Protecting workers from electronic monitoring, tracking, and management

Automated technological tools are being deployed to monitor, surveil, manage workers, and defend workers’ compensation claims. The Biden Administration has focused on this issue and requested information to create an advanced understanding of these tools' design, deployment, prevalence, and impacts.

Is ChatGPT Ready to Write Workers’ Compensation Decisions?

Artificial intelligence (AI) programs have become an exciting new Internet phenomenon. Initially launched to generate graphics, the programs have rapidly emerged as Internet research's most significant development of the last twenty years.

Surveillance drones: Coming soon to Nebraska workers’ compensation?

Today's guest author is Jon Rehm, Esq. of the Nebraska bar.

Last summer Brody posted about the possibility of drone surveillance in workers’ compensation cases in Nebraska. Some new developments lead me to believe that drone surveillance of injured workers in Nebraska may be coming soon.

Technology - Efficiency - Uniform Procedure

For decades the NJ Workers' Compensation administrative law system has had to adapt to meet the social, political, economic and technological changes of a changing world. The well thought-out proposals by the NJ State Bar Association (NJSBA) are a starting point to the beginning of a new wave of discussion and change.

Made by a robot...driven by a computer

The workers' compensation scheme is being challenged to potential extinction by the workplace in which it was created decades ago. Stressed by economic challenges that have been fueled by globalization and technology, workers' compensation benefit programs are now being dismantled by historic reforms that attack the core philosophical  principles of its very existence. 

The evolving dynamic of the world's automobile industry provides a focus on the new economy where goods are made by robots and operated by a computer.

Reshaping Workers’ Compensation for the Sharing Economy

The most dramatic factor in re-shaping the future of workers’ compensation is that we now have a sharing economy,  Quietly, over the decades, “work” has been influenced dramatically by the Millennial Generation. As the sharing generation reinvents the economy, the element of “trust” will have the most important impact in the direction of social legislative programs such as workers’ compensation.

It is not "How," It is "When"

Judge David Langham wrote a very enlightening blog post today about how advancing technology is impacting the world and more particularly the workers' compensation arena. As usual, he is right on target with the issue that is going to have the most influence over our changing world.

The Judge mentioned the advent of driverless technology. Ironically, it is national Distracted Driving Awareness Month. If you are driving about the State of New York with a phone in your hand you'll most likely get a ticket for sure this week. The driverless car is already under development with a target for production by major corporations such as Apple by the year 2020. In California Google already has test vehicles on the road.

Doctor On Demand Raises $21 Million as Telemedicine Heats Up

Medical delivery is constantly changing in light of new technology. Workers' compensation insurance carriers could possibly implement thisdeliver system in an effort to contain costs. Today's post is shared from recode.net

Doctor On Demand, one of the growing number of companies offering physician consultations via mobile video chat, has raised $21 million. Venrock led the Series A round, with participation from Shasta Ventures and Virgin Group Chairman Sir Richard Branson. On top of the financing news, Doctor On Demand said: Venrock Partner Bryan Roberts joined the company’s board, the $40-per-visit service is now available on desktop computers and Comcast will offer it to U.S. employees. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is a minority investor in Re/code.)

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Genetic Tester to Stop Providing Data on Health Risks

Genetic testing of employees has been a concern of legislators over the last decade. Just when, one thinks the problem is contained, technology and the Internet emerge with new and critical issues. Do-it-yourself genetic testing creates new issues even more challenging than before. Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

Bowing to the Food and Drug Administration, the genetic testing service 23andMe said Thursday that it would stop providing consumers with health information while its test undergoes regulatory review. The decision was in response to a warning letter sent by the agency two weeks ago saying that the genetic test was a medical device that requires approval. “We remain firmly committed to fulfilling our long-term mission to help people everywhere have access to their own genetic data and have the ability to use that information to improve their lives,” Anne Wojcicki, the chief executive of 23andMe, said in a statement Thursday evening. “Our goal is to work cooperatively with the F.D.A. to provide that opportunity in a way that clearly demonstrates the benefit to people and the validity of the science that underlies the test.” The company will continue to take orders for new tests but will provide only ancestry information and raw data, without interpretations of the health implications. It said it might resume providing health data if it receives regulatory approval. 23andMe sought approval of certain of its tests in 2012 but did not provide information the F.D.A. required. After the company began advertising on television, the agency ordered it to stop marketing its test. The company then halted advertising, apparently hoping that it could stop “marketing” but continue selling. But it appears that regulators did not buy that...

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Has the Internet Raised or Lowered Healthcare Costs?

The next trip to see the company doctor my be by computer. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Matt Yglesias writes about the awesome power of information technology to diagnose illnesses and save a trip to the doctor: I was having a kind of weird problem with my left thumb over the course of the past few days....Finally I figured out that it looked to me like an infection of the cuticle....That brought me to a Wikipedia page...."paronychia"....led to a bit more Googling....typically happens to habitual fingernail biters (guilty) or people who've recently been in the water a lot (swimming pool on vacation). Everyone basically agrees that this isn't a huge deal and that you can obtain some physical relief by occasionally soaking the thumb in hot water while waiting for it to clear up. I took that advice starting yesterday morning, and today I feel a lot better....So there we have it. In a small but real way, information technology reduced the cost of this particular health care service. Productivity for the win. Obviously there are lots of things we aren't going to treat in this way, but I'm quite optimistic that information technology in the health care sector is going to do us a lot of good.

Florida's Pace is Impressive

David Langham is the Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida

Florida's statistical report for case disposition of workers’ compensation claims is very impressive.

" In 2006, the Florida OJCC averaged 485 days between the filing of a petition and the beginning of trial. In 2012, the average was 166 days. In 2006, the Florida OJCC averaged 212 days between petition filing and the first mediation. In 2012, that average was just 88 days. Along the way, the OJCC leveraged technology, brought innovation to the attorneys and other interested parties, and deployed multiple processes that enhanced transparency and therefore efficiency." 

The data was reported by David Langham is the Deputy Chief Judge of Compensation Claims for the Florida Office of Judges of Compensation Claims and Division of Administrative Hearings.

To really be impressed, click here to read the Annual Report of the Office of Judges of Compensation 2012.Not only were the statistics demonstrating movement faster than a bullet train, but the transparency of information was stellar.

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Facebook Makes an Appearance in Workers' Compensation Court

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, have now become informational sources that workers' compensation lawyers are now utilizing for evidentiary purposes. The question that remains unanswered is how information obtained through social networking sites can be admitted and utilized as evidence.

In a recently published article, Law School Professor Gregory M. Duhl and attorney Jaclyn S. Millner, focus on the issues of professional responsibility, discovery, privacy and evidence when social networking factors integrate with a workers's compensation proceeding. Since the compensation system is theoretically no-fault and the evidentiary system is informal, the authors theorize that the workers' compensation arena will act as a fertile ground for experimentation in the legal application of this new technology. 

Social networking site have experienced a surge in use. Web users spend more time on Facebook now than on Google.  Workers' Compensation judges are  also increasing their use of social networking sites.

Text, photos and commentary, shared among the social network, will provide a new avenue of factual discovery that may assist the decision maker in reaching an evaluation of the claim. The authors review the professional responsibilities of attorneys to their clients in advising them of the potential benefits and hazards of social networking, as well as  their  strategy for preparing text and photographic material into evidence. They conclude that lawyers handling workers' compensation matters need to be educated on how to properly utilize facts and opinions gathered from the social networking system.

Duhl, Gregory M. and Millner, Jaclyn S., Social Networking and Workers’ Compensation Law at the Crossroads (September 2010). Pace Law Review, Vol. 31; William Mitchell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-16. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1675026

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For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman 1.973.696.7900
 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational illnesses. Author NJ Workers Compensation Law (West).

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