How the insurance industry is taking on the challenges of workers' comp

February 7, 2023 10:50 AM

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Workers' compensation insurance is a costly business by any stretch of the imagination, and that's just when considering legitimate claims — workers' comp fraud costs billions of dollars per year.

It's no surprise, therefore, that organizations are constantly looking at new ways to make the working environment a safer place for their employees, as well as ensure the accuracy of workers' comp claims.

Read our roundup to find out how the industry is facing up to the latest developments in workers' comp.

Transforming workers’ comp with digital innovation

Cyndee Morton, chief operating and innovation officer at Safety National, has a clear vision for how to transform workers' compensation insurance and reinsurance, which she believes begins with applying digital innovation to the submission process.

In an interview with Digital Insurance, Morton talked about convincing clients to change the way they approach workers' comp insurance, using blockchain technology to manage information, working with third-party administrators and more.

Read more:

Safety National finds tech solutions for workers comp coverage

Why tech is the key to eradicating workers’ comp fraud

Digital technology can not only be highly effective in helping to streamline workers' comp insurance claims, but also in detecting and eliminating fraudulent claims, according to Reagan Pufall, CEO of Omaha National.

Pufall spoke with Digital Insurance to discuss how technology can uncover overbilling and unnecessary treatments, why applying "pre-technology" processes is crucial in catching reporting discrepancies, and how the shift to work-from-home practices has changed worker's comp insurance.

Read more:

Omaha National saves technology for the most difficult workers comp claims

How wearable devices can cut workplace injuries

A gadget worn on your belt that can detect unsafe posture when bending, twisting or overreaching to pick something up could cut workplace injuries, and therefore workers' comp claims, in half.

"We are giving you the means to prevent claims in the first place," said Haytham Elhawary, co-founder and CEO of wearable device company Kinetic, referring to Reflex, the firm's wearable product.

Kinetic is partnering with Nationwide to develop the device further with new components, such as the recently added jump detection feature, which is designed to alert workers to potentially harmful jumps.

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Nationwide, Kinetic deploy wearables for workers comp

The sensor solution to bad workplace posture

Packing line workers could be the beneficiaries of wearable sensors that alert them to bad posture with an electronic readout featuring green, yellow and red zones.

"We have one device that we put on the arm, another one on the upper back and then one on the lower back," said Christina Villena, vice president of risk solutions at The Hanover. "It will detect force that's on the body. Then from there, it displays an immediate readout to the worker."

The wearable technology developed by dorsaVi is part of The Hannover's i-on Sensor Program, which the insurer is offering to its commercial policyholders free of charge.

Read more:

The Hanover's new sensor program aims to reduce workers' comp claims

Getting ahead of the workers’ comp curve

Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA Workplace Exoskeletons

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

The argument in favor of proactively deploying wearable devices in industrial workplace settings to help reduce both employee injuries and workers' comp claims would appear to be incontrovertible, according to Haytham Elhawary, CEO of Kinetic Insurance.

Studies conducted by Kinetic show that one company using a wearable system saw workplace injuries go down by 64% in the first year. Not surprisingly, workers' comp claims also went down by 58%.

"Wearables are another form of personal protective equipment, just like the hard hat, safety badge and work gloves that employees put on every day," said Elhawary. "Once wearables become an integral part of the organization's culture, safety is driven by leading, not lagging, indicators."

Read more:

What impact can wearable devices make on workers' comp?

The “safety first” approach to workers’ comp

Prevention is better than cure was a key factor in why old-friends David Fontain (left) and Peter Grant decided to found safety management platform and app Safesite, after a friend died in an incident at work.

"We wanted to keep that from happening to anyone else," said Grant. "We built the tech to keep that from happening."

After founding Safesite, Fontain and Grant launched workers' comp insurtech Foresight. The two firms are constituent parts of the Foresight Group, whose mission is to provide "smarter workers' comp insurance" to the construction, light industrial, manufacturing and agricultural industries.

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Meet the insurtech: Foresight