Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) play a crucial role beyond price negotiations, focusing on clinical management, network strategies, and service. Effective PBMs manage costs, enhance care, and ensure transparency and security, addressing unique workers’ comp needs.

“As brokers, we uniquely see both sides of the aisle in the transaction. Transparency and timeliness are two words that stand out to me that could be improved on in helping our clients make educated buying decisions.”

As more health care networks acquire individual physician practices, the workers’ compensation industry must address the medical management costs and patient outcomes associated with this trend.

“The insurance industry has become black and white, which distances it from the reality that consumers face. Algorithms control premiums and appetites have become too hardened.”

“Learning risk engineering the old-fashioned way, by getting my hands deep into the problem, has been invaluable.”

Developing tech solutions looks easy — until you try it. But while time-consuming hurdles are inevitable, it’s possible to avoid the worst of them with the right planning.

In sports, the effort to get the injured worker back in the game as fast as possible is secondary to the cost of doing so. So why is workers’ comp still making cost control the primary driver?

“One of the biggest challenges we face in the energy transformation is increasing our expertise in the new technologies that come with it … Learning about the risks and specificities of these new technologies is crucial for both the industry and its insurers.”

Demex Group CEO Bill Clark talks to Risk & Insurance about the risk of convective storms and a parametric approach to reinsurance.

“The unknowns of legal system abuse are a significant stressor for businesses. No one wants to find their name on a billboard or news cover, putting themselves, their employees or their investors in that position.”

Ronda McCarthy, Lisa M. Figueroa and Latha Brubaker share their experiences and insights into the field of occupational and environmental medicine, discussing the challenges and rewards of their work, and the importance of leadership in the field.

Markel executive Wendy Houser talks about how her experience in the military taught her the vital importance of teamwork. She believes the ranks of the military could provide the insurance industry with an invaluable pool of talent.

“I think most insurance companies have learned it’s not quite as simple as putting up a line and nothing ever breaks. But it’s an incredible opportunity, and it’s going be a growing part of insurance companies’ books.”

Rescheduling the drug would make it possible to add medical marijuana to workers’ compensation formularies, but the move would also introduce new employment liabilities.

We sat down with Mo Tooker, head of commercial lines at The Hartford, to discuss how data and AI will shape insurers’ business models.

As companies outsource business functions to consumers, we’re all taking on more and more risk management responsibilities.

Whether you’re a risk manager, broker or carrier, collaboration starts with concrete communication skills.

“Every business that uses a computer or has employees needs cyber insurance. While most examples in the media and those shared by our broker partners involve Fortune 500 companies, our data shows that 90% of the cyberattacks we see are against businesses with under $50 million in revenue.”

“We find it a little surprising to see as much competition as we do in the public space, knowing that there’s the old inventory of claims and there’s a new inventory continuing to build. It’s a little bit of a surprise to me to see the market as competitive as it is.”

Accommodations can help reduce claims costs and bring injured employees back to work. They just have to be implemented correctly.