An all-star cast was in place to discuss the medical marijuana trend at the SAWCA 67th Annual Convention. Paul Tauriello, Colorado Director of Workers’ Compensation, opened the session with an overview of Colorado’s medical marijuana industry, which ended the 2014 year with sales of approximately $386 MM. He noted that getting qualified applicants for law […]

At the 2015 California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation Annual Conference (CCWC), a panel discussed the pros and cons of a state-adopted pharmacy formulary. Panelists included Dr. Bernyce Peplowski and Alex Swedlow from CCWC and Brenda Wood and Karen Caterino from Healthcare Solutions. A workers’ compensation formulary is designed to be specific for industrial injuries and […]

Wednesday, July 22nd was an action-packed day at the SAWCA 67th Annual Convention. The day began with cyber discussions led by Bary Dalton from Federal Reserve Bank – Richmond, and Susan Gordon from Zurich NA. This session provided insight on the current cyber threats and why this has emerged so quickly in the marketplace. As […]

The 2015 California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation Annual Conference (CCWC) kicked off with a Legislative and Political Update presented by Paul Yoder and Jason Schmelzer from CCWC. In the last year, there have been four out of 40 members of the State Senate who were suspended for misconduct. This resulted in the Democrats losing their […]

At the 67th Annual SAWCA Convention, Frank Neuhauser, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Social Insurance (CSSI) at University of California at Berkeley, opened this keynote session by discussing the future of workers’ compensation. Workers’ Compensation’s Inefficient Delivery He noted that the current system does not efficiently address the issues that employers […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The aging workforce is a top concern among public entity risk managers. This session at PRIMA’s 2015 Annual Conference explored the changing demographics in today’s workforce, its impact on accident rates and workers’ compensation costs. The speakers included Joe Galusha, CIE, CHSP, Group Managing Director at Aon Risk Solutions and Robert Prior, MS, CSP, ARM-P, […]

Those who deal with claims daily sometimes forget that a claim can be a scary experience for an injured employee. This panel at PRIMA’s 2015 Annual Conference explored ways to make claims a less stressful experience for entity employees. The panel included: Kimberly George, Senior Vice President at Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc. Sarah Perry, […]