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Workers Compensation Resources

Nov
18
2008
PDRater, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Imaginary Security
Imaginary Security

What’s worse:

Having no security or having the illusion of security?12 Before you answer, you might want to read this article about how TSA security at airports is just plain ridiculous.

Keep in mind that by definition, the only difference between no security and illusory security is your ignorance – not someone else’s.

That said, having the illusion of security is worse.

No Security

If you have no security, you could at least take steps to improve security.  Let’s restate the question to highlight the distinction:

Would you rather have no burglar alarm or have a burglar alarm that never works and tells you it does?

Although not having a burglar alarm won’t prevent you from making foolish decisions3, at least you’ll have the opportunity to know you’re making a foolish decision.  Without a burglar alarm your decisions might be wise or foolish – but only accidentally so.

Illusory Security

Some would argue that the illusion of security provides a deterrence effect.  The only people who believe in the illusion of security is better are those who have something to gain by selling illusory security.4

  • First, deterrence is not a benefit of actual security.  Actual security depends upon the ability to actually stop something from occurring.  Deterrence is, at best, only a side-effect of actual security.  To the extent that actual security relies upon deterrence, its really just illusory security.  When good security is employed deterrence is either irrelevant or unnecessary.  Case in point:  If I have a good guard dog outside my house, I could care less what he looks like.
  • Second, as the above article suggests only stupid or careless criminals are deterred by illusory security.  Even the stupidest criminal knows that some people have actual security and other have only the illusion of security.  Don’t forget, if a criminal doesn’t care about whether you have actual or illusory security, then there is no deterrent effect.  If that same criminal cares whether you have illusory or actual security, then they’ll do the minimum to determine whether you have security.  If this hypothetical criminal instead who doesn’t know or care about illusory or actual security is stupid and will try out security measures.
  • Third, deterrent effects do not require illusory security.  Case in point:  If you know you don’t have a burglar alarm, there’s nothing preventing you from buying signs that say you do.  If deterrence is truly a worthy goal, then why not just opt for no security and specificallly develop the illusion of security.

Stupid Security

Why am I blathering on about security today?  I had an appearance at the Oakland WCAB on Monday afternoon.  As per the instructions of the security guard, I removed all metal from my person and placed it all in the plastic bin provided.  As I was about to walk through the metal detector, she pointed to my shirt pocket and asked what was in it.

Jay:  “Paper – see?”  I showed the parking lot ticket and a receipt from lunch.

Security Guard:  “Put that in too.”

Jay (giving a puzzled look):  “Why?  There’s nothing metal in it.  Its just paper.”

Security Guard:  “Just in case.”

I swear her response was, “Just in case.”  At this point I gave up.  There is little point in arguing with truly profound ignorance.

Just in case of what, exactly?

Just in case paper turns into metal?  Just in case I was hiding something in the paper I just showed her?  Isn’t that what metal detectors are supposed to find anyhow?

  1. Original photo courtesy of Daquella manera [↩]
  2. “i” stands for an imaginary number.  :) [↩]
  3. Such as going on vacation with the front curtains wide open showing off your 60″ plasma screen. [↩]
  4. Call this a reductionist statement and ad hominem attack all you want.  But, you better back that up with an actual reason why illusory security is better than no security.  If you’ve got one, I’d like to see it. [↩]
Nov
13
2008
EAMS, Free, Laptop, Open Source, OpenOffice, PDRater, Technobabble, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MicroSoft has no one to blame but themselves for my deleting MicroSoft Office.  Well, its partly Dell’s fault too, but that’s a long story I’ll tell some other time.  (Short version: Dell repaired a prior laptop and shipped it to a construction site in Oakland.)

Once I tried OpenOffice, I never looked back.  Its my preferred word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, office suite program.  Not only is it better than MicroSoft office in just about every way, but its also completely free.  You might be interested in trying it out because I believe it will help you tremendously with EAMS.

OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org released version 3.0 of their program on October 13, 2008.  It was so wildly popular that their website was crushed under the overwhelming demand.  The three most important things to know about OpenOffice are:

  1. Its open source, so its completely free.  So, there’s no reason not to give it a shot.
  2. It can open, edit, and save to any MS Office 2000, 2003, 2007, and WordPerfect formats.
  3. It can print or export any file to a PDF.

If you’re a Workers’ Compensation professional in California, you’re probably dealing with EAMS.  Since filing things with EAMS means working with a lot of PDF’s.  In order to keep from reinventing the wheel, it makes sense to save those PDF’s of the document cover sheets.  But what if you need to make a small change later on?  Well, OpenOffice v3.0 can help with that too.

Using an extension ((basically a small program)) OpenOffice can open and edit and re-save a PDF file. Not even Adobe, the company that promotes the PDF format1 , does a good job of opening and editing PDF’s.

This is a really big deal to me because editing saved PDF’s is going to save me a lot of time editing settlement documents and various pleadings.

Update

I wrote the above about a month ago while I gave OpenOffice 3.0 a shot.  It won’t install on my Vista laptop but works great on my XP desktop.  I’ve reverted to OpenOffice 2.4 on the laptop while I wait for a fix.  OpenOffice 2.4 is still free, but it won’t open MS Office 2007 formats (which not everyone is using anyhow) and cannot edit PDFs.

  1. I know that’s redundant. [↩]
Nov
12
2008
Business, Calculators, EAMS, Free, Javascript, PDRater, Technobabble, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In a prior post I talked about the top five PDRater.com features that make your life easier.  But, when was the last time you thought about your office staff, hmm?

How can you make their job easier?  Well, the good news is you don’t have to, I’ve given you all the tools to make your office run faster and more efficiently, saving you time and money.

  1. American Idol, Top 5
    Top 5

    MPN’s.  Medical Provider Network lists, complete with logins and passwords.  Whether you’re on the applicant or defense side, your staff is going to need access to these lists.  You can find a doctor for your client or so you can give a list of doctors to opposing counsel.

  2. EAMS DWC to ADJ Number Search Engine. Chances are you’ve got cases with more than one “legacy” Board file number.  With this search engine, you can search for the corresponding EAMS ADJ numbers.  And, you can search for as many Board (or ADJ) numbers as you want at the same time, just by separating them with commas.
  3. EAMS Office Search Engine. When your staff is filling out documents for you, they’re going to need to know the correct name and address for all the parties.  When they need to call opposing counsel, they can also look up the phone number with this search engine.
  4. EAMS Document Type and Document Title Search Engine. Your staff needs a quick way to find the exact EAMS document type and EAMS document title for every document cover sheet getting filed with the Board.  Sure, they could comb through four or five pages of 3 point font on the Board’s form.  Or, better yet, they could search and find exactly the document type and title they need.
  5. EAMS Body Part Codes. There are 62 different body part codes in the EAMS system.  There’s no need to keep the EAMS chart on hand, just tell your staff what body part you want on the form and have them look it up on this website.
  6. DWC / WCAB  / EAMS Forms. There are now more than 130 different forms, new and “legacy”, available on the DIR website.  There’s no reason your staff should have to scroll up or down looking for the right form.  Type in a few characters and get a direct link right to the exact form you need.
  7. Date Calculator. Sure, everyone in your office could have their own date wheel.  In my experience, date wheels and money charts are two of the most commonly swiped office aides right after the good stapler and scotch tape.  With a date calculator built into the website, all of your staff can quickly and easily calculate the number of days between two dates or what day it will be in a certain number of days.

So, there you have the top 5, er 7, PDRater.com website search engine and workers’ compensation calculators your staff is going to benefit from using.  Registration for this site is quick, easy, and free.  Save your staff some time and frustration by having them register for this website and try out the calculators, search engines, and links.

Nov
7
2008
Occupational Code, PDRater, Technobabble

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
89 days and counting...
Wake up!

Perhaps its the political climate, or the recent daylight savings time change, or that I’m an argumentative guy.  Today’s post is my argument against daylight savings time.12

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Daylight Savings Time was not invented by Benjamin Franklin.345 6 If Wikipedia is to be further believed, some guy named “William Willett” was the one who thought of it.

Its a mixed blessing for Mr. Willett that no one knows his name.  Ben Franklin gets the credit for daylight savings sandwiched between kudos for electric kites and bifocals.  Then again, Franklin also has to put up with abuse from people who hate daylight savings.  Such as myself.

The Benefits

Set aside for the moment the historical benefits to daylight savings time – the farmers getting out of bed and whatnot.  I’ll stipulate that it may have served some terrific purpose yeas ago.  The real issue is whether daylight savings time has any ongoing net benefits for our society.

Let’s assume arguendo there are practical benefits to getting everyone in your state to wake up, get home from work, and go to bed an hour earlier or later.  They have more “time” to do whatever is they want to do. 7  Let’s even suppose that having an “extra hour” improves the mood of people with seasonal affect disorder. 8

The Problems

Infrastructure. You have to admit that a truly Herculean effort is required to support the infrastructure necessary for daylight savings time.  People engineer wall clocks that manipulate the time twice a year.  Cell phones, computers, and TiVo’s all have to be pre-programmed to change the time twice a year.  Its exactly this kind of ridiculous time-accounting nightmare that lead to the Y2K bug in the first place.

Manual Upkeep. All of non-computerized devices such as coffee pots, car stereos, wristwatches, ovens, microwaves, climate control devices, and sprinkler systems need to be manually reset.  In this way, daylight savings time is almost like having a guaranteed power outage twice a year.

Productivity. The missed appointments, reschedulings, and groggy commuters and workers.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Starbucks was behind the continued use of daylight savings time.

Uniformity. Not every state, let alone every country, uses daylight savings time.  What happens why you’re in California and you need to call Hawaii or Arizona before the close of business? 91011

Workers’ Compensation Claims. The workers compensation implications alone are staggering.12 Every home and every office must keep one poor bastard around whose job duties include dragging a chair or step ladder around the office to change all the wall clocks.

If the Office Poor Bastard falls and gets hurt, you’re going to have to hand him a claim form.  If the Office Poor Bastard gets an attorney, that attorney is going to see the mechanism of injury and argue for a higher occupational code than “Office Poor Bastard.”1314 The Office Poor Bastard will be considered an occupational code 482, “RIGGER, HIGH amuse. & rec.”15

The Solution

There are two possible solutions.

First, we eliminate daylight savings time.  If the potential drawbacks of daylight savings time outweigh the benefits, then it should be eliminated it.

Secondly, as an alternative we could agree to set the entire coutnry on the time halfway between daylight savings time and non-daylight savings time.  If you get 100% of the benefits and drawbacks from daylight savings time, then at the time halfway in-between you’d get half the benefit and drawbacks. 1617

I’m in favor of eliminating daylight savings time altogether, but I would certainly be willing to “split the baby.”

  1. I wonder if I should try to put it on the ballot as a proposition… [↩]
  2. Original photo courtesy of Laffy4k. [↩]
  3. Third best Ben Franklin quote here. [↩]
  4. Second best Ben Franklin quote: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to prosper.” [↩]
  5. Best Ben Franklin quote: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Too political for a Friday?  :/ [↩]
  6. Thanks QuoteDB!  [↩]
  7. Keep in mind, they get no more than one “extra” hour. [↩]
  8. Not that I think anyone’s arguing this.  I’m just setting up the best possible arguments in favor of daylight savings time. [↩]
  9. Those Arizonans really are mavericks. [↩]
  10. Or, how about: “Well, I guess Hawaiian and Arizonans are both mavericks!” [↩]
  11. Too soon? [↩]
  12. I bet you thought this wasn’t going to have anything to do with workers’ compensation. [↩]
  13. “211 OFFICE CLERK, GENERAL clerical,” for those of you playing at home. [↩]
  14. <shameless plug>I’d suggest this great workers’ compensation website to help you find such things.</shameless plug> [↩]
  15. I say this only half-jokingly.  Years ago I had someone make this exact argument to me.  Ken, I’m looking at you. [↩]
  16. This assumes an arithmatic progression of benefits and costs associated with daylight savings time. [↩]
  17. This also assumes that no new benefits or costs are conferred by half-daylight savings time.  I can concieve of at least one additional drawback – namely that the United States would be in time zones half an hour from the rest of the world.  Then again, I suppose that’s better than being a full hour off? [↩]
Nov
3
2008
Author, Calculators, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Obama and McCain on heathcare
Obama and McCain on heathcare

October was another pretty good month for PDRater.com. During the month of October, the traffic for this website increased by about 25%, I added a few new calculator features, I completely changed the look of the website, and we passed the 200 registered users mark.1

In no particular order, I’m including my favorite “photoshopped” pictures from October on the right side.  The footnotes below link to the original photographers.  None of them are to blame for the photoediting. 2345

Top Posts Awards:

Obama vs McCain: Round 3
Obama vs McCain: Round 3

2008 Presidential Election Coverage:

2008 Economic Turmoil Coverage:

*PDRater up, the Dow down
PDRater up, the Dow down

I added on to my “Road Warrior Checklists”:

In case you’re interested, here’s the best of September 2008.

  1. At the time of this post, 227 registered users! [↩]
  2. Special thanks to the kind people who use Flickr for making their photos available for use. [↩]
  3. Photos courtesy of richardmasoner, C_Dave, and mikewade. [↩]
  4. Photo courtesy of DaveHogg. [↩]
  5. Photo courtesy of Daniel Martini. [↩]
Oct
30
2008
Not Workers Compensation, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Billy Mays for President
Billy Mays for President

Obama’s campaign purchased several primetime television slots on the major networks for a half hour broadcast.  Those in the Obama campaign have called this program his, “closing argument,” and critics have called it an “infomercial.”1

Summary

Obama hit all the high points with this program:

  • “The American Dream”
  • Eight years of failed policy
  • “Middle class”

He reiterated his campaign pitches:

  • Strengthening the economy
  • Green technologies
  • Tax cuts for 90% of Americans
  • Affordable health care
  • Affordable higher education

No political speech this year would be complete without your own “Joe the Plumber” story.

  • Rebecca’s husband who works with a torn ACL because his family cannot afford for him to take time off.
  • Larry and Juanita Stuart a couple who are still working at 72 even after taking out a reverse mortgage because their planned retirement cannot help with their medical costs.
  • A special needs schoolteacher working two jobs.
  • Melinda and Mark, who are third generation Ford factory workers who don’t know what to do now that she lost her job and he only has work every other week.

Review

A long time ago I had an internship with the local cable access company.  I took a lot of courses in video editing, lighting, and camera work.  I even worked one of the floor cameras on a live broadcast once.  Some of the course I took involved planning out how to produce a television program.

The production costs on this program must have been astronomical.  Even if you didn’t care for the content, it was beautifully edited and scored.  During last night’s “Joe the Plumber” stories you could hear a low dreary soundtrack in the background.  When Obama was talking the music would swell as he built his arguments.

If this was an infomercial, its was best goddamn infomercial I’ve ever seen in my life.  We should all thank our lucky stars Billy Mays2 doesn’t have this kind a production crew.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believed that persuasive arguments could be broken down into three categories: ethos, pathos, and logos.3  Ethos is based on credibility, pathos on emotion, and logos on logic or reason.

As a piece of persuasive rhetoric4 that program had it all.  The endorsements from various public figures lent their ethos to Obama.  The “Joe the Plumber” pieces about American families certainly provided enough ethos.  And, Obama himself laid out his strategic vision for fixing the problems facing those same families.

Obama’s program reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from Benjamin Franklin.  Franklin enjoyed listening to sermons. Franklin wrote in his autobiography about one such sermon from a Mr. Whitfield.

I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me, I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me asham’d of that, and determin’d me to give the silver; and he finish’d so admirably, that I empty’d my pocket wholly into the collector’s dish, gold and all.

I imagine Benjamin Franklin would have been willing to empty his pocket all over again for Obama.

Update: If you want to watch the entire broadcast (minus the live 3-4 minute segment at the end), here’s the video:

  1. Photo from MacResource forums.  If you own this picture, please let me know so I can attribute you. [↩]
  2. Of the OxyClean fame. [↩]
  3. Mom, Dad, that dual major in Philosophy and Rhetoric and Communications finally came in handy!!! [↩]
  4. Rhetoric in and of itself is not bad – its just a means of communication. [↩]
Oct
27
2008
1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Calculators, Combined Values Chart, Javascript, Multiple Disabilities Table, PDRater, Permanent Partial Disability, Subscription Features, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Not a new calculator
Not a new calculator

Last week, at the request of a paid subscriber, I added a new permanent disability rating calculator feature.1 2 Prior users had asked about incorporating an automatic dollar value of permanent disability or “money chart”  For the reasons I described in that prior post, I just couldn’t think of a good way to incorporate an automatic calculation of the monetary value of permenant disability.

New Paid Subscriber Feature

New Calculator
New Calculator

Once I added this feature, I realized there were at least two more instances when an automatic calculation of dollar value of permanent disability might come in very handy: when calculating the Multiple Disabilities Table3 or Combined Value Chart4 values from combining one or more permanent disability ratings.

Now, when a paid subscriber calculates the CVC or MDT of multiple ratings, the calculated combined rating is fed to the dollar value of permanent disability calculator and the dollar value calculated.

  1. Old calculator photo courtesy of ansik. [↩]
  2. New calculator photo courtesy of dan taylor. [↩]
  3. 1997 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule [↩]
  4. 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule [↩]
Oct
23
2008
1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Calculators, CSS, Downloads, Free, PDRater, Permanent Partial Disability, Subscription Features, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Running Puppy
This puppy has nothing to do with this post whatsoever.

Last Friday I announced some “website tweaks.”  Since then a paid subscriber1 reiterated a feature request.2 As a paid subscriber, he is able to calculate an unlimited number of ratings so that they all show up on a single page.  Basically, he wanted to be able to see the dollar value for a particular permanent partial disability percentage at the same time as a rating.

This isn’t the first time I’ve wrestled with the problems in creating such a feature.  There are several problems with incorporating this feature into the calculator’s page.

  1. The rating calculator and the dollar value of permanent disability calculators cannot be open at the same time.
  2. The rating calculator does not require the date of injury, just the age of the injured worker.  Without the date of injury, the website cannot properly display the dollar value of a permanent partial disability percentage.
  3. When a paid subscriber has performed more than one rating calculation on a page, the website cannot decide which rating string to convert into the equivalent number of dollars.

This exact feature had been suggested by other users in the past.3  My original thinking was that trying to accommodate this feature request would involve too many unknown variables.  After giving the matter some more thought, here’s what I’ve come up with:

  • Paid subscribers benefit from improved print formatting. Basically, I’ve created a special file that changes the way the calculator page looks when a paid subscriber is printing. 4  Paid subscribers benefit from having the calculator page streamlined specifically for printing.
  • Paid subscribers can have more than one calculator open at a time. This one feature probably addresses 90% of this user’s concerns.  If you’re able to keep both calculators open at the same time, it should be easy to perform a rating and then turn the percentage into a dollar value.
  • Paid subscribers receive automatic calculations of dollar value of ratings. When a paid subscriber performs a rating calculation, the “Dollar Value of Permanent Disability” calculator automatically opens and the dollar value of the rating is automatically calculated.  The user will still have to adjust calculation to account for the year of the injury.  However, this is probably the most elegant solution to this issue.
  1. As opposed to a free subscriber [↩]
  2. Thanks Marc! [↩]
  3. And even some competitors!!! [↩]
  4. The special file is actually just some CSS to optimize page for printing. [↩]
Oct
22
2008
1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Author, Business, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mr. Road Warrior, Esq.
Road Warrior, Esq.

Appearances, whether for a hearing or deposition, require additional equipment, preparation, and forethought.  Here’s what I carry with me when I’m scheduled to appear.

  • Cell phone
    • Phone numbers for the office, destination, and client programmed in the day before.
    • Photocopier code programmed into the phone.
    • Includes calculator.1
    • Alarm.  When parking at a meter, set the phone’s alarm for 5 minutes before time expires.
  • GPS
    • Address and phone number of destination programmed in the day before.
  • Money
    • $5 is the bare minimum, in case I need to be across a bridge on short notice.
    • Quarters for parking.
    • Bills for photocopies.
    • Copy cards.
      • Every time I use a copy card, I write the date and amount remaining on it in permanent ink.
  • BART tickets
    • I consider $5 a minimum, in case I need to be in S.F. on short notice.
  • Dictaphone
    • Extra batteries.
  • Leather bound folder
    • Legal pad
    • PD chart
    • Mini-rating manual for 1997 and 20052
  • Settlement documents.
    • You never know when a case might unexpectedly settle.
  • Record release forms.
    • You never know when a settlement might fall through.
  • Backpack

Previous “Road Warrior Checklists”:

  1. Since workers’ compensation is really just math. [↩]
  2. I’ve created my own “mini-rating” manual.  Its basically comprised of excerpts from the 1997 and 2005 manuals.  Carrying this obviates the need for the 100+ page manuals. [↩]
Oct
21
2008
Free, Not Workers Compensation, Open Source, Technobabble, Workers Compensation Resources

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For some reason MS Remote Desktop refuses to work intermittently.  Every 90 days, to be precise.  Like clockwork.1

Among the myriad of incompatibilities between Microsoft’s various products and operating systems is the mind bending error thrown by Remote Desktop.  Remote Desktop should work between any version of Windows starting with XP.  Even when using full versions of MS operating systems, you will likely still get this error:

The remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in licensing protocol.

89 days and counting...
89 days and counting...

There are two reasonable ways around this.

  • First, if you’re not an advanced Windows user, you should really try TightVNC.  Its small, free, open source, uses very little bandwidth, and is easy to install and use.  It will do probably 90% of everything Remote Desktop will do.  As a bonus, you won’t have to monkey with it every 90 days.
  • Second, if you are an advanced Windows user and are comfortable using Regedit, there is another option.  If you’ve never heard of Regedit, you really really should not use this option.  If your Windows registry settings get fouled up, and it is incredibly easy to do, you can kiss your Windows install goodbye.  In any case, the solution is to go to, “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing” and delete everything under that heading.  The only downside is that this must be performed every 90 days.

FYI, this second ridiculous work around is from the official MicroSoft website!  You’d think that if your product stopped working every 90 days you’d, you know, try to fix it.  Instead their game plan is to actually suggest users delete vital parts of the operating system.

For what its worth, I use a combination of the two solutions.  I fire up Regedit every 90 days so I can use Remote Desktop and I use TightVNC when I can.

  1. Photo courtesy of Laffy4k [↩]