Newsletters
Risk Central
Digital EditionMastering Claims: Bobby Collins’ Strategy for Workers’ Comp Success at Ballad Health
The Ballad Health hospital network was formed in the 2018 merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System. Today, the integrated organization serves 29 counties in four states along the southern reaches of the Appalachian Mountains.
Following the merger, the two organizations’ workers’ comp programs were combined into one department under the watchful eye of Bobby Collins, who today serves as Ballad’s corporate director of workers’ comp.
One of the first things Collins remarked on after the merger was that Mountain States’ comp program cost more than double Wellmont Health Systems’ program: “Mountain States did not have a person that looked at their workers’ compensation program internally,” Collins explained. “So my job was to create a uniform workers’ compensation program for Ballad Health by merging the best ideals of both programs.”
Because Mountain States’ program had lacked internal oversight, “after the merger, I looked at all the claims and thought, ‘Wow, there are a bunch of claims here that we need to look at closing out,’ ” Collins said. “ ‘We’re looking at millions of dollars of reserves in liabilities, and we should be getting rid of that by closing out claims where there is no additional activity.’ ”
Working closely with Ballad’s TPA, CorVel Corporation, Collins took a methodical approach, first examining all claims older than five years, many of which they discovered could be closed immediately. Then they focused on accounts based on size — first those with reserves over $100,000, then $50,000. Within 90 days, an initial open claim inventory of 667 claims was reduced by 81%, which in turn enabled a $2.4 million reduction in outstanding reserves. They further reduced the total incurred amounts on open claims by 32%, recovering another $14.7 million.
“Together, we worked on several initiatives such as a claim closer project, reserve project and joint steering committee,” said Emily Goodman, account manager at CorVel Corporation.
“Bobby is very passionate and always open to new solutions. He likes to leverage innovative technology and maintains a focus on quality care for the injured employee,” Goodman added. “He takes a proactive approach to employee safety and financial stewardship, setting a benchmark for excellence in the health care industry.”
And, under Collins’ oversight, inactive claims will be much more tightly controlled going forward: “It’s great to have an insurance company to handle your claims,” Collins said, “but you have to maintain control internally on all claims.”
Collins also stressed the importance of being proactive: “One of the most important aspects of managing workers’ comp claims is that if the claim is going to become a lost time claim, and the return to work is projected 12 weeks post-date, we immediately put case management on that claim,” he said.
“That way, we’ve got communication not only internally with our team members’ health nurses, but they communicate with the case managers, and the case managers in turn communicate and work with the physicians to try to return these team members back to work. We’ve got a really good circle of communication where everybody knows what’s going on.” &
See all the 2024 Risk All Stars here.
