Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judges Dismisses $18M in Liens Filed by California Medical Provider Convicted of Fraud
Oct 1 2020 // An administrative law judge in California has dismissed liens valued at $18 million filed by convicted medical provider Michael E. Barri, bringing to a close one of the earliest cases aimed at combatting fraud in...
Next Insurance Adds 24 States to Its Workers’ Compensation Market Map
Oct 1 2020 // Next Insurance has expanded its workers’ compensation offering into 24 additional states, including Arizona, Connecticut, South Carolina, Indiana and Virginia. The digital small business insurer said that the...
Cal/OSHA Issues Citations to Grocery Stores for COVID-19 Violations
Sep 30 2020 // Cal/OSHA has cited five grocery stores in Southern California for failing to protect their employees from COVID-19. The retailers were cited for various health and safety violations, including some classified as serious,...
Texas Workers’ Comp Networks Have Lower Medical Costs Than Non-Networks
Sep 30 2020 // Texas workers’ compensation claims handled through health care networks have lower medical costs than those managed outside networks, a state report finds. The Texas Department of Insurance has published its 2020...
Worker’s Compensation Rates to Decrease in Idaho for 2021
Sep 29 2020 // A proposal for a 1.7% overall rate decrease to Idaho workers’ compensation insurance, effective Jan. 1, 2021, has been approved by the Idaho Department of Insurance. The proposed rate change is recommended by the...
Meat Plant Workers Being Denied Workers’ Compensation for COVID-19: Reuters
Sep 29 2020 // Saul Sanchez died in April, one of six workers with fatal COVID-19 infections at meatpacker JBS USA’s slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado, the site of one of the earliest and deadliest coronavirus outbreaks at a U.S....
Report: COVID-19 Accounts for 1-in-9 California Workers’ Comp Claims in 2020
Sep 28 2020 // The California workers’ compensation COVID-19 claim count continued to grow in August, albeit at a much slower rate than in July, with new data showing that as of Sept. 21, the state had recorded 5,130 COVID-19...
New York Drywall Installer Arrested for Failing to Provide Workers’ Comp Insurance
Sep 25 2020 // New York State Inspector General Letizia Tagliafierro has announced the arrest of a capital region area drywall installer who allegedly failed to provide legally required workers’ compensation insurance to his...
Florida OKs Emergency Adjusters, Brings In Fraud Strike Teams for Sally Recovery
Sep 23 2020 // The Florida Department of Financial Services has deployed its Disaster Fraud Action Strike Team (DFAST) to the Florida Panhandle, as well as activated the state’s emergency adjuster license system to assist with...
California Farm Worker Arraigned for Alleged Workers’ Comp Fraud
Sep 22 2020 // Eduardo Medina Ruelas, 46, of Sanger, Calif., was arraigned this week on multiple counts of felony insurance fraud after allegedly defrauding his employer and RISICO Claims Management Co. to collect $38,000 in...
Kansas Supreme Court Weighs Guidelines for Compensating Injured Workers
Sep 21 2020 // The Kansas Supreme Court has waded into the fray over obscure medical guidelines that will determine how much money workers injured on the job can collect. Justices on Sept. 17 heard legal arguments on Zoom over which...
California Governor Signs Workers’ Comp Law Protecting Workers from Virus
Sep 21 2020 // California companies must warn their workers of any potential exposure to the coronavirus and must pay their employees workers compensation benefits if they get sick with the disease under two laws that Gov. Gavin Newsom...
Report Shows Steep Drop in California Workers’ Comp IMRs in 1st Half Year
Sep 18 2020 // The number of independent medical reviews used to resolve California workers’ compensation medical disputes fell sharply in the first half of 2020 as the pandemic took a toll on the state’s economy with...
Washington Contractor Fined $230K for Fall Protection, Other Safety Violations
Sep 17 2020 // An Everett, Wash., construction company with a history of safety violations is facing fines of more than $230,000 after inspections at two Seattle job sites reportedly found numerous problems that placed workers at...
Zurich NA Launches Nonsubscriber Work Injury Insurance Policy in Texas
Sep 17 2020 // Zurich North America, based in Schaumburg, Ill., has launched an Occupational Accident & Employers Work Injury Liability Insurance Policy for nonsubscribers to the workers’ compensation system in Texas. The new...
Washington Labor Department: Keep Workers’ Comp Rates Steady For 2021
Sep 15 2020 // Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries is proposing no increase in the average price employers pay for workers’ compensation insurance next year. If the proposal is adopted, this will be the first...
Study Tracks Post-Reform Trends in California Workers’ Comp Medical Service
Sep 15 2020 // The average number of visits for evaluation and management and physical medicine services in the California workers’ compensation system has continued to edge down since the enactment of the sweeping reform law SB...
Louisiana Health System Cited for Coronavirus Safety Violations
Sep 15 2020 // A healthcare system in Shreveport, Louisiana, has been cited by federal workplace safety officials for failing to protect employees from coronavirus exposure. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and...
Coronavirus Pandemic Will Have Severe Impact on Social Inflation: Fitch’s Mazzuoli
Sep 15 2020 // Claims inflation for the commercial liability business will increase through 2020, although it was accelerating even before the coronavirus pandemic hit. This trend, known as social inflation, has led the insurance...
Foresight’s Tech-Driven Workers Compensation Program Breaks New Ground
Sep 15 2020 // Foresight is now appointing a group of founding broker partners focusing on hazardous verticals in the middle market San Francisco, CA, September 15, 2020 – Foresight, a commercial insurtech MGU with carriers rated...
