SAWCA Announces National Regulators Roundtable

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 | 0

Editor’s Note: The 68th annual Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference (WCEC), held by the Workers' Compensation Institute, will be held Aug. 18-21 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. This article is part of a series highlighting some of the upcoming sessions.

The Southern Association of Workers' Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) announces its third Annual National Regulators Roundtable Conference to be held in conjunction with the Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference, Aug. 18-21 in Orlando.

The purpose of the roundtable conference is to bring together workers’ compensation regulators from throughout the country to discuss issues of common concern that either are currently being experienced in particular jurisdictions or are anticipated to be a problem or concern which may have been dealt with (successfully or unsuccessfully) by other states. Subjects to be discussed include, but are not limited to, any and all things medical; employer compliance; adjudication of benefits; managing the legislative environment; facing tough economic times; advancing technology and any other issues that are brought up for discussion by participating regulators or individuals in the audience that deal with or are concerned about regulatory oversight of workers’ compensation. Regulators participating in the roundtable are listed online in the program notes.

The roundtable is being held concurrently with the National Workers' Compensation Judiciary College, a three-day event beginning Aug. 19, sponsored by the National Association of Workers' Compensation Judiciary, Inc. (NAWCJ). The college is designed exclusively for workers’ compensation adjudicators and includes subject matters that are of particular relevance to workers’ compensation judges. The college attracts judges from more than 20 jurisdictions, each presenting to the college as a whole their unique perspectives on deciding issues within their jurisdictions. Opportunities will be provided to participating judges and regulators attending the roundtable discussion to interact about issues of common concern.

The regulators’ roundtable conference is also being held in conjunction with the 68th Annual Workers' Compensation Educational Conference, the largest workers’ compensation conference in the nation. Some 7,000 attendees, including approximately 400 exhibitors, participate in this annual event and attend in excess of 100 individual breakout sessions related to all aspects of workers’ compensation.

Many of the breakouts have particular relevance to issues of concern to state regulators. The educational conference has created a regulators' track for participating in the conference as a whole.

The partnership between the Workers' Compensation Institute, sponsor of the annual educational conference; SAWCA, sponsor of the regulators’ roundtable, and the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary, Inc., sponsor of the National Workers’ Compensation Judiciary College, provides attendees with a unique opportunity to discuss all phases of workers’ compensation, regardless of the subject matter and with or without reference to the specific laws of individual states.

If attendees are interested in the substantive laws of individual states, on Wed., Aug. 21, at the conference, attorneys from 11 states in the Southeast plus Texas and Oklahoma will be present in a multi-state presentation sponsored by the Workers’ Compensation Defense Institute. Except for the judicial college that is only for judges, attendees at the WCEC have access to all breakouts.