Posted: April 16, 2010

Bobby Wilder, head football coach at Old Dominion University, said at the symposium that keeping workers healthy helps reduce workers comp claims.

By Vincent Schilling

Correspondent

In Bobby Wilder's industry, on-the-job injuries are common. The head football coach at Old Dominion University was a speaker at the recent workers compensation symposium presented in Suffolk by the Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center, which has Suffolk and Chesapeake locations.

To an audience of business owners, human resource specialists and nurses, among others, Wilder recommended that an employer's best strategy is to create a healthy workforce.

"In team sports you have your captains and your team leaders," he said. "Why not incorporate this [approach] in business?"

Each department could have a team leader in charge of fitness who, for instance, organizes walks during lunch breaks, he suggested.

"Statistics show that people will feel better about themselves at work if they are physically fit," Wilder said.

For a business, this proactive approach makes more sense than being on the defense when workers comp issues arise, he said.

More than 100 people attended the two-day event, which focused on fitness, rehabilitation and getting injured employees back into the workforce. According to Dr. Samuel Brown, president of the sports medicine center, the goal of the event was "to educate attendees on the prevention, intervention and post-intervention management of the musculoskeletal and chronic pain issues facing the injured worker."

Employees have always made workers comp claims, said Todd Rauchenberger, administrator of the center and a coordinator of the event.

"The interesting thing identified in our research is that as the economy worsens, workman's comp claims go up," he said. "There is a bit of a psychological effect as plants shut down and people start to lose their jobs. We start to see more injuries such as back strains."

The legitimacy of workers comp claims was addressed by Dr. Michael M. Romash, an orthopedic surgeon who is a member of the center's physician team. He made a presentation on "Failure to improve, the epidemiology of lower extremity disorders."

According to Romash, "malingering" claims - fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of mental or physical disorders for a secondary gain - are actually a much lower 2.5 percent than the 40 percent perceived by adjusters, employers and insurance companies.

Romash said employers can protect themselves against malingering claims.

"Avoid being adversarial," he said. "The minute the employer and the patient become adversarial, the patient feels [he must] prove just how badly hurt he is."

Employers need to make sure the diagnosis and treatment are correct, he said.

"Once that has been satisfied, they have to delve into other underlying situations that may be impeding the patient's recovery such as satisfaction in the workplace and problems that may be occurring at home."

A lawyer and a doctor tackled the legal issues. Adam Rafal, a labor and employment attorney with Vandeventer Black, and Dr. Timothy Lee, medical director of Sentara Occupational Medicine, pointed out that one in 20 Americans think it's acceptable for someone who was injured at home to claim that the injury was work-related. Therefore, employers, doctors and others dealing with workers compensation, they said, need to be informed.

Rafal and Lee offered more statistics: Five percent say it's acceptable to stay home from work and receive workers comp even when fully recovered, and 35 percent say it's acceptable for a worker to stay out of work and receive workers comp even if he's been released by the doctor but still feels some pain.

Denise Kulick, a nurse and medical case manager for Coventry Workers' Comp Services, attended the symposium for continuing education. "I just love hearing about causality, and why certain claims are accepted," she said. "Causality is huge in workman's comp - because nobody wants to pay for it if they don't have to."

She said she liked the conference because it wasn't just for doctors but addressed the lawyers, business owners and nurses who were in the audience.

"We all have different agendas," Kulick said. nib