Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
New York Construction Company Owner Indicted for Manslaughter
May 22 2017 // The owner of a Bedford-Stuyvesant construction company and his businesses have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges after a wall collapsed at an excavation site, killing one construction worker and injuring two...
Feds Warn Arizona Commission that Lowering Workplace Injury Fines is Risky
May 19 2017 // Federal officials warned a commission overseeing Arizona’s workplace safety agency that its practice of lowering fines on companies for worker injuries and deaths violates the state’s laws and could jeopardize...
Injured Worker Attorney Involvement Varies Widely by State
May 18 2017 // There is a wide variation in the percentage of claims with worker attorneys involvement across state workers’ compensation systems, according to the latest research from the Workers Compensation Research Institute...
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Suspends Two, Including Drobot
May 18 2017 // California’s Department of Industrial Relations and the Division of Workers’ Compensation has suspended two more medical providers from participating in California’s workers’ compensation...
Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act to Remain in Place, For Now
May 18 2017 // Alabama’s workers’ compensation law, ruled unconstitutional by a county judge last week, will remain in effect for the immediate future. The Alabama judge who on May 8 declared the state’s workers’...
Report: New Medical Coding System Not Yet An Improvement in California Comp
May 17 2017 // A new report shows that an updated medical coding system that went into effect in California a year-and-a-half ago hasn’t done much to better define the characteristics of worker injuries than the old one. A report...
Oklahoma Court Affirms Employer’s Right to Choose Provider in Workers’ Comp Case
May 17 2017 // An Oklahoma civil appeals court ruled in favor of an employer and its insurer in affirming an order by the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission, asserting an employer’s right to direct the medical...
Study: Comp Reform Led to Drop in Medical Payments Per Claim in California
May 16 2017 // California’s total costs per workers’ compensation claim with more than seven days of lost time have remained stable after the passage of workers’ comp reform, while most other states experienced an...
New York Board Proposes 4.5% Workers’ Compensation Rate Decrease
May 16 2017 // New York businesses could soon see some slight relief in workers’ compensation premiums, according to an announcement from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The governor’s office released a statement Monday saying that the...
Louisiana Bill to Limit Opioids for Injured Workers Passes Committee
May 15 2017 // Hoping to prevent fatal overdoses, a House committee passed a bill to make it harder for injured Louisiana workers to access highly-addictive opioid drugs. Lawmakers voted 8-5 on May 11 to have prescribers consult a...
Manufacturing’s Share of Workers’ Comp Premium Is High Relative to Exposure: NCCI
May 15 2017 // In 2016 in the United States, the manufacturing sector produced nearly 72 percent more goods than in 1990, but manufacturers achieved that milestone with only about 70 percent of the workers that were on factory floors two...
Illinois’ Cost per Workers’ Comp Claim Trending Down
May 15 2017 // The average total cost of a workers’ compensation claim in Illinois has dropped by 6.4 percent since 2010, but the state still has relatively high costs per claim, according to a report by the Workers Compensation...
Florida Fails to Pass Workers’ Compensation Reform
May 15 2017 // Florida businesses shouldn’t expect relief for workers’ compensation rates, this year at least. The Florida Legislature failed to pass legislation this session addressing 2016 decisions by the Florida Supreme...
Louisiana Worker’ Comp Rates Are Down, but Costs per Claim Growing
May 15 2017 // Workers’ compensation rates decreased statewide in Louisiana on May 1 by 9.8 percent, marking the fourth year in a row rates have dropped in that state, according to insurance regulators. In January, the Louisiana...
Attorney Challenges Tilly’s Appointment to Oklahoma Workers’ Comp Commission
May 12 2017 // Governor Mary Fallin recently named Assistant Attorney General Megan Tilly to serve on the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission, and now a workers’ comp attorney is challenging that appointment. Tilly, of...
Missouri Workers’ Comp Lawsuit Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk
May 11 2017 // Missouri lawmakers have passed a bill to raise the standard for employees to sue for discrimination over workers’ compensation claims. Senators voted 23-10 on May 8 to send the legislation to Republican Gov. Eric...
Florida Court Approves Workers’ Compensation Ratemaking Process
May 11 2017 // A Florida appeals court has rejected a trial court’s finding that the process for determining workers’ compensation rates used by a rating organization and state insurance regulators violated the state’s...
Massachusetts Court Affirms How to Calculate Interest in Workers’ Comp Suit
May 10 2017 // The Massachusetts Appeals Court has affirmed the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) reviewing board’s decision in a case involving how interest should be assessed on unpaid workers’ compensation...
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Suspends 4 Medical Providers
May 9 2017 // California’s Department of Industrial Relations and the Division of Workers’ Compensation has suspended four more medical providers from participating in California’s workers’ compensation...
Indiana Injured Worker Benefits Rise, but Per Claim Cost Still Low
May 8 2017 // Income benefits paid to Indiana’s injured workers through workers’ compensation claims rose nearly 5 percent between 2014 and 2015, a Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) study found. “The...
