Conference Chronicles will be blogging from the IRMI Construction Risk Conference on November 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The IRMI Construction Risk Conference brings about 1,500 leading project owners, general contractors, subcontractors, developers, insurers, and insurance agents and brokers together to explore and convey state-of-the-art ideas and techniques for improving insurance coverages, controlling insurance costs and fine-tuning risk management programs. Click here for more information about this event.

At the 2015 SIIA Annual Conference, Joseph Braun – Credit Risk Manager with Safety National discussed the challenges associated with collateral in self-insured and deductible programs. The excess self-insured marketplace is currently around $1.3 billion in written premium in the United States. This is a fairly stagnant marketplace with very few new companies entering self-insurance in the last few years. Why do states require security / collateral for self-insured employers? Collateral is held by the states to ensure that claims are paid in the event the self-insured employer becomes insolvent and is not longer able to pay their claims. How
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At the 2015 SIIA Annual Conference, a panel presented a session entitled “How Medical Red Herrings and Over-Diagnosis Drive Poor Outcomes and Big Losses”. The panel was: Dr. David Ross, Chief Medical Officer from NeuroPas Global LLC Keith Rosenbloom, Senior Strategist Workers Comp and Risk Control from Lockton Companies LLC Dr Jennifer Christian, President of Webility Corporation Over the last 20 years there has been a significant increase in treatment for back pain. This includes: 600% increase in MRIs. 400% increase in spine injections. 300% increase in back surgeries. 500% increase in opioid prescriptions. 300% increase in people disabled due
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At the 2015 SIIA Annual Conference Michael Fann from Tennessee Municipal League Risk Management Pool and Matt McDonough from Safety National discussed ways to identify and manage exposures associated with an increasingly mobile workforce. Background According to the National Safety Council, the three leading causes of roadway fatalities are drinking (31%), speeding (30%) and distracted driving (26%). Distracted driving is considered under-reported as people are hesitant to admit they were not paying attention on the road. The leading cause of workplace fatalities for several years has been roadway incidents. There are no good statistics in workers’ compensation regarding the frequency
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At the 2015 SIIA National Conference, James Harvey from Sedgwick and Bruce Singleton from MultiPlan presented a session discussing efforts at identifying medical providers who produce the best outcomes. The session was done in a Q/A format. How long have you been using outcomes based networks? Sedgwick started this in California years ago. They have developed a nationwide system that helps direct injured workers to the highest scoring medical providers.  In 2004 Concentra worked with Sedgwick to come up with a scoring system on outcomes based networks.  Why did you build and deploy outcomes based networks? Because our customers were
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At the 2015 SIIA Annual Conference, Chris Mandel and Edward Canavan from Sedgwick discussed the evolution of workers’ compensation and challenges to exclusive remedy. They also talked about alternatives to workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation in the United States started just over 100 years ago. One of the events that helped push this forward was outrage over the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York. Over 150 people were killed in this event and the families of the workers killed received minimal compensation. Wisconsin and Massachusetts were among the first states to pass workers’ compensation laws. Many initial workers’ compensation laws were
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At the 2015 Self-Insurance Institute of America National Conference, Tammy Worthey from Sedgwick and Junia McGraw from Arizona Public Services discussed how integrating your absence management program can benefit both the employer and your workforce. One of the big challenges around absence management is the silos in which different benefit delivery systems operate. Workers’ compensation usually falls under risk management, and non-occupational disability is managed by human resouruces. There are often different strategies for the different programs, and data is usually not shared. Most “integrated” absence management programs are coordinated, not truely integrated. A coordinated program still has the issue
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Conference Chronicles will be blogging from the Self-Insurance Institute of America’s (SIIA) 35th Annual National Educational Conference & Expo. This event will be held on October 18-20 in Washington, DC. The SIIA National Conference & Expo is the world’s largest event focused exclusively on the self-insurance/alternative risk transfer marketplace and typically attracts more than 1,700 attendees from around the United States and from a growing number of countries around the world. Click here for more information about this event.

Social media is a leading form of communication today, yet the workers’ compensation industry has been a slow adopter. In this session at the 2015 California Workers’ Compensation & Risk Conference, leading industry social media experts discussed how industry stakeholders can utilize and benefit from these tools. Speakers included: Tom Kerr, Senior Product Marketing Manager at GENEX Services Jonathan Mast, Director of Social Media at Sedgwick Dana Wolfe, Senior Director at Paradigm Outcomes With so many options, where do you start? You don’t have to become a super user overnight. It is best to start with one or two outlets
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Top industry bloggers debated the hottest issues facing the workers’ compensation and risk management industry at the 2015 California Workers’ Compensation and Risk Conference. Speakers included: Moderator: Mark Walls, Vice President Communications & Strategic Analysis at Safety National David DePaolo, President at WorkCompCentral.com, LLC Robert H. Wilson, President & CEO at WorkersCompensation.com, LLC Thomas A. Robinson, Writer/Contributor at LexisNexis Michael Gavin, President at Prium Is the grand bargain of workers’ compensation eroding? Robinson: Exclusivity is still relatively resilient. That portion of the grand bargain is still doing relatively well. The Oklahoma Option is threatening to bleed into neighboring states, but
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