One of our clients, Johns Hopkins, has published a COVID-19 real-time tracker. This is a great source for monitoring and analyzing the outbreak trends, and a few features are worth highlighting: 1) Daily Cases: The graph in the bottom right corner defaults to total Confirmed cases. This number will consistently trend up due to the formula
The new COVID-19 coronavirus has people scared. The prevailing belief seems to be this disease just recently hit Europe and the United States. However, this article from January 3, 2020 discusses the number of nationwide flu patients in Italy, with the worst hit areas mirroring places we now know have COVID-19 outbreaks. Some 225,000 people
I have followed the new coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak closely for some time now. Rising is making contingency plans for various situations and we will continue to monitor the situation. China would not take the draconian actions they did in Wuhan if this was not serious. This appears to be a real outbreak with some serious
We live in a risk-adverse culture. I see this professionally and even at home with one of my young daughters. She’s talented in many areas, but she’s exceptionally hard on herself when she can’t accomplish something right away. In these situations, she becomes discouraged to the point she stops trying. For a child, FAIL is
I was stunned to read in a recent WorkCompCentral article (subscription required) that only 38 of the 63 firms currently providing workers’ compensation utilization review (UR) services in California are URAC accredited. Per California Senate Bill 1160, the deadline for mandatory accreditation was July 1, 2018. WorkCompCentral’s reported figures on July 9 mean that 40
For more than a decade, taxpayer-funded health care programs have seen a steady uptick in higher-paying billing codes. Office visits, outpatient services, and emergency room care have all been billed at progressively higher reimbursement codes, raising fees by billions of dollars. Many providers contend the shift is the result of sicker patients coupled with the
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the United States is $78.5 billion a year. Most of that burden is related to workplace costs, such as lost productivity, prolonged time on disability, and increased work disability claim costs. To help combat this crisis, organizations
