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Industry Insights

NCCI Looks to the Future

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It's May, and in my book, that means it's time for the NCCI Annual Issues Symposium. Always a good conference, as it lays out the latest facts, figures and trends of workers' comp. But this year's agenda particularly sparked my interest.

There are a plethora of great workers' comp-related conferences throughout the year to choose from. As far as I am concerned, NCCI's is among a small handful of must-attends. You get the data that's quoted and cited by the industry for the entire year, you hear about the research NCCI is doing and what it means, and there are several not-to-be-missed staples – the State-of-the-Line, at least one great keynoter and, of course, Bob Hartwig.

This year's theme - Flash Forward: A Glimpse Into the Future of Workers Comp – speaks to what a handful of experts have been discussing of late: rapid-fire changes taking place in technology, medicine, and the workforce combining for what surely will raise new challenges and result in a very different workers' comp system in the not-too-distant future. 

Recently I wrote a column giving kudos to Accident Fund Holdings for having the foresight to create a Director of Innovation position and hire Jeffrey Austin White to fill it. He is one of (maybe the only) teckkie guys with a deep understanding of the workers' comp system who is looking at seemingly sci-fi changes happening now and figuring out how they'll impact our industry. 

One of the first sessions on NCCI's agenda that caught my eye was Disruptive Convergence: Jaw-dropping Insights into Breakthrough Technologies. The speaker, Salim Ismail, is described as a "well-known strategist and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, and an expert in new technologies and their impact on society at large." Among his credentials is the former head of Brickhouse – Yahoo's internal incubator for new products.  He is also the Founding Executive Director & Global Ambassador for Singularity University, described as part university, part think-tank, and part business-incubator that aims to "educate, inspire and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity's grand challenges."

To me, this guy is exactly the type of speaker workers' comp practitioners need to hear. The writeup of his session says he will describe "the major breakthroughs occurring in a series of accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, biotech, sensors, neuroscience, medicine and even energy," and how they impact people and businesses.

Also looking into the future of the system will be Hartwig. I find his presentations to be as much entertainment as information/insights. It's a treat to watch him go through literally hundreds of slides in a short amount of time, injecting humor, and still managing to dumb-down economic thinkspeak to make it relevant to us non-economic geniuses in the crowd.

The description of Hartwig's presentation says he'll address "the workplace of tomorrow – including gender differences in work assignments, new definitions of what will constitute a 'job' in the future, and the increasing 'on demand' nature of the workplace."

Another economist, Adam Kamins of Moody's, will talk about why "optimism is warranted" for the economy.

This year's headliner will be Ted Koppel – yes, that one. The retired anchor of Nightline is coming out with his own Flash Forward-type book soon dealing with cybercrime.

Of course, the conference will feature all the core sessions attendees expect from the organization. Soon-to-be-retired NCCI President and CEO Stephen J. Klingel will devote a presentation at his final NCCI conference to summarizing top-line industry indicators and emerging issues.

Chief Actuary Kathy Antonello will deliver the much-anticipated State of the Line, which includes information on such things as the latest frequency rate, severity trends, the calendar year combined ratio (last year it was down 7 points) and the outlook for the year (last year it was described as 'balanced').

An interesting glimpse into the insurance industry should come from Ben Nelson. The CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has seen it from all different perspectives, having served as an insurance executive, insurance department director (Nevada), and senator of that state. 

Research-wise, NCCI is among the top three organizations in workers' comp, along with the Workers Compensation Research Institute and the California Workers' Compensation Institute. For the first time at NCCI's conference, the heads of the other two organizations will present together. Richard Victor and Alex Swedlow will look at medical cost containment strategies – fee schedules, dispute resolution mechanisms, etc., and discuss best practices and unintended consequences.

Sounds like a day and a half jam packed with great speakers, the latest data and cutting-edge research. See you in Orlando!

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