Back to work post-pandemic? New approaches in 2021

Speaker:

Michael Thompson
President & CEO
National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions

Featured speaker bio:

Michael Thompson is the President and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance), an association of approximately 50 regional coalitions collectively supporting over 12,000 healthcare purchasers providing health coverage to more than 45 million Americans. The National Alliance helps to lead improvements in health, wellbeing and value for our companies and communities across the country.

Prior to joining the National Alliance, Mike was a Principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 20 years. Thompson is a nationally recognized thought leader for business health strategies and health system reform. He has worked with major employers and other stakeholders on sustainable cost reduction, integrated health, wellness and consumerism, retiree health, private health exchanges and health reform. Known for developing and promoting collaborative cross-sector health industry initiatives, Mike participated on the steering board of the World Economic Forum’s “Working towards Wellness” initiative and co-founded the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC). Prior to PwC, Mike served as an executive with diverse roles with Prudential Healthcare for over 17 years.

Mike is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, serving on the Health Practice Council, and chairs the Medicare Sub-Committee of the American Academy of Actuaries (AAA). He is also widely recognized as a leading national advocate for mental health and wellbeing and was Past President of the New York City chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI). Mike previously was an active member of the board of the Northeast Business Group on Health for 11 years.

About the webinar:

Case managers and certified disability management specialists, as well as the rest of the world, will be adapting to new workplace protocols and approaches as we slowly transition to in-person work. After a year of uncertainty due to the global pandemic, the COVID-19 vaccine, initially hard to access, has now become relatively accessible. We are breathing a collective sigh of relief that we may be able to congregate without fear of infection after many get the vaccine.

But, what does this mean for the workplace of mid-2021 and beyond? As the epidemiologists warn us, the pandemic will not instantly go away, but by summer, we may have some sense of normalcy. How do we then adjust in summer and fall of 2021 and beyond? “Employers are working to get back to normal operations which most expect by the third quarter of 2021,” said Michael Thompson, National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions president and CEO. But, the National Alliance’s recent Pulse of the Purchaser survey (March 31, 2021) also indicated that 23% of employers are unsure of when they will get back to “normal.”

This webinar will provide a practical approach to addressing changes in the workplace post-pandemic, both in the near term and in the future. We will discuss how disability management specialists and case managers coach their clients and/or assess their own risks as American workers get back to a different workplace environment in 2021.

Learning outcomes:

After the webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Describe best post-pandemic back-to-work practices; 
  • Discuss the range of protections needed in the workplace of 2021: masks, vaccine, social distancing; 
  • Demonstrate how stressors of the last year have affected workplace morale; 
  • Illustrate how the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine will affect workplace policies; 
  • Explain how the use of a COVID reopening team may help with transitions back to in-person work or a blended approach of in-person and remote work. 

To earn CE credit, please purchase the webinar here