Insights
Five Questions With Shahin Hatamian on How to Incorporate More Automation in the Claims Process
5 MIN READ
We sat down with Mitchell Senior Vice President, Shahin Hatamian, to discuss how claims organizations can utilize automation to help expedite processes, thus enhancing overall efficiency and helping claims organizations to better achieve their business goals.
Impact of COVID-19 on Workers’ Compensation and Auto Casualty Industries
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues worldwide, our daily lives have changed significantly. Due to new governmental regulations and guidelines to help curb the spread of the virus, many people are working from home, practicing social distancing, sheltering in place and unfortunately, many people have already lost their jobs. As we grapple with how the virus has impacted our daily lives, we are also taking a closer look at how the pandemic and related regulations are already, and will continue to, affect the workers’ compensation and auto casualty industries.
Why Use Antidepressants to Treat Pain?
2 MIN READ
Why use antidepressants to treat pain? The nation’s focus on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stricter guidelines on opioid prescribing has led to an increased utilization of non-opioid pain treatments in workers’ compensation. In a previous blog post, we looked at the use of anticonvulsants to treat pain because of their ability to create effective pain relief without the cravings, tolerance, or addiction issues that are typically associated with narcotics. Another therapeutic class commonly used to treat chronic pain is antidepressants, which may even be prescribed when depression is not a diagnosed condition for the injured worker.
Topical Medications in Workers' Compensation and Auto Casualty
3 MIN READ
This article is part of our ongoing Quarterly Drug Update series. View our last article on gabapentinoids. Topical medications are an important part of care in the workers’ compensation and auto casualty industries, providing relief for patients in pain. In the past few years, the variety of available topical medications has increased, which has also driven up the number of prescriptions, particularly for new analgesic and local anesthetic drugs. While this variety allows for greater choice, many of the new branded medications are very expensive.
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Workers’ Comp
3 MIN READ
PTSD typically starts with exposure to a critical incident. In order to meet the definition of PTSD, symptoms must last 30 days or more and disrupts normal life pursuits. It results from violation of expectations, deeply held beliefs, core beliefs such as belief in a just and fair world, need to trust others, self-esteem-self efficacy, and need for predictable and safe world.
The Realization of Claims Virtualization
Five years ago, if someone mentioned “claims virtualization,” it most likely referred to an insurance carrier’s mobile application, or possibly just conjured visions of VR goggles used for high-tech simulations. These days however, the idea of virtual claims handling, or as Lexis Nexis1 defines it, “photo or video estimating in which no insurance employee physically inspects the vehicle,” has firmly taken hold with touchpoints from First Notice of Loss to Total Loss and all points in between.
The Impact of Calibration Needs on Collision Repair
With the increasing ubiquity of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), comes the increasing need for systems to be properly calibrated to ensure proper functionality after a repair has taken place. In many instances, calibrations are required simply because there is damage in the general area of a particular component, even if it wasn’t directly impacted by the collision event.