same, which we know is not true.

Personal line agents may find that issues of coverage are just as complicated today as any commercial policy can be and sometimes even more so. The real question is how you approach the challenge, and more importantly, how you document what you did and why.

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