Safety National will attend the 13th Annual California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation (CCWC) Conference on July 22-24 in Anaheim, CA., where we will sponsor, present and blog on sessions through Conference Chronicles. The CCCWC is dedicated to providing the leadership, education, and advocacy that are essential to an equitable and efficient workers’ compensation system. Their annual conference gathers stakeholders from the areas of human resources, health and safety, risk management and claims. Medical professionals and service providers also attend. To learn more about this event, click here.  

Conference Chronicles will be blogging from the 67th Annual Convention of the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) on July 20-24, 2015 in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. SAWCA was formed in 1949 and incorporated in 1980. The SAWCA membership includes 20 jurisdictions; 18 states, District of Colombia and the Virgin Islands. The States are: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado,  Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. For more information about this event, click here.

At the 2015 WCIRB Annual Conference, Dave Bellusci, WCIRB Chief Actuary, presented an overview of California’s workers’ compensation system from the WCIRB perspective. 2014 was the fifth consecutive year of double-digit premium growth in California. This has been driven both by increased rates and economic growth. California currently compromises 27.1% of the nationwide workers’ compensation premiums. This is down from over 35% of the national premiums before the SB 899 reforms in 2004. The percentage of premium growth attributed to higher rates dropped significantly in 2014. In 2015, it is expected that the major driver of premium growth will be
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At the 2015 WCIRB Annual Conference, Bill Zachry, Group Vice President of Risk Management from Safeway, Inc., presented a session highlighting their approach to self-insurance. Safeway’s program is costing about 40% of what their industry peers’ programs cost. They focus on providing quality care to injured workers who will deliver superior outcomes. Their managed care programs are the main factor in the savings and superior outcomes achieved. They feel it is important that medical professionals make medical decisions rather than claims adjusters. Their nurse case managers made all medical decisions on the claims. They have a custom-developed medical provider network
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At the 2015 WCIRB Annual Conference, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones discussed the state of California’s workers’ compensation system from his position as the regulator of all insurance issues in the state. California is the nation’s largest insurance market and would be the sixth largest insurance market in the world if it was an independent nation. There are two main focuses for the regulators. The first is consumer protection. The second is making sure appropriate insurance products are available in the marketplace that are properly licensed and administered. From the workers’ compensation perspective, California compromises approximately 25% of the entire
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This session at PRIMA 2015 addressed the various risks related to having a mobile workforce and explored strategies for accident prevention. Speakers included Michael Fann, ARM-P, TML Risk Management Pool; Matt McDonough, CSP, Safety National. Due to technological advancements, the workforce is now more mobile than ever, but these devices can be distractions and can drive up your exposure. The leading cause of workplace fatalities is roadway incidents, followed by violence, slips, trips and falls, and contact with objects. In 2013, 1,099 people lost their lives to fleet incidents. Distracted Driving has caused 421,000 injuries and 3,328 deaths in 2012,
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This session at PRIMA 2015 examined three areas of social media use that may expose government entities to risk, including personal use of social media,  personnel decisions and employment references. The speakers included Matthew Fagiana, CSC, PSS, Lenoir City of Utilities Board and Sonya Guggemos, Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust. Social media and the workplace, is it a concern? Yes, the public sector has higher expectations for their employees, especially those with higher profiles or those involved in critical public services. Public employees need to maintain credibility and have greater access to sensitive information. Employees may accidentally release private data through
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Acts of civil unrest are occurring everywhere and, whether or not these acts take form in strikes, protests or riots, public entities need to be prepared. This session at PRIMA’s 2015 Annual Conference discussed lessons learned from past civil unrest events and ways to treat or reduce the impacts that civil unrest might have on a public entity’s reputation, infrastructure, operations and future. The session was led by Renata Elias, Vice President, Reputational Risk & Crisis Management at Marsh Risk Consulting. Lessons Learned Your public entity can learn a lot from past events. Here are some commonly-known examples of civil
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This session at PRIMA 2015 addressed how to build value in your risk management program, which can result in effective and self-sustaining results in building a strong risk culture and support for your risk management program. The speakers included Jack Flindt, Pinal County and Dean Coughenour, ARM, City of Flagstaff. What is one word used to describe a risk manager?  Safety What one word describes management use to describe risk management?  Necessary What one word would staff use to describe risk management?  Helpful What is the role of risk management?  To protect Risk management is about relationships; it is about
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At the 2015 PRIMA Conference, this session addressed how to establish safety committees and explored the lessons learned to ensure committees are effective. The speakers included Sarah Perry, ARM-P, City of Columbia and Oscar Goedecke, CSP, Travelers Insurance. The purpose of a safety committee is to protect employees, the public and the environment. The safety committee can continuously try to improve loss prevention and reduction process. The point is to reduce injuries, illnesses, property damage, environmental harm and their associated risks. A safety committee can provide many benefits because it: involves more people/viewpoints fosters safety awareness promotes working together and communication
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