Introduction
Abbie Hudgens, Administrator, Tennessee Bureau of Workers' Compensation
Moderator
Chris Mandel, SVP Strategic Solutions & Director, Sedgwick Institute
Speakers
Dr. Richard Victor, Founder and CEO, Workers' Compensation Research Institute (retired)
Bob Bowman, Director, Risk Management, Wendy’s
Session Description
Workers' Compensation has been an essential element of our social safety net for over 100 years. It has been a dynamic system that has evolved to keep up with changes in the economy, medical science, social values and other things that affect the way the system works. This session, based on Dr. Rick Victor’s (founder and retired CEO of WCRI) new book “Workers' Compensation: Scenarios 2030”, will be a discussion over a few significant scenarios that could define the future of WC. Among other things, we’ll ask:
- What if forces outside of WC produced large, possibly unsustainable increases in WC costs?
- What if employers responded by seeking painful cuts to WC benefits?
- What if incremental changes to WC system features were not enough to prevent its failure?
- What if the government change process was paralyzed by a gridlocked political process?
- What if a paradigm shift requiring a fundamental change to the “Grand Bargain” was the chosen way forward?
- How does the Covid-19 crisis impact these issues?
This session will focus on three sets of key forces impacting the WC system including: those that challenge current WC systems fundamentals; those that frame the new context for the stakeholders; and those that impair the historical governmental change process that could significantly impact system effectiveness.
Join Dr. Victor, Bob Bowman, and Chris Mandel of the Sedgwick Institute as they discuss and debate various scenarios informed by Dr. Victor’s research and deliver insights into what workers' comp might look like in 2030, what the implications might be for stakeholders and whether various alternatives could address key problems with the current system and what this would mean for injured workers of the future.
Next Up: Telemedicine in Workers’ Comp: From Fringe to Status Quo at 1:30 PM