Last night, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to both Houses of Congress, both parties, and all of us.  He spoke eloquently and passionately, describing the suffering of his people and their total commitment to defeating Russia and reclaiming all Ukrainian lands stolen by Putin.

What Zelenskyy knows – and I mean KNOWS – is the more Putin bombs Ukrainians, the stronger those Ukrainians become, and the more committed they are to seeing this through to Putin’s bitter end.

Net – Putin’s attack on civilian targets will strengthen Ukrainian resolve, not weaken it.

Here’s why.

I had long thought that the horrific bombing campaigns of World War II helped bring the war to a close by battering Germans and Japanese into submission. [full disclosure – my father was a machine gunner, bombardier, and armorer in the 8th Air Force in England during the second World War.]

Boy was I wrong.

Credible

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It’s been four months since we talked about Ukraine, a period during which Russia put scores of thousands of poorly-equipped, pretty-much-untrained, and wholly incompetent civilian men into army uniforms (or facsimiles thereof) and fed them into the meat grinder that is Donetsk, Kherson, Bakhmut and surrounding areas.

With this result.

With things on the front lines pretty static, it’s time to think through the factors that will decide who wins. In layperson’s terms, I’d say there are three main drivers

People to do the fighting – today’s topic

Will to fight

Stuff to fight with

Yes, this is pretty basic, but stick with me here.

The “people” need to be found, trained, equipped, clothed, fed and led. These are all hard to do – especially in winter, in Ukraine, after 10 months of often-brutal combat dominated by death-by-artillery.

In addition to the usual recruiting efforts focused on patriotism and

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A new report ($25 to download) from the National Foundation for Unemployment Compensation and Workers’ Compensation sheds light on the pandemic’s impact on work comp financials.

MCM readers will not be surprised that the impact has been pretty positive – Mark Priven and I predicted this back in September of 2020.

Several key takeaways.

  1.  Medical costs plummeted  – by over $3.5 billion – almost 12%, likely due to lower employment resulting in fewer claims, coupled with the relatively lower cost of COVID-related claims (much more on this here).
  2. Total benefit payments dropped by almost $3.9 billion…
  3. Over the last decade, the national average benefit cost per employee dropped by 10.2% – BEFORE adjusting for inflation. After adjusting for cumulative inflation of 17%, the real decline in benefit cost per employee was 27.3%. 

What does this mean for you?

Workers’ comp financials are pretty strong…for insurers and employers.

Mark Priven is

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Natural HealthShipping to a APO/FPO/DPO? Please add the deal with to your handle e-book. Make certain you embody the unit and box numbers (if assigned).

The Slow Food motion places the main target again on nutrient rich meals created to gas your body so you feel higher. It offers you an excellent purpose to get together with friends and family and luxuriate in something you cooked up. Natural Health Trends Corporation is a world direct-selling and e-commerce firm whose subsidiaries sell personal care, wellness, and high quality of life merchandise beneath the NHT Global model. Since its founding in 2001, NHT Global has evolved to offer fast impact merchandise in three distinct product classes and bought in more than forty nations all over the world. I use one hundred grams of water for every 12 grams of espresso for me a powerful flavor, it is advisable to use 45-60 grams of …

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is pretty good.

Here are the very preliminary takeaways from the latest Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Workers’ Comp...so far 21 phone interviews completed and several more still to go.

[if you’re new to MCM, we’ve done an annual Survey since 2004, past public reports are here (respondents get a much more detailed version)]

  • Drug spend continues to decline, although at first blush it looks like the drop is less than we’ve seen in recent years
  • Opioid spend is also continuing its downward trend
  • Generic efficiency – the percentage of scripts that could be filled with generics that are filled with generics – is just shy of 100%
  • Payers are still struggling with legacy opioid patients with respondents identifying patient resistance (mostly fear driven), recalcitrant prescribers, attorneys and the lack of regulatory/legislative support as key obstacles
  • Physician dispensing is once again rearing its ugly/profiteering/self-serving/taxpayer-abusing head.
  • Payers want
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