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We’d like to take a moment to thank all of our valuable
clients for their continued support and business this past year. For
those of you not yet one of our clients, we look forward to serving
your needs in the coming year!
    
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WONDERING WHAT THOSE 2004 WORKERS’
COMPENSATION
CHANGES REALLY MEANT?
“Even with the best of intentions, SB 899 is paved with a
road of quicksand for those unable to navigate through these complex
statutes,” says Nick Roxborough, an employers’ rights lawyer. “While
SB 899 should yield meaningful savings in the long run,
employers will need to drive the process by becoming more
involved in their claims handling process.”
Major
features of the complex law include:
-
Increase in permanent disability payment if employee is not
returned to work
-
Decrease in permanent disability payment if
employee IS returned to work
-
Provision for up to $2500 in reimbursements to small
employers for permanent workplace modifications
-
Immediate medical care even if the claim is in
dispute
-
Medical Provider Networks
-
Changes to the Qualified Medical Examiner process
Last
year California's Workers’ Compensation system underwent major
changes with the enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 899. Signed by
Governor Schwarzenegger in 2004, SB 899 attempts to rein in
skyrocketing workers’ comp insurance costs and litigation. But there
seems to be a great deal of confusion about and misunderstanding of
SB 899. We find that many employers are not aware of the benefits
and penalties under SB 899.
SB 899
Permanent Impairment Benefits:
As stated
above, employers will need to drive the process by becoming more
involved in their claims handling process. Get involved early and
keep your valuable employees! One way employers can directly control
costs is via the Permanent Impairment Benefits. The Permanent
Impairment Benefits states that within 60 days of the permanent and
stationary determination, all employers must offer permanent
regular, modified or alternate work within 85% of the
pre-injury wages, or be subject to a benefit rate
increase.
Penalty:
If
an employer (over 50 employees) does NOT return
an injured employee to work, there will be up to a 15%
INCREASE in permanent disability payment and this will
reflect back in terms of HIGHER
premiums.
Benefit:
If
an employer returns an employee to a modified
job, there can be up to a 15% decrease in the
permanent disability payment. This will reflect
back in terms of lower premiums paid by employers who return
employees to work. The long term savings in premiums (via lower
experience/modification rates) could pay for the modifications
over time.
In the
long run, it makes much more sense to modify an employee’s workplace
to make every effort to return them to work. The cost to hire and
retrain another employee will far exceed the cost to return a
valuable employee to modified work.
SB 899 Workplace
Modification Reimbursements:
SB 899 also provides
for establishing funds for the Workplace Modification Reimbursements
program to entice smaller employers (50 employees or fewer) to
seriously consider implementing modifications such as speech
recognition. For injuries on or after July 1, 2004, qualified
employers will be eligible for reimbursements from $1250 up
to $2500 for both temporary and permanent modifications. To
put it into context, speech recognition accommodations run from
$1500 to $3500. Even with a $3500 accommodation for an injured
worker, the net cost to the employer could be as low as
$1000.
For employers with 50 or more employees, the Division
of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) administrative director is required
to adopt regulations to establish a return-to-work program to
promote the early and sustained return to work of employees
following a work related injury. These regulations will include
procedures for requesting reimbursement for workplace modifications.
Announcements regarding this new program will be posted to the DWC
web site when further information is available. You can find updated
information at: (http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/WCfaqEmployer.html)
You can also find more information about how this program
will be administered from the State of California website, Labor
Code, 139.47 and 139.48 at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=00001-01000&file=110-139.6.
This program has not yet been funded but is expected to be funded in
2006. Without funding, employers may be less likely to provide
accommodations to retain their valuable employees. This impacts both
employer and employee in lost time, loss of productivity, increased
costs and loss of revenue and income.
HOW CAN WE HELP?
ZEPHYR-TEC'S
RETURN-TO-WORK SOLUTIONS
Companies that provide speech software to an employee with
upper extremities injuries can usually return the worker to the same
computer work. Speech recognition, or voice activation, will allow
the injured worker to compute without using his/her hands so it is
an essential component when finding an accommodation for alternate
work. A speech recognition software solution is considered a
permanent modification and has been very successful in keeping
employees working.
Zephyr-TEC offers great cost
effective solutions such as our live, online group training
programs (eLearnSpeech™), San Mateo Fastrack (group training) and
onsite training. Changes in Workers' Compensation laws provide for a
decrease in permanent disability payments for offering modified
work. Or for small businesses a cash reimbursement of up to $2500
for employee accommodations gives even more incentive for speech
recognition software and training.
Zephyr-TEC's certified
courses cover Dragon NaturallySpeaking as well as its integration
into Microsoft Word, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Excel, and
PowerPoint. Zephyr-TEC Learning Guides include useful instructions,
helpful exercises, and Zephyr-TEC's indispensable macro sets. We
also help integrate speech into custom programs or templates – let
us know how we can help you.
Below are just some of the
services and training courses offered by Zephyr-TEC to return an
employee to their computer job with speech recognition software.
Visit our website (www.zephyr-tec.com) for more information and
download our full catalog of services and courses.
- Speech Feasibility Studies can determine if speech
recognition software can be integrated into proprietary
applications and mainframe environments
- Setup and Testing of Speech Software provides an optimal
installation for best performance
- Group Training Programs are held online (eLearnSpeech), at
a certified Zephyr-TEC facility or onsite at your location (with a
group of 4 or more)
- One-on-One Training conducted at a certified Zephyr-TEC
facility, online via eLearnSpeech or onsite at your
location
For more information, visit www.zephyr-tec.com or contact a Zephyr-TEC office
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When Leigh Hood, Director of
Technical Product Development at a large, San Francisco-based
financial services firm, was participating in the redesign of the
company's public web site, the designers wanted to include features
that required users to roll their mouse over text to expose
additional marketing copy and to change the background color. Leigh
objected, and explained that users of Dragon NaturallySpeaking would
not be able to use those features effectively by voice. As a result,
the new web site is less mouse-dependent and more accessible to
speech-recognition users.
Leigh's
expertise with Dragon began in 2002 after she developed tendonitis.
She started as a Zephyr-TEC student with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6.
Making the transition from hand use to speech-recognition was not
easy. "I had to really discipline myself not to reach for the mouse
when under time pressures," she says, "and to use the book to look
up the commands." Leigh has since upgraded to version 8, and she is
happy with the improved recognition.
Leigh’s
injuries are healing, and she adds "my colleagues are amazed that I
can login to our web site, place a trade, and manage my brokerage
account using only my voice. It's so futuristic." |
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WinScribe, developer of the world’s most widely used
digital dictation system, has announced the release of WinScribe
3.6.
“WinScribe is committed to delivering the best digital
dictation solution providing fast document turn around as well as
accurate and seamless transcription for our customers worldwide,”
said Matthew Weavers, Managing Director of WinScribe. “The new
WinScribe solution is a result of in-depth consultations with our
sales partners and our clients, especially those in the healthcare
and legal professions."
WinScribe 3.6’s new features include
•
Increased compatibility with peripheral devices, allowing greater
choice for handheld recorders and microphones. WinScribe 3.6 now
supports VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) allowing customers to
make Internet calls directly to the WinScribe server, dictate
directly to the WinScribe system, and bypass the need for
transcription equipment.
•
Integrated processing - WinScribe 3.6 provides the opportunity to
shift the speech recognition processing from the desktop to a
central server. Allowing the central server to perform the work
reduces the need for high specification client computers.
•
Improved password protection ensures confidentiality can be
protected.
• More
author interface options allow customers to choose an interface that
is easy to use, including a new web uploader that works from an
Internet browser wherever they are.
•
Improved organization - WinScribe 3.6 allows the transcriptionist to
make the completed document immediately available for the author to
read.
For
more information, visit www.winscribe.com or contact
Zephyr-TEC. |
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SAVE BIG $$ on Dragon NaturallySpeaking 8
Licensing!
For each open license order placed on or
before December 29, 2005,
you will receive a 10%
DISCOUNT!
-
Special offer valid on OLP orders only. Not valid on boxed
product, brown bag product, technical support or upgrade
assurance.
-
Special offer valid on Regular, Government and Academic OLP
orders only.
-
Valid only on OLP orders for the following products: Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Preferred 8, Dragon NaturallySpeaking
Professional 8, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8 and Dragon
NaturallySpeaking Legal 8.
GN Netcom Rebate
GN is offering a
competitive upgrade rebate check. If you already own a GN Netcom
headset or amplifier OR own a competitor’s headset or amplifier
(like Plantronics) AND you buy a GN headset or amplifier from
Zephyr-TEC, you can receive up to $20 back from GN. Visit GN Netcom or contact
Zephyr-TEC. |
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Microsoft Office
products and most Windows applications have keystrokes that perform
common actions without the mouse. To find the built-in keystroke
shortcuts, go to the program’s help menu and search for keystrokes,
shortcuts, or keyboard. For use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, say
"press" and then the keystroke combination. For instance, in
Microsoft Word say "press control shift k" to turn on SMALL CAPS.
And with Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional, Medical, or Legal,
you can create a step-by-step command to execute the
keystrokes.
If you're not sure how to write a step-by-step
command consider purchasing
our Fastrack Learning Guide for
NaturallySpeaking. Along with tons of
information, there are
instructions on writing step-by-step commands as well
as a CD
containing hundreds of Zephyr-TEC's proprietary
productivity
commands. In fact, we make it easy for you to write
step-by-step commands
with our own NaturallySpeaking commands
that help you write commands without
your hands. Visit our web store and purchase the Fastrack Learning
Guide
today!
If you
need help creating a command or need a special command written
for
you, contact our sales team (info@zephyr-tec.com) for more
information.
We've created thousands of commands for our clients
and helped them be as
productive as possible with the software.
Harness the power of speech today!
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