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In our latest episode, Yvonne and Rafael talk to DJ McConnell, President and Owner of Bailey-McCaffrey, LLC.

Guest bio:

DJ McConnell | Nurse Case Manager & Owner of Bailey McCaffrey | New Orleans, Louisiana

• 15+ years in the workers' compensation industry
• Worked at Bailey McCaffrey for 13+ years, recently became President and owner.
• Brings a healthcare/clinical lens to claims work and organizational leadership

Yvonne wishes we had talked more to DJ about taking over the company where he worked for 13+ years. We'll have him back to have a deeper discussion on leadership! Thank you and kudos to DJ for stepping into this new role. We wish him all the best!

1. Good Communication Comes First—Learn Why

DJ (like many of us) learned this the hard way: the medical side of workers' comp is predictable. The hard part that nobody teaches you in school is how to communicate with injured workers and their family after a severe or catastrophic injury, and how that first communication impacts the entire claim.

DC micro lesson: Before you worry about process, policy, or procedures—understand that how you communicate will determine the entire trajectory of a claim. If you don't teach yourself this early on, you'll spend years learning it the hard way.

Ask yourself: What do I know about crisis communications? What do I still need to learn?

2. Meet People Where They Are—Not Where YOU Need Them To Be

DJ explains how early intervention should be carefully managed. When you show up within 24 hours of an injury, clipboard in hand, asking questions to someone who is in shock or hysterically crying, you've already lost. They're not in a state to receive or give information.

DC micro lesson: Your job on the first contact isn't to gather data. It's to establish that you're a human who sees them and will be there when they want or need answers. That's enough. The information can wait.

Think about this: What would change if you showed up to the first contact with an injured worker, not with a clipboard but with 100% presence?

3. Non-Negotiables Are Infrastructure, Not Luxury

DJ talks about his non-negotiables for maintaining his capacity: sleep, family time, and holding boundaries. We talk about the importance of boundaries and what it costs when you don't maintain them. But he's learned the cost of not protecting them: capacity disappears, communication suffers, presence evaporates.

DC micro lesson: Non-negotiables aren't selfish. They're the foundation your capacity is built on.

Honest check-in: What are your three non-negotiables? How do you actually protect them?

4. Self-Awareness: Notice Before You Break

DJ models self-awareness in his personal and professional life: noticing his emotional response at dinner, acknowledging lack of boundaries, addressing fears as a new business owner. He's not hiding (avoiding) the gap between knowing and doing; he's paying attention to it. So important!

DC micro lesson: Self-leadership starts with noticing. What's happening inside you right now? When do you notice your state of mind shifting? When do you realize you're operating from scarcity instead of capacity? How are you addressing the shift when you notice?

This is the internal work nobody talks about, but what everybody needs to do.

5. Building A Strong Foundation

DJ shares how he mentors his team. He role-plays with them. He shows them what presence looks like, what first contact without a clipboard looks like, what protecting your non-negotiables so you can show up for others actually means.

DC micro lesson: Mentoring can take many forms. DJ talks about how he's practicing with his team. They role-play together. Sometimes mentoring is being willing to look clumsy while you learn together. DJ is building a company culture where communication and presence aren't nice ideas. They're coached, practiced, and reinforced through real mentoring relationships.

That sounds like a good recipe for building a strong foundation!

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Recently, we sat down with Jill Dulich to discuss how the workers' compensation system has changed over the past 50+ years. Here's a summary of our conversation:

Guest: Jill Dulich | Director of Claims and Operations, California Self-Insurers Security Fund
Expertise: 52 years in workers' compensation (Marriott, 32 years; CSSF, 11 years)
Geographic Scope: Jill has managed claims in all states west of the Mississippi

ABOUT JILL

She's a living archive of what workers' compensation was, and could be again. Jill has spent 52 years in this industry, partly by maintaining her own humanity outside it: she walks to clear her head, loves to travel internationally (recent trips to New Zealand, Australia, France, Greece), and loves to explore other cultures with genuine curiosity.

THE CORE QUESTION

52 years ago, claims professionals were measured on early and frequent contact with injured workers.

Today, injured workers often feel "lost on an island with no support."

So, what changed? And what has it cost us?

THEN vs. NOW

THEN (52 Years Ago)

• Role: Claims professionals guided injured workers through the complex system of workers' compensation
• Measure: Early, frequent contact and communication with injured workers
• Benefit: Injured workers felt supported; employers got predictability and faster resolution on their claims

NOW

• Role: Claims professionals manage procedures and systems
• Measure: High caseloads, case closure, compliance, efficiency
• Cost: Injured workers feel abandoned; employers lose goodwill and face more friction and litigation

THE PARADOX

Jill talks about how she struggled with anxiety early in her career as a claims professional. She didn't know she could ask for help. The work has always demanded emotional presence, and it takes a toll. It requires holding someone else's crisis while managing your own capacity.

Hmmm. Have we talked about managing capacity before? Yep!

At places like Marriott, where support was offered to claims professionals, it didn't eliminate the struggle. It made it survivable. Jill said it allowed her and others to show up, day after day, with empathy and compassion.

Now? The job is harder, and we removed the safety net.

Complexity has increased exponentially. We've fragmented the role. And we've stripped away the human support mechanisms that made it possible to guide injured workers with empathy and compassion. Then we wonder why claims professionals are burning out at such a high and fast rate?

THE INSIGHT

Workers' comp was designed around one simple truth: Claims professionals are there to guide injured workers through complexity, and when that happens, everyone wins.

We optimized for procedure. We lost sight of our mission.

The cost: We didn't just sacrifice the role's humanity; we sacrificed its effectiveness and the core mission. And somewhere along the way, we made the job unsustainable for our system guides: claims professionals.

WHAT YOU'LL HEAR

• How the claims role was originally designed, and why it worked
• What we traded when we prioritized systems over relationships
• Why injured workers and employers both lost
• Are we ready to redesign for what actually works?

A DIRECT QUOTE FROM JILL

A Socratic reflection: If you were measured on early, frequent contact with injured workers instead of case closure (speed), how would your day change?

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Yvonne and Rafael sit down with Dave Chmiel, Chief Claims Officer at Hub International. Together, they engage in a great conversation about the broker's perspective on workers' compensation.

Episode Highlights

☕ The Core Message: Listening Changes Everything (00:02:38)

From day one in the brokerage world, Dave was taught to listen, to understand what economic buyers (CEOs, CFOs) actually care about. That skill transcends the boardroom. When you truly listen, you access perspectives you'd otherwise miss. In workers' comp, where we're managing human situations, that's everything.

🎯 A 35-Year Career Built on Perspective-Shifting (00:02:40)

Dave intentionally positioned himself to see the full ecosystem:

• Liberty Mutual (10 years): Claims management with major accounts; mastered total cost to risk
• Brokerage side (12 years): Kept managing claims while gaining the 30,000-foot view of client needs
• Hub International (14 years): Chief Claims Officer, bridging claims and sales

He didn't climb a ladder; he expanded his lens. That's the difference.

🤝 The Three-Partner Model: What Brokers Actually Do (00:11:00)

When asked what brokers can do that people don't realize, Dave explains the architecture: There are three partners in this equation: the client, the carrier, and the broker. The broker's job is to advocate for the client while maintaining a healthy relationship with the carrier. It's not zero-sum. It's about understanding all three positions and helping them work in alignment. That nuance matters.

🏢 From Middle-Market to Boutique at Scale (00:22:00)

Hub was originally positioned as a middle-market broker, but has evolved into an "upmarket and complex risk broker." What's their differentiator? Boutique-style service, the kind of personalized attention and deep expertise you'd expect from a small firm, delivered at the scale of the sixth largest broker in the world. That's the sweet spot David and his team operate in.

📈 The Broker That Grows With You (00:28:07)

"The best kind of broker is the one that's going to grow with you as an organization." A company that had two locations five years ago and now has forty is fundamentally different. The broker has to evolve too, more productive, more creative, more empathetic. That means understanding the distinctions: construction claims look nothing like transportation or sports and entertainment. And it means building trust-based alignment with carriers and TPAs, not just golf course friendships as we did 20 years ago. As Dave says, like a baseball manager whose team fights for you when they trust the vision.

🏒 Off the Ice: Goalie, Coach, Dad (00:40:30)

Dave still plays hockey as a goalie, sharing how much he loves the sport and the camaraderie between players. He gets the biggest kick, though, out of coaching his daughters: a 13-year-old softball pitcher and a 10-year-old who plays basketball and soccer. He didn't have sports in his own middle school years, so he's living through their growth and development. "That's where I relax now," he says. It's where the same listening, mentoring, and protective instincts that define his broker role show up in his life outside work.

✨ Rare Energy in a Mature Field (00:41:15)

"In the claims world, you don't often see the amount of energy that I think we collectively as a group have." When someone with 35 years still gets genuinely stoked about the work and the Elevate Work Comp conference community, it's not nostalgia, it's real.

The Nugget Worth Holding

How are you creating space to truly listen to what your stakeholders need? What assumption might you be missing about what matters to them?

Connect with David: He means it when he says reach out. Whether you have questions about the broker perspective, career advice, or just want to continue the conversation, find him on LinkedIn: Dave Chmiel. He's serious about helping and mentoring anyone who's open to it.

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Yvonne is joining from her hometown of Bandera, Texas (where the weather can't make up its mind — thirties one day, nineties the next), and Rafael just got back from Chicago. Which is the perfect segue to today's guest — Michael Brennan, Chairman of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, joining us from a snowy Chicago, where, apparently, the high twenties counts as mild. Brrrrrr.

Highlights of this episode:

⚖️ Workers' Comp Is a Right, Not a Giveaway — Michael gets personal here. As the grandson of a permanently disabled worker who received nothing back in the 1920s, he brings a deeply human perspective to why this system matters. Workers' comp protects both the worker and the employer — and that point gets lost far too often.

🏛️ Inside the Illinois Commission — Illinois is not a fund state. The Commission's role is as an adjudicatory body — they resolve disputes, they don't pay benefits. With over 350 insurance carriers writing workers' comp in Illinois and 500+ self-insured employers, the scale is massive. Michael puts it simply: workers' comp is a $3 billion industry in Illinois alone.

🤝 Collaboration Is the Secret Sauce — Michael credits a lot of Illinois' progress to building real relationships with the bar, stakeholders, business, labor, and medicine. His philosophy? "When you're throwing rocks at one another, you usually don't get too much done." During COVID, he held monthly calls with 40-50 attorneys to navigate changes together — and it worked.

📱 The Challenge for the Next Generation — Remote work has changed everything. Michael shared that perhaps younger attorneys and adjusters are missing out on the hallway conversations and organic relationship-building that shaped veterans like Michael. His advice: pick up the phone. Call each other. The technology is there — use it to connect with your colleagues, not just to communicate.

📄 Going Paperless — and Making It Stick — When Michael came in, the Commission was drowning in paper. His number one goal: go paperless. By April 2021, they had done it system-wide. The bar resisted at first. Then begged for more. Last year, they settled over 30,000 cases and disposed of slightly more cases than were filed new. That reflects a system that's working.

Michael's closing thought: "My hope is that by the time I walk out, our workers' compensation system will be in better shape than we found it." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? 😄

For more information about the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, click here.

Hasta luego! 👋

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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Yvonne and Rafael sit down with Heather Lore, Executive Director of the IAIABC, for a conversation that covers some important (and undertalked) topics in workers' comp right now.

What we get into:

🌍 A Truly Global Community: The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) is the oldest workers' comp organization in the country, at 112 years, with members spanning the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. There's something powerful about realizing that professionals around the world are grappling with the same challenges and learning from one another.

🌡️ Heat-Related Injuries: They're more common than the data shows. Heather says this is largely because they're underreported. She breaks down what's happening, what states like Oregon and California are doing about it, and what employers can do today. Here's the WCRI research study, and it's worth a read.

⚖️ A Noble Profession: No matter your role in workers' comp, everyone is pulling toward the same outcome: getting an injured worker back to a functioning life. That's a mission worth discussing further.

🌱 The Next Generation of WC Professionals: Workers' comp is a harder sell than it should be. Heather makes the case for why it's actually a fascinating career, and shares a simple job posting tweak that one organization used to send applications through the roof.

🏆 The IAIABC Next Gen Awards Program: It's Heather's favorite thing the IAIABC does. Since 2017, they've recognized 68 rising leaders from every corner of the industry. She's currently sorting through nominations for the next cohort... and says it's going to be really difficult choosing award recipients, and it's a good problem to have.

Heather's parting thought: The IAIABC's vision is a world free from the pain and loss of work injuries and illnesses. She says it's important to find small ways to have an impact. That's where joy and meaning live.

Until next time, ¡Hasta luego! 👋

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

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What happens when Medicare and multiple liens enter the claim, and how do you navigate them without derailing resolution?

In this episode of Deconstructing Comp, Yvonne Guibert and Rafael Gonzalez talk with John Cattie, managing partner of Cattie and Gonzalez, PLLC. The conversation focuses on Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) compliance and the broader landscape of federal lien resolution in workers’ compensation claims.

Together, they explore the key components of MSP through the lens of lien management, diving into the different types of federal liens that can arise and how they shape settlement strategy. The discussion centers on the practical challenges of identifying, navigating, and resolving multiple reimbursement interests—an area where confusion and delays often occur in real-world claim handling.

John shares practical insights on common missteps, from overlooking lien exposure to mismanaging repayment obligations, and how claims professionals and attorneys can more effectively navigate these complexities to avoid delays and unintended consequences. He highlights key federal lien types, including Medicare, the Veterans Administration, and TRICARE, while reinforcing the importance of identifying other potential reimbursement interests that may impact settlement.

Tune in for a grounded perspective on a complex and often challenging topic (this one made Yvonne’s head hurt), helping listeners better understand how to approach Medicare’s role and lien resolution within the broader claims process.

At the end of the episode, John shares fun facts about his favorite pastime, Fantasy Football, and tells us about the sports photos on his wall. Steve Garvey is the Padres baseball player Yvonne could not remember.

For more information about federal liens in workers' compensation, contact John Cattie or Rafael Gonzalez at Cattie and Gonzalez, PLLC.

¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp