Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oregon Doctors Upset Over Change in Workers’ Comp Rules
Aug 25 2008 // Health care providers all over Oregon say they’ll have to drop workers’ compensation cases, after a change in how they are paid to care for those injured on the job. The temporary rule, imposed July 7, 2008,...
More Farm Deaths in California Heat
Aug 22 2008 // California, the nation’s leader in heat-related deaths among farmworkers, sought to turn that trend around three years ago with new laws aimed at ensuring people toiling in sweltering fields had such basics as a...
Texas Company Fined $149K for Health and Safety Violations
Aug 22 2008 // The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed $149,100 in fines to Texas Linen Co. Ltd. in Austin, Texas, for one willful, 43 alleged serious and one...
N.Y. Court Holds Up Assessments for Failed Workers’ Comp Trusts
Aug 21 2008 // The New York Workers’ Compensation Board must do a better job of justifying a significant assessment against employer groups in the state that self-insure for workers’ compensation claims, a Supreme Court judge...
How to Become the Local Employer of Choice
Aug 21 2008 // About two-thirds of companies do no planning for workforce issues at all. Quickly rising and about to strike, the tidal wave of demographic pressure in the U.S. is a formidable threat to the health of American business....
California High Court Clarifies Policies on Workers’ Comp Utilization Reviews
Aug 21 2008 // utilization review process when considering requests for treatment. Employers must conduct utilization reviews when deciding whether to approve or deny an injured employee’s request for workers’ compensation...
Washington Raises Workers’ Comp Benefits, Pays Dividend to Employers
Aug 21 2008 // Workers currently receiving Washington workers’ compensation wage-replacement or pension benefits will receive a 5.018 percent cost-of-living increase, according to the state Department of Labor and Industries...
Flood & Peterson Distributes $2.7 Million in Workers’ Comp Insurance Dividends
Aug 20 2008 // Greeley, Colo.-based Flood & Peterson Insurance recently distributed $2.7 million in workers’ compensation dividend checks to 1,227 Colorado clients as a reward for maintaining safe workplaces. The $2.7 million...
Delaware Orders 11.5% Workers’ Comp Rate Cut
Aug 19 2008 // Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn is ordering a 11.57 percent across-the-board cut in average workers compensation premium rates effective October 1, 2008. Denn also said that he will consider making additional...
Liberty Mutual Sues New York over Workers’ Comp Law Changes
Aug 19 2008 // Boston-based insurer Liberty Mutual Holding Co. has filed a federal lawsuit challenging several recent amendments to New York State’s workers’ compensation law as unconstitutional. The suit alleges that changes...
NAS Insurance Offers Legal Expense Coverage Not Covered By Workers’ Comp
Aug 14 2008 // Encino, Calif.-based NAS Insurance Services has introduced CompLex writeNOW! to provide legal expense coverage for exposures that are not covered by workers’ compensation insurance. CompLex writeNOW! presents a range...
California Proposes 16% Workers’ Comp Rate Increase
Aug 14 2008 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California indicated it plans to submit a filing to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) recommending a 16 percent increase in pure premium rates effective...
OSHA Program Targets Crane Safety in South Central States
Aug 14 2008 // The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Region VI office in Dallas announced it has established a Regional Emphasis Program (REP) covering employees in the construction...
North Carolina Insurance Agency Searched in Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Aug 11 2008 // North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Jim Long today announced the arrest of an Apex woman on one count of embezzlement and one count of obtaining property by false pretenses. Mary Grantham Hicks, aka Mary Linda Hicks, 58,...
Former North Dakota Workers’ Comp Director Hearing Set
Aug 11 2008 // North Dakota’s former workers’ compensation director is to be arraigned later this month on charges that he misspent more than $18,000 in agency funds. Sandy Blunt is accused of two felonies. He is charged with...
Court: California Homeowners Not Liable for Tree Trimmer’s Death
Aug 8 2008 // A homeowner is not vicariously criminally liable for the misdemeanor acts of a tree trimmer, the California Supreme Court decided. According to Maria Dolores Ramirez V. Thomas Nelson, a worker for an unlicensed contractor...
Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Carrier Boosts Q2 Earnings
Aug 8 2008 // Louisiana-based Amerisafe Inc., which provides workers’ compensation insurance for small to mid-sized companies in hazardous industries, recorded a 13 percent increase in second-quarter profit despite a slight...
North Dakota Workers’ Comp Proposal Submitted for Ballot
Aug 7 2008 // Supporters of changing how North Dakota’s workers’ compensation agency is run have turned in petitions to put their idea on the November ballot. The initiative would put the governor in charge of appointing the...
Ohio Businesses File Suit on Workers’ Comp Rate-Setting System
Aug 6 2008 // Ohio businesses concerned about the cost of state workers’ compensation insurance for injured workers are trying to force a change in the way premiums are set for employers. A lawsuit filed in December was heard in...
South Carolina Governor Backs off Workers’ Comp Payment Limit Fight
Aug 6 2008 // South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford backed away from efforts to force the state Workers’ Compensation Commission to accept new injury payment standards, accepting a settlement agreement that would end months of legal...
