In this session at the 2016 California Workers’ Compensation & Risk Conference, experts gathered to discuss trends in the California workers’ compensation marketplace. Panelists included: Bill Mudge, President, WCIRB California Danielle Lisenbey, CEO, Broadspire Bryan Bogardus, Chief Operating Officer, AF Group Pamela Ferrandino, Executive Vice President & Senior Principal, National Casualty, Willis Towers Watson (moderator) With all of the positive things going on it California, it still reigns highest among states with costs. Medical is still driving these costs, however, it is down 8%. In the past 25 years, the medical trend has only declined twice. One of the key
(Read the full article…)

Stakeholders joined forces at the 2016 California Workers’ Compensation & Risk Conference to candidly discuss current workers’ compensation successes and challenges. Panelists included: Christine Baker, Director, California Department of Industrial Relations Lisa Kelly, Senior Manager – Workers’ Compensation, Boeing William Zachry (Retired), Albertsons/Safeway and Board Member of the California State Compensation Insurance Fund & Self Insured Security Fund David North, CEO, Sedgwick Dr. Roman Kownacki, Medical Director, Regional Occupational Health, The Permanente Medical Group, Inc. Robert G. Rassp, Esq., Author Mark Walls, Vice President Communications & Strategic Analysis, Safety National (moderator) What are some of the things we do well
(Read the full article…)

This session at Business Insurance’s Absolute Inclusion Conference gathered industry regulators to discuss progress in creating a more diverse insurance industry. Dave Jones, Commissioner of Insurance, State of California According to Commissioner Dave Jones, California is home to the majority of the nation’s diverse suppliers. Every one of those diverse suppliers wants the ability to compete on price and quality and demonstrate what they can do. This caused him to investigate if the insurance industry was purchasing goods and services from diverse suppliers. There was no data on this.  As a result, he created the Insurance Diversity Initiative that includes
(Read the full article…)

In this session at Business Insurance’s 2016 Absolute Inclusion Conference, CEOs from top organizations in the insurance industry discussed their commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. Panelists included: Roger Crockett, Co-Founder & Principal at Global Performance Partners (moderator) Todd Jones, CEO, Willis North America Mike Foley, CEO North America Commercial and Regional Chairman, Zurich Peter Zaffino, CEO and Chairman of Risk and Insurance Services, Marsh Christopher Swift, Chairman and CEO, The Hartford John Lumelleau, President and CEO, Lockton Lori Goltermann, CEO, Aon Risk Solutions U.S. Retail Tom Lawson, CEO, FM Global Russ Johnston, CEO, QBE Mark Wilhelm, CEO,
(Read the full article…)

Events of the past few years have left our collective culture reeling: Shootings of African American men and women by the police, international and domestic events of terror based on religion, race or political agendas, rampant homophobic incidents, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria. We can no longer pretend that these issues do not impact our employees and our organizational community, yet many leaders don’t know quite what to do. In this session at Business Insurance’s 2016 Absolute Inclusion Conference, Howard Ross, Founder & Chief Learning Officer of Cook Ross, Inc., identified the psychology and neurobiology of fear, the impact it has
(Read the full article…)

At the 2016 IAIABC Annual Convention, Scott Brennan from SFM and Vickie Kennedy from Washington Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) talked about strategies to attract and retain new employees. According to a 2014 IAIABC survey, 45-50% of their members’ state agency workforce is eligible for retirement in the next five years. This mass exodus of talent and experience from the regulatory side is very concerning to the workers’ compensation industry.  State agencies are extremely challenged with recruiting new talent. Regulatory agencies often do not offer the flexible scheduling that millenials crave. Workers are expected to be in the office
(Read the full article…)

At the 2016 IAIABC Annual Conference, a panel discussed Medicare’s move to a value-based payment system and how this will impact state fee schedules.  The panel was: Dr. David Dietz – Principle, David Dietz and Associates, LLC Dr. Dan Hunt – Corporate Medical Director, AF Group Dr. Kathryn Mueller – Medical Director, Colorado Division of Workers’ Compensation The United States spends more of their Gross Domestic Product on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. Despite this level of spend, there seems to be no relationship between cost and quality of care. Virtually all proposals to reduce U.S. healthcare costs include
(Read the full article…)

At the 2016 IAIABC Annual Convention, Becky Curtis, founder of Take Courage Counseling, talked about how the workers’ compensation system can enhance the experience of injured workers. Years ago, Becky suffered a horrible automobile accident that resulted in a fractured spine and left her as an incomplete quadriplegic. After the accident, she spent most of the first year in a wheelchair while undergoing extensive rehabilitation. She had to learn to walk again and perform activities of daily living. She was eventually pronounced at maximum medical improvement and discharged from care as her condition stabilized.  Chronic pain was part of her
(Read the full article…)

This week Conference Chronicles is attending the IAIABC Annual Convention in Portland, ME. IAIABC is an association of workers’ compensation regulators from around the United States.  The theme this years convention is “reimagine” and the program tried to highlight innovations and disruptionis that will shape the system in the future. You can learn more about their event HERE

At the 2016 NAMSAP Annual Conference, a panel provided an overview of how CMS is handling liability Medicare set-aside arrangements. The panel was: David Cherry – Cherry Injury Firm Roy Franco – Franco Signor, LLC Thomas Spratt – NuQuest There are significant differences between workers’ compensation and liability Medicare set-asides. Workers’ compensation benefits are statutory and often includes potential exposure for lifetime medical treatment. Liability coverage can be mitigated by contributory negligence, and it is ultimately subject to the policy limits. Another challenge in the liability allocation is the concept of equity; whether the claimant was “made whole” by the
(Read the full article…)