10 Workers’ Comp Challenges Experts Are Tackling This Year

Every workers’ compensation program is fighting some version of the same fight right now — rising claim complexity, a thinning bench of experienced talent, and a regulatory map that keeps redrawing itself. At National Comp this September, these are the Top 10 challenges leaders will be talking about and sharing solutions for.

1. The Patient Factor Two claims with identical diagnoses can end in wildly different outcomes — and increasingly, the difference isn’t clinical. Psychology, expectation-setting, and how a worker experiences the claims process itself are shaping recovery timelines as much as the injury does. This year’s program digs into what that means for how claims get handled from day one.

2. The Diagnosis Problem Getting the initial diagnosis wrong — or incomplete — sets off a cascade of cost and delay that’s hard to unwind later. Sessions this year walk claims professionals through the clinical literacy needed to catch it earlier, without needing a medical degree to do it.

3. Is Claims Tech Actually Delivering? AI and analytics tools are everywhere in claims operations pitches. Fewer of them are delivering measurable results. This year’s program separates the technology that’s genuinely changing outcomes from the tools still mostly earning their keep in demos.

4. The Fraud & Integrity Question Fraud schemes are moving faster and looking less like fraud than ever, powered by the same digital tools meant to streamline claims. Understanding the psychology behind it — not just the red flags — is becoming essential to catching it early.

5. The Rules Keep Changing Presumption laws are expanding. Mental health statutes are shifting state by state. What counted as settled legal ground two years ago may not hold today. This year’s legal and regulatory sessions track what actually changed and what it means for program exposure.

6. The Medicare Compliance Minefield Section 111 reporting, MSA settlements, and penalty exposure remain some of the most technically unforgiving parts of the job — where a single misstep carries real financial consequences. Sessions this year focus on turning compliance from a burden into a defensible, repeatable process.

7. Speed to Resolution The longer a claim stays open, the more it costs — in dollars and in outcomes. Early intervention and faster claims resolution aren’t new goals, but the tactics that actually move the needle keep evolving, and this year’s program brings the latest ones forward.

8. Small Injury, Big Bill Rotator cuff tears. Carpal tunnel. Injuries that look minor on paper but routinely balloon into the most expensive claims on the books. Sessions this year unpack why these “small” injuries keep outpacing their own cost projections — and what’s actually working to change that.

9. The Aging Workforce Reality An aging workforce means longer recovery times, more comorbidities, and claims that don’t follow the old cost curves. It’s reshaping what employers and payers need to plan for — and this year’s program looks at what that means in practice.

10. Who’s Going to Do This Job? The claims industry is losing experienced talent faster than it’s replacing it. Sessions this year tackle the pipeline problem directly — not as an HR footnote, but as a claims-quality issue with real consequences for every program in this room.

No single session fixes any of these on its own. But every one of them is being actively worked by people managing the same pressures you are. National Comp, September 29–30 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay, is where those conversations are happening. Register today and be in the rooms where they’re happening. &