Many readers are undoubtedly getting ready for next week’s annual Risk Insurance and Management Society annual meeting, held this year (conveniently enough) in Boston.
For most, ‘preparing’ means buying gel insoles, making sure the extra-think padding has been ordered for the booth, confirming appointments and hoping the notoriously changeable Boston weather doesn’t bring snow sleet freezing rain or all of the above.
Beyond the obvious, here’s a few things to look for at the annual confab.
1. The new thing. A few years ago it was pharmacy benefit management, back in 2002 it was emergency preparedness, a couple years back data mining was big. As to what’s going to be the buzz of the show, it’s anyone’s guess. It most likely won’t be a big transaction or venture; the Sedgwick deal is public, the Bunch sale is in limbo, and a couple others aren’t ready for public display just yet. Product launch? It will have to be a BIG deal. New customer? Again, it best be BIG to be ‘the’ thing.
2. Excitement, or at least a pulse, among the TPAs. This is admittedly hyperbole, but after the last few years, it’s a bit surprising there are any TPAs left. There are some indications the TPA business is picking up; reports are that more currently-insured, larger employers are looking intently at self-insurance. This is anecdotal, but encouraging nonetheless.
3. New network offerings. Healthcare Solutions (formerly Cypress Care and Procura) are reportedly making significant inroads in the payer market, offering access to the Aetna WC and MagnaCare networks and generating lots of interest among payers. Expect that their competitors will also be announcing expansions, multiple network offerings, and carve-out products to meet a growing demand for ‘non-me-too’ provider networks.
4. Investor interest is high. Expect to see even more venture capital folks/private equity investors/bankers on the floor, at the bar, and dining out this year than in the past. Interest appears to be pretty significant in work comp in specific and claims/P&C in general, as the smart people who work for investment firms continue to try to figure out why this business is so…backward? Inefficient?
5. Potential employees. I’ve always advised clients searching for sales talent to go to the shows, walk around later in the day/week, and find the booth staffers that are not sitting down, thumbs flying over their blackberries, yawning away, but on their feet, asking questions, listening hard, and doing their best to ignore their boredom and sore feet and backs and represent their company, and themselves, professionally.
See you there.
Apr
22
