The News You Need for Dec. 3

We look at the coach role in workers' compensation, what expert testimony should cost in Florida, and making the shift from hospital to home for a recovering worker.

Guiding Growth: The Coach Role in Workers’ Compensation for a Supportive and Empowered Recovery

Dr. Claire C. Muselman

The final role in the Empowerment Circle is the Coach. While the Challenger drives accountability and resilience, the Coach provides guidance, support, and encouragement. The Coach's role is relief in the workers' compensation system, offering injured workers the direction and emotional support they need to navigate their recovery journey with a sense of security and reassurance.?

In this article, we will explore the importance of the Coach role, how it benefits injured workers and claims adjusters, and specific strategies that claims teams and employers can use to adopt a coaching mindset in their interactions.?

Understanding the Coach Role: Support with Empowerment?

Unlike the Rescuer in the Drama Triangle, who takes over problems and creates dependency, the Coach in the Empowerment Circle supports growth by helping individuals find their solutions. The Coach believes in the person's ability to succeed and guides them to help the person do so independently. The focus is not on solving problems for the injured worker but rather on helping them develop the skills, confidence, and resilience to handle challenges independently.?

For injured workers in the claims process, the Coach role means having a supportive partner who listens, provides helpful feedback, and encourages self-discovery. Essential qualities of a Coach include active listening, guidance without control, encouragement and motivation. Coaches listen attentively to understand the individual’s needs, challenges, and goals, allowing them to offer more personalized guidance. Coaches guide by asking questions that help the injured worker discover solutions rather than telling them what to do. Coaches celebrate progress, motivate persistence, and recognize effort, boosting morale and reinforcing a positive outlook. Coaches offer a sense of relief when they build trust with an injured worker as it helps the recovery process blossom into success.??

How the Coach Role Benefits the Workers' Compensation Process?

The presence of a Coach within the claims process offers numerous advantages to injured workers, claims professionals, and employers alike. A Coach-driven approach builds trust, fosters resilience, and encourages self-reliance, all of which contribute to a more positive and efficient recovery experience. For claims adjusters and employers, the Coach role can lead to improved communication, increased job satisfaction, and a more supportive work environment. Here are some ways the Coach role benefits everyone involved:?

• Promotes Empowerment and Self-Advocacy: Coaches empower injured workers to take control of their recovery journey. By helping them understand their treatment options, ask the right questions, and advocate for their needs, Coaches ensure injured workers are active participants rather than passive care recipients, fostering a sense of independence and capability.?

• Enhances Communication and Trust: When injured workers feel heard and supported, they’re more likely to trust the claims process and follow through with treatment recommendations. A coaching approach opens lines of communication, allowing for open dialogue, which can alleviate anxieties and misunderstandings.?

• Fosters Emotional Resilience: Recovery can be a stressful and emotional journey, and having a Coach who encourages can make a significant difference. Coaches validate injured workers' experiences, helping them manage frustrations and setbacks with a positive outlook.?

• Encourages Skill Development: A good Coach focuses on helping injured workers develop coping skills, stress management strategies, and self-confidence. These skills aid recovery and empower injured workers with tools they can carry into other areas of their lives.?

Strategies for Employers and Claims Adjusters to Implement the Coach Role?

Adopting the Coach role within workers' compensation involves a shift from directive communication to a more supportive, inquiry-based approach. Claims adjusters and employers can implement coaching strategies in several ways to create a more empowering claims process.?

• Ask open-ended questions. Instead of providing solutions, encourage injured workers to think through their challenges. For instance, a claims adjuster might ask, "What steps do you think would help you meet this goal?" or "How can we support you in making this part of your recovery easier?" These types of questions promote independent thinking and problem-solving.?

• Practice empathy and patience. Coaching requires empathy and a willingness to meet people where they are. Listen without judgment, acknowledge their feelings, and offer reassurance to show understanding of the injured worker's frustrations or fears. Patience allows individuals to work through emotions and challenges at their own pace, creating a sense of safety and trust.?

• Celebrate progress, not just outcomes. Recognize injured workers' big and small achievements. For instance, if an injured worker attends all their therapy sessions for the month, acknowledge their commitment and consistency. This positive reinforcement motivates them to keep going and demonstrates that every step in the recovery process matters.?

• Provide constructive feedback and gentle guidance. When challenges arise, provide supportive rather than critical feedback. For example, suggest alternative approaches or adjustments if an injured worker struggles with a part of their treatment plan. Gentle guidance helps injured workers feel capable and supported rather than judged.?

Moving from Rescuer to Coach: Empowering Independence, Not Dependency?

Transitioning from the Rescuer role to the Coach requires a fundamental shift in perspective—from doing for others to guiding them in doing for themselves. The Coach believes in the potential of others and focuses on empowering them to take ownership of their recovery. This change can transform workers' compensation, where injured workers often feel disempowered.?

Key components of this transition include:?

• Avoid Solving Problems for the Injured Worker: Rather than immediately offering solutions, encourage the injured worker to explore their options and identify potential solutions. This reflection process helps them develop problem-solving skills and confidence in their decision-making abilities.?

• Balance Support with Independence: In a coaching approach, providing enough support to ensure the injured worker feels capable is essential, but not so much that it becomes controlling. Give them the space to apply what they've learned, even if they sometimes stumble. This balance fosters independence and self-confidence.?

• Empower the Injured Worker's Voice: The Coach's role is to value the injured worker's voice, asking questions that allow them to share their opinions and preferences. Instead of prescribing a specific path forward, the Coach asks, "What approach feels most manageable for you right now?" This approach ensures the injured worker feels heard, respected, and integral to recovery.?

Creating a Coaching Culture in Workers' Compensation?

A culture built around the Coach role emphasizes growth, resilience, and mutual respect. When claims adjusters, employers, and others in the workers' compensation process adopt a coaching mindset, they create a supportive and empowering environment where injured workers feel valued and motivated. A coaching-centered culture looks like:?

• Encourage Active Participation: Encourage questions and input to empower injured workers to participate actively in their recovery. When injured workers feel their voices matter, they are more likely to commit to their treatment and invest in recovery.?

• Foster Collaborative Problem-Solving: Create a space where injured workers feel comfortable discussing challenges. Collaborative problem-solving helps to identify creative solutions and reinforces that recovery is a team effort.?

• Value Long-Term Well-Being Over Short-Term Fixes: While achieving short-term milestones is important, a coaching culture prioritizes the injured worker's long-term well-being. This perspective supports sustainable recovery practices, setting up injured workers for success beyond the immediate claims process.?

• Build Trust Through Consistent Support: The Coach provides steady, reliable support, which builds trust over time. Trust is the foundation of effective coaching, allowing injured workers to feel secure and confident in overcoming challenges.?

Embracing the Coach Role for a Positive Recovery Journey?

Employers and claims adjusters can create an environment where injured workers feel guided, supported, and empowered by embracing the coach role. This role is essential in helping injured workers navigate recovery's physical and emotional challenges, fostering resilience, and promoting personal growth. The Coach approach transforms the workers' compensation experience from a transactional process into a journey that values the individual, emphasizing guidance over control, support over dependency, and growth over compliance. When employers and claims adjusters adopt a coaching mindset, injured workers can take ownership of their recovery, develop valuable life skills, and feel genuinely supported.?

The Coach role rounds out the Empowerment Circle, adding depth to how injured workers and claims professionals engage in recovery. When all three roles—Creator, Challenger, and Coach—are applied thoughtfully, they create a comprehensive framework for positive, empowering, and transformative interactions in workers' compensation.?

In our final article, we reflect on the Empowerment Circle, examining the long-term benefits of adopting these roles in the workers' compensation process and how they contribute to healthier, more resilient interactions. These roles provide a blueprint for building a compassionate, effective, and empowering approach to supporting injured workers.?

Expert’s $1,500 Deposition Rate Violates Law, but doesn’t Limit Admissibility of Testimony

Frank Ferreri

Case File

When a claimant tried to use a statutory limit on expert witness fees to keep testimony out of a workers compensation proceeding, he learned that the money charged could go to questions of credibility but that the testimony could be considered by the OJCC. Simply Research subscribers have access to full text of the decision.

Case

Rivera v. Publix Super Markets Inc., No. 21-02131RAA (Fla. OJCC 11/22/24).

What Happened

A supermarket obtained an independent medical evaluation for an employee claiming an injury sustained a work, and the doctor performing it charged $1,500 for his one-hour deposition regarding the IME, which was above the $200 statutory limit under Florida law.

The employee moved to strike the testimony in the case before the Judge of Compensation Claims.

Rule of Law

The statute that sets forth the $200 limit that experts in Florida may charge per hour for giving deposition testimony does not set forth a penalty for violating the statute.

What the OJCC Said

According to the OJCC, excluding testimony for violating the statute on limitations of costs for experts testifying during would contradict the intent of the state legislature that cases be decided on their merits.

Regarding the employee's case, the OJCC pointed out that the employee was aware of the doctor's report and deposition, and his attorney attended the deposition and examined the doctor.

"The rate charged by the doctor does not prejudice the claimant as he will not be required to pay the excess fee if the employer/ carrier becomes the prevailing party," the OJCC wrote. "The employer/carrier did not act in bad faith in paying the requested rate for the deposition, and allowing the testimony will not disrupt the efficient trial of the case."

However, the OJCC did note that the amount charged by the doctor for his evaluation and testimony would be considered when determining the credibility of the doctor's opinions and the weight given to them.

"The employer/carrier paid [the doctor] over $11,000.00 for his evaluation and testimony," the court wrote. "Such a hefty amount paid for the doctor's opinions and testimony raises a significant question as to their credibility."

Case Examples:

Marton v. Florida Hosp. Ormond Beach/Adventist Health System, 98 So. 3d 754 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2012) -- The statute that limits the amount expert witnesses may charge also limits what a non-prevailing party must reimburse the prevailing party.

Suarez v. Steward Enterprises, 164 So. 3d 132 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2015) -- An expert could not charge a claimant $750 per hour to go forward with deposition testimony as doing so would result in irreparable harm.

Takeaway

The limits on what expert witnesses may charge to provide deposition testimony do not apply so as to make testimony inadmissible for charges beyond the statutory limit of $200 per hour.

Hospital Discharge Planning Ensures a Successful Transition Home

Donita Stacker, Director of Operations, Apricus Inc , an Enlyte company

Prior to leaving the hospital, injured employees need a well-organized plan to ensure a successful transition home. This plan should include arrangements for essential services like durable medical equipment (DME), home health care, transportation and diagnostic services, especially in cases involving complex injuries.

Without a well-defined strategy for a seamless transition home, an injured employee may face difficulties in self-care, transportation issues for appointments, and increased frustration with their situation. These challenges can lead to safety risks, potential readmission and delays in recovery and return to work.

With proper support, transitioning from the hospital to home or a facility can be seamless. Home health providers are crucial in aiding injured employees who need in-home care or adjustments to their daily routines following a work injury. Transportation services ensure that these individuals reach their destinations safely. Additionally, DME plays a crucial role in securing the necessary equipment and services required for the injured employee’s recovery at home and throughout their rehabilitation journey.?

To lighten the workload for adjusters and case managers, it’s crucial to promptly delegate care coordination to a specialty solution provider. This includes organizing the essential products and services mentioned above, such as timely home health care and transportation services. Partnering with a specialty solution provider and their hospital discharge coordinators streamline the discharge planning process, minimizing the burden on adjusters and case managers.

Before a hospital discharge occurs, a care coordinator can work with the case manager and hospital staff to determine the injured employee’s needs. Skilled in asking the right questions, the coordinator ensures the comprehensive needs of the injured employee are addressed. By serving as a single point of contact for all planning, the coordinator effectively manages the specific requirements outlined by the physician, case manager, social worker and hospital staff. Additionally, the implementation of a hospital discharge planning program can result in substantial cost savings.

An effective discharge planning program should encompass several essential features:?

• A proactive approach, coordinating all products/services in advance of discharge
• Availability 365/24/7
• National provider coverage for all services
• Collaboration with case managers and adjusters
• Consistent ability to secure DME and home health services promptly
• Highly skilled professionals who understand the complexities of workers’ comp cases, recovery and return to work
• Coordination of complex/catastrophic cases with multiple parties
• Remove the guess work and provide simple and easy processes

When it comes to hospital discharge planning, specialty solution providers offer a single point of contact for all the equipment and services an injured employee may need to help facilitate their recovery. Care coordinators actively assess and secure services, ensuring timely access to care, while acting as compassionate advocates. Regularly collaborating with case managers and adjusters, these coordinators provide early coordination for all parties involved to achieve a smooth hospital discharge.

About the author

Donita Stacker has over 16 years of experience in the workers’ comp industry. In her current role as Manager of Strategic Implementations and Complex Care, she is responsible for delivering exceptional customer experiences during various implementation stages. As an operational leader, Donita collaborates with technical and operational teams to establish conversion strategies, capacity planning and outcome monitoring to ensure an overall successful program.

Donita is also a regular contributor to our Specialty Solutions Spotlight where portions of this article originally appeared. To ask and find the answers to more work comp specialty questions visit our website and subscribe to our monthly series.?

www.apricusinc.com