This will be the first in a series of brief articles by Greg Gitter with Legacy Claims Solutions; roughly based on the presentations he has given at AIRROC events, the articles portray the stories he uses to illustrate techniques he has developed to assist companies in resolving “old dog” workers’ compensation exposures.
The claimant’s wife is clearly not happy. Despite having a settlement proposal in excess of $750,000, she continues to look angry about the whole process. Finally, during a pause in the discussion, I make eye contact and ask her, with as much sympathetic focus as possible, what the issue is that is causing her reluctance. The key stumbling block turns out to be king-size sheets. While her husband’s doctor has prescribed a king size bed to deal with his injuries, the appropriate size sheets were not part of that prescription and the claims handler would not agree to pay for them. Since the cost of such sheets was not something that readily sprung to mind, I took some time over lunch to determine what that would be. A quick trip to the drug store around the corner provided me with the ability to obtain a $100 gift card for a national big-box store that sold sheets of every shape and color. Upon providing her the gift card for her to purchase a few sets of sheets, the deal fell into place smoothly.
Thus, in this case, the wife who was a key part of the support team for the claimant was critical to getting a deal done; getting her to voice her concern and treating that concern with due consideration and a concrete, fact-based offer, set a new tone for the potential resolution of the case. Was it creative to throw in the sheets? Maybe, but it also showed respect for the people who have to live with injured worker.
