Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Delaware Regulator Schedules Workers’ Comp Rate Hearing
Jan 2 2015 // Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart announced that the state’s Department of Insurance has scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 12 and 13 to receive public comment on the proposed decrease in both the...
Pill Mill Law Shifts Prescriptions From Opioids to Weaker Meds: WCRI
Dec 31 2014 // A law banning physicians from dispensing certain strong opioids discouraged the doctors from prescribing those drugs at all, according to a new study, which also found that the doctors dispensed weaker nonsteroidal...
New OSHA Reporting Rules on Workplace Deaths, Hospitalizations in Effect Jan. 1
Dec 31 2014 // Effective January 1, 2015, all employers under the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be required to report all work-related fatalities within eight hours and all in-patient...
New Workers’ Comp Reimbursement Rules Take Effect In Michigan
Dec 30 2014 // Changes in how doctors are paid for treating some injured employees covered by workers’ compensation are expected to address the long-term use of pain relievers and help cut medical costs for Michigan job providers,...
Report Calls for More Study of N.H. Workers’ Comp Costs
Dec 23 2014 // A governor’s commission aimed at addressing New Hampshire’s high workers’ compensation costs recommended no significant changes to state laws in a new report and instead suggested gathering more data and...
10 Companies OK’d to Self-Insure for Workers’ Comp in Texas
Dec 23 2014 // The Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) approved one new Certificate of Authority to self-insure workers’ compensation claims and renewed nine such certificates. The companies receiving the certificates...
Florida Touts Workers’ Comp Market Competition But Warns on Court Rulings
Dec 23 2014 // Florida’s workers’ compensation market remains competitive and well-capitalized, with loss ratios that are among the lowest among larger states, according to the latest report from the state’s insurance...
V3 Partners Adds Berkshire’s National Liability to Online Workers’ Comp Program
Dec 22 2014 // V3 Insurance Partners LLC has enhanced its workers’ compensation program, adding National Liability & Fire Insurance Co., a Berkshire Hathaway Group company, as a new market. Now available in additional states...
2 Killed, 3 Hurt in Explosion at Oklahoma Oil Rig
Dec 22 2014 // An explosion and fire at a southeastern Oklahoma oil rig early on Dec. 19 killed two workers and injured three others, two of them critically. The explosion occurred around 1 a.m. on the deck of a rig about 2 miles west of...
Former California Highway Patrolman Convicted of Worker’s Comp Fraud
Dec 22 2014 // A former California Highway Patrol officer has been convicted in a case involving workers’ compensation insurance fraud. A Sacramento County jury on Thursday convicted Tony Yao on felony charges of failure to...
PCRB Proposes 5.99% Average Workers’ Comp Loss Cost Decrease in Penn.
Dec 19 2014 // The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau (PCRB) has submitted a filing of Pennsylvania loss costs and related rating values with a proposed effective date of April 1, 2015. PCRB said in its Circular No. 1636 on Dec. 15...
Ringling Bros. Disputes OSHA Citation for Hair-Hanging Accident in R.I.
Dec 19 2014 // Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has contested a citation it received from federal regulators for an accident that sent eight hair-hanging acrobats plummeting to the ground during a live performance, severely...
Top 10 Casualty Insurance Trends for 2015: Marsh
Dec 17 2014 // While casualty insurance rates remain stable overall and new capacity continues to enter the market, certain classes of business continue to be difficult to place, according to Marsh’s U.S. Casualty Practice. The...
BusinesFirst Enters Workers’ Compensation Market in Georgia
Dec 16 2014 // BusinessFirst Insurance Co., a monoline workers’ compensation company, is now offering coverage to employers in Georgia. BusinessFirst and affiliate RetailFirst Insurance Co. comprise the RetailFirst Insurance Group....
Missouri DOI Recommends Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease
Dec 15 2014 // The Missouri Department of Insurance is recommending a 4.4 percent decrease in workers’ compensation insurance loss costs for 2015. The key driver of the decrease is the favorable loss experience in 2012, according...
Donelon: Louisiana Workers’ Comp Rates to Drop in 2015
Dec 15 2014 // Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon announced that rates for workers’ compensation insurance will decrease in Louisiana effective May 1, 2015. Donelon recently approved a 2.4 percent decrease in...
North Carolina Approves Decreases in Voluntary, Residual Market Workers’ Comp Loss Costs for 2015
Dec 15 2014 // North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has approved workers’ compensation rates as filed that will go into effect April 1, 2015. There will be a 3.4 percent average decrease to loss costs for the...
Florida Approves 5.2% Rate Cut for Workers’ Comp
Dec 15 2014 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has approved an overall decrease of 5.2 percent in workers’ compensation insurance rates in Florida, the first decrease in four years. As expected, The National Council on...
Florida Supreme Court Weighs Workers’ Comp Attorney Fee Schedule
Dec 15 2014 // The Florida Supreme Court is considering whether to declare the state’s workers’ compensation attorney fee schedule unconstitutional. The court recently heard arguments in a case (Castellanos v. Next Door...
Nebraska Governor to Consider Nominees for Workers’ Comp Court
Dec 11 2014 // Nebraska’s Judicial Nominating Commission for the Workers’ Compensation Court has forwarded the names of three nominees to Gov. Dave Heineman for his consideration. The nominees are Shirley Williams and Anne...
