Psychosocial Screening

Psychosocial Screening – ID the Risk early in Return to Work

Psychosocial screening early in the Return to Work process is critical to understand factors that impact injured workers. These factors play a critical role in the ability of injured or ill workers to recover in a timely way. They also make transitioning back to meaningful work difficult. Clinicians call this the biopsychosocial model of illness.

Biopsychosocial Model of Illness

Psychosocial Screening - Biopsychosocial Model of Illness

The model has been thoroughly researched and the statistics are numerous and compelling. First of all, mental illness in general is highly prevalent. One in five Americans suffer from a mental illness each year and the condition is responsible for 62% of missed work days. Of course the stresses of injury/illness exacerbate any pre-existing mental disorders.

As a result, these issues represent the number one barrier to successful claim outcomes, according to Rising Medical Solution’s 2016 benchmarking study. This study also indicated that psychosocial issues drive up medical costs far more than catastrophic injuries, mostly due to delayed recovery.

A Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine article revealed that workers with emotional distress, such as pain catastrophizing and activity avoidance, were seven times less likely than those in a lower-risk group to return to work within three months.

Consequently the early identification and mitigation of psychosocial risks is a priority in every lost-time claim. MyAbilities has a validated screening tool that is easy to use. This tool is built into MyAbilities’ ClaimX return-to-work platform.

Psychosocial Screening Questionnaire

Psychosocial Screening

We have adapted and automated a simple 13-question “yellow flag” screening tool which can be administered online. The responses instantly produce a quantified risk score indicating whether the claimant is at high, medium or low risk of psychosocial barriers to timely recovery.

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly known as the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), the premier rehabilitation facility in the U.S., has applied the questionnaire successfully. Additionally, Marwan Baliki, PhD., and Rami Jabakhanji, PhD, researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, validated the questionnaire.

The report makes evidence-based recommendations for optimal psychosocial interventions. They are customized based on the pattern of claimant responses in the screening questionnaire.

Supported by Research

Has research confirmed the value of this type of approach to claim management? Yes, without any doubt.

Researchers have completed numerous studies and analysed outcomes. Therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy have consistently demonstrated higher rates and shorter durations for Return to Work. Claim costs have been reduced by up to 50%. There is less utilization of medical treatments such as injections, imaging, physical therapy and surgery. ODG, a MyAbilities partner, recommends these treatment approaches.

Summary – The Importance of Psychosocial Screening

In summary, Myabilities offers a comprehensive, automated and proven methodology for the assessment and management of psychosocial comorbidities in the face of occupational or non-occupational claims. The tool identifies higher risk claims and makes recommendations on treatment. Learn more about how we expedite Return to Work here or click the Talk to an Expert button below.

Dr. Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP

Jake is the Chief Medical Officer for MyAbilities, and has over 35 years of senior medical administration/managed care experience.

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March 11, 2020 Medical and Claims Management, MyAbilities, Psychosocial, Return to Work Comments Off on Psychosocial Screening – ID the Risk early in Return to Work
Return to Work

Return to Work Expedited with MyAbilities

How is Return to Work expedited? MyAbilities recognized that the Return to Work (RTW) process for many employers and their claims managers has not fundamentally changed in decades. MyAbilities developed a new process to help expedite RTW over the last 3 years. The goals are to get employees back to work faster and to reduce the administrative burden and remove road blocks for the RTW specialist.

JobX Digital Job Profiles for Return to Work

JobX for Return to Work

At the heart of the process is the JobX Digital Job Profile (DJP). To learn more about its broader uses, refer to my earlier article here. Suffice it to say that clearly and quickly identifying the demands of the job is the fundamental first step in making a determination on the ability of the person to return to work.

In early pilots, using the JobX DJP database of over 50,000 job titles, we have seen a reduction in time required to get an approved Job Profile. The result? The average reduced from 22 business days down to 9. An employer approved one DJP in less than 30 minutes!

Return to work expedited with just one step!

Determine Causation, Occ vs Non-Occ

Causation Report
The Output from a causation report

The next step provides claims managers with an objective tool to determine compensability. A detailed questionnaire based on the specific injury guides the user through a process that assigns a score to occupational and non-occupational factors. The claims handler makes a defensible decision. Is the claim covered by workers compensation or disability insurance?

Psychosocial factors in Return to Work

There are standard guidelines for treatment and recovery times. However, the recovery time has wide variability that cannot be explained by the physical injury alone.

To help understand if there are psychosocial factors that may complicate the recovery process, MyAbilities has a psychosocial questionnaire built in.

Users identify higher risk cases based on their score. The claims manager can then address these cases with the healthcare team to the benefit of both the employee and the employer.

(Read more about psychosocial impacts here)

The power of digital = Job Matching

In the last step, the true value of having JobX Digital Job Profiles shows itself. The system generates a Functional Abilities questionnaire. The form can be quickly filled in online by clinicians and is based on the specific demands of the pre-injury job.

Once the form is completed, job matching can be done to the JobX DJP and any areas of limitation or restriction are flagged. If there are none, the employee is ready to return to work. If there are, can the employer modify the job to address those issues? Or if a database of other jobs has been created, is there another job at the employer that the person can return to?

Job-matching makes identification easy in a quick and easy to view interface. The goal is to get the injured worker back to work as quickly as possible. This could be to their pre-injury job, a modified duty job or another one in the employer’s database.

Summary

Leverage 21st century tools to expedite Return to Work. Online, big data and matching algorithms make MyAbilities a unique solution for a difficult process.

This powerful tool revolutionizes management of the return to work process. To learn more, visit myabilities.com/lifecycle or talk to one of our experts to see if this solution can work for you. Finally, for further reading, click here, or to learn more about MyAbilities, visit our website.

Dr. Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP
Dr. Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP

Jake is the Chief Medical Officer for MyAbilities, and has over 35 years of senior medical administration/managed care experience.

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March 6, 2020 Medical and Claims Management, MyAbilities, Return to Work Comments Off on Return to Work Expedited with MyAbilities

Use Collaboration, Technology for ADA Compliance and Positive Return to Work Outcomes

May 28, 2019 BY AMAXX / Michael B. Stack

Returning an injured worker to the job before he’s physically ready can be a nightmare. The last thing an employer wants to do is put the employee at risk of reinjury.

On the other hand, waiting to bring an employee back until he is 100 percent recovered prolongs the number of lost work days and impedes the worker’s recovery. Reinjuries, as well as extended disability durations both, add costs to the claim.

What’s needed is an accurate depiction of the physical requirements of a job, along with a deep understanding of exactly what the injured worker is physically able to do or not do. Armed with such information, the employer can make the best decisions for the injured worker and the organization.

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May 28, 2019 Medical and Claims Management, Return to Work Comments Off on Use Collaboration, Technology for ADA Compliance and Positive Return to Work Outcomes

Video Kinematics Produces Physical Job Demand Descriptions on Steroids

March 26, 2019 BY AMAXX / Michael B. Stack

How familiar are you with the physical demands of every job in your company? That may sound like a loaded question, but the more understanding you have of each job, the better you’ll be at preventing injuries, reducing workers’ compensation costs and improving your bottom line.

However, many companies face the challenge of lack of time or resources to do a thorough and complete job of developing a physical demands database. The development of technology and artificial intelligence now makes this easy.

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March 26, 2019 Medical and Claims Management, Research Comments Off on Video Kinematics Produces Physical Job Demand Descriptions on Steroids

Claim and Medical Management in MyAbilities

Written by Jacob Lazarovic, MD, FAAFP, MyAbilities Chief Medical Officer

MyAbilities is an innovative new integrated platform which, at its core, offers employers an opportunity to create a database of comprehensive,objective digital job profiles (DJPs) describing the functional characteristics of every job type at their company. This offers an employer key benefits including more efficient hiring and training practices, ergonomic improvements aimed at mitigating higher-risk physical demands, and a wide array of preventive and fitness applications, designed to “harden” employees’ capacity to better sustain their current job activities without injury . This product allows employers to better manage their valuable human resources, and to do so using state-of-the -art technologies such as video kinematics and artificial intelligence.

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April 19, 2018 Medical and Claims Management Comments Off on Claim and Medical Management in MyAbilities

Ontario Court Confirms Employer Can Request IME

Written by E.C. Carla Zabek, Barrister & Solicitor, Mediator & Facilitator, Human Rights & Workplace Investigator

The Divisional Court ruled that in appropriate circumstances, an employer can request an employee to submit to an independent medical assessment (IME) as part of the accommodation process.  In this case, the employer, a school board, received conflicting medical reports which were only five months apart from the employee’s treating psychiatrist.  In June 2012, the psychiatrist’s report noted that the employee’s condition was resistant to treatment, that he would likely have a relapse if he returned to work and that he required a further extended period of time off work.  At this time, the employee had already been off work for approximately two years.  In August 2012, the same psychiatrist reported that the employee could return to work with restrictions on a lengthy work-hardening protocol.  The employer questioned the veracity of the August 2012 report, especially since the timing was suspicious, given the employee’s salary was about to come to an end.  For that reason, the employer requested that the employee attend an IME.  Initially, the employee agreed to the request but later refused to attend on the basis that the employer was requesting information to which it was not entitled, including a diagnosis.  The employee filed an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) alleging that the employer had failed in its duty to accommodate the employee in his return to work.  The HRTO dismissed the application, finding that the employer acted in good faith in its attempts accommodate the employee.  The employee then judicially reviewed the decision.  The Court found that the HRTO’s decision was reasonable:

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April 19, 2018 Medical and Claims Management, MyAbilities Comments Off on Ontario Court Confirms Employer Can Request IME

Unlocking the potential of your Physical Demands Descriptions

Welcome to MyAbilities! My name is Mike Sonne, and I am the Vice President of Innovations and Research. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of MyAbilities, and develop new, well-researched ergonomics tools, that will make workers lives better.

I have worked in ergonomics for the past 10 years, where I completed doctoral research on automotive manufacturing ergonomics, and a masters thesis on developing developed the Rapid Office Strain Assessment. After nearly 2 years of engineering, the MyAbilities team is excited to be bringing you our platform’s first offering – the digital job profiling and physical demands analysis tool. Every ergonomist probably started their career conducting physical demands analyses – the process of meticulously detailing every demand of a job. With a good PDA database, your company builds up a cook book of the physical requirements needed to perform the individual recipes of jobs in your organization.

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April 19, 2018 Ergonomics, Medical and Claims Management, Research Comments Off on Unlocking the potential of your Physical Demands Descriptions
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