RTW: It takes a village

Recently, someone brought up an excellent point about human behavior and accountability.  It’s easy to point the finger at the person who’s not in the room.  Who’s ultimately responsible for returning an injured worker to modified duty?  The injured worker’s physician?  The employer?  The claim representative?  Based upon the contextual clue in the title of this post, you’ve more than likely determined that it isn’t just one person’s responsibility.    

Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe work environment for your employees, report claims, and stay in contact with injured workers.  Too many times the claim starts out and the injured worker is a “great employee” and then 6 months later when they are still recovering from their work injury, they’re now referred to as someone who is “milking the system.”  How does that happen?  Think about a relationship that has dwindled to the point of “acquaintance” as opposed to close friend.  If you haven’t talked to someone in a few months, it’s easy to draw conclusions about the reason for the lack of communication.  I’d be willing to bet you aren’t looking introspectively or taking accountability for losing contact.  It’s only human to attribute a negative outcome to the actions or someone else. 

Injured workers have a responsibility to report injuries to their employers participate in their recovery, follow the advice and restrictions of their physicians, and to keep their employer and claim representative apprised of any changes in their work and treatment status.  Injured workers should participate in the RTW process.  How?  Injured workers can make suggestions about what parts of their job they think they can do. 

Claim Representatives can make or break the outcome of the majority of claims.  Yes, it is true that at the end of the day people will do what they feel they need to do, but we need to take a few steps back and think about what led up to the current situation.  Did the injured worker have unanswered questions?  Did they receive another collection notice for an unpaid bill (because the biller simply didn’t have the WC claim information)?  Did they hear rumors that their job was in jeopardy?  While we can’t prevent every outcome, we can lay the foundation for open communication, education, and understanding.  We should never lose sight of the fact that we’re providing a benefit to an injured worker on behalf of their employer.  The goal is to provide appropriate medical treatment to rehabilitate the injured worker to their pre-injury state, or as close as possible.

It truly does take a village.  We didn’t even mention the roles of the medical providers, case managers, or attorneys...  

I’m not saying that at the end of the day we’re all going to be “friends” on Facebook, or that we’ll go to happy hour together after work.  My point is, the sooner we all realize that we have a responsibility and an interest in getting an injured worker back to work, the sooner we will see RTW challenges resolve.