It's been a long two years for everyone and sometimes, we need a reminder that there are little things we can all do to make a difference in our clients’ lives… simple things, from plain communication to basic inclusivity. Barbosa will lead us through a chat complete with real life examples of situations that have gone off the rails.

Concussion has emerged as one of the most frequently diagnosed sequelae of traumatic injury. Dr. Delamere will give an overview of concussion and mild traumatic brain injury and provide a better understanding of what a concussion is and how it is diagnosed, as well as a critical evaluation of both the short and long-term implications of dealing with this diagnosis. He will also examine the ‘natural history’ and expected outcomes for the recovery from concussion, treatment considerations and current trends including vision therapy, SPECT scan, post-concussion syndrome (does it exist?), and the direction of current research initiatives.

Beneficiaries of life insurance policies are often overlooked as customers. However, a positive claims handling experience often makes many beneficiaries more amenable to recommending the company and more likely to consider it for their own business should the need arise.  Understanding beneficiary satisfaction can pay dividends to insurers, but beneficiary satisfaction — like all customer satisfaction — is a moving target, subject to challenging demands. Organizations should periodically evaluate how their service is perceived and determine whether and what kinds of changes are required to ensure continued loyalty. Ly and Iwanicki will share key findings and insights from LIMRA studies regarding the claimant experience and service turnaround times standards.

Mental illness is often approached separately from physical illness, despite its medical nature. More and more, insurers are seeing mental health as “health”. That’s because mental illness has a great degree of impact on physical well-being and vice-versa. Accelerated recovery relies largely on a co-ordinated and sequenced approach to treatment. This has become particularly apparent as plan members struggle with the mental health impact of COVID-19. Anderson will discuss the strategies that his company has developed to help deal with the continuum of care. He will also disclose their observations on how COVID-19 has affected the incidence and treatment of mental illness, as well as solutions that will be critical in a post-pandemic world.

Relying on documents from foreign countries can leave you open to fraud. In this informative workshop, you will learn how to validate the documents you receive and see examples from actual cases.

Intelligent digital transformation technologies and automation are rapidly being utilized by life and disability insurers to proactively and objectively manage claims liability and improve customer experiences. Capato will discuss how digital transformation technologies — such as intelligent online portal, digital barcoding, robotic process automation, intelligent character reading, and automated business rules engines — are significantly improving carriers’ operational efficiencies, bottom line, and disabled life reserves.

Since March 2020, there have been two staggering outbreaks: the COVID-19 pandemic and the silent epidemic of mental health and chronic pain issues — all of which are increasing disability claims. McNamee will unveil how a home visit can assist you in handling a claim in this uncharted territory and will cover a broad range of topics including lack of access to treatment, telemedicine, behavioral issues, COVID long-haul symptoms, and ergonomic-based injuries caused by home offices. He will then address effective methods to use during the in-home interview to quantify the frequency of episodes, trigger points, and claimants’ self-composed COVID-related barriers to return to pre-disability capacity.

Northwood will show that collaborating with other departments can assist you in reducing claim exposure. He will include real cases from the areas of Life and Disability where the claim may be stopped had these red flags been noticed by their underwriters.

COVID-19 has been an enormous disruptor worldwide, but it has also sparked tremendous innovation, invention, adoption and adaptation.  As we emerge from the pandemic, how has Canadian public health and the insurance industry changed? What is the impact on policy underwriting and claims? What is the outlook on WFH/hybrid working arrangements and the outcome on work-life balance and people’s physical and mental health? Dr. Empringham will review the now normal, redefine the new normal, and (possibly) reveal the next normal.