It’s fourth and goal from the one-yard line in the closing seconds of the first half of Superbowl 52. Without hesitation, the Philadelphia Eagles’ coach Doug Peterson sends his team back in to go for the touchdown rather than kick the conservative field goal. They direct stack the ball to the running back. He tosses an easy lob to quarterback Nick Foles, who waltzes into the end zone for the score.
Of course, the Eagles went on to win that very entertaining and exciting Superbowl 52, which in my opinion, was defined by that one play.
Hello, I’m Michael Stack, CEO of Amaxx, and while Justin Timberlake is not going to be coming to perform at any of our national conferences or daily activities, it doesn’t mean that we need to be any less prepared. One of the ways that I like to prepare when we’re creating strategies, policies, procedures, implementing systems of work comp management to create the best outcomes is by leveraging the research done by the work comp research institute.
WCRI Annual Issues Preview: Future Trends
What I want to do today is give you a little preview of the upcoming WCRI annual issues conference, so that we can know as individuals as well as an industry as a whole how to best be prepared for what’s coming down the pike. So, let’s talk about some of these sessions, and really, in the reviewing of the content that I’ll be covering, there’s really two major themes. The first is these future trends, and what’s next coming down the pike in workers compensation. They’re leading off the session with one that I feel is going to be very interesting, which is the future labor force trends and the impact of technology presented by Dr. Erica Groshen, who was the former head of the bureau of labor statistics.
Now, if you’ve ever been on the BLS website, and you’ve ever looked anything up, you know that it’s very rich in data. Personally, I often find it very valuable, but often very overwhelming at times as well. So, I’m looking forward to this session to listen to Dr. Groshen break down some of this data. Tell us some of these meanings. Have us able to understand some of these important metrics that are key for us to follow. So, that’s gonna be a tremendous session which I’m looking forward to as they start today.
WCRI then continues on this future theme with Dr. Rick Victor returning to the stage talking about workers compensation in 2030, and then wrapping up on the second day with “The World of Work is Changing Fast. Are You Prepared?” This will be a panel discussion from various experts within our industry talking about these future trends and their implications.
Again, allowing us to prepare as individuals as well as an industry, so when that opportunity arises, we can execute flawlessly.
WCRI Annual Issues Preview: Medical Care Impact on Outcomes
Now, the second major theme of the conference centers around medical care and its impact on outcomes. There are four sessions that will fall under this general umbrella theme. The first is on value-based care, and if we’re ready for that as an industry, completely different outlook and perspective on how we’ll go about from a system of medical management and delivery and if we can integrate that successfully into our industry.
Next, talking about the impact of fee schedules on the access to care and what that does to drive worker outcomes, and finally, two drug-related topics. The impact of opioids and prescription drugs on the workplace, as well as on the second day, “Does Marijuana Shift Prescription Drug Spending?” Both very critical and hot topic, particularly in today’s times. What we know is that medical management, medical costs, medical complexity only continue to increase. So, if we can be more prepared, we can understand these systems, understand these policies, understand these procedures, in order to drive better outcomes for the injured workers which, oh, by the way, cost the least amount of money. It’s truly a win-win scenario in our industry if we can get those two things right.
So, it’s gonna be a tremendous conference. I’m very much looking forward to it, and I look forward to seeing you there.
Additional Information WCRI Annual Issues Conference: https://conference.wcrinet.org/
Author Michael Stack, CEO Amaxx LLC. He is an expert in workers’ compensation cost containment systems and helps employers reduce their workers’ comp costs by 20% to 50%. He works as a consultant to large and mid-market clients, is a co-author of Your Ultimate Guide To Mastering Workers Comp Costs, a comprehensive step-by-step manual of cost containment strategies based on hands-on field experience, and is founder & lead trainer of Amaxx Workers’ Comp Training Center .
Contact: [email protected].
Workers’ Comp Roundup Blog: https://blog.reduceyourworkerscomp.com/
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