NYS Workers’ Comp Board to Begin Business Process Re-Engineering Project

The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board said it is launching a broad-based business process re-engineering project (BPR) designed to “significantly improve” the experience of injured workers and employers in the New York workers’ compensation system.

The Workers’ Compensation Board said last week that workers’ compensation in New York is a modern and sophisticated social insurance system operating on an infrastructure designed decades ago. This project aims to build a new infrastructure that takes advantage of new technology, best practices, and 100 years of experience.

The goal of this project is to re-create a workers’ compensation system that will once again serve as a model for the nation, the Workers’ Compensation Board said.

The Workers’ Compensation Board said large, well-run organizations regularly conduct business process re-engineering to improve service and ensure they’re meeting fundamental goals.

The Board said that, to that end, it released a Request for Proposal (RFP) in April 2012 to hire a BPR vendor to assist the Board and other workers’ comp stakeholders in creating a shared vision for the next century. As a result of the RFP, the Board has retained the business advisory firm Deloitte to assist with the project.

The Workers’ Compensation Board said the Deloitte team will help with the first phase: a comprehensive analysis of the current system and detailed envisioning of an improved future system.

The Board said that antiquated business processes, a reliance on paper forms, and outdated technology have led to a system that falls short on basic performance measures and does not provide the service expected by injured workers and employers.

This first phase of the project is an opportunity for the Board and stakeholders to step back and examine how the system as a whole currently functions and propose comprehensive process and technology changes to drive vast, measurable improvement in system performance.

This fall, the Board and Deloitte will begin dialogues with stakeholder groups to better understand their challenges in the current system as well as listen to their suggestions to make the system better, officials said.

The project team will reach out to stakeholders through several means, including face–to–face meetings, video conferences, conference calls, broad–based surveys and email. Additionally, interested parties can email the project team with improvement ideas at bpr@wcb.ny.gov.

Deloitte is expected to deliver its final recommendations to the Workers’ Compensation Board in early to mid–2014, after extensive discussions with system stakeholders and analysis.

Source: The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board

Topics New York Workers' Compensation