George Hudgins, Hudgins Services, Inc.1

Business Operations Manager
Chattanooga - TN United States

The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.

Hudgins Services, Inc. is a worker's compensation case management company that employs medical professionals who manage the medical treatment of injured workers to ensure the best care, reduces the medical costs for insurance companies in the process and expedites the return to work which greatly benefits employers' workforces.

Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)

With the US economy on the heels of a recession, Hudgins Services, Inc. (HSI) provides 3 distinct economic benefits - opportunities for employees to remain gainfully employed, containment of escalating medical costs for insurers and retention of valued employees for employers. An injury at the workplace can be devastating to the injured employee, the insurance carrier and the business itself. HSI's proactive, service-oriented workers' compensation program ensures quality and timely medical care for injured employees while returning over 70% of injured workers back to work sooner than anticipated and eliminating high dollar claims for insurance companies. The worker's compensation field like other insurance fields has received a bad rap because the cost of insurance continues to skyrocket while stories of big insurance companies denying the payment of claims continue to surface. HSI is a neutral middle man that provides benefits to all stakeholders. Injured employees regain health quickly and are able to resume their normal lives. Insurance companies aren't as tempted to find loopholes in the policies to deny claims because the medical costs are efficiently contained. And employers do not lose production by having voids in their workforce or spending time and money finding and training new employees. Everybody wins! HSI and like companies will help keep rising insurance costs down and add precious revenue to businesses’ bottom lines while keeping hard working Americans employed.

What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)

Since the inception of HSI in 2003, it has had no less than a 50% increase in gross revenue each year. HSI has a staff of nearly 100 employees that provide high quality services throughout the southeast region. The company is on pace for record numbers again this year with plans to expand into the southwest next year and the northeast in the following year. With humble begins in 2003 as the owner was the entire staff working from her home, HSI is truly making its mark in the work comp arena. HSI's share of the market continues to grow because it boasts cost savings of twice as much as its services cost. Insurance companies and employers alike are financially healthy and happy with the value HSI brings. Recovering employees acquire a renewed sense of their well-being and worth to the workplace. HSI actively finds them light duty alternatives with their current employers to maintain their sense of normalcy. Hudgins Services, Inc. truly lives up to its slogan of being "On the ground, in the field, breathing life and health into injured workers."

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