After poring over five years of claims data from the Louisiana Workers’ Comp Corp., a nonprofit mutual insurance company, researchers at John Hopkins School of Medicine found that only 3.7% of physicians accounted for 72% of workers’ comp costs in the state.

These physicians were termed cost-intensive providers (CIPs).

Sure, most of you already knew some workers “doctor shop” — when an injured employee seeks out a doctor whose diagnosis will extend comp benefits — but you probably didn’t know the effects were this bad.

Among the findings about CIPs:

• Their average claim total was more than four times higher than other docs ($46,000 v. $11,000)
• Their claims took more than twice as long to settle (697 days v. 278), and
• 31% of CIPs total claims costs were more than $50,000 compared to just 13% for other docs.

Note: The majority of CIPs incurring high costs were involved in pain management.

The study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Members of the executive suite rarely have much time to spare, making it critical that you make your point fast.

Here’s a three-step strategy you can use to consistently grab execs’ attention quickly and garner a budgetary thumbs up:

Step 1: Stress the big-picture strategy

It’s essential to begin by showing the top brass that you’re thinking strategically about adding to the company’s bottom line.

One way: Research wellness programs companies similar to yours have used, and provide actual figures on how much they’ve saved on health care as a result of their wellness initiatives.

Step 2: Focus on the quick returns

The bottom-line concern of the top brass is just that: the bottom line.

So make sure you have solid numbers on when your new program will start to see a return on the company’s investment.

Example: If you’re proposing an investment in smoking cessation, provide research showing how companies with similar programs are seeing fewer medical claims in year one.

Step 3: Keep their attention

C-level execs usually aren’t all that interested in the small details of the program — plan design, administration issues, etc.

To keep their interest, only tell them the highlights of your plans.

Example: Tell them that you’ll reward wellness participants — but leave out details like who’ll keep track of those who participate.

1. How much time will the training take?

If you have an array of topics to cover, it’s best to only cover one or two per session to avoid overloading employees with too much info.

Tip: Set aside time at the end of each session so that employees can ask questions that’ll help the info sink in.

2. Should I create small groups or one-size-fits-all sessions?

It’s rare to find one type of training that’ll work for everyone.

When deciding between small sessions or larger ones, it’s important to keep in mind that smaller, more intimate sessions tend to help people connect better.

3. What type of medium should I use?

Not sure whether to go with a PowerPoint presentation or to take a more unconventional approach?

Consider switching between several different mediums (group discussions, computer training, etc.). It’ll keep people from thinking they’ve “been there, done that” and switching off during training sessions.

4. What will managers be asked?

Mangers are the first line of defense when it comes to answering employees’ questions.

Do they know enough to be able to answer any questions that come their way from employees? Test them to find out.

Tell us in the Comments Box below what you do to help benefits info sink in with employees.

A whopping 71% of employers say they expect higher healthcare costs in general if reform makes it out of Congress, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health.

Other findings:

• 69% of employers say it’ll boost the cost of their benefits programs, and
• 35% feel it’ll lead to fewer companies providing subsidized coverage.

Employees aren’t happy about it, either

Workers, too, are giving federal healthcare reform the cold shoulder.

According to a second survey by Towers Watson, employees feel reform would:

• result in higher benefit costs (67%)
• reduce available benefits (54%), and
• lower the quality of care (53%).

What’s your stance on federal healthcare reform? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has gone paperless this year, and all forms for the 2009 plan year must be filed electronically — no exceptions.

To help employers, the DOL has just launched its EFAST2 online filing system — and it’s ready to accept electronic submissions of Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF.

But there’s the rub: Using it requires an e-mail account, which according to recent reports, 20%-28% of small business owners (mostly older owners) still don’t have — leaving them vulnerable to steep fines.

Begin by looking at everyone else who touches claims, says Laura Clifford, owner of California-based Employers Fraud Task Force.

In a recent interview, Clifford said less than 10% of the comp fraud her firm’s uncovered was committed by employees.

The other 90% was committed by everyone else (lawyers, adjusters, bill review companies, etc.).

First step to take

What can employers do? One tactic Clifford says cuts down on fraud: Sit down with workers with an explanation of the benefits (EOB) they’ve received and go over it with them.

Reason: If just one injured worker looked at his EOB and said, “I only went to the doctor twice, not five times — like it says here,” then the employer could look at that doctor and see what other patients the doc has seen.

A whopping 72% of workers age 60 or older are putting off retirement because they feel they can’t afford to retire, according to a new Harris Interactive/CareerBuilder study.

And it appears women are more likely to stay on the job than men — 76% of women said they plan to work longer because they can’t afford to retire, compared to 68% of men who said they’ll stay in the workforce.

Luckily for most (71%) of those who want to keep working, they enjoy their job and don’t want to leave.

Some other reasons older works say they want to stay on the job:

• To collect health insurance or other additional benefits they need (50%)
• They think retirement will be too boring (24%), and
• They enjoy feeling needed (15%).

Westat recently performed an evaluation of E-Verify for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and estimated that the program’s “inaccuracy rate for unauthorized workers” is about 54%.

That means one out of every two unauthorized workers is slipping past the system.

The reason? Many unauthorized workers commit identity fraud that E-Verify cannot detect, found Westat.

As a result, the DHS has stated that it’s working to improve the program by adding more databases and a photo-screening tool, and stepping up efforts to detect identity fraud.

However, while there are still problems that need to be worked out, E-Verify’s accuracy has improved.

Westat’s evaluation found that 96% of all workers were screened accurately — correctly identifying 93.1% of people as being allowed to work in the U.S. and 2.9% as unauthorized. Some 3.3% were unauthorized workers mistaken for authorized ones, and 0.7% were individuals who could work in the U.S. but where originally identified as unauthorized.

What happened

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) went after Sears, Roebuck & Co., when the company terminated 235 former workers immediately following their return to work after being out on workers’ compensation leave.

Sears violated the ADA when it refused to provide reasonable accommodations to employees who were returning from workers’ comp leave, the EEOC said.

Result: Sears agreed to settle for $6.2 million, and each employee in the suit will receive around $26,300. That’s the largest total settlement in the history of the EEOC.

In addition, Sears improved its workers’ compensation leave process and posted notices regarding the decree, according to EEOC officials.

Do you think this settlement is fair? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Because the House added “pay as you go” budgetary provisions, it now goes back to the Senate for approval. But one of the main provisions made it through the House unscathed.

A payroll tax holiday

The bill would give employers that hire new workers a break from paying the 6.2% Social Security tax on new hires’ wages for 2010.

But there is one catch — to get the tax break, anyone hired must have been unemployed for 60 days or more. Plus, the new hire can’t be related to the business owner and must replace someone who leaves voluntarily or is terminated for cause.

The bill would also provide a $1,000 income tax credit in 2011 for every new employee who stays on the payroll for a least a year.

In a vote that look place largely along party lines, the bill passed by a narrow tally of 217-201. The Senate is expected to take it up again this week.

We’ll keep you posted.