Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Rate Hikes in California Workers’ Comp: SNL Financial
Dec 18 2013 // AmTrust Financial Services Inc. hiked rates by 15 percent on its California workers’ compensation business in 2013, and it is not alone. SNL data shows multiple companies took rate during the first half of 2013. The...
Worker’s Head Injury Leads to $90K Fine for Ohio Manufacturer
Dec 18 2013 // Ohio-based McNeil Group, doing business as Pinnacle Metal Products, has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a worker suffered a serious head injury that...
Higginbotham Hires Ponder as AVP, Loss Control, for South Texas
Dec 18 2013 // Alan W. Ponder has joined the Houston office of insurance brokerage and financial services firm, Higginbotham, as assistant vice president of loss control. Ponder will apply his three-decade career in loss prevention to...
Constitutionality of Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Law Upheld
Dec 17 2013 // A constitutional challenge to Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation law has been rejected by the state’s highest court. In a ruling on Dec. 16, the Oklahoma Supreme Court said Senate Bill 1062, which was...
Chevron Refinery Fire Blamed by Agency on Ignored Warnings
Dec 17 2013 // The fire at Chevron Corp.’s refinery in Richmond, Calif., last year that sickened thousands was caused by the company ignoring a decade’s worth of calls for inspections and upgrades of piping that eventually...
Illinois Company Faces Proposed $117K Fine for Unsafe Working Conditions
Dec 16 2013 // Arlington Metals Corp. in Franklin Park, Ill., has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for 38 safety and health violations, which carry proposed penalties of...
Wisconsin Workers’ Comp Insurers Propose to Rein in Costs
Dec 13 2013 // States once again show the way to management and reform of public systems by having affected interests sit down together to work out a plan. In Wisconsin, the nation’s oldest workers’ compensation program...
OSHA Fines Geismar, Louisiana Plant $99K for 6 Safety Violations
Dec 13 2013 // The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed fines of $99,000 against Williams Olefins for a June explosion at its plant in Geismar, La., that killed two workers and injured 80. OSHA cited the...
North Dakota Workers’ Comp Mulls Suing Aon eSolutions Over Failed Project
Dec 12 2013 // North Dakota’s workers’ compensation agency is considering suing a company that failed to complete a $17 million computer system overhaul. Workforce Safety and Insurance hired Chicago-based Aon eSolutions in...
California Business Owner To Pay Millions For Workers’ Comp Fraud
Dec 9 2013 // Richard Lopez Escamilla Jr., 47, was sentenced in Kings County Superior Court in California on Dec.4 to one felony count of insurance fraud and was ordered to pay restitution of nearly $4.2 million to State Compensation...
Texas to Workers’ Comp Carriers: Direction of Care for Pharmacy Services Prohibited
Dec 9 2013 // The Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation has sent a reminder to Texas workers’ compensation system participants that insurance carriers, including their agents, are prohibited from...
Costs per Workers’ Comp Claims in Michigan Low Prior to 2011 Reforms
Dec 9 2013 // The total costs for a workers’ compensation claim in Michigan were low compared with other states according to a recent study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), Michigan System Performance Prior...
Florida Arrests 9 Contractors on Workers’ Compensation Charges
Dec 9 2013 // Florida CFO Jeff Atwater announced the arrests of nine men as a result of a two-day undercover operation in Manatee County focusing on unlicensed contractors that failed to provide workers’ compensation...
NCCI Proposes Increase for Workers’ Comp Loss Costs in Rhode Island
Dec 9 2013 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) recently delivered a workers’ compensation loss cost filing to the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation. Based upon its review of the most recently...
Virginia SCC Approves Revisions to Workers’ Comp Premium Levels
Dec 9 2013 // Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) last week approved revisions to the premium levels charged for the state’s workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation insurance provides...
Group Health Plans Pay for ‘Zero-Cost’ Workers’ Compensation Claims: Study
Dec 9 2013 // Workers’ compensation claims that result in no payment lead to millions of dollars in increased costs for employee group insurance plans, new research shows. Nationwide, so-called “zero-cost”...
AIA Supports Curbing Physician-Dispensed Medications in Penn. WC System
Dec 6 2013 // The American Insurance Association (AIA) submitted a statement Wednesday to the Pennsylvania House Labor Committee, in support of state legislation aimed at controlling costs associated with physician dispensing of...
Illinois Central Railroad Faces Fines of $110,500 for Lead Exposure
Dec 5 2013 // Illinois Central Railroad Co. has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for one willful and six serious safety violations for exposing workers to lead hazards....
New Mexico Governor Appoints Workers’ Compensation Director
Dec 4 2013 // Gov. Susana Martinez has appointed a state government lawyer from Albuquerque to run a regulatory agency overseeing New Mexico’s workers’ compensation program. Darin Childers becomes director of the...
N.J. Regulator Approves 3.6% Average Workers’ Comp Rate Increase in 2014
Dec 3 2013 // New Jersey’s Compensation Rating And Inspection Bureau recently announced the state insurance commissioner’s approval for the workers’ compensation average rate increase for next year. New Jersey Banking...
