Well, the national conversation on workers' compensation concluded yesterday, except it didn't (If you don't know what I am talking about, read here). We had two extremely energetic and involved days of discussion, and our group still has some email dialogue and editing to do before we settle on our final review and comments from the event. The good news is this was an extremely involved group of regulators, judges, insurance professionals, academics, union reps, lawyers and medical professionals who, while holding a wide array of opinions, are all deeply dedicated to correcting flaws within the workers' comp system. Two of the people at the meeting discussed their experience as seriously injured workers, and the input was very useful to the ongoing effort. While we thought this meeting might be a “one and done” affair, this group wants to press on, with a telephonic meeting planned for late June or early July. I think we had two really good days, and am very pleased with what we accomplished.
But honestly, I'm pooped. As wonderful as this group was, moderating them was at times not dissimilar to herding cats. In the rain. Through cactus. While being shot at.
Next week we will publish a list of attendees and our initial notes from the exchange. There will be much more to follow. I am honestly too tired to go into detail today, but I wanted to get a quick update for the sake of transparency.
You see, one of the things we spent some time discussing was the adversarial nature of the industry and some of the mistrust that permeates areas of it. We saw this first hand with the wild and childish accusations from some quarters regarding this “secretive” meeting. We were accused of clandestine efforts to protect the selfish and greedy profit motives of a heartless industry, and no matter what we said regarding our intents and purposes, those suspicions as to our motives remained in isolated quarters.
Therefore, while I am too tired to expound further today, and there is some finishing work that remains to be done, I wanted to publish the picture below of the attendees of the 2016 Workers' Compensation Summit, held in Dallas, Texas.
We offer this in the true spirit of total transparency and openness.
Click on picture for larger detail view
See? Completely open and upfront about who we are and what our purpose was.
And for those of you so wound up in your paranoid fantasies of delusion and persecution, this is a joke. Don't get your undies in a grungie.
Seriously, the last two days were an amazing, yet draining experience. I do look forward to sharing the discussion next week. But first I'm flying home for a well anticipated weekend of rest.