Ep. 553 Beyond Blood Sugar: How Diabetes Impacts Workers’ Compensation Claims
In this episode, Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Account Executive Kevin Howard talk about diabetes and its impact on workers’ compensation claims.
Show Notes: Subscribe to Rancho Mesa's Newsletter
Director/Host: Alyssa Burley
Guest: Kevin Howard
Producer/Editor: Jadyn Brandt
Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “Breaking News Intro” by nem0production
© Copyright 2025. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Transcript
Alyssa Burley: You’re listening to Rancho Mesa’s StudioOne™ podcast, where each week we break down complex insurance and safety topics to help your business thrive.
I’m your host, Alyssa Burley, and I’m joined by Kevin Howard, Partner with Rancho Mesa. He specializes in providing insurance and risk management solutions to artisan contractors. And today, we’re going to talk about diabetes and its impact on workers’ compensation claims.
Kevin, welcome to the show.
Kevin Howard: Thank you so much. Glad to be here.
AB: So, Kevin, why is diabetes so important to you or why is this a topic that you wanted to talk about?
KH: You know, I recently had a client go through a claim that was extremely tricky and different, and it had to do with a diabetic employee. It really shined some light for me on how important it is to have a game plan for every type of scenario that can be thrown at you.
And separately, you know, if anybody watched the World Series the other day and they opened up with, you know, cancer awareness and everybody held up a loved one's name or who they're fighting for, similar to that, I'm sure all of us, all the listeners out there, if you were to hold up a sign and on that sign was written a family member, a friend that suffers from diabetes or is diabetic. It's an important topic that affects all of us, you know, and there's one out of five people are suffering from this disease daily. So it's important to talk about from just a human standpoint, but also how can we prepare ourselves as employers in case this comes up in the workers' compensation field.
AB: Absolutely. I think we all can think of at least one person, if not multiple that has been affected by this. So you've recently wrote an article where you cover how diabetes can become a workers' compensation issue under California law. So will you explain how diabetes might affect someone's workers' compensation claim?
KH: Absolutely. You know, this is, again, I use the word tricky because with, with HIPAA regulations, you can't come out and ask somebody in an interview, “Hey, are you diabetic?”
You know, there's some red tape around privacy for obvious reasons. You know, somebody doesn't need to, or maybe they're not willing to, or that's their own private medical issue. However, in the course of work, if a diabetic goes through an injury, for example, a foot injury that is obviously a very sensitive part of a diabetic's nature, that could have turned into a worker's compensation claim where the employer doesn't really know what's going on, unless that comes to light that employee is diabetic.
So I recently went through a claim where that was the exact scenario, a foot injury. Nobody really knew why the employee wasn't coming back. The client of mine had a very aggressive return to work program.
AB: Like we recommend.
KH: Like we recommend, which is a great idea. However, that brought, really shines some light on, wow, we have to have a game plan because this employee was diabetic. That's why he couldn't come back or wouldn't come back. And it kind of threw a wrench in the plan.
AB: Yeah. So supervisors are encouraged to notice signs like fatigue and disorientation. So what should a supervisor do if they notice an employee is acting tired or confused? Maybe they don't know that the person has diabetes.
KH: Yeah, this is a chance for employers to, you know, we've used this term before in the workers' compensation, claim advocacy world, to hug the employee, not physically, but, you know, put your caring hat on and go out there and ask those questions. Like, how are you feeling, are you dealing with anything that we should know about? Do you need some rest?
And this also is a chance to build some awareness around just health in general, you know, hey, how are we doing with nutrition? How are we doing with our, you know, can we help as the employer with your physical health, or is there anything that we can be doing extra to make sure that we're all healthy? And I think that's just been a theme that's been pretty common in the last 10 years with not just construction, like every industry, but this is another reason why investing in your employees, investing in health and safety is especially important.
AB: Yeah. So Rancho Mesa recommends business owners work with their carriers and brokers that understand their industry. So how does Rancho Mesa help when a health condition like diabetes makes a claim more complicated?
KH: Great question. I think that, you know, this ties right into the theme of there's never too much communication when it comes to a workers' compensation claim. You know, Jim Malone in our office, he is always inside, in the weeds, in the trenches when it comes to these claims. Now, if you do have a workers' compensation claim and it has to do with diabetes, this is not the first time or the first rodeo for that insurance provider. It's just really important to get in touch with your broker. If you're working with Rancho Mesa, get in touch with Jim Malone. Find out what the next step is.
Again, there's a lot of sensitive red tape around like who can talk to this injured worker about what's going on, who can get really in depth with the game plan. Is there a return to work program that makes sense versus just saying, you know what, I have no idea what to do. There are plenty of methods available, you know, whether it be you're with a certain insurance provider, or you're talking to Jim Malone or your broker or that broker's claim advocate that are specific to that injury that will help with a return to work program.
AB: Yeah, and it sounds like, you know, and we talk about this within Rancho Mesa is having a good relationship between employees, the leadership team, open up those lines of communication because if the employer knows that the employee is dealing with diabetes and that can complicate even minor injuries, I think that there's going to be a better outcome. But we can't, we can't force an employee to share those details. But hopefully that if you can develop good rapport with your employees, then they'll feel comfortable sharing that information, which ultimately, I think will make the claim outcome better for everybody.
KH: I agree. And I think in general, at that interview process or inside of that interview, just asking, are there any medical conditions that we should be aware of? You're allowed to ask that. I mean, that's not something that is against HIPAA. And that might come out in that conversation. If not, there's other signs that you can be looking for. And that's really the awareness part.
AB: Yeah, really watching employees and noticing, hey, Is this person's energy level? Is it different than it normally is?
KH: Right.
AB: You know, and just being engaged and watching those employees to notice those little things that might indicate that there's a bigger issue.
KH: Right.
AB: Yeah. All right. So, Kevin, if listeners have questions about their workers' compensation insurance, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
KH: You know; I'm going to throw out a different contact. Find me on LinkedIn. On LinkedIn is the, I view that every day. It's a really easy way to say hi, kind of see who I am and check in on, you know, there's other podcasts that are on my LinkedIn if you want to listen to more. So find me on there.
AB: Alright, so Kevin, thank you for joining us in StudioOne.
KH: Thank you.
AB: Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. If you enjoyed what you heard, please share this episode and subscribe. For more insights like this, visit us at RanchoMesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.