by John Standish, Standish Consulting Group

The 9th Annual California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation Conference and Educational Forum was held in July at the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim, California. We all know that Disneyland is the “the happiest place in the world,” and being a Disney kid at heart, it is hard to disagree. The Conference was a great success with the quality of speakers and topics addressing the concerns and issues on everyone’s mind in the workers’ compensation community. The energy level and commitment of the attendees I witnessed at the event was very positive.

Dale Banda, Don Marshall, Shaddi Kamiabipour, Laura Clifford, and myself participated on a panel presentation on insurance fraud; specifically, focusing on advanced analytics and best practices on identifying, documenting, reporting, and the prosecution of workers’ compensation fraud crimes. The response and engagement of the audience was fantastic.

Laura Clifford, Executive Director, Employers’ Fraud Taskforce, has invited me to participate in the group as an Advisor and start a blog on emerging trends in the discipline of investigating fraud. First, and foremost, the anti-fraud programs in California are only successful by the full commitment of the stakeholders. Attending eduction symposiums and conferences allows you to learn about trending issues, best practices, success stories, and the occasional briefing about something that went terribly wrong. Of course, the ability to network and meet new professionals in your field of expertise is one of the best benefits to being engaged in the group. To add to the benefits of being involved in the group, we will address the following topics and issues for workers’ compensation in the next few months:

• Predictive analytics.
• Workers’ compensation emerging trends and schemes.
• Best practices in the investigation and reporting of suspected fraud.
• The world of social media and how it affects your job.
• Understanding and managing the changes in technology.
• Strategic thinking on insurance fraud in California.

We are living in in interesting times. The recession, shrinking government resources, the stagnate economy, globalization, social media, etc. To gain a better understanding and grasp of these issues, with an outcome of being successful and reduce fraud in California, all of us must join together in addressing these issues.