Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Calif. Commissioner Enlists Help of DAs to Reform WC System
Mar 4 2003 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi pushed his workers’ comp reform agenda further along by enlisting the help of the state’s 58 county district attorneys (DA) in combating employee and employer...
N.D. Work Comp to Cover Smallpox Vaccine Reactions
Mar 3 2003 // North Dakota Workers’ Compensation (NDWC) plans to cover potential health-care workers’ and emergency responders’ adverse reactions to the smallpox vaccine during phase two of the national program to...
Calif. Commissioner Orders SCIF to Reduce Broker Commissions
Mar 3 2003 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi held a press conference March 3 addressing the workers’ compensation crisis in California. Specifically, Garamendi proposed a seven point plan to return State Compensation...
AIA Approves Calif. Commissioner’s WC Reform Ideas
Feb 28 2003 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has correctly identified many of the serious problems plaguing the state’s workers’ compensation system and the critical solutions that are vital to improving the...
Calif. Commissioner will Not Appeal BOE Premium Tax
Feb 28 2003 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced he is not appealing the Board of Equalization’s unanimous decision that overturned former Commissioner Low’s determination that the gross premium tax...
Florida Firm Fined $54,000 For Workers’ Comp Violation
Feb 28 2003 // The Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation fined a Port Charlotte engineering firm more than $54,000 for failing to provide workers’ compensation coverage for its employees. The division took the action...
Calif. Commissioner Targets Ailing Workers’ Comp System
Feb 27 2003 // Based on recommendations from two stakeholder advisory panels, Calif. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is proposing immediate action in seven areas to restructure California’s ailing workers’ compensation...
Missouri Work Comp Reform Bill Passes First Test
Feb 24 2003 // A Missouri bill that would tighten the state’s workers’ compensation rules has won first-round approval from the House of Representatives on a 79-62 vote. HB321 would only cover occupational injuries if work is...
Perry Names Smith as TWCC Chairman
Feb 24 2003 // Governor Rick Perry appointed Employer Commissioner Richard Smith to serve as chairman of the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission (TWCC). He replaces Employee Commissioner Rebecca Olivares, who served as chairman...
Woman Arrested on Workers’ Comp Fraud Charges
Feb 24 2003 // Kathryn Marie Corso, 53, was arrested at her residence and charged with two felony counts of insurance fraud, one count of grand theft and one count of perjury. Investigators reported that Corso filed a workers’...
COURT SAYS NO DOUBLE-DIPPING
Feb 24 2003 // The Amarillo Court of Appeals upheld a law preventing injured workers from collecting benefits for a work-related injury from two different sources. According to the Texas Mutual Insurance Company, the court ruled that a...
Md. Legislative Session at Halfway Point
Feb 21 2003 // The 2003 Maryland legislative session is at the halfway point, with a crop of insurance-related bills still working their way through the process, including legislation on no pay/no play, insurers’ use of credit,...
Workers’ Comp Insurers Must Check Criminal List When Claim is Filed
Feb 19 2003 // Unless a claim is filed, workers’ compensation insurers reportedly would not know if an employee’s name is included in the infamous Specialty Designated National (SDN) list of criminals and terrorists targeted...
APCapital Reports Fewer Losses, Sees 2003 Profits
Feb 14 2003 // American Physicians Capital Inc. reported a net operating loss of $1.1 million, or 12 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2002, compared to a net operating loss of $14.5 million, or $1.38 per diluted share,...
Fla. Construction Owner Charged With Workers’ Comp Fraud
Feb 14 2003 // A Brevard County, Fla., construction company owner has been charged with workers’ compensation insurance fraud after investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services made an unannounced visit to one of...
Soda Delivery Driver Pleads Guilty to Workers’ Comp Fraud
Feb 14 2003 // Armando M. Villesca Sr. of Fort Stockton, Texas, pleaded guilty to charges of workers’ compensation insurance fraud. A Travis County District Court judge ordered Villesca to submit to three years of community...
Illinois Court Rules Employee Injured at Company Picnic Can File for Workers’ Comp
Feb 13 2003 // An Illinois appeals court has decided that an employee who injured his knee playing basketball at a company picnic can file a workers’ compensation claim. The decision overturned a ruling by an arbitrator who ruled...
Wash. L&I Cracks Down on Unregistered Residential Wood Framers
Feb 12 2003 // Inspectors from the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) will be out in force in Pierce, Jefferson, Kitsap and Clallam counties this month, making sure residential wood framers are working safely and are...
Missouri May Tighten Workers’ Comp Rules
Feb 10 2003 // A bill before the Missouri legislature would narrow the kinds of injuries covered by the state’s workers’ compensation system, according to the Associated Press. The state has lost 90,000 jobs in the last 20...
Credit, Privacy Top Agenda for 2003 Mont. Legislature
Feb 10 2003 // The Montana legislature will consider several insurance-related bills this session, covering topics including use of credit, prompt claims payment, stacking of motor vehicle liability coverages, consumer privacy, producer...
