The opioid epidemic has been one of the most disruptive conditions in the American healthcare system in decades. Statistics show more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, topping the number of motor vehicle-related fatalities as well as gun deaths. Many of the overdose deaths were attributed to opioids that were prescribed for chronic pain.

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most pervasive medical conditions in the U.S. An estimated one-quarter of American adults say they have experienced LBP for at least 1 day in the past 3 months; so it’s no wonder it is one of the most common ailments we see among the injured workers we treat.

Functionality is key to helping injured workers with chronic pain. While that may seem obvious, that’s not the approach typically taken for these patients. Instead, payers, medical providers and others involved in a claim are often in lockstep on the need to identify and eliminate a single physical source of the pain — even when that may result in multiple surgeries, a myriad of additional medical procedures, addictive medications and, ironically, little to no relief from the pain.

Technology has been replacing workers ever since the Industrial Revolution. But today’s rapid-fire digital changes are making workers especially nervous. And for good reason. Robots and artificial intelligence (A.I.) are being “hired” by a growing number of companies.

The workers’ compensation system here in the US has existed for more than a century. So how are we doing, after all that time? The US Department of Labor recently posed the question, “Does the Workers’ Compensation System Fulfill Its Obligations to Injured Workers?” They published their findings in an exhaustive report.  It is not flattering.

Results of the 2016 Workers’ Compensation Benchmarking Study were released in October. That now gives us four years’ worth of cumulative data. With that, we can see what makes a top-performing claims organization successful. And why others are lagging behind. We have hard evidence.

Nobody wants to be injured at work. Injured employees don’t want to be out of work – at least not any longer than necessary. As an employer, their early return to work is your #1 goal, too. So if everyone agrees on the goal, what factors drive the best return to work outcomes?

For years, there was never a question about where injured workers should go to receive treatment. If their doctor prescribed physical therapy, they went to a specialized clinic. PT clinics were the only locations that could offer proper medical equipment and personnel.