What Is Being Taught to Adjusters, Nurse Case Managers, Hr Representatives in Workers’ Compensation Cases?

I sent my marketing manager to attend a short seminar on October 10, 2019. The seminar was titled Georgia Workers' Compensation CEU Seminar. It was attended almost 100% by insurance people. No injured workers, no plaintiff lawyers, no one who would even remotely represent the interests of the worker were present.

One of the insurance lawyers who spoke at this Seminar was doing his best to coach the audience of adjusters, Nurse Case Manager and HR Representatives on the issue of return to work (after injury).

He was telling ALL who talk to the company doctors who are the first line of medical treatment of the injured worker, to ALWAYS tell the doctor there is light duty work available at the employee's place of business. Why would he give this advice? It is to allow the adjuster to stop the workers' compensation disability checks. This advice forces the worker to return to work possibly to an inappropriate job.

Did the insurance lawyer tell his audience to ask if light duty is available first? No. That would be the correct advice. All the lawyer was concerned with is giving the adjusters a way to stop the flow of disability benefits and pressure the injured worker.

Now the injured worker is likely to get fired for: “refusal to return to light duty work prematurely or returning to work and not being able to perform the “light” duty work.” (Which gives the employer an opportunity to fire the worker for failure to perform the job).

All the while, the Nurse Case Managers in the audience sat silently. Not one of them asked the question about whether light duty work was even available. These NCM's are lemmings. They work in collaboration with the adjuster to permanently end medical treatment and return workers to inappropriate work duties. The worker now gets mistreated by the company doctor, the NCM and the adjuster. No wonder the injured workers need legal representation.