Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Amazon Worker Injuries Dip Last Year, but Higher Than 2020
Apr 14 2023 // Amazon’s total injury rate for warehouse workers took a dip last year, but injuries were still worse than they were in 2020, according to an analysis released Wednesday by a coalition of labor unions. The report,...
California Landscapers Arraigned in Workers’ Comp Premium Fraud Scheme
Apr 13 2023 // Five defendants were arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after a California Department of Insurance investigation found a landscaping company some of the defendants owned allegedly...
Iowa Court: Husband Eligible for Work Comp Death Benefits Despite Separation
Apr 11 2023 // The husband of a deceased worker is not ineligible for workers’ compensation death benefits merely because he no longer lived with his wife when she died, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a 4-2 decision,...
Massachusetts Approves 10.2% Workers’ Compensation Rate Cut
Apr 6 2023 // Massachusetts workers’ compensation rates will fall an average 10.2% starting July 1, a considerably bigger reduction than the industry recommended. Insurance Commissioner Gary Anderson signed off on the cut that...
WCRI: Consolidation of Health Care Driving Up Prices in Work Comp
Apr 3 2023 // Consolidation of physician services into larger groups owned by hospitals and health care systems is driving up the cost of care in workers’ compensation, according to a new study by the Workers’ Compensation...
How a Labor Supplier and Insurance Broker Schemed to Evade Workers’ Compensation
Mar 30 2023 // An unlicensed labor broker for the construction industry has pleaded guilty to participating in a fraud scheme in order to evade more than $1 million in workers’ compensation premiums. According to Manhattan...
People Moves: California Workers’ Comp Institute Elects 2023 Board
Mar 30 2023 // Sharon Thaler, National Director of Workers’ Compensation Field Underwriting Operations at AF Group/CompWest, was reelected as chair of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute board of directors for...
Taking Care of Business: Opportunities Within Soft Workers’ Comp Market
Mar 29 2023 // Workers’ compensation is getting the job done. Premiums are decreasing, claims are stable, and retention is high. But even good news can present its own set of challenges, Burns & Wilcox indicated in its webinar,...
WCRI: Injured Workers’ Emergency Room Use Varies Widely by State
Mar 27 2023 // PHOENIX — Nearly a third of injured workers in Massachusetts sought treatment for strains and sprains in a hospital emergency room, while in California and Nevada only 10% did, according to a study by the Workers’...
OSHA Probe of Teen Worker’s Fall Uncovers Other Wage, Child Labor, Safety Issues
Mar 23 2023 // A federal investigation into why a 17-year-old worker – who fell 24 feet from the roof of a New Castle, Pennsylvania, home improvement store in October 2022 – was doing work that violated child labor laws led to a...
Cal/OSHA Cites Company $838K for Exposing Employees to Toxic Chemical
Mar 22 2023 // Cal/OSHA issued 18 citations to Parter Medical Products Inc. for reportedly failing to protect its employees from overexposure to ethylene oxide, a toxic chemical. The penalties total $838,800. Six of the citations were...
Workers’ Compensation Must Reimburse for Medical Marijuana Costs in Pennsylvania
Mar 21 2023 // Injured workers in Pennsylvania are entitled to be reimbursed for medical marijuana costs under the state’s workers’ compensation law. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that while the Medical...
WCRI: Consolidation of Health Care Driving Up Prices in Work Comp
Mar 21 2023 // Consolidation of physician services into larger groups owned by hospitals and health care systems is driving up the cost of care in workers’ compensation, according to a new study by the Workers’ Compensation...
California Workers’ Comp Committee to Discuss Insurer Experience
Mar 16 2023 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s Actuarial Committee is set to talk about insurer experience, and the impact of the economic slowdown on the pure premium. The committee is set...
Georgia Business Owner Sentenced in $54M California Workers’ Comp Fraud
Mar 13 2023 // Wesley Owens, 54, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Beau Wilson, 38, also of Atlanta, pleaded no contest to multiple felony counts of insurance fraud and conspiracy in Los Angeles Superior Court over charges filed after a...
OSHA Cites Long Island Thermometer Maker Over Mercury Exposure in Workplace
Mar 10 2023 // Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited a New York thermometer manufacturer for overexposing its employees to mercury at its West Babylon facility. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors...
Georgia House Votes to Raise Workers’ Comp Benefits, Still Lower than Other States
Mar 2 2023 // The Georgia House of Representatives voted this week to raise the maximum workers’ compensation benefit amounts and to increase the maximum payout to dependent spouses. House Bill 480, sponsored by Rep. Lehman...
California Workers’ Comp Research Keys on State’s Massive Healthcare Industry
Mar 2 2023 // A report from the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California that examines the state’s healthcare system shows the industry also accounted for the highest share of indemnity COVID-19 claims...
New Hampshire Roofing Contractor Faces $234K in OSHA Penalties
Mar 1 2023 // Federal workplace safety inspectors have again cited a Derry, New Hampshire contractor for not protecting their employees against potentially lethal falls, this time at worksites in Merrimack and Salem. The Occupational...
Walmart Loses Challenge to OSHA Finding in Injury at New York Warehouse
Feb 28 2023 // Walmart Inc. violated federal workplace safety standards at its warehouse in Johnstown, New York, when it failed to prevent stored merchandise from falling onto – and seriously injuring – an employee in 2017, a federal...
