The California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) has announced additional details on its 61st Annual Meeting, which will be held Thursday, April 3 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts (aka, “the Sofia”), 2700 Capitol Avenue in downtown Sacramento.

The theme of the CWCI meeting will be “The Past Is Preview.” Guest speakers and Institute staff will review changes in the California workers’ compensation system over the past quarter century and offer insights on how the system may be impacted by current economic and political trends. The program will be presented in four sessions that will focus on the state of the California economy, emerging research, and the legal and political issues, challenges, and opportunities facing the California workers’ compensation industry. Sessions include:

• Session 1: Sarah Bohn, PhD, Vice President of Research and Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California will discuss the impact of major economic issues in California and the U.S., including potential changes in immigration and the work force, tariffs, and inflation; and CWCI Vice President of Research Eva Loaeza-Albino, PhD will expand on her recent research on the impact of medical inflation on California workers’ compensation.
• Session 2: CWCI President Alex Swedlow will present results from CWCI research on workers’ compensation claim development, regional differences in claim outcomes, and medical trends. Alex will then focus on the evolution of pain management, with a discussion of the controversies and controls on the use of opioids, injections, compound drugs, and spine surgery, and the growing use of functional restoration programs. Dr. Kurt T. Hegmann, Editor-In-Chief of the ACOEM Practice Guidelines and Dr. Steven Feinberg, author of the revised ACOEM Pain Management Guidelines, will lead a discussion on the challenges of evaluating medical intervention in the absence of medical evidence.
• Sessions 3 & 4: CWCI General Counsel and Senior Vice-President of Claims Sara Widener-Brightwell and Chief Operating Officer Gideon Baum will review court decisions from the past year and discuss the legal issues likely to be addressed by the courts in the year ahead. Gideon and Sara will then review the 2025 workers’ compensation political landscape in Sacramento with a panel featuring legislative insiders.

CWCI’s 61st Annual Meeting is free to CWCI member company employees, CWCI Emeritus, regulators, and the press; $399 for all others. The meeting will begin with a Continental breakfast at 7:45 a.m., and will also include a luncheon from noon to 1:15 p.m. All those planning to attend the meeting must pre-register.

The Sofia is located a block and a half off I-80 (the Cap City Freeway), between 27^th St. and 28^th St. For more information on the venue or hotel options, or to register for the meeting, please click the following link: CWCI’s 61^st Annual Meeting. If you have questions, please call CWCI at 510-251-9470.

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