This year’s National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference and Expo (NWCDC) was a huge success. From November 19 – 21, our team joined thousands of claims professionals in Las Vegas. We attend NWCDC every year to learn new perspectives, meet with clients, and share our thoughts on managing catastrophic and complex claims. With so many great presentations throughout the week, we wanted to help remind you of four takeaways from NWCDC 2014.

A diverse panel offered 60 tips to improve workers’ compensation claims handling in one fast-paced and informative session. The advice covered a range of issues, from the importance of high job satisfaction to working with the A’s (Accountants, Actuaries, Attorneys, Auditors). If you have another tip from the session that isn’t listed, comment on this post or share it with us on Twitter.

The “Overcoming Psychosocial Barriers to Recovery” session stressed the importance of addressing psychosocial issues for an effective recovery. The three presenters focused on the four major psychosocial barriers that impact workers’ compensation cases: catastrophizing, perceived injustice, fear/avoidance, and negative beliefs about disability. Ultimately, said Ruth Estrich of MedRisk, “What you believe about your disability has a huge impact on how you handle it and what your outcome will be. If expectations are negative, your reality will be negative.”

NWCDC is a great opportunity for workers’ compensation carriers to come together and discuss industry issues. There is no better example of this than the session titled “Workers’ Comp Insurance Exposed: Views from the Industry’s Leading Carriers.” Panelists discussed cost drivers and other issues affecting the industry such as benefits integration, bringing together disability, health care and workers’ compensation. “If there’s any point in time where I think the industry has been exceptionally good at risk selection and pricing, it’s today,” said Russell Johnston of AIG.

Finally, WorkCompWire‘s “3 For NWCDC” series provided readers with industry stakeholder perspectives on developments in workers’ compensation. Dr. Raz Winiarsky, Chief Medical Officer of Spreemo commented on rising medical costs and aligning incentives for payers, providers and stakeholders. “By focusing its energy on quality of care, open dialogue and aligned incentives, the workers’ comp industry can help lead the way in reshaping American healthcare,” Winiarsky said.

We’re proud to be a regular exhibitor at NWCDC, and can’t wait to connect with all of our clients and peers at NWCDC 2015.To learn more about how Paradigm Outcomes is working to achieve better outcomes for our clients, visit our website or join the conversation on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.