March 2014 Meeting Recap
On March 19 our CFMA Siouxland Chapter held an informative meeting at CJ Callaway’s. The meeting began with a business meeting, where nominations and elections were made to replace expiring Board of Directors seats held by David Honner and Jarrod Muller. We thank David and Jarrod for their excellent work and years of service on the board, and congratulate new board members, Joel Van Egdom and John Sutton. In addition, Michelle Lounsbery was elected to serve as the Membership Committee chair, and Joel Van Egdom was elected to chair the Public Relations Committee. The business meeting conclude with brief committee updates. One of those updates was the reminder that we will be seeking to leverage the Siouxland CFMA website for communication and updates such as these going forward. We look forward to your feedback on the effectiveness of this change.
Following the business meeting, we had the opportunity to hear Mike Iverson with the Sioux Falls Police Department present on fraud prevention and detection. Mike did an excellent job bringing awareness regarding trends in several areas of crime pertaining to the local construction industry. He shared in depth a counterfeit check scheme being run throughout the nation, that had recently resulted in loses in seven businesses in Sioux Falls, including several CFMA member companies. This particular scheme involved the use of numerous homeless individuals for the cashing of counterfeit checks. Mike also shared advice on how to both prevent and detect situations of fraud and provided handouts on preventing identify theft.
Becky McEnery was our second speaker, focused on providing advice on how to be proactive in managing worker’s compensation claims and medical fraud cases. Becky is a Risk Management Consultant and Legal Medical Consultant working for Henry Carlson Company. She provided excellent examples from her experience in investigating and managing medical related cases and offered numerous tips on how to be proactive in those efforts. She also emphasized that commitment to a strong safety program and culture will go a long ways in helping prevent the occurrence of workers’ compensation fraud in your business. In addition, when a workers’ compensation claim arises, you need to be active to ensure that case is being handled proactively by your insurance partners. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and push for clarity or additional information if you suspect workers’ compensation fraud. Ultimately your employees need to know that you care about them, but also that you will have ZERO tolerance for workers’ compensation scams.
Following the speakers, we enjoyed lunch and the opportunity to network with chapter members and visitors. Thank you to those who attended, and we hope that the program was beneficial to you. We look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming June meeting and golf tournament!
Joel Van Egdom
Public Relations Committee Chair
Siouxland Chapter of CFMA