News and Notes from the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference® & Expo
We’re back from the National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo in Chicago. Chicago was as beautiful and accommodating as ever—even the weather cooperated! If you’ve never been to the city, by all means get there—but book your trip during the summer. You’ll thank us for the advice.
We have to say that the show was missing its typical buzz. Down on the exhibit floor we saw steady traffic but there seemed to be lacking a bit of the energy we’re used to seeing at the show. So, we made every effort to infuse energy into our area on the floor. Check out some of our pics. We have to admit that the strangest booth we saw featured pet insurance. We’re not really clear what application pet insurance has for our industry—but it is fun to speculate.
Industry insider Joe Paduda posted his first impressions from the show on his blog. For a solid show overview, go to http://www.joepaduda.com.
In a follow-up post, Joe addressed a topic that is near and dear to our hearts, “The Latest on Vendor-TPA Relations.” It focuses on the “pay to play” business models that many of the TPAs are requiring of their managed care vendors.
“Word from several sources at the comp trade show is some managed care vendors have deals whereby the commissions/fees they pay the TPA for the privilege of doing business are increasing with volume.”
Joe explains the model:
“The way it works is simple, if not necessarily, or even usually, in line with clients’ best interests. The vendor agrees to pay X percent for the first Y dollars of revenue, X+ for the next Y dollars, X++ for the next Z dollars, etcetera.
But some vendors are applying the higher payment levels retroactively. Yep, if the TPA delivers Z dollars, the X++ commission rate applies to ALL revenue. That’s why employers are being told they can get these services at very low – or no – cost. Hat seems like a great deal is – for the TPA. Unfortunately the TPA’s interests are not always, and in some cases are most definitely not, aligned with the employer’s.”
Yes, this is a disturbing trend, one that does not reflect well on our industry and something that must change. A couple of months ago we blogged about this very issue. Allow us to dust off the old soapbox and step back up to the microphone:
“If the ultimate goal is to safely return the injured workers to the job at the lowest cost to the employers then results are all that matter. When case managers do their jobs properly and manage cases with that key goal in mind versus measuring success by the number of hours billed, employers take notice. Their filter for choosing the best resources is pretty simple—achieving the best outcome as safely and economically as possible.”
We don’t intend to play that game and know that in the log run, the pay for play behavior will be very much like the dinosaur exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History—once dominant but now, very much extinct!
