Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Workers’ Comp Costs to Decline in Arkansas
Apr 18 2016 // The state’s top insurance regulator has approved a decrease in workers’ compensation rates in Arkansas. Effective July 1, the overall loss cost in the voluntary market will decline by 4.3 percent and the...
Injured Ohio Workers Receiving Fewer Opioid Prescriptions
Apr 18 2016 // The amount of opioids prescribed to injured Ohio workers has fallen significantly since the state’s insurance fund for injured workers created a pharmacy management program amid concerns about painkiller usage. Fewer...
RIMS 2016: Star Trek Tools, Workers Comp’s Future Help Draw Biggest Crowd in 13 Years
Apr 15 2016 // Workers’ compensation, geopolitical risks, recalls, disaster response, the captive industry and cyber security were among the topics of sessions held throughout the final day of the annual RIMS conference for risk...
5 Accused in California of More than $635K in Tax, Insurance Fraud
Apr 15 2016 // Five defendants have been arraigned in California for committing over $635,000 in tax and insurance fraud and failing to pay employees prevailing wage on public works contracts, the California Department of Industrial...
Another Provision of Oklahoma Workers’ Comp Law Struck Down
Apr 14 2016 // The Oklahoma Supreme Court on April 12 struck down part of the state’s workers’ compensation law, saying the provisions deprived workers of their due process rights and created a subclass of workers. The 7-2...
California Workers’ Comp Board Chairwoman Caplane to Retire
Apr 13 2016 // Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Chairwoman Ronnie Caplane is retiring from state service at the end of the month, it was announced. Caplane was appointed commissioner in 2003 by Gov. Gray Davis, reappointed in...
California Insurance Agent Convicted of Worker’s Comp Insurance Fraud
Apr 13 2016 // Kannai David Scantlen, 41, of Valley Springs, Calif., a former insurance agent conducting business as Kan I Save Insurance Services, was convicted of insurance fraud and sentenced to 60 days, three years of formal...
RIMS 2016: Wearable Tech, Automated Vehicles Dominate Insurance Horizon
Apr 12 2016 // Imagine sitting at your desk writing a quote for an insurance policy and suddenly the lapel of your coat begins angrily buzzing, snapping you out of a daze and causing you to quickly straighten up and become alert. The...
Louisiana Food Manufacturer Fined $124K for Workplace Hazards
Apr 12 2016 // The U.S. Department of Labor’sOccupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Louisiana food manufacturing company for 25 serious and one other violation for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals,...
Work Comp Premium Audit Video NOW Available to You
Apr 11 2016 // Last summer the Academy of Insurance held a live, in person class discussing the work comp premium audit. The Academy assembled a team of knowledgeable work comp audit professionals to offer advice on how to use the work...
Number of Opioid Prescriptions for Injured Ohio Workers Drops
Apr 10 2016 // The amount of opioids prescribed to injured Ohio workers has fallen significantly since the state’s insurance fund for injured workers created a pharmacy management program amid concerns about painkiller usage. Fewer...
OSHA: Company Ignored Safety Rule at Louisiana Site; Faces $226K in Fines
Apr 10 2016 // The federal government says an Illinois tank cleaning company’s violation of safety rules killed a New Orleans employee and injured two others in October. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is...
Ohio Woman Pleads Guilty to Workers’ Comp Fraud, Owes $94K
Apr 10 2016 // A Youngstown, Ohio, woman has been ordered to repay the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) nearly $94,000 in workplace injury benefits she collected illegally. The Ohio BWD reported that Zelma Forro pleaded...
Washington Port to Pay $16M to Injured Worker
Apr 7 2016 // The Port of Bellingham in Washington has been ordered to pay $16 million to an Alaska ferries employee who was injured while operating a faulty loading ramp at the port’s cruise terminal. The Seattle Times reported...
Florida Business Owner Arrested for $1.8M Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
Apr 7 2016 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater announced the arrest of Maira Chirinos, owner of Pompano Beach construction company Tocoa Builders, Inc. Chirinos is alleged to have misrepresented information regarding Tocoa...
Here’s What’s Happening with Drug Costs in Workers’ Compensation
Apr 7 2016 // Overall pharmacy spending increased 2.2 percent for U.S. workers’ compensation payers in 2015 due to higher drug prices, according to a report by benefit manager Express Scripts. That overall increase was a function...
California Workers’ Comp Committee Votes for Lower Mid-Year Filing
Apr 6 2016 // The governing committee of the California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau voted unanimously on Wednesday to authorize the WCIRB to submit a mid-year pure premium rate reduction filing to the California...
Maryland’s Chesapeake Employers to Begin Phasing in NCCI Rates in 2020
Apr 5 2016 // Chesapeake Employers’ Insurance Company, Maryland’s largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance, announced its plan to phase in the National Council on Compensation Insurance’s (NCCI) rating...
Travelers Predictive Model Helps Injured Workers Avoid Chronic Pain, Opioid Use
Apr 5 2016 // The country’s largest workers’ compensation insurer said it has developed a model to predict the likelihood of an injured worker developing chronic pain. The model can them help the workers take steps to avoid...
Understanding Workers’ Comp Combinability
Apr 5 2016 // Consolidating separate legal entities’ loss experience to develop a common experience modification factor has the potential to cause confusion for the client and sometimes the agent. Clients may view such mixing of...
