Engaging injured workers in their own recovery and claims process makes practical sense. The more engaged, the more likely they will participate in positive behavior, helping them return to work sooner. But in a world of rapidly-changing technology, measures for engaging workers must evolve — or be doomed to fail. In the opening keynote session at the 2016 National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference, Tim East, Director of Corporate Risk Management at The Walt Disney Company, explained how responding to changing demands and expectations provides clues for how workers’ compensation must evolve to keep pace with the claims experiences that
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At the 2016 PCI Annual Meeting, a panel of retiring insurance executives discussed lessons learned over their careers. The panel included: Marguerite Tortorello – moderator Terrance Cavanaugh – President and CEO – Erie Insurance Group Kenneth Ciak – Vice Chairman – Ameriprise Auto and Home Insurance Tad Montross – Retired CEO – Gen Re J. Douglas Robinson – Chairman of the Board – Utica National Insurance Group What keeps you up at night, then and now? The Weather Channel! Making sure that we are achieving responsible growth for our shareholders. The emerging risk trend that had not yet been identified.
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At the 2016 PCI Annual Meeting, a panel discussed the current state of the reinsurance marketplace, emerging risks in the U.S. and around the world, and how these issues could impact the marketplace. The panel included: Andrew Marcell – Global Head of Strategy – AON Benfield (moderator) James Bradshaw – CEO – Willis Re North America Steven Levy – President – Reinsurance Division, Munich Reinsurance America Andrew Winyard – Executive Director – Atrium Syndicate What do you expect from the reinsurance marketplace in the January 1 renewal cycle? This depends significantly on the line of business and area of the
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At the 2016 PCI Annual Meeting, Prem Watsa, CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings, talked about the state of the global marketplace. The last fifteen years (2000-2015) has been the second slowest economic growth rate in the United States – going back to when this was first measured in the late 1700. During this same time, U.S. private and public debt has spiked significantly. The U.S. economy has a tremendous impact on world markets. When you compare the U.S. to other countries Japan, the U.K. and E.U. nations, all have a higher percentage of GDP as debt. This shows how challenging
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Association 38th Annual Educational Seminar and Membership Meeting, William Blumthal Jr, Deputy Director Investigations from the Illinois Department of Insurance, provided an update on their efforts to combat workers’ compensation insurance fraud. First, the definition of fraud is important to understand. It is an intentional act that results in financial gain. This contrasts with abuse, which is the improper use of something that is not intentional. Fraud can be prosecuted, abuse cannot. Why care about fraud? The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimates there is approximately $80 billion in insurance fraud every year. Workers’ compensation
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Association 38th Annual Educational Seminar and Membership Meeting, Michael Teri and Garrett McGinn from DigiStream Investigation discussed investigations focused on social media research. Geo-Tagged Posts When investigating an auto accident, they search for social media posts that were geo-tagged in the area at the time of the accident to see if anyone happened to take pictures of the accident. Geo-tagged posts can also help you locate a claimant who has gone missing. These tags can show you everywhere a person “checked in” and where they posted multiple times. Reviewing geo-tags from courthouses can show
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Association 38th Annual Educational Seminar and Membership Meeting, Christopher Gibbons and Keith Herman from Nyhan, Bambrick, Kinzie & Lowry, P.C., discussed recent important workers’ compensation decisions from the Illinois Court of Appeals. Reichling vs. Touchette Regional Hospital  The issue on this case was – who was the proper employer? The claimant was employed by a staffing agency and was placed in the hospital where she was injured. She filed a claim against her staffing-agency employer and ultimately settled that claim. She later filed a civil liability claim against the hospital for the slip and
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Assoication annual meeting Jay Dee Shattuck, President of Shattuck & Associates Consulting provided a legislative update for the state of Illinois. Governor Rauner has made workers’ compensation reform one of his priorities as he feels this is important to maintain a competitive business environment in Illinois. Unfortunately, the Governor’s efforts have been rebutted by the Illinois Legislature. The House and Senate both pushed their own workers’ compensation bills which were not meaningful reform that would have reduced costs, but both these bills did not pass. There are currently negotiations with a working group trying
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Association 38th Annual Educational Seminar and Membership Meeting, Christopher Dea, MD, Assistant Corporate Medical Director with Caterpillar, gave an update on Zika. In the United States, most confirmed cases of Zika have been travel related. There were some very-isolated cases of non-travel-related Zika in a section of Miami-Dade County, but that appears to have been eradicated. There has a small number of cases that appear to have been sexually transmitted. The primary transmission method of Zika is through one particular species of mosquito. They can be found in many states in the U.S., including the
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At the 2016 Illinois Self Insurers’ Association 38th Annual Educational Seminar and Membership Meeting, Joan Vincenz, Managing Director Workers’ Compensation and Managed Care with United Airlines, talked about the process United went through to restructure their workers’ compensation program when they merged with Continental. The vision statement of United Airlines is to return their employee to good health and to work as quickly, medically and operationally soon as possible.  When United merged with Continental, their workers’ compensation departments were structured very differently, with one reporting through human resources and the other through operations. In their new structure, the Vice President of
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