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Another first for you! We are thrilled to introduce you to Chief David Picone, our first-ever fire chief on our podcast. He is the Fire Department Battalion Chief and Health and Safety Officer with the City of San Diego. 

June is PTSD Awareness Month, so we are happy to share our recent interview with Chief Picone.
 
In this episode, Chief Picone shares his educational background, his desire to be a rock star, his journey as a career firefighter, and how he has grown to be a steward for cultural change with the City of San Diego Fire Department. The success of San Diego's program has attracted attention from fire departments across the nation and even the Tokyo Fire Department, the largest urban fire department in the world, and Chief Picone has been an integral part of the program since 2017. 

Chief's call to action is for cities and fire departments everywhere to adopt similar changes that have been made in San Diego so that first responders get the care they need when they need it. Key elements to the City of San Diego's success include: 

• commit to building a culture of caring (it takes work!)
• demonstrate to first responders that you care about them and value their efforts
• encourage claims professionals to spend time with first responders to better understand the demands of their jobs
• accelerate access to care
• provide access to skilled and experienced medical professionals who are equipped to handle the needs of first responders, specifically when they come forward with symptoms of PTSD

A few points mentioned during this episode with Chief David Picone:

• Firefighters and police officers are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty
• First responders may experience 200+ traumatic events in their career vs. an average of 5 traumatic events in the average civilian's lifetime
• 1 out of 3 first responders develop PTSD

City of San Diego Fire-Rescue Health and Safety Office
https://www.sandiego.gov/fire/services/health-safety-office

Drexel University's Fire Service Organizational Culture of Safety (FOCUS) program for fire departments. Learn more here: 
https://drexel.edu/dornsife/research/centers-programs-projects/FIRST/our-projects/FOCUS/

Institutes of Health is the company offering the "Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)" 
https://institutesofhealth.org/

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Are you ready to get to know Dionne Lacey-Artis, Chief Business Officer and Customer Centric Leader at Optum Workers' Comp and Auto No-Fault? 

Even if you DO know her, we think you will learn some things you DON'T know, when you listen to this podcast episode.

Dionne is based in Atlanta, Georgia. 
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Yvonne Guibert and Rafael Gonzalez enjoy deconstructing issues in workers' compensation, however, it seems our podcast platform has taken on a new role...deconstructing our guests, and discovering how they came to be in the workers' compensation industry. That suits us just fine, because getting to know people is essential in business, especially in our industry.

Talking to our guests is always a fascinating journey, and so is this episode with Dionne. She shares many interesting facts about herself, like that she wanted to compete in the Olympics on roller skates, wanted to be a judge, she was a Tomboy, loves riding motorcycles and wanted to be a knee dragger, and so much more!

Listen to this episode and we are sure you will learn some things about Dionne you didn't know before. Plus, we couldn't be happier to hear that Dionne and other leaders at Optum are serious about redefining and building a culture focused on customer experience. That means there is a huge focus on finding and developing good people who want to be part of that culture. 

Here are some reference links for some things discussed during our conversation:

What is knee dragging?
https://www.motodeal.com.ph/articles/motorcycle-features/what-dragging-knee-motorcycle

A song and video about Salvador de Bahia, Brazil called "Gente Bonita":
https://youtu.be/jW0-jYz1PxI?si=Q49X0gmQG9vPwEf4

Traveling to Salvador, Brazil:
https://www.livemoretravelmore.com/salvador-brazil/

Optum Workers' Comp and Auto No-Fault:
https://workcompauto.optum.com/

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Are you ready to meet Laura Michaels, MS, OT, PSHO, Occupational Health and Safety Manager for City of Palm Springs? 

Yvonne and Rafael recently met Laura at the PARMA 2024 conference in Indian Wells, CA, and boy do we LOVE her! Shout out to Jennifer Johnson for putting together a beautiful dinner at PARMA that brought us together. 

From the very first conversation, we knew we liked Laura. She possesses a very particular set of skills that combined make her one powerful risk and safety professional. She is getting it done with fantastic results in Palm Springs...Laura Michaels is walking the walk!

Tune in to hear Laura's unique perspective on the healthcare provider shortage, her educational background, her career as an occupational therapist, and how she shifted into a career in California workers' compensation and risk management. 

She talks about several things important for entities to champion to get these kinds of results they are seeing in Palm Springs. It centers around building a culture where employees feel supported. This includes: 

supportive reporting, supportive rehab, 90-day fast track process, nurse case management, getting to know your providers, knowing the kinds of providers you need for your worker population, building trust

Laura shares many pearls of wisdom in this episode: 

"I can't deny and I can't delay, but I can approve!" 

"Find ways to work within the workers' compensation system." 

Perhaps one of our favorite quotes from Laura, "Workers' compensation does not need to be a contentious situation...put yourself in the patient's shoes." 

#supportivereporting
#cultureofcaring
#fasttrack
#preauthorization
#outcomes
#validation
#curiosity
#litigation
#trust

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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In this episode, we get to know a real superhero in the workers' compensation industry, Josh Schuette, DPT, MBA, WRP, Director of National Workers' Compensation Sales and Account Management at Brooks Rehabilitation.

While there are so many amazing things to know about Josh Schuette, one interesting  thing is, he thinks Ryan Gosling is his spirit animal! And, just like the famous actor who played Ken in the blockbuster Barbie movie, Josh is also originally from Canada! He also shared that during the recording of this podcast episode, he was wearing his "I am Kenough" shirt.

Come along for another fantastic podcast episode with one of the best and brightest people in our industry. Not only does Josh share about his education and how he discovered the wonderful world of workers' compensation, we discuss the real issues facing everyone in the healthcare industry in regard to provider shortages.

Josh also shares about his struggle to prioritize self care, particularly when working so closely with injured worker patients, and the toll that it takes. He even shares some of the strategies and activities he is using to manage his self care. We thank Josh for his transparency and as he mentions during the episode, we hope that his talking about his self care helps others.

Thanks for all you do Josh! We love you!

Learn more about Brooks Rehabilitation:
https://brooksrehab.org/

Here is the charity Josh mentioned during his episode:
Ainsley's Angels of America - https://ainsleysangels.org/

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Ramona Tanabe is our latest guest, right on the heals of the 40th Annual WCRI Issues & Research Conference, March 5-6, 2024, in Boston, MA. This is Ramona's second time as a guest on Deconstructing Comp. 

Join us as we discuss and recount highlights from the recent conference in Boston. Ramona turns the tables on Yvonne and asks her to share what sessions she learned something new at the conference. We also talk about Ramona's first year as CEO and how her experience has been. Plus, a few other fun details. 

To learn more about WCRI, visit them here: https://www.wcrinet.org/ 
Please consider becoming a member of WCRI to support their research efforts. 

Here is the latest report from the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) that Rafael mentioned during this episode https://www.nasi.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-WC-Report-2021-Data-Final.pdf

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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In this episode, we talk to Joe Paduda, Principal of Health Strategy Associates, blogger, Syracuse Lacrosse fanatic, speaker and owner of a 1795 farmhouse in New Hampshire with a super squeaky farmhouse chair! Listen for the squeaky sounds during the episode. 

This is Joe's second time as our guest. We invited him back, specifically to discuss important issues related to the economy and how they may or may not impact insurance, and more specifically, the workers' compensation industry. 

Another interesting conversation, where we talk about several important issues, but mostly about how the economy at large impacts what we do in insurance and workers' compensation.  

FYI - Yvonne planned to do a deep dive into election year shenanigans, but we didn't spend too much time there and went right back to the economy. So, no hysterical laughing fits this time. It's probably for the best. 

You can follow Joe and his blog here: 
https://www.joepaduda.com/

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Yvonne and Rafael FINALLY catch up with Carlos Luna, who lives in Denver, Colorado. It took us a while to schedule an interview with Carlos, but it is well worth the wait! 

So, come along, and let's get all caught up with Carlos about his new role at New Reign Capital, his deep and varied thoughts about our amazing industry, and, sadly, as he shares his thoughts about the recent loss of a beloved work friend and colleague, Joe Frank Rodriguez. 

Talking to Carlos is very easy. He is extremely articulate and very knowledgeable about risk management and workers' compensation issues.  Like us, he loves giving back to the industry through charitable organizations and causes. As we always say, time flies by so fast during our guest interviews; that is no exception here. 

Once again, we learned a few things we didn't know about Carlos, and we are sure some of these things will surprise you too. Are you ready? 

Grab your headphones and let's go talk to Carlos Luna...

Check out New Reign Capital here:
https://www.newreigncap.com/

Donate to the GoFundMe campaign for Joe Frank Rodriguez:
https://gofund.me/8e5e0823

From Yvonne: as I listened to Carlos' episode several times during editing, I was touched by Carlos' call to action to do more to take care of our industry's claims professionals, and it made me think of this song by Dwight Yoakam...hence the title to this episode. Enjoy!

Let's Work Together by Dwight Yoakam 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Jf7ah8Rxo

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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For the second year, Yvonne and Rafael identify ten issues to frame their conversations with guests as they kick off a new season. Here we go with Season 4! Are you ready? Our issues are...

1. Provider Shortages - Healthcare jobs are growing faster than any other industry, yet there is a shortage of experienced doctors and clinicians to fill the openings. This is straining the entire healthcare system; we certainly feel it in workers' compensation. 
   
   https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/health-202-primary-care-shortage-data/
   
   https://fortune.com/2024/02/14/america-shortage-primary-care-doctors-work-ai-physician-burnout-crisis/
   
   
2. Chronicity - definition: the fact or quality of being long-lasting, as a disease, condition, or symptom; psychological influences, such as stress, can significantly affect the severity and chronicity of the illness (or injury).  Is workers' compensation contributing to chronicity? We are going to discuss it. 
    
3. Economics of Inflation - we carried this one over from last year as inflation persists.  There is talk that we may be at a tipping point regarding how inflated medical costs impact healthcare, particularly with hospitals and other facilities.  
    
4. Mental health and well-being - this is a favorite topic of ours. We are happy to see this issue becoming more commonplace at conferences and events in the workers' compensation industry. 
    
5. Embracing AI - the future is here, and it is time to embrace how workers' compensation can benefit from artificial intelligence. How is AI already being used in WC, and how can it help us do the work smarter, faster, and more efficiently? 
   
   
6. Need for good education - this is hands down one of our favorite topics to discuss. It's not to say there isn't any good education out there, but we need more. We aim to uncover resources and encourage more good education. 
    
7. Acknowledging bias - we all have it.  Are you aware of your unconscious bias? How does your bias impact your day-to-day decisions in WC, regardless of your role? How do your decisions affect a person’s life (and the family attached to that person)?
   
   
8. Federal benefits in workers’ compensation - this will be one of Rafael's favorite issues because it is where he spends his time every single day! Here, we will discuss federal laws and processes that crossover into workers' compensation: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, ERISA, Veteran's Admin, tri-care, the Affordable Care Act, and more. 
   
   
9. Expanding workplace issues - there are so many! Starting with the ongoing talent shortage, workplace violence, our changing workforce - telecommuters, gig workers, aging workforce, high-stress levels, lack of leadership, need for hybrid work strategies (work at home vs. office), rules and regs + expanding presumptions, safety issues, inexperienced workers and so much more! 
   
   https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage
   
   
10. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) - one of our favorite topics to explore together. DEIB conversations have fizzled; some refer to diversity "fatigue," but we will not let it go. Rest assured, we will have several guests on to talk about DEIB. In Texas and Florida, DEI is under attack, and it is in other states as well. 
    
    https://www.axios.com/2024/01/04/dei-jobs-diversity-corporate

BONUS! Presidential election year. There is much to discuss as we enter the election year cycle.

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Join Yvonne and Rafael as they pause for a few minutes to reminisce about all the fun they had interviewing guests in their 3rd season! 

Grab your headphones and get ready for a few laughs -- you can always count on Rafael's laughter in each and every episode!

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Wow, what a fantastic conversation with Dr. Leslie Cadet, a native of Tampa, FL! 

In this episode, we learn that Leslie grew up in Tampa and started her education at none other than University of South Florida (USF), Yvonne's alma mater and Rafael's adjunct teaching university for 20+ years! From there, she went on to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where she became a medical doctor, then on to Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, where she earned her Master of Public Health (MPH), Occupational and Environmental Health. What an impressive education!

After Harvard, Leslie decided to join the Air Force to help pay for her education, where she became a flight surgeon, with 1,080 successful combat missions and 2,000 airlift missions. 

And guess what? She loves to salsa dance! Un-BULL-ievable (that's a USF thing!)

Her new mission is to radically improve the workers' compensation system, one patient and one provider at a time. 

It won't take you long to understand that Yvonne and Rafael are completely star-struck with Dr. Leslie Cadet. We both LOVE her!

Learn more about Dr. Leslie Cadet's Ascend program here: Ascendoccmed.com

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp