Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Rising Medical Costs Lead to Hike in Cost Per WC Claim in N.J.: Study
Oct 23 2012 // The cost per workers’ compensation claim in New Jersey rose following the end of the recession, according to a new study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The study said a 10 percent increase in...
N.Y. Group Calls on Workers’ Comp Board to Fully Implement Reforms
Oct 22 2012 // A local commerce association is calling on the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board to fully implement the workers’ comp reforms that were enacted in 2007. The group says the Board’s delay in fully...
Panel Upholds Reduced Workers’ Comp Award for Oklahoma Legislator
Oct 22 2012 // An appeals panel has upheld a controversial ruling that Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Christian is due workers’ compensation benefits for injuries he suffered in a 2009 traffic accident. The panel, however, cut the...
Florida Workers Comp 29th Most Expensive
Oct 22 2012 // Florida’s workers compensation insurance rates have climbed from 40th to 29th most expensive in the nation over the last two years. That 11-point increase was reported in a study released by the Oregon Department of...
Court Urges Change in Florida Workers’ Comp Law
Oct 22 2012 // An appellate court is urging the Florida Legislature to reconsider a state law that makes injured employees pay employers’ legal costs if they lose good faith workers’ compensation appeals. A three-judge panel...
WCRI: N.Y. Workers’ Comp Reforms Achieving Their Objectives
Oct 22 2012 // The workers’ compensation reforms enacted in New York in 2007 are beginning to achieve some of their objectives, according to a new study. The study from the Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research...
Calif. Rating Bureau Drops Workers’ Comp Advisory Rates
Oct 22 2012 // After a review of a workers’ compensation overhaul bill signed in September by Gov. Jerry Brown, the Workers’ Compensation Rating Bureau submitted a filing in early October to lower the pure premium advisory...
California Legislature not Hesitant to Act on Insurance Issues
Oct 22 2012 // Dysfunctional. Inefficient, Ineffective. Slow. Partisan. Irrelevant. These are terms that regularly appear on editorial pages and political blogs to describe the California Legislature. It is true that when the Legislature...
Rowe High on Reform
Oct 22 2012 // State Fund President and CEO Tom Rowe, who gave a speech in mid October at the opening of Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of California’s, inaugural InsurFEST in San Diego Calif., has a lot of confidence in...
Report: Calif. Workers’ Comp Impacted by Recession, Reform, Medical
Oct 22 2012 // By Don Jergler A report out this month from the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute rates California’s workers’ comp system against 15 other states, and the report details several key improvements to...
Father and Daughter in Central Calif. Workers’ Comp Fraud Must Repay Over $600K
Oct 22 2012 // Jerry Buffington, 69, and Cynthia Russell, 47, pled guilty in Kern County Superior Court to one count each of workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud and eight counts each of tax evasion and were ordered to pay...
Calif. State Fund Board: Drop Rates 7%
Oct 22 2012 // California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund’s board has voted for a 7 percent decrease in its 2013 rates, a move that reflects State Fund’s anticipated savings from a workers’ compensation reform...
Wyoming OSHA Seeks Additional Fines Against Sinclair
Oct 22 2012 // Wyoming’s state workplace safety agency is seeking another $155,000 in fines against Sinclair Oil, this time for a refinery fire that injured four workers in early May. The May 8 fire at the Sinclair Refinery in...
Conn. Workers’ Comp Second Most Expensive in Nation: Study
Oct 19 2012 // Connecticut employers in the volunteer market pay, on average, the second-highest workers’ compensation premium rates in the country, according to a recent study. Connecticut’s premium rate index, according to...
EPIC Names Dunn VP of Workers’ Comp Claims in Central California
Oct 19 2012 // Edgewood Partners Insurance Center named Joe Dunn vice president of workers’ compensation claims in its Fresno, Calif. office. Dunn will be responsible for workers’ comp claims advocacy, and he will work with...
2nd Worker Injured in Oklahoma Refinery Blast Dies
Oct 19 2012 // A second man who was injured in an explosion at a southern Oklahoma oil refinery has died. A spokesman at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City says Russell Mann of Davis died Oct. 16. Mann was injured...
Express Scripts Tackles Physician-Dispensed Drug Costs Under Workers’ Compensation
Oct 18 2012 // Express Scripts, a nationwide prescription manager of more than a billion prescriptions each year, has created a new program to help workers’ compensation payers save money on medications. The new product is based on...
As Florida Weighs 6.1% Workers’ Comp Hike, Legislators Urged to Act
Oct 18 2012 // A proposed statewide average 6.1 percent increase in Florida’s workers’ compensation rates could spur the first major legislative changes in the state’s system since 2003. The likely targets of reforms...
WorkCompOne Launches Coverage Website for Small Business Owners
Oct 17 2012 // WorkCompOne, an online insurance destination, has launched a new website focused on serving small business owners. “Main street retailers and professional service providers, such as accounting, legal, engineering and...
Correction: Work Comp Premiums in Texas Drop by 49% Since 2005
Oct 17 2012 // Texas employers are seeing a major reduction in workers’ compensation insurance premiums, an insurance trade group reports. The Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) says reforms in House Bill 7, passed in 2005, and...
