I spoke with Robert Wilson at WorkersCompensation.com last month about the upcoming ABA Midwinter Conference where I will deliver the keynote address. Bob asked me what I thought would be important future trends for the workers' compensation industry. As I told Bob in his blog, "Trying to predict the future by looking at a rear view mirror is complicated and often misleading." I really believe that we must be looking forward and thinking of innovative ways to address the issues we face today.
The majority of people attending the ABA conference practice law in some form. Legislative change and reform, maybe more so than anything happening in 2015 and the next three to five years, will impact the lives of people who went to work and by the end of the day suffered some type of injury that changed their livelihood. Sedgwick has been focused on how we can make a difference to improve the laws and the processes so that everyone receives the best outcome. I often say our colleagues at Sedgwick are focused on making people whole again.
One initiative that I am very proud of is Sedgwick's role in the Association for Responsible Alternatives to Workers' Compensation (ARAWC). Sedgwick is a founding member of this organization whose main objectives are (but not limited to):
- Delivering better medical outcomes and higher process satisfaction for injured workers without the cost and burden of traditional workers' compensation.
- Driving state economic development through the attraction of employer savings.
Sedgwick's Chris Mandel is leading our efforts on this front and recently wrote an excellent blog outlining the legislative and industry objectives of ARAWC; I would encourage you to read the complete post.
At the conference, I also will address the changes in the law profession and how I see it mirroring some of the same challenges in the medical world. I am very interested to talk to those of you attending and, for those who are not, I encourage you to leave your thoughts here on our blog or reach us on Twitter @Sedgwick and let me know what you think the biggest challenges are in relation to the law and workers' compensation.
I appreciate the work Bob Wilson and everyone involved with the ABA Midwinter Conference has put in leading up to the conference this week. I encourage you to learn more about the conference and if you can't come this year think about next year. As Bob said, Naples, FL is probably better than just about anywhere you have been the last three months.
Dave North, President and CEO