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Workers’ comp industry focuses on recovery support to cut costs

The article argues that reducing workers’ comp non-medical recovery support gaps, rather than changing medical treatment components, can shorten time to return to work and lower total claim costs.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Liability Insurance

Risk & Insurance publishes the fifth and final piece in a series examining why workplace-injury recoveries can take too long and why workers’ compensation costs remain high. The author says early efforts to improve the recovery experience through education and peer-to-peer support ran into a business priority: decision-makers first asked what such programs would cost and what return on investment they would deliver. The piece describes the approach as using the author’s book, The Optimized Patient, after an invitation from Brian Allen to build a novel recovery model.

The article argues that the most effective lever to reduce workers’ comp costs is improving recovery treatment, not the medical treatment components of the workers’ comp system. It frames recovery treatment as strategies and activities that support injury treatment and hasten return to work or return to baseline activity.

It distinguishes recovery treatment from injury treatment, explaining that injury treatment targets underlying pathology, such as torn ligaments, herniated discs, or damaged rotator cuffs, with the goal of healing or stabilizing the injury. The author cites reviewed research suggesting this distinction highlights a structural problem in how the system pays for and manages care.

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