The National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo (NWC&D) is the only national conference devoted to workers’ compensation and disability management professionals. This conference also features the largest expo in the workers’ compensation industry.

Mitchell at NWCDC—Conference Wrap Up

Last week, Mitchell headed to Las Vegas to convene with our workers’ compensation colleagues at the 2017 National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference. At the conference, we shared insights and industry trends and heard from our partners and other industry experts around the country about all of the happenings in the workers’ compensation space. Here are some of Mitchell’s highlights and main takeaways from the conference.

Industry Survey

At the start of the conference, Mitchell published the results of a workers’ compensation industry survey that we conducted in collaboration with Risk & Insurance Magazine to get a pulse of technology trends in the industry. Notably, the survey found that 45 percent of respondents believe telemedicine will have the biggest impact on the industry moving forward. In addition, more than 24 percent of survey respondents said their organization is very likely to adopt advanced technologies in the next five years. “As the workers’ compensation industry continues to navigate the ongoing challenges of rising health care costs and the need to create operational efficiencies, it’s clear that stakeholders are eager to explore the potential benefits of adopting advanced technologies,” said Shahin Hatamian, senior vice president of product management and strategy for Mitchell’s Casualty Solutions division

Session Highlights

This year, Mitchell led two sessions at the NWCDC conference where we shared our own insight into technology & the workers’ compensation industry. Mitchell cost containment experts, including Mitch Rogers, pictured above, explained why auditing is a key piece of any workers’ compensation program.

Auditing: The Lost Piece of the Workers’ Compensation Puzzle

On the first day of the conference, Mitchell’s Michael Parker, Mitch Rogers and Jeff Otsuji helped attendees understand the value of auditing in a workers’ compensation cost containment program. Some highlights:

• It is easy to make mistakes, especially when it comes to complex medical billing.
• Auditing medical bills can help payors catch billing errors that could save them between hundreds to thousands of dollars per bill.
• Though many workers’ compensation payors employ standard bill review or other cost containment systems, auditing can help detect errors that typically require a nurse-level review.

Mitchell’s Rebecca Morgan presents at the NWCDC conference in Las Vegas. Morgan, Senior Director of Product Management at Mitchell, shared that since claim severity is increasing, it’s important to handle workers’ compensation claims more closely.

Improving Claims Management Through Effective Systems Integration

Mitchell’s Rebecca Morgan presented with Bill Morgan from Guidewire Software to provide insight to conference attendees about how system integrations can improve claims management processes. Some highlights

• Though flawless system integration is not always the norm in the workers’ compensation industry today, the technology does exist. To get closer to a more seamless process, workers’ compensation payors should find partners who provide one integration point between payors and partners’ systems.
• For an effective integration, payors should look for partners that are experts, have strong security, have a big footprint in the market and can customize and adapt to specific needs.
• Five steps to integration success include:
  • Minimizing data integration points
  • Monitoring efforts in place
  • Real-time data exchange
  • Combined view of data

Mitchell’s Booth

Mitchell’s booth was a hot spot for industry insights this year—from sharing the survey results to asking some questions of our own to our booth guests. Graphic facilitator and 2014 Tedx Speaker Brian Tarallo from Lizard Brain Solutions captured conference attendees’ view of the workers’ compensation industry and their vision for it in the future and created this mural live in the Mitchell booth.

Work Comp Mural

Mitchell invited graphic facilitator and 2014 Tedx Speaker Brian Tarallo from Lizard Brain Solutions to our booth this year to capture thoughts and expert insights from our fellow peers and industry professionals. Over the course of the two days, Brian engaged with booth visitors and captured their thoughts about how factors like consolidation and technology will impact the industry, the biggest challenges they are currently facing, their perception of the workers’ compensation industry and what they would do if they had a magic wand. Those thoughts and musings ultimately turned into a visual representation of how the workers’ compensation industry is viewed today and what it could like into the future, right on the walls of our booth! Podcast host Shelley Callahan interviews Mitchell’s Brian Allen for the first episode of the mPower podcast which will be available on mPower.mitchell.com in the coming weeks.

mPower Podcast

For a few hours, our booth transformed into a recording studio, where we recorded the first-ever episode of Mitchell’s mPower podcast. We spoke with experts from Mitchell about the conference itself and found out what industry trends they have their eyes on heading into 2018. Look out for the podcast, which will be posted on mPower on in the coming weeks. Check back soon! We hope you also had a great NWCDC conference, and are already looking forward to seeing you in Vegas for next year’s show!