By Paul Binsfeld, president and founder of Company Nurse, LLC

Evolution of the workers’ compensation and insurance industries – driven to find solutions

To put it simply, there is a lot of innovation in insurance today. V.J. Dowling, founder of Dowling & Partners Securities, so eloquently shared at the CWC & Risk Conference in September that he has been watching the property and casualty industry for 30 years, and the pace of change that is going on in the insurance industry is rapid as of late.

Thirty years ago, insurance was handled through paper and what would now be considered an antique computer of sorts, to generate quotes for auto and home insurance. Certainly, computing power has changed since then. Big players in the industry like Travelers, for example, said for many years that they would always be an independent agency market. Just recently, however, Travelers came out with a position that they are going to sell insurance services whenever, wherever and however the customer would like. Millennials are driving this change of direction and, generally speaking, millennials want to go direct.

Millennials do not want to deal with the middleman-broker like generations before them. Personalized approaches are becoming more prevalent, think GEICO and Progressive Corporation and its famous spokeswoman Flo.

There are some big things happening in the world of insurance. What does that mean for us? Well, over these past two decades we have remained relevant both because of our niche service, combined with our innovation in changing times. Company Nurse was a pioneer of the workers’ comp segment in 1997 at a time when workers’ comp nurse triage didn’t exist. While Company Nurse has adopted new technologies and cutting-edge reporting systems through the years, we have also blazed a trail in the integration of telehealth providers and even software that allows open integration into other systems, through our Enspiri Solutions (www.Enspiri.com) software system.

The key to success through evolving times, no matter your age, is an open mind. Furthermore, it is also respecting the need to surround yourself with a mix of seasoned and next-gen team members.

Our experience is built into the Enspiri system, yet it is a very easy way for other companies to get into our business with limited investment and quick time to market. Risky for us to establish a network of “competitors”? No. I developed Enspiri to help others get into our business realizing that if someone wants to, they will figure out a way to do it. So, we are handing them the keys and shifting our model to giving our customers what they want in changing times.

So what does the future hold? To start, we will have to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) and millennials are going to make an impact. We must embrace using AI and voice recognition to gather data. We must also assess the value of human interaction, and determine at what point does that go away. Technology developments will certainly change our business.

Our future industry embodies a new era of innovation – so be nimble to adapt or get left behind.

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Paul Binsfeld is the founder and president of Company Nurse, LLC, a firm that specializes in medical triage and injury management for workers’ compensation. In Q4 2016, Binsfeld formally launched the first-to-market SaaS solution for worker’s compensation nurse triage management.

Binsfeld’s career began as a workers’ compensation consultant with mid-size employers helping to streamline claims processes and improve outcomes for injured workers. By working with many different types of employers, he identified a common need for early intervention in the workers’ compensation claims and injury management process, and thus, Company Nurse was born in 1997. Binsfeld – one of the pioneers of the pre-claim nurse triage industry – was recently appointed to the Entrepreneurial Insurance Alliance Advisory Board of Directors. He has over 25 years of experience in workers’ compensation and is one of the most influential leaders in the market.