Attendance must be up – significantly. Can’t get a hotel room anywhere in town, restaurants are booked solid, lobby bar – and most others around the convention center – are SRO (standing room only), and there’s pretty good traffic in the exhibit hall to boot.
The Safety National event at the Ritz was jammed; this has become a must-do for many. Word from SN is they’ve expanded their share in the work comp excess market – they own about a third of the market and are looking to consolidate their position. Part of their growth is likely due to Chartis’ decision to exit the excess work comp market; sources indicate that move was driven in large part by the impact of opioids on duration and medical expense.
Spoke with the folks from Cypress Care at length yesterday about their soon-to-be-released drug trends report. They are taking a pretty interesting approach this year; Jim Andrews decided to split out newer claims from those more than three years old. There are quite a few differences between the groups; here’s two:
o Based on the differences in drug mix and utilization, the price per day per claimant for opioids is double in mature claims when compared to emerging claims ($9.79 compared to $4.28)
o The good news is that the number of claimants utilizing Opioids in emerging claims actually decreased almost 2% from the prior year.
More to come on their report later; Express Scripts is releasing their’s today and I’ll be reporting on that as well.
The first annual meeting of the Friends of Sandy Blunt was well-attended; thanks to Bob Wilson for setting things up, and John Swan of CompPartners for footing the bill.
Finally, I heard bill review firm Medata has had a couple of significant wins recently; tried to pry details out of Cy King but he wouldn’t come clean. Will see what I can learn from other sources today.
Still looking for the new new thing; will have more time on the exhibit floor this pm and will report back later today.
Apr
17
