Comp Summit 2010

Welcome! Comp Summit registration remains open throughout the day.

Breakfast is served from 7:00-9:00 a.m. on the Erickson Hall Veranda, which is the site for the Comp Summit EXPO. View a wide range of products and services for the workers' compensation community in Maine and enjoy coffee and conversation. With special thanks to: Port City, Riverview and Bay View Physical Therapy.

The following schedule is subject to change, so please check back from time to time for the latest updates.

A Morning with the Hearing Officers! A highlight of each Comp Summit, three workers' compensation hearing officers will provide tips on "what flies and what bombs" in the hearing room. A mock hearing format will help clarify some effective preparatory and procedural best practices. It will also demonstrate areas of agreement among the hearing officers on the substantive law and areas of the law that remain open to question. The session is of value for both the active players in the hearing process and anyone who wants a look at the system in action. And the audience will be encouraged to participate in the Q & A.

Hearing Officers: Evelyn Knopf, Glen Goodnough, and Tim Collier. Moderator: Doug Kaplan (Kaplan & Grant).

Program A-1.  Section 213 News: The Threshold at a Threshold? Maine law establishes that when an employee's permanent impairment reaches a certain threshold, that employee is entitled to lifetime partial benefits not subject to a durational cap. The adjustable threshold has been the subject of great debate in its interpretation, in the legislature, in rule-making before the Board, and in the Courts. This program looks at the statute and the current state of affairs in settling the section 213 debate, with a particular emphasis on data gathering.  

Presenters: John Rohde (Chief Counsel, Workers' Compensation Board), Kevin Gillis (Norman, Hanson & DeTroy), Jim Case (McTeague Higbee).

Program B-1. A 101 Course on Conditional Payment Reimbursements and Medicare Set-Asides. This class is a tutorial on the law designed to highlight the obligations of settling parties under the MSP and will offer a basic understanding of conditional payment reimbursements and set-asides for future Medicare-covered treatment. These areas have undergone some refinement of late, and there will be fresh information to discuss at Comp Summit concerning MSP dos and don'ts.

Presenters: Tom Hatchfield (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services - Boston) and Doris Champagne (Norman, Hanson & DeTroy).

Program C-1. Medical Open House. Our medical team will be assembled to provide workers' compensation triage to your nagging workplace injury issues. These doctors "on the hot seat" will walk you through case studies and take your questions on a wide range of issues, including medical information, causation, impairment rating, work capacity based on diagnosis, care standards, "should I pay for this," and information on medical trends, technology, and medications. 

Panelists: Al Mesrobian, MD (Occupational Health Associates of Maine) and Stephan Bamberger, MD (Medical Rehabilitation Associates)..

Program D-1/E-1. As the Comp World Turns: Is this Injury Work Related? For your consideration, we offer several cases of undetermined work-relatedness and trace those cases from injury through decision. You will observe an adjuster performing intake of the claims and see the factors she uses to determine whether to accept or deny. Then an advocate and defense counsel will duke it out at the hearing level with legal positions for and against the claims that have been denied. This session promises education, entertainment, and a look at some intriguing new compensability issues in Maine.

Presenters: Rita Bean (advocate, Workers' Compensation Board), Anne-Marie Storey (attorney, Rudman & Winchell), Tamii Rose (Acadia Insurance), and our guest role players.

Program A-2.  Is Psychiatric PI Driving You Crazy? This session will help you: 1) understand the law of permanent impairment and its handling of psychiatric impairment; 2) determine which cases qualify for inclusion as psychiatric impairment and which do not; and 3) discover how psychiatric impairment is rated under the 4th Edition of the AMA Guides and under the current case law. Presented in a combination lecture and case study format, this progam will touch upon the historical treatment of psychiatric impairment, recent developments, issues left open for debate, and seek audience input in evaluating the case studies.  

Presenters: Carlyle Voss, MD, Richard F. vanAntwerp and Darby Urey (Robinson Kriger & McCallum).

Program B-2.  Do the Codes Match the Diagnosis? Medical Bill Coding and File Review. Have you ever looked at a bill from a provider and wondered what those codes meant? Wondered why a specific billing code was used over another? Or wondered why there were so many codes for one procedure? Come discover the basics of medical bill coding, how to apply billing information when reviewing a file, and how to use them to manage your cases. The course is taught by hands-on applications and review of sample medical bills and records.

Presenters: Barbara Bate and Jane Crawford (co-founders of Northeast Life Care Planning).

Program C-2.  Organize an Award-Winning Wellness Program. This session outlines an effective, organized, data-driven approach to workplace wellness. Discover seven steps to wellness program design and identify what it takes to move your current wellness program to the next level. While we all know intuitively that targeting weight-management, inactivity, and smoking has a broad impact on employee health, you still must learn how to gather specific data to determine the programs that are right for you. This session helps you find the necessary resources in your community, generate management support for wellness, and structure and roll out effective programs and interventions.

Presenter: Dawn Poitros (from the Aroostook Medical Center's award-winning WELCOA Gold Level Award wellness program.)

Program D-2.  Addressing the Performance Issues of Injured Employees. This session offers a practical approach to dealing with everyday performance issues, rather than a lecture on workers' compensation law, the FMLA, or the ADA. It offers a combination of discussion groups, sample cases, and document interventions. Participants will learn how to: 1) articulate the impact of an employee's action and determine if that action is because of, or separate from, the injury; 2) determine when to intervene (for example, is it something you would also address with a non-injured worker); and 3) use a performance counseling tool to document the performance issue. 

Presenter: Cindy Cronkhite, SPHR (Director of St. Mary's WorkMed).

Program E-2.  What Does Work Search Really Mean? What does Maine's Workers' Compensation Act require of injured workers? Should injured workers be required to apply for and use unemployment benefits (to the advantage of the carrier) during periods of partial incapacity? What is the impact of the current job market in Maine on injured workers and their current and former employers? This session will look at creative ways for injured workers and employees to deal with challenging economic circumstances. 

Presenters: Sandra Osterby (advocate, Workers' Compensation Board) and Debra Reece (Rudman & Winchell).

Join us in the Pavillion for a delicious barbecue lunch hosted by: The Physician Network. Then visit with our EXPO participants who make so much of this conference possible.

The Healthcare Reform/Workers' Compensation Nexus. With more Americans covered by health insurance, will workers' compensation claim frequency increase or decline? What will be the effect of pending changes in Medicare's physician reimbursement methodology? As Medicaid expands, will there be more or less pressure on providers to shift costs to workers' compensation payers? And what about possible changes to Medicare Part D (Drug) program - how might those changes affect you? Join nationally-recognized workers' compensation expert Joe Paduda as he walks you through the early formulations for implementing healthcare reform and the potential impact on workers' compensation.

Presenter: Joe Paduda, Principal of Health Strategy Associates, LLC, in Madison, Connecticut. 

Join us on the Veranda for dessert and conversation. Last chance to enter the EXPO prize drawings!

Program A-3.  Legal Ethics 2010. This annual review not only allows Maine attorneys to earn credit towards the ethics component of continuing legal education, it also encourages a give-and-take on the ethical responsibilities of the Comp Bar. For consideration this year: "How do the new rules of professional responsibility affect workers' compensation practice?" This program discusses changes in practice protocols based on the new rules and a review of current cases. It will also consider the practical impact of these protocols and rules on claims management and the rights of injured workers.

Presenters: Jon Oxman (Linnell, Choate & Webber) and Richard Tucker (Tucker Law Group).

Program B-3.  Job Fit Analysis and Return to Work. This session is designed to train adjusters on certain ergonomic basics, identify low cost/high impact changes that will motivate employers and provide significant recovery opportunities to injured employees, and review what a doctor needs from the adjuster or RN to assist in a patient's safe recovery at work. This session is designed to get at the high costs associated with injured employees who aren't recovering at work and to help employers and employees get beyond their pre-conceived notions of the capabilities of an injured worker.

Presenters: Drew Rice (Director of Ergonomic Services, Windham Group) and Craig Curtis, MD (Medical Director, HealthWORKS).

Program C-3.  Early Intervention for Mental Illness and Depression. This session is based on recent survey data of Maine employers and employees. You will learn about the staggering productivity costs associated with mental illness and depression, the complex identification and support roles played by employers, and worksite mental health strategies developed through the Portland Identification and Early Referral Program. You also will discover specific outreach resources available to employers and employees/families concerning confidentiality, absenteeism, presenteeism, health care costs, and employee benefits.

Presenters: Anita Ruff, MPH (Program Manager, PIER Program) and Thomas Downing, MSB (Director, MMC Lifeline Workplace Wellness Program). 

Program D-3. Navigating the 4 C's of Workers' Compensation. Learn how to develop and utilize workers' compensation milestone metrics and interpret injury claim developments. Connect your workers’ comp policies to strategic organizational goals. Develop and execute communication strategies and broker partnerships with the players in the workers’ comp system: safety, insurance, and legal. And, avoid common pitfalls and problems when dealing with employees, medical providers, adjusters and even managers and company leaders.

Presenters: Clark Phinney (Safety Director, Maine Oxy) and Jennifer Messinger, RN (Occupational Health & Safety, Maine Medical Partners).

Program E-3. Employment Rehabilitation: Returning Injured Workers to Suitable Employment. In the last ten years, scant evidence exists to show that section 217 is being utilized by interested parties. We will examine the reasons for this under-utilization of vocational rehabilitation and look at the ways section 217 is still beneficial for recapturing lost earning capacity. We'll examine employment trends in Maine, work capacity vs. earning capacity, the case law, job replacement as employment rehabilitation, retraining tools, and the availability of the Employment Rehabilitation Fund.

Presenter: Mark Wood (Advocate, Workers' Compensation Board), Ben DeTroy (Leary & DeTroy), Sue Jerome (Hearing Officer, Workers' Compensation Board), and Nelson Larkins (Preti Flaherty).

Hors d'oeuvres and EXPO Prizes! Enjoy a delicious array of hors d'ouevres, great conversation, and  prizes from our exhibitors! Thank you reception sponsor: Patriot Underwriters, Inc.

Dinner is on your own. Enjoy some of the best dining in Maine, from simple pub fare and seafood to elegant continental selections at restaurants in Camden, Lincolnville, Rockport and Belfast. Your registration confirmation package will include information on all your options.

Join us in the Foyer for an evening with friends and fine music with Midcoast piano man Lincoln Blake.