Mitigating Exposure for Advanced Practice Clinicians

America faces a looming primary care physician shortage. How bad is it? A study funded by the Association of American Medical Colleges notes that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 91,500 physicians.

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America faces a looming primary care physician shortage.

How bad is it? A study funded by the Association of American Medical Colleges notes that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 91,500 physicians.¹ Many physicians are scaling back the numbers of new patients or limiting the services provided to underserved populations, namely poor urban communities and rural populations where residents have no or limited access to healthcare clinics. Approximately 10 percent of America’s physicians have rural practices even though one-fourth of the population lives in these areas.²Further increasing the nationwide strain on the supply of physicians, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could result in 15 million more Medicare-eligible Americans and more than 30 million Americans overall participating in the healthcare system by 2025.³

The physician shortage raises the risk for patient harm. In a 2012 study by the Physicians Foundation, physicians reported they were “at capacity” and were “overworked and over extended.”⁴ Physicians remaining in the marketplace face multiple liability challenges posed by errors due to exhaustion, longer patient wait times, the inability to quickly address worsening medical conditions, and the lack of time to provide preventative medical care.

One solution: increased use of APCs. But there are risks.

Increased use of advanced practice clinicians (APCs), including physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs), has been one solution to the shortage of physicians. In some rural areas, APCs are the only healthcare professionals available for miles. For example, in 2011 South Dakota had 757 licensed primary care physicians, but 19 counties where there was no primary care physician at all.⁵APCs are also playing a critical role in modern healthcare team-based delivery systems designed to improve cost-effectiveness.

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RIMS’ New Certification Is a Must for All Risk Professionals

A new professional certification offered by RIMS positions risk managers as strategic business partners. In a world of rapidly-changing risks, coming to the table with deeper expertise yields a competitive edge.

By: RIMS | December 3, 2018 • 5 min read

Risks are always proliferating. Businesses face traditional worries like economic or market uncertainty, regulatory compliance, supply chain and property exposure. Add to those the rapid emergence of new technologies, the ever-expanding realm of cyber risk, tenuous geopolitical relations, rising health care costs, the gig economy… the list of modern-day threats goes on and on.

That’s why the job of risk manager has never been more essential, more diverse and more in-demand.

According to Recruiter.com, the overall job outlook for risk managers has been positive since 2004. “Vacancies for this career have increased by 29 percent nationwide in that time, with an average growth of 4.84 percent per year. Demand for risk management specialists is expected to go up, with an expected 11,760 new jobs filled by 2018,” the site said.

CNN Money’s 2017 list of the “best jobs in America” ranked the role of risk management director in the number two spot, citing above-average pay, high levels of societal benefit and personal satisfaction, and manageable stress levels. CNN projected 10-year job growth at 7 percent.

Their analysis also acknowledged that the risk manager’s role is expanding beyond traditional insurance-buying functions. “Directors are now also tasked with identifying, preventing and planning for all the risks a company might face, from cybersecurity breaches to a stock market collapse.”

Managing risk demands expertise beyond purchasing policies or filing claims. The modern risk manager needs both broad and deep expertise, encompassing a range of internal and external business threats.

Ongoing education and professional certification have never been more valuable for risk managers. In addition to expanding scope of knowledge and better preparing today’s risk managers for the exposures of tomorrow, certifications also distinguish candidates in this highly competitive career path.

Options in Education and Professional Designation

Current or aspiring risk managers have a variety of options to expand their professional knowledge and earn additional designations. Increasingly, universities offer risk management as a dedicated major, and many will allow working professionals to enroll in individual non-degree courses.

Other industry and risk management organizations also offer their own designations. Popular credentials include the Associate in Risk Management (ARM), Certified Risk Manager (CRM), Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst® (CERA), and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU). RIMS, the industry’s leading risk management professional society, also offers a RIMS Fellow (RF) designation.

Earning any of these designations signifies that a risk manager is willing to go the extra mile to become proficient in all threats facing their organizations. All add value both to a risk manager’s career trajectory and to the organizations they serve. But the array of options available can water down the value of any one designation.

That’s why RIMS developed the RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional certification, or the RIMS-CRMP.

Why the RIMS-CRMP?

As a professional certification, the RIMS-CRMP adheres to a slightly higher standard than other industry credentials. Certifications require a level of experience just to apply, and passing a certification examination calls for a broader level of knowledge. Maintaining the certification means adherence to a code of ethical conduct and completion of continuing education credits every two years. Designations may require some combination of these, but not all.

The RIMS-CRMP examination covers five topic areas deemed fundamental knowledge for a proficient risk manager. These include: analyzing business models, designing organizational risk strategies, implementing risk processes, developing organizational risk competencies and supporting decision-making.

These speak to the evolving role of the risk manager as a strategic business partner and an enabler of decision-making, rather than a blocker. They also reinforce the need to evaluate and manage risk from an enterprise-wide perspective.

Here are a few more reasons why this certification stands out from other designations:

Accreditation by the American National Standards Institute

The RIMS-CRMP certification holds official accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and adheres to international standards for credentialing specified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The RIMS-CRMP is the only risk management certification in the world to hold this accredited status. This means that the most respected standard-setting institutions in the world regard this certification as a reflection of a fully-qualified risk manager, and that the credential has been approved by government and peer-reviewed evaluation.

Completely Self-Study

Unlike other professional credentials, the RIMS-CRMP does not require candidates to pass prerequisite courses. Though RIMS provides recommendations for study resources, it does not require candidates to purchase any materials or complete any study programs before sitting for the examination.

Experience Counts

Even without a risk management-focused bachelor’s degree, those with at least seven years of experience in a risk management role are eligible to sit for the exam. The Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Canadian Risk Management (CRM) designations count as two years of experience. Candidates with a risk management degree must have at least one year of experience under their belts before applying for the exam.

Lean on Career Resources from an Industry Leader

The RIMS-CRMP certification is the latest step in fulfilling RIMS’ mission to educate, engage and advocate for the risk community. In addition to its professional certification and RF designation, RIMS offers a variety of continuing education resources. In-person workshops, webinars, podcasts, online courses, and a library of risk publications, industry surveys and career resources are all available to its community of 10,000 members.”

The society’s career center also provides professional development resources like resume writing tips, a professional growth model that allows you to benchmark your skills and abilities against peers, and career coaching.

For more information about RIMS’ world-leading risk management content, networking, professional development and certification opportunities, visit www.RIMS.org.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with RIMS. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.

As the preeminent organization dedicated to educating, engaging and advocating for the global risk community, RIMS, the risk management society™, is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 3,500 corporate, industrial, service, nonprofit, charitable and government entities throughout the world. RIMS has a membership of approximately 10,000 risk practitioners who are located in more than 60 countries.

4 Companies That Rocked It by Treating Injured Workers as Equals; Not Adversaries

The 2018 Teddy Award winners built their programs around people, not claims, and offer proof that a worker-centric approach is a smarter way to operate.

By: Michelle Kerr | October 30, 2018 • 3 min read

Across the workers’ compensation industry, the concept of a worker advocacy model has been around for a while, but has only seen notable adoption in recent years.

Even among those not adopting a formal advocacy approach, mindsets are shifting. Formerly claims-centric programs are becoming worker-centric and it’s a win all around: better outcomes; greater productivity; safer, healthier employees and a stronger bottom line.

That’s what you’ll see in this month’s issue of Risk & Insurance® when you read the profiles of the four recipients of the 2018 Theodore Roosevelt Workers’ Compensation and Disability Management Award, sponsored by PMA Companies. These four programs put workers front and center in everything they do.

“We were focused on building up a program with an eye on our partner experience. Cost was at the bottom of the list. Doing a better job by our partners was at the top,” said Steve Legg, director of risk management for Starbucks.

Starbucks put claims reporting in the hands of its partners, an exemplary act of trust. The coffee company also put itself in workers’ shoes to identify and remove points of friction.

That led to a call center run by Starbucks’ TPA and a dedicated telephonic case management team so that partners can speak to a live person without the frustration of ‘phone tag’ and unanswered questions.

“We were focused on building up a program with an eye on our partner experience. Cost was at the bottom of the list. Doing a better job by our partners was at the top.” — Steve Legg, director of risk management, Starbucks

Starbucks also implemented direct deposit for lost-time pay, eliminating stressful wait times for injured partners, and allowing them to focus on healing.

For Starbucks, as for all of the 2018 Teddy Award winners, the approach is netting measurable results. With higher partner satisfaction, it has seen a 50 percent decrease in litigation.

Teddy winner Main Line Health (MLH) adopted worker advocacy in a way that goes far beyond claims.

Employees who identify and report safety hazards can take credit for their actions by sending out a formal “Employee Safety Message” to nearly 11,000 mailboxes across the organization.

“The recognition is pretty cool,” said Steve Besack, system director, claims management and workers’ compensation for the health system.

MLH also takes a non-adversarial approach to workers with repeat injuries, seeing them as a resource for identifying areas of improvement.

“When you look at ‘repeat offenders’ in an unconventional way, they’re a great asset to the program, not a liability,” said Mike Miller, manager, workers’ compensation and employee safety for MLH.

Teddy winner Monmouth County, N.J. utilizes high-tech motion capture technology to reduce the chance of placing new hires in jobs that are likely to hurt them.

Monmouth County also adopted numerous wellness initiatives that help workers manage their weight and improve their wellbeing overall.

“You should see the looks on their faces when their cholesterol is down, they’ve lost weight and their blood sugar is better. We’ve had people lose 30 and 40 pounds,” said William McGuane, the county’s manager of benefits and workers’ compensation.

Do these sound like minor program elements? The math says otherwise: Claims severity has plunged from $5.5 million in 2009 to $1.3 million in 2017.

At the University of Pennsylvania, putting workers first means getting out from behind the desk and finding out what each one of them is tasked with, day in, day out — and looking for ways to make each of those tasks safer.

Regular observations across the sprawling campus have resulted in a phenomenal number of process and equipment changes that seem simple on their own, but in combination have created a substantially safer, healthier campus and improved employee morale.

UPenn’s workers’ comp costs, in the seven-digit figures in 2009, have been virtually cut in half.

Risk & Insurance® is proud to honor the work of these four organizations. We hope their stories inspire other organizations to be true partners with the employees they depend on. &

Michelle Kerr is associate editor of Risk & Insurance. She can be reached at [email protected]

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Mitigating Exposure for Advanced Practice Clinicians

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Sponsored Content by RIMS

RIMS’ New Certification Is a Must for All Risk Professionals

Options in Education and Professional Designation

Why the RIMS-CRMP?

Lean on Career Resources from an Industry Leader

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4 Companies That Rocked It by Treating Injured Workers as Equals; Not Adversaries

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