At the 23rd Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference in Las Vegas, attorneys associated with LexisNexis presented a session on “Direct and Peripheral Attacks on the Exclusive Remedy Doctrine”. The presenters were Deborah Kohl, Lex Larson, and Thomas Robinson. The panel felt that Padgett case in Florida and the Oklahoma Option are two of the biggest threats to traditional workers compensation systems and the notion of exclusive remedy. Padgett In Padgett, a judge in Miami-Dade County, Florida ruled that Florida’s workers’ compensation statutes were “unconstitutional” on their face because they no longer provided adequate benefits to injured workers in
(Read the full article…)

At the 23rd Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference on November 19-21, 2014, one of the sessions focused on the challenges faced in Medicare Secondary Compliance. The session titled “Workers’ Compensation and Its Secondary Payers: Medicare and Medicaid” featured Tim Nay of Nay & Friedenberg, Vernon Sumwalt of The Sumwalt Law Firm and Jennifer Jordan of MEDVAL, LLC. By Statute, Medicare is prohibited from making payments in situations where a Primary Payer is responsible. The methodology for compliance with this issue is a complex and constantly evolving issue faced by workers’ compensation payers such as self-insured employers and carriers.
(Read the full article…)

Some of the industry’s leading carriers shared their views on the workers’ compensation market at the National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference in Las Vegas this week. The panel consisted of Russell Johnston, Casualty President for the Americas Region, American International Group Inc.; Member, NCCI Board of Directors, Sean D. Martin, VP, The Travelers Cos. Inc., Debbie Michel, EVP Commercial Markets, Liberty Mutual Insurance; President, Helmsman Management Services LLC, and moderator Eric Silverstein, SVP and Risk Management Leader, Lockton Cos. What are your clients most concerned about? Demographics related to the aging workforce. We are getting older and bigger, however,
(Read the full article…)

At the 23rd Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference in Las Vegas, Teresa Bartlett, M.D., SVP, Medical Quality at Sedgwick offered strategies for managing workplace absences through engagement and high-quality care. According to Dr. Bartlett, there are four keys to employee engagement that can be used to engage injured, absent and disconnected employees, producing dividends for employers: Strong leadership with a clearly-communicated vision. An involved management team that provides direction. An atmosphere where employees feel that their opinion is needed and valued. A company that has integrity and clearly follows their core values. She says that creating a culture
(Read the full article…)

The 23rd Annual National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference in Las Vegas kicked off with opening keynote L. Casey Chosewood, M.D., speaking on the serious impact that employees’ existing health problems have on workers’ compensation and disability costs. The Need for Total Worker Health What happens at home and what happens at work are not independent of each other. Hazards and risks can shuttle continuously back and forth from work life to home life. Because of this, Dr. Chosewood says that it does not make sense to isolate an employee’s job-related care from the care related to their personal life.
(Read the full article…)

On November 19-21, 2014, Safety National will be attending, exhibiting and speaking at the National Workers’ Compensation & Disability Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. View the full conference agenda HERE. Follow the Conference Chronicles blog for insights and trends shared by industry thought leaders at the event.

The big event on the second day of the IAIABC Annual Conference is the Commissioner’s Forum. In this session, regulators from around the nation provide an update on the issues their state is addressing. Note, not all jurisdictions were represented at the meeting. Arkansas Medical treatment guidelines are currently being developed. There was a significant Supreme Court case addressing the presumption that intoxication was the proximate cause of a work injury. In the Bull Shoals Landing case, the Court departed from prior case law and ruled that the presence of marijuana in the injured worker’s system did not in an
(Read the full article…)

At the 2014 IAIABC Annual Conference in Austin, regulators are discussing a variety of complex issues they are currently grappling with. Among the issues discussed were: Hospital Fee Schedules In states that do not have hospital fee schedules, the standard for payment is usually “reasonable and customary” charges. The question becomes, how do you determine what is reasonable? Providers push for billed charges to be the standard, payers feel this is an unfair standard as it is significantly higher than what providers ultimately accept as payment. Payers push for paid charges to be the standard, but the providers argument against
(Read the full article…)

This week, Conference Chronicles is attending the IAIABC Centennial Convention in Austin, TX. IAIABC is the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissioners. These are the workers’ compensation regulators from around the United States. Regulators from Canada, Germany and other countries frequently attend. The event is Sept 29-Oct 02, 2014. Full details of the event can be found on the IAIABC web site. LINK   Safety National’s “Conference Chronicles” showcases the educational content from risk management industry events around the nation, providing highlights from sessions so that those not attending can benefit from the insights and trends shared by
(Read the full article…)

The Impact of Healthcare Reform was listed as “hot topic” at the California Workers’ Compensation & Risk Conference, a session where stakeholders gathered to gain better understanding of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its impact on workers’ compensation. This session was moderated by Mark Walls, Vice President Communications & Strategic Analysis at Safety National, who was joined by Denise Algire, Director – Managed Care & Disability Corporate Risk Management at Safeway, Inc., and Kimberly George, Senior Vice President / Senior Healthcare Advisor at Sedgwick. According to the panel, there has been non-stop change in healthcare delivery models since 2010.
(Read the full article…)