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Risk Manager Speaks of Trust, Leadership and Concerns
Author: | Monday September 01, 2008
At the annual Southern Association of Workers' Compensation Administrators, attendees were treated to dinner at the Library of Congress. Here they stroll past the Capitol on their way to the event.
Heart of the Matter
Risk Manager Speaks of Trust,
Leadership and What Issues
Cause Him to Lose Some Sleep
By Ray Brasted
What does Tom Nowak lose sleep over? Catastrophes are what can make him toss and turn, or rather the possibility of a major event that insurers just aren't ready to handle.
As Senior Vice President of AIG Risk Management, Inc. worrying is part of the job. "Floods and fires are happening everywhere. We seem to be living in a time when it is happening a lot. I don't think the insurance companies have done enough to prepare," Nowak told an audience of workers' compensation administrators recently. "The insurance models to handle catastrophe are pretty but have they done enough?", he questioned.
Nowak was one of the featured speakers at the Southern Association of Workers' Compensation Administrators (SAWCA) conference, held in Washington, D.C. AIG was a prime sponsor of the meeting which was attended by administrators from southern states.
Speaking professionally as a risk manager and also as a family man dealing with personal medical issues among his own relatives, Nowak seemed to speak from the heart about what he sees happening in the industry.
On overcharges: We have audited workers' compensation charges from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas and came up with 30% to 40% in savings. What was the matter with these bills? We hope they were just mistakes."
On electronic filing: "We have to find a common language and make sure there is an interchange of data and information. There should be nothing that is proprietary about data. If there is, then we have a problem."
On technology: "We live in the 'I Want' generation and we have to deal with that. We have to ask, why do you want it? Data cannot evolve into just another four letter word."
On innovation: "We need to learn, once again, how to innovate and restore our country's ability to develop new ideas.
On trust: "We have tried to legislate trust and it can't be done. Trust occurs between people and workers' compensation is about people.
On TPAs: Every claims adjuster should be licensed and certified in this industry and licensing regulations should have teeth for enforcement.
On physicians: "Peer review is important. Did the injured worker receive the required standard of care. Medicine is a combination of science and art and we need more doctors who want to treat the whole person. Physicians from different areas of expertise have to work together.
Nowak said his own experiences have formed some of his views on medicine. "I think the world of radiologists. A radiologist, who happened to be a woman, saved my wife's life when she asked for a second opinion on an exam and breast cancer was discovered. My wife is doing fine, but if we had waited another year I would be telling a different story."
Ed. Note:Tom Nowak holds the CPCU, ARM and CIDM designations and has an MBA from Pace University in New York. He also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the College of Insurance, New York City and teaches in the graduate and professional development programs there.
SAWCA membership includes 19 jurisdictions, 17 states, District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Visit www.sawca.com to learn more.
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