Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Study: Formulary Could Save California Workers’ Comp $124M-$420M
Oct 7 2014 // Adopting a state-mandated workers’ compensation prescription drug formulary similar to systems in place in Texas and Washington could reduce California workers’ comp pharmacy payments by between $124 million...
BusinessFirst Now Offering Workers’ Comp in South Carolina
Oct 7 2014 // BusinessFirst Insurance Co., a Florida-based workers’ compensation insurer, is continuing to expand in the southeast by offering coverage to South Carolina employers. The Lakeland, Florida-based BusinessFirst, was...
AmTrust Buys Workers’ Compensation Unit from Florida Blue Cross
Oct 6 2014 // AmTrust Financial Services has closed its purchase of a workers’ compensation insurer—a subsidiary of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Florida (Florida Blue)—right according to plan. AmTrust isn’t disclosing...
Conn. Auditors: WCC Improperly Charged Assessment
Oct 6 2014 // A recent report from Connecticut state auditors said the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) improperly charged $450,000 to workers’ comp insurers and self-insured employers last fiscal year to...
Marijuana and Workers’ Compensation on Industry’s Watch List
Oct 3 2014 // Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles on the the marijuana insurance industry. Upcoming stories will include reports on potential changes to federal laws, and regional reports on how medical...
NCCI Proposes Workers’ Comp Loss Cost Decrease in Connecticut
Oct 3 2014 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) recently proposed an overall average change in voluntary loss cost level of -0.6 percent in Connecticut. Key components for the proposed change include -0.4 percent for...
Florida Workers’ Compensation Insurers Seek Bigger Rate Cut
Oct 2 2014 // Florida’s workers’ compensation insurers, already on record recommending an average 2.5 percent cut in rates, now say that a 3.3 percent cut is justified. The modification in the industry’s rate filing by...
Institutional Officer Nabbed In $60,000 in California Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Oct 1 2014 // James Levice Davis Junious, 33, was arrested for allegedly collecting more than $60,000 in workers’ compensation benefits he was not entitled to receive. Junious was charged with five felony counts including...
Marijuana Insurance Industry: How High Can It Go?
Oct 1 2014 // Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles on the the marijuana insurance industry to appear on InsuranceJournal.com. Upcoming stories will include reports on how medical marijuana could affect the...
N.H. Workers’ Comp Commission Holds Its 1st Meeting
Sep 29 2014 // New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny last Friday chaired the first meeting of the Commission to Recommend Reforms to Reduce Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs. The commission was created by Gov. Maggie...
9.1% Drop in Local Government Workers’ Comp Rates Proposed by Ohio BWC
Sep 25 2014 // The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) proposed to its board of directors an average rate reduction of 9.1 percent for Ohio’s 3,800 cities, counties, townships, villages, schools and special districts...
Maryland Officer Charged in Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Sep 25 2014 // A Montgomery County, Maryland, police officer has been charged with perjury and workers’ compensation fraud. Gilbert Payne was charged Tuesday in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The 40-year-old Payne didn’t...
Texas Construction Company Owners Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud
Sep 25 2014 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co. reported that a Travis County district court sentenced Anthony Stokes and Mario Williams of Little Elm, Texas, for workers’ compensation fraud-related charges. Stokes and Williams were...
Texas-Based Cut Stone Manufacturer Fined $234.9K for Safety Violations
Sep 22 2014 // Cut limestone manufacturer Mezger Enterprises Ltd., based in Lampasas, Texas, has been cited for 27 safety and health violations, including two willful, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and...
Workers’ Compensation Premiums Increased By 5.1% in First Half of 2014
Sep 22 2014 // Demotech’s review of second quarter 2014 data, as recently reported by insurers to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, shows that workers’ compensation insurers reported a 5.1 percent increase...
E&O Insights: How Well Do You Know Your Workers’ Compensation Risk?
Sep 22 2014 // The workers’ compensation class of business results in upwards of 10 percent of all errors and omissions (E&O) claims every year. While this may not seem like a lot, it is a class agents must be sensitive to for...
OSHA Revises Severe Injury Reporting Rule
Sep 22 2014 // The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule requiring employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss...
N.H. Gov. Creates Workers’ Comp Commission
Sep 22 2014 // N.H. Gov. Maggie Hassan New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan on Sept. 4 issued an executive order creating a new commission to recommend ways to reduce the state’s workers’ compensation medical costs. The executive...
California Workers’ Comp Kaleidoscope Through Conference-Goers’ Eyes
Sep 22 2014 // Rick Hudson was sitting at his booth at the California Workers’ Compensation & Risk Conference held earlier this month scanning emails on his smartphone during a slow period when he was asked what the most...
S. Dakota Director: No Work Comp Premiums for True Independent Contractors
Sep 22 2014 // Merle Scheiber, director of South Dakota’s Insurance Division, issued a reminder to workers’ compensation insurers that bona fide independent contractors are not required to carry workers’ comp insurance...
