by Alissa C. Atkins, Esq.

A new American Airlines study showed that automatically assigning Nurse Case Managers to lost time claims reduced the time injured workers spent away from work, thereby significantly reducing the cost of lost time claims. Other airlines could follow this plan and assign nurses to their claims as well, and with Hartsfield Jackson such a big employer in Atlanta this could have a broader reach here. However, in Georgia, if a claim is not catastrophic, the claimant does not have to agree to allow this assistance. Often, when an injured worker hires an attorney, one of the first things the attorney does is request that any nurse assigned to the claim be removed. Nurses can still work to coordinate appointments and care, but are generally prevented from attending the appointments with the claimant. Based on the results of the American Airlines study, this help does not benefit the claimant as much as a more active role, and some attorneys will listen if you explain that the Nurse Case Manager can actually help both sides in the goal of returning the claimant to suitable work. This tends to work more in the airline industry and other specialized areas where claimants potentially make a lot of money and have a financial incentive to return to work as soon as possible.