Ian Bridgman

Treating Depression & AnxietyWe are working with our clients to take The Claim Lab Psychosocial Questionnaires one step further. Rather than just stop at using data and statistical models to identify claims where a mental health intervention is required, we are now looking to assist in the application of the most appropriate treatment. This has […]

“Is this the tail?” A Canadian based Employee Assistance Plan provider, Morneau Shepell, published a study suggesting that 72% of employees surveyed, reported that Mental Health problems had negatively impacted their career (note 1). Whether this career impact was real or just perceived, is it any wonder that employees do not wish to disclose Mental […]

This month I want to take a look at a slightly different concept, self-efficacy and how it can help us predict a successful return to work.Self-efficacy is a surprisingly specific term that is often misused to describe confidence or motivation, but its true meaning refers to an individual’s belief about their capability to execute a […]

The World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Day was observed on 10th October – and gives us the opportunity to pause and think about how we can better support those who are struggling with their mental health. I am increasingly persuaded that we need to address mental health issues in a more systematic way, not […]

Unreported Mental Health Issues… We have been working with the Council for Disability Awareness, helping to push to understand more about the drivers of disability. One project, looking at the influence of mental health on disability claims, has been most revealing. For a while, The Claim Lab has been recording claimants’ levels of depression and […]

Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to be invited to present at the Disability Management Employers Coalition (DMEC) annual conference. I shared the platform with two industry experts, Carol Harnett and Ed Quick. The topic was quality of data, and we coalesced our different perspectives to a common conclusion…. Claims data is poor and […]

We have been very vocal about the importance of getting better data to drive claims management. From the analytical view, we have to find richer sources of data to drive our models. This enables us to help you make better claim duration projections and calculate more accurate reserves. However, what about getting this data earlier […]

One of the biggest issues we face with our analytics projects is the challenge of change management. I have seen this throughout my career, change management issues typically arise when there is a desire to develop the business process, normally when we are implementing a new technology platform. But why is this so prevalent in […]

About 18 months ago we started working with Empire Life and MunichRe in Canada on an exciting new joint project. This blog is a case study that our two clients presented at the Canadian Life & Health Insurance Association meeting earlier this month. We would like to say a special thank you to Sheila Karras […]

Last month we started a series of newsletters (February) to introduce the concept of data enrichment of claims information and we discussed how this will help us to understand what’s really preventing return to work for complex claims. Maybe for those short term disability plans of 3 to 6 months, the duration is driven by […]