I’ve just built another new workers’ compensation calculator. Actually, it is a look up tool that will help workers’ compensation professionals file documents with EAMS.1
While I think the recent Verify!® social security number validator may be more intriguing for defense attorneys and claims examiners, I think this new EAMS tool will probably be more useful to Applicant attorneys.
The Ogilvie mathematical proof has been available for several weeks for peer review. I’ve only received positive feedback.2 The above Ogilvie Adjustment Chart has been testing by myself and other workers’ compensation attorneys, but like everything else on this site is provided subject to all legal disclaimers.
Since updating this website to WordPress v2.8 in the middle of June they’ve released two additional security updates. Unfortunately, the latest update also required a little extra tinkering and work on my part. I look on constant security fixes for this fantastic (free!) open source software as a small price to pay for increased security.
Again, the calculators should all be completely impervious to changes in the WordPress program itself. However, its theoretically possible you might notice a little weirdness in how the website looks/acts. If so, please drop me a line and let me know so I can take a look.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled rating…
Here’s an easy way to save your law practice several hundred dollars in the next few months. The next time you have to purchase a new computer do not buy a copy of MicroSoft Office, MicroSoft Word, or WordPerfect. Even basic versions of these programs can run several hundred dollars per computer.1 You don’t have to purchase these programs!
Try OpenOffice instead! I have been using OpenOffice on my home and work computers for the last three years and have been extremely happy with it. I have given copies of this program to family, friends, and colleagues who are also all very happy with it. I’ve used it for simple correspondence, legal pleadings, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Here are a few “real world” benefits:
OpenOffice is totally 100% free open source software
Free as in free. Give it to your friends. Install it at home and on your kids’ computers. Don’t worry about software piracy. Its totally, completely, free.
OpenOffice has better document recovery
Its important to know that OpenOffice is much more stable than anything MicroSoft or WordPerfect has to offer. It is extremely rare that OpenOffice crashes on me. If you’re using MicroSoft Word and you haven’t saved your document at least once, a single crash will completely erase all of your progress. The very few times that OpenOffice has crashed on me I have gotten all of my data back – even when I haven’t saved the file once.
OpenOffice has everything you need
OpenOffice has all the features of MicroSoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and WordPerfect. You can also use the OpenOffice suite of software to open, edit, and save to MicroSoft Word and WordPerfect formats. It won’t automatically open the MicroSoft Office 2007 formats yet, but you can find plugins and software to do this for you (also for free). OpenOffice has spell check, grammar check, autocorrect, macros, and templates (even legal pleading templates!).
OpenOffice can do more than its competitors
OpenOffice can save as, open, and even edit a PDF. Editing a PDF requires a plugin, but it is very easy to install (and also free!). Just being able to print to a PDF is going to make your documents easier to share with others and, hopefully, one day easier to share with EAMS too.23
If you’re not convinced to make the leap with your next computer purchase, then download OpenOffice now and give it a shot on your current computer. Here’s their website link:
A few days ago I disparaged the MicroSoft and their new search engine, Bing.com. Today I tried a search for “permanent disability calculator” on their site. Guess who’s at the top?3
I’ve updated the Medical Provider Network lists as of 6/5/2009. Most of the updates to the MPN lists page are contributed by loyal users of this website. What’s interesting about the latest update is that it was actually contributed by an insurance company themselves!1
One thing I’ll never understand is why so many MPN lists have logins and passwords. The whole point of a website is to make that kind of information available. Its not like these lists of MPN doctors and providers are secret, right? If anything, making these website more user friendly and more navigable will enable people (injured workers, applicant attorneys, defense attorneys, and judges) to actually find physicians and help smooth the operation of the system.
In any case, I think this is a great first step. I would love to offer everyone a unified source for all California Medical Provider Network websites, logins, and passwords. It would be even better to have the insurance companies and third party administrators just send me the updated information for their links as they update their sites.
Unfortunately, one of the coolest features of my calculators is that some of them will give you the answer you’re looking for before you’ve even finished typing the search term. This works with the:
While these are all very cool while you’re sitting at your computer, I found out (much to my dismay) that this system didn’t work at all when using these online calculators from my cell phone! 1 Well, I’ve updated the calculators to make them more compatible with more phones.2
Save yourself from your own workers’ compensation claim and just leave that heavy rating manual at home.
It has to do with cross-browser compatibility and inconsistent support for javascript events. I doubt anyone is interested in this. [↩]
Permanent disability calculators that will fit in any pocket!
I was at the San Jose WCAB on Friday. Since recently discovering that I could run this website’s permanent disability rating calculators from my phone’s web browser, this was the first time I left my rating manual, money chart, and date wheel in the car.1
It was great. That morning I used my phone to:
Find the ADJ number associated with the legacy SJO number on my file
The benefit for me is not so much that I don’t have to carry the rating manuals, dollar value charts, and date wheels. Unlike these tools, my phone is not something I’m going to misplace or loan and never see again.
The best part is that if I want to refer back to the calculation I just performed, I can just e-mail it to myself!
Since launching this website I’ve given a lot of thought to support for cell phones. There just are not many phones that can run these calculators.2 The glaring and notable exception is the iPhone.
Amusingly, one of this website’s users has asked for an “iPhone app” version of this site. Seriously, you’ve got one of the few phones that can use this site and that’s not good enough for you? (Thanks Chris!)
It would be more correct to say there are not many phones that support javascript and AJAX well enough to interact with this website in a meaningful fashion. [↩]
Probably a lot more interesting for me than it is for you… [↩]
