Sep
17

The RIMS Conference and workers comp

While the annual Risk Insurance Management Society Conference is among the largest property and casualty conventions, if you’re looking for the latest information re workers’ comp you will have to go elsewhere.

[disclosure – I’ve keynoted the two main WC conferences over the last year, and was heavily involved in programming for one of them]

I’ve come to this conclusion after attending a dozen or more RIMS shows over the years and working with several entities submitting conference sessions; almost all were rejected.  This year, the Conference planners rejected a session entitled “Attacking the Opioid Crisis in Workers’ Compensation”. This “thanks but no thanks” led me to conclude RIMS just isn’t that interested in, focused on, or perhaps aware of issues relevant to workers’ comp. [more disclosure – I was one of the speakers proposed for the opioid session]

There is no issue more salient, timely, or significant than the opioid crisis, and exposing risk managers and industry executives to this issue would have helped them understand just how critical the situation is.

Reports from the major research institutions linking opioid use to increased medical costs, longer disability duration, and poor outcomes have certainly raised the profile of this issue; The Workers Compensation Institute had several sessions on the topic; the New York Times has seen fit to publish a major article on the impact of opioids on claimants and payers; the National Workers’ Comp and Disability Conference has an entire track on opioids; the American Insurance Association has made addressing the issue a top priority; NCOIL had a lengthy session on the issue at their last meeting and is doing the same at their next get-together.

That’s not to say RIMS doesn’t have some quality sessions – this year’s overview of health reform was well done- but in general WC sessions are few and tend to be basic.

That may well be intentional; RIMS’ audience tends to be less-work-comp-specific than the attendees at the other major conferences cited above.

That said, opioids’ impact on workers’ comp is a topic worthy of attention by the leading P&C industry conference.


Sep
14

Aetna CFO on workers’ comp

Aetna’s presentation at an investor conference addressed the acquisition of Coventry and provided just a bit of insight into their plans for workers comp

Here’s what CFO Joe Zubretsky  – who some have said is “no fan of workers’ comp) said…

“The second point I would make — so there is specialty revenue. The second point I would make is, and we didn’t count this as well, but I’m quite excited about it, because it’s been a vision of ours for many, many years, to unlock the value of workforce optimization by combining the skills of long-term disability, health care, and workers compensation. And when you think about it, all of those three lines of business and coverages intersect with the healthcare system, and somebody is not at their desk every day.

They have the best and largest workers compensation platform in the industry. We have dabbled in that industry over the years, but we’ve never been able to unlock its secret of profitable growth. So now that we have a fantastic long-term disability platform, what we think is the industry-leading healthcare platform, and now with the world’s or the US’s largest worker’s compensation platform, we believe we will be able to embark upon a strategy of workforce optimization, presenteeism that has not been seen before. But that’s probably out a ways and may be a futuristic view, but we think there is value there.”

[emphases added, thanks to theStreet.com for transcript]


Sep
14

Managed Care Matters – new and improved

With this morning’s post, we’ve moved to WordPress as the publishing platform.  We’ve also updated the look and feel of MCM to make it a bit “sleeker”, easier to navigate, and more user-friendly.  Julie Ferguson and Chris Miller (boss at Artefact Design) have done all the work; I just write the checks (and the posts).

MCM has been around for eight years now, a lifetime in the brave new world of social media.  Over those years, we’ve published 2471 posts, all accessible via the search function on the home page (yup, kept my unfortunately wrong ones too; Rob Gelb you haven’t been forgotten).

We’re up to 3471 subscribers (after cleaning up the list a bit) and average around 1700 readers a day (with pretty wide swings).

Couple things worth noting

What is ‘publishable’

Folks either are a) eager to get their name/company/new product-customer-idea published in MCM or b) anything but.  Many of my conversations with industry execs start with “this is confidential, right?”  The answer is always “Yes”.  I could not survive in the consulting world if my clients feared they’d appear on MCM (without their express approval).

At the other end of the spectrum, I am often approached by people eager to use MCM to get some publicity.  Mostly, I gracefully decline (ok, sometimes not so gracefully).  Occasionally the approach is professional enough, and the ‘thing’ topical enough, that it merits publication.

MCM ‘attitude’
Every now and then I get myself into a bit of hot water (sometimes an ocean’s worth) over a post, a characterization within a post, or an honest mistake. I’ll continue to retract and apologize for errors. I will also continue to opine assertively when I think the issue merits assertive opining. When I hear something that’s newsworthy, I’ll post it (after verifying thru at least two sources). And of course you can always rely on MCM to debunk stories, press releases, and flat out BS, with the tone and histrionics directly in proportion to my level of outrage.

Comment policy
You would not believe the spam comments I get – over a hundred a day, and sometimes two hundred. We’ve tried everything to ensure your comments get thru (even ones I take issue with) while blocking spam; for now I have to review all comments before they go thru. Hopefully this new platform will help.

As always, rants and comments disagreeing with me will not be posted unless opinions are backed by sources cited accurately. That’s not to say I won’t post different opinions; always have and always will.

What’s coming up.

The election season – also known as the Silly Season – is upon us (painful sigh).  My politics are well known (sometimes to my detriment) but I won’t hide my views.  If you don’t like my stance, I’m happy to hear from you – keep it professional and courteous.  If you are tempted to insult, I’d suggest you consider this.

About a year ago, I received a particularly nasty string of emails from someone on the opposite end of the political spectrum calling me, among other things, a commie, socialist, leftist, idiot, liar.  This person’s boss’s boss is also a subscriber and has become a friend – even though he’s also very conservative. He offered to discuss the issue with my antagonist; I declined.

The internet is forever, folks.  Be smart, be professional, be respectful.

 

 


Mar
3

Health Wonk Review is posted

For his third time up to bat, Jared Rhoads is hosting Health Wonk Review over at the Lucidicus Project. Get the latest bi-weekly dose of health wonkery from the best and the brightest of the health policy blogs. Thanks Jared!


Jul
24

Fresh Health Wonk Review awaiting your perusal

In Joe’s absence, no need to go without your regular health care policy fix. He lent me the keys to his kingdom so that you could be alerted to a fresh edition of Health Wonk Review posted by Paul Testa at The New Health Dialogue Blog.
– Julie Ferguson