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DEBBIE LAKEY, Workers Comp Claims Manager AAC Staff Profile


ByRandy Kemp County Lines Editor


been dealing with insurance and related claims for years, she never knows what the new day is going to bring. “No days are going to be the same; some days


D


we may get in one claim, and the next day we may get 10.” A claim could be as simple as a cut or the need for a tetanus shot, or it could involve an employee in one of the 74 participat- ing counties who is involved in an accident with major injuries. Debbie has her own caseload of claims, plus


she oversees the claims being handled by Kim Nash and Becky Burnett. Debbie also completes some required regular reports for the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission. Her department has about 500 open claims at this time. Seeing to a claim involves processing pay- ments, and making and taking lots of calls – to and from claimants, doctors, county contact persons and others. Most interesting each day, she says, “are the people you talk to. Everybody has a different story. Lots of people want to talk, and if you have time, they’ll tell you their life story! I also like getting to know the contact people at the county level,” she said. Tat is usually an admin- istrative assistant or County Clerk or other des- ignated contact point. Her job is significantly more complex than it might appear at first glance. It’s not like she has a big blank check she can write to every person who files a claim. But much like an investiga- tive reporter or a judge, she first does her fact- finding, then reaches an impartial decision that attempts to balance the law and a sense of fair- ness – both to the county and to the claimant – all based on the facts. “When we pay out a claim, we’re basically spending the county’s money. So we want to spend it properly, for legitimate claims.” Tis is all the more important in the face of the escalat-


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ebbie Lakey is typically the first one to work each morning at the Association of Arkansas Coun- ties offices. And though she’s


■ Debbie Lakey


■ Claims Manager, Workers’ Compensation Trust


■ With the Association of Arkansas Counties since 1994


■ Every claim is different – but it all comes down to the facts


■ Hobbies: Traveling – much of it on a Harley


ing costs of medical care today, she added.


Debbie started at AAC in 2004 as a claims examiner for AAC Risk Management Services. She has been in workers’ compensation since 1994. Prior to joining the AAC team she was with Crawford and Company as an insurance adjuster, working with a wide variety of clients. But her experience in the field started in 1974, when she started as a claims processor for Sedge- wick James of Arkansas. One of her bosses there, and who trained her,


was Debbie Norman, who ended up at AAC in 1998; she has served as Manager of AAC Risk Management Services, which includes the Workers Comp program, since 2001. “Debbie Norman and I have come full-circle!” she said, adding, “I like working here at AAC.” Sedgewick James of Arkansas is an insurance company that once handled the Workers Comp and auto and property program for AAC before AAC brought that work in-house in 1998. Debbie is a licensed adjustor. Tere are some changes this year that


will require her to take some continuing education courses. She has to


accumulate 24 hours of continuing ed in a two- year period – and three of those have to be in ethics, she noted. Debbie serves on the Board of Directors for


the Arkansas Self-insured Association, and she helps with that group’s annual conference.


Family Debbie met her husband in high school at


North Little Rock. Tey fell in love, and said “I do” when she was 17 and he was 19. Tey will soon celebrate their 37th anniversary. Lonnie has worked for Centerpoint Energy since 1973 – “the only fulltime job he’s ever had!”


Tey have a daughter in Conway and a mar- ried son who lives in North Little Rock, and they enjoy their three grandsons.


Hobbies In a word, her hobby is motorcycles –


Harley Davidsons in particular. They bought their first, a Dyna Wide Glide, in 2003. Currently the ride an Ultra Classic . They take lots of smaller trips around Arkansas and the


COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2011


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