July 01, 2011 4:15 PM CDT

New ACORD Workers' Compensation Reporting Committee Announced

By Michael Carroll

Recently, the ACORD Standards Committee approved the formation of a new Standards Program and Steering Committee for Workers' Compensation Reporting.

Ellen Sonkin, Vice President of the Regulatory Reporting Division of Chartis Insurance will chair the group. In her current role at Chartis, she is responsible for all Workers' Compensation Data reporting, including Financial Calls, Unit Statistical Reporting and Policy and Proof of Coverage Reporting.

The group's focus will be on continuing the development of the new ACORD Workers' Compensation Reporting XML Standard. The single XML standard will be an alternative to multiple EDI standards in use today. Efforts will focus solely on reporting and on ensuring that the ACORD XML Standard is synchronized with any changes to the EDI standards.

While work has been going on for some time with the Workers' Compensation Insurance Organizations (WCIO) and International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC), the formation of this official Steering Committee will provide a more formalized and expanded structure to their activities.

At present, both North Carolina and Massachusetts are piloting the Notice of Assignment XML message already developed by the group.

"Now that the committee has been approved, we plan to move forward quickly and grow the group of experts involved," said Alan Stitzer, Program Manager, ACORD. "Workers' Comp reporting is a unique community and involves those working directly with state data collection organizations. We're asking all of the members to reach out to those in their organizations that may not be involved with ACORD today, but who are Workers Comp professionals and encourage them to get involved."

For more information on the committee and participation, please contact Alan Stitzer, Program Manager, ACORD at astitzer@acord.org.

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About the Author

Michael A. Carroll is the Communications Specialist for the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD).