Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oregon Restaurants Get Rating Return from Workers’ Compensation Group
Sep 11 2009 // Liberty Northwest, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, announced strong return results for its Liberty Northwest/Oregon Restaurant Association (LNW/ORA) workers’ compensation insurance program. The...
Hawaii Workers’ Compensation Costs Drop Again
Sep 11 2009 // Workers’ compensation insurers in Hawaii have filed to reduce by 4.1 percent the loss cost factor that goes into the rates charged to employers. This marks the fifth year in a row that workers’ compensation...
Alleged $1.2M in Workers’ Comp Fraud Leads to Arrest in Louisiana
Sep 11 2009 // The Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) and the state’s attorney general reported the arrest of a Louisiana couple for alleged workers’ compensation premium fraud. Mauro and Keren Aguirre, owners of Escapade...
Missouri Judge Blocks Firing of 3 Workers’ Comp Judges
Sep 11 2009 // A Missouri judge has blocked the firing of three administrative law judges who decide workers’ compensation cases, saying the state could not eliminate their jobs as part of budget cuts. Cole County Judge Jon Beetem...
Indiana Appeals Court Affirms Work Comp Coverage for Obesity Surgery
Sep 11 2009 // An Indiana appeals court has upheld the ruling of the state’s workers’ compensation board that an employee at a pizza restaurant is eligible for treatment for obesity under a workers’ compensation...
Study Shows California Workers Compensation Drug Costs Up
Sep 10 2009 // Despite the adoption of California workers’ compensation medical reforms and a pharmacy fee schedule in 2004, a new study finds that both the average number of prescriptions and average prescription drug payments per...
Atterberry Re-Appointed to Missouri Workers’ Comp Review Board
Sep 9 2009 // Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has re-appointed Jack D. Atterberry of Jefferson City to the Workers’ Compensation Determination Review Board. The board reviews determinations by an insurer or advisory organization regarding...
Colorado Officials Defend Pinnacol Actions
Sep 8 2009 // Executives from Colorado’s state-chartered workers’ compensation insurance company defended themselves against accusations of lavish spending and excess profits on Friday and they told lawmakers it would be...
A.M. Best: Workers’ Comp – How Bad Will It Get?
Sep 8 2009 // Challenging market conditions, the financial crisis and the recession drove profitability downward for the U.S. workers’ compensation market in 2008, and A.M. Best Co. expects the impact to linger through 2009 and...
Oklahoma Considers Privatizing State-backed Workers’ Comp Insurer
Sep 8 2009 // In a recent meeting of a task force considering privatizing Oklahoma’s state-backed workers’ compensation insurer, CompSource Oklahoma, Nevada insurance executives said workers’ comp rates have dropped in...
AIG Pays $900K to Reconcile Mass. Workers’ Comp Payout Problems
Sep 8 2009 // AIG has paid an additional $900,000 to the Central Artery Tunnel (CA/T) Project in Massachusetts as part of an ongoing reconciliation of premiums and residual market payouts stemming from the insurer’s settlement of...
Calif. Workers’ Comp Fund Sale Faces Many Hurdles
Sep 7 2009 // In a move that was not completely unexpected, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will file a lawsuit to have the $1 billion sale of State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) assets declared...
Idaho Agent Knows Job Safety Training and Employee Communication Pay Off
Sep 7 2009 // Nielsen Teaches Employers How to ‘Close the Window’ On Rising Comp Costs The best way insurance agents can teach employers about workers’ compensation is to get to know their business. Idaho insurance...
Oregon Says Workers’ Comp Must Pay for Weight Loss Surgery
Sep 7 2009 // Weight-loss surgery can be covered in Oregon by workers’ compensation provided it is needed to treat a job-related injury. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that SAIF Corp., the state chartered agency, must pay for...
Top 25 Workers’ Comp Insurers Show 36% Increase in Average Direct Premium Written
Sep 7 2009 // Results Based on Insurers’ Growth June 30, 2009, versus June 30, 2008 As I write this article, the unemployment rate in the United States was reported to be 9.4 percent as of the end of July. Gross Domestic Product...
Rates, Claim Frequency Still Declining in Workers’ Comp; Medical Costs Rise
Sep 7 2009 // States Are Not Equal in Handling Worker Injuries Prices for workers’ compensation insurance in the United States declined in 2008 and, in general, that trend is likely to continue in throughout 2009, according to the...
Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Costs Drop for 4th Straight Year
Sep 7 2009 // Kentucky workers’ compensation costs are continuing to drop, with latest figures showing an average reduction of 6.4 percent. Insurance Commissioner Sharon P. Clark has approved the industry’s loss cost...
Study: Workers’ Compensation System Failing Lower Wage Workers
Sep 3 2009 // Only eight percent of lower wage workers injured on the job receive workers’ compensation benefits, according to a new report. Also, lower wage workers — those earning just over $8 per hour on average —...
California’s Workers’ Comp Fund Offers Aid
Sep 3 2009 // California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund announced Tuesday that it will extend credit to policyholders who have suffered a financial loss or business disruption caused by several wildfires that are ravaging...
North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Rates Could Drop 9.6%
Sep 2 2009 // North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said he has received industry rate filings for workers compensation requesting a 9.6 percent decrease in the voluntary market and a 1.3 percent increase in the assigned...
