Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

London American Risk Now Offering Small Commercial Standard Lines

May 28 2010 // London American Risk Specialists Inc., based in Houston, Texas, has contracted with Travelers Insurance Co. to offer small commercial standard lines business through the firm’s Select Division. London American will...

Oklahoma Workers’ Comp System Reform Legislation Advances

May 28 2010 // Legislation designed to improve Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system for injured workers and reduce costs for the state’s employers has passed the House of Representatives. The four bills comprise a...

Oklahoma House Passes State Agency Workers’ Comp Bill

May 20 2010 // The Oklahoma House has approved legislation to allow state agencies to buy workers’ compensation insurance from private insurers instead of the state provider. The House voted 54-43 for the measure and sent to the...

Louisiana Medical Staffing Firm Owners Charged with Work Comp Fraud

May 20 2010 // A months-long investigation by the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) and the Louisiana Attorney General’s office into the business practices of a Ville Platte medical staffing firm has resulted in the arrest of...

16 Florida Workers’ Compensation Insurers to Return $9.4 Million

May 19 2010 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has ordered 16 workers compensation insurance companies to return more than $9.4 million in excessive profits to their policyholders. Under state law, workers compensation...

California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Market More Lucrative

May 18 2010 // Prices are improving in the California workers’ compensation insurance market — at least according to one specialty workers’ compensation carrier in the Golden State. According to PacificComp President...

Two Calif. Workers’ Comp Defense Firms Merge

May 17 2010 // Heggeness, Sweet, Simington & Patrico, a San Diego-based workers’ compensation defense firm and Mentz, Finn & McDowell, a San Francisco-based workers’ comp defense firm, have announced an agreement to...

Wiesz Confirmed as Chair of Illinois Workers’ Comp Commission

May 17 2010 // The Illinois Senate has confirmed Mitch Weisz as chairman of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Gov. Pat Quinn appointed Weisz chairman in March and he has served as acting chair since that time. Weisz...

Declarations

May 17 2010 // Workers’ Comp Combined Ratio “The workers compensation insurance industry had a trying year in 2009. And a series of unknown factors – from the pace of economic recovery to the long-term impact of the new...

Arizona Privatizing Workers’ Compensation Insurer

May 17 2010 // The Arizona Legislature has approved a bill to privatize the state workers’ compensation insurer as an Arizona mutual insurance company, beginning Jan. 1, 2013. The State Compensation Fund (SCF) was created in 1925...

May 17 2010 // 26.4% The U.S. Department of Agriculture said crop insurance companies posted profits of 26.4 percent last year, and the federal government wants to reduce its spending on crop insurance. Participating farmers pay premiums...

OSHA, Mexican Consulate to Promote Worker Safety in Illinois, Wisconsin

May 13 2010 // The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed an alliance with the Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago as part of an effort to provide Mexican nationals in Illinois and...

Arizona Privatizes Workers’ Compensation Insurer

May 13 2010 // Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law Senate Bill 1045, which repeals and amends state statute, directing the State Compensation Fund — known as SCF Arizona — to privatize and become a mutual insurance...

MEMIC’s Leonard to Chair of Workers’ Comp Organization

May 12 2010 // John T. Leonard, president and CEO of Maine-based workers’ comp insurer the MEMIC Group, has been elected chairman of the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI). NCCI is the a key ratemaking...

Massachusetts Cuts Worker’s Comp Rates

May 12 2010 // Massachusetts has approved a 2.4 percent decrease in workers’ compensation insurance costs, a figure that should reduce premiums by an estimated $22.5 million this year. Originally the Workers’ Compensation...

Florida Workers Compensation Rates to Drop Again

May 12 2010 // Workers compensation insurers writing in Florida have filed for an average 4.2 percent rate decrease. This marks the eighth decrease in workers compensation rates since 2003. The cumulative overall statewide average...

Study: Calif. Workers’ Comp Claimants Getting Care They Want

May 12 2010 // Division of Workers’ Compensation releases latest study on access to medical care in California’s workers’ compensation system Injured workers are getting the care they need, according to a recent study...

Island Insurance President Elected to NCCI Board of Directors

May 12 2010 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI), the largest provider of workers compensation and employee injury data and statistics in the nation, has elected John Schapperle, president and chief operating...

Iowa Workers’ Comp Division Adds 2 Deputy Commissioners

May 11 2010 // The Iowa Division of Workers’ Compensation has named Jennifer Gerrish-Lampe and Erica Elliott as new Deputy Workers’ Compensation Commissioners. Gerrish-Lampe will be joining the division from her current...

Work Comp Prescription Drug Costs in Texas 30% Higher than Median

May 11 2010 // The payment per claim for prescription drugs used to treat injured workers in Texas was nearly one-third higher than in most study states, according to a new study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The...