How is COVID-19 affecting workers compensation? How are processes in this line evolving? What challenges await? Here's what top industry experts say we can expect in workers compensation in 2020.

The Insurance Information Institute recently said it thought workers' compensation would be one of the most affected lines of insurance when it came to COVID-19's impact. Do you agree?

In 2017, co-author Kimberly Simmons, nationwide director of safety and claims management at Fidelity National Financial (FNF), in Jacksonville, Florida, wanted to try a new strategy to manage her company's workers compensation claims.

In general, short-term opioid use is intended to relieve pain related to acute, traumatic injury, as well as post-surgical pain. However, the vast majority of opioids used in the United States are prescribed for chronic pain, with the goal of maximizing the functionality and quality of life of injured patients, while also controlling their persistent pain. The International Association for the Study of Pain has defined chronic pain as, "pain that persists beyond normal tissue healing time, which is assumed to be three months."

The state-level workers' comp system is difficult enough to navigate in an average world.

But combined with ever-changing federal mandates related to Coronavirus, it adds a complexity to the pandemic environment that will impact employers for a long time to come, as they seek to not only protect employees, but also mitigate their legal and compliance risks.