Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
3 New Property/Casualty Insurers OK’d to Do Business in Arkansas
Jul 5 2018 // Three new property/casualty insurance companies have been approved to do business in Arkansas, the state insurance department reported. All three are based in Florida. Counting the recently accepted companies, 10 new...
CFO: Florida Workers’ Comp Carriers to Save $20M in Costs Next Year
Jul 5 2018 // Cost savings in two Florida funds paid into by workers’ compensation carriers are expected to equal a nearly $20 million reduction in expenses for insurers operating in the state next year, according to a statement...
Burand’s State of P/C Insurance Industry: How P/C Insurance is Becoming Less Valuable
Jul 4 2018 // Value is a relative term often specific to a given asset. For example, if the price of gold declines from $1,800 an ounce to $1,250 an ounce, as it has, then gold is less valuable. The price of property/casualty insurance...
Houston Pharmacist Gets 5 Years in Work Comp/Chiropractor Scheme
Jul 3 2018 // A Houston pharmacist must serve five years in federal prison and repay $5.3 million in a health care kickbacks scheme linked to a chiropractor. Nermin Awad El-Hadik, of Hope Pharmacy Inc., was sentenced June 29 in Austin....
Insurers Question California Commissioner’s Authority to Make Comp Writers Report Federal Tax Savings
Jul 2 2018 // The insurance industry is wondering whether a new requirement from California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones that workers’ compensation insurers report federal income tax savings is legal. Jones wants insurers...
California Commissioner Orders Workers’ Comp Insurers to Report Federal Income Tax Savings
Jul 2 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced today issued an order that every insurer licensed to write workers’ compensation in the state must report their federal income tax savings annually through a...
SUNZ Forms Florida-Based Workers’ Comp Subrogation Services Company
Jul 2 2018 // SUNZ Holdings, LLC, a provider of large deductible workers’ compensation insurance products, has formed Avalon Subrogation Partners, LLC, a subrogation company focused on recovering claim payments from parties who...
NYC Drivers for Uber, Other Apps to Get Vision Care Coverage
Jul 2 2018 // Drivers for car services and ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are usually on their own when it comes to buying health insurance, but starting Sunday in New York they will now be able to get coverage for vision care as...
People
Jul 2 2018 // Cassie Brown has been appointed Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation. She succeeds Ryan Brannan, who left the division on May 1....
Texas DWC: 40% of Workers’ Comp Claimants Have Previous Injuries
Jul 2 2018 // There are about 200,000 new claims each year in the Texas workers’ compensation system, representing about 2 percent of covered Texas employees. About 40 percent of those new claims involve claimants who have had at...
North Texas Attorney Charged with $400K Insurance Fraud
Jul 2 2018 // A Travis County grand jury has indicted a Texas attorney on charges of workers’ compensation fraud for allegedly billing clients for services that were not provided, false billing and tampering with a government...
West Virginia Supreme Court: Widow Entitled to Husband’s Workers’ Comp
Jul 2 2018 // The West Virginia Supreme Court says a Rhode Island woman whose husband died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a hotel is entitled to West Virginia workers’ compensation benefits. The state Workers’ Compensation...
Maine Employers Are Not Required to Reimburse Employees for Medical Marijuana Use
Jul 2 2018 // The Maine Supreme Court has ruled that employers in the state are not required to reimburse employees for their use of medical marijuana under the Maine workers’ compensation system because federal law preempts state...
Declarations
Jul 2 2018 // Medical Marijuana “Prosecuted or not, the fact remains that Twin Rivers would be forced to commit a federal crime if it complied with the directive of the Workers’ Compensation Board.” — Maine...
Beverly Hills Doctor Sentenced to 10 Years in Workers’ Comp Scam
Jul 2 2018 // A Beverly Hills, Calif., doctor has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a massive fraud scheme. Dr. Ronald Grusd was convicted in December of 39 charges, including conspiracy, honest services wire...
Report: California Self-Insured Workers’ Comp Claims Rose Only Slightly Last Year
Jul 2 2018 // California public self-insured workers’ compensation claims from fiscal year 2016-2017 rose less than 0.4 percent compared to the corresponding data from the prior year despite a 2.9 percent increase in covered...
California Workers’ Comp Rating Bureau Exploring Blockchain, Behavioral Science
Jul 2 2018 // One wouldn’t normally associate blockchain with workers’ compensation, two completely different industries that seem worlds apart. But as it turns out, the technology is of value to at least one very important...
Nevada-based Insurtech Talage Offering Workers’ Comp, Liability, Property Online
Jun 29 2018 // Talage Inc. is an insurtech to its core – both in function and name. The Reno, Nev.-based software platform designed to help small business owners compare and quickly purchase a range of commercial insurance policies...
How Workers’ Compensation Outpatient Costs Compare Across States by Fee Regulation
Jun 29 2018 // Hospital outpatient payments were higher and growing faster in states with percent-of-charge-based fee regulations or no fee schedules, finds a study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) that compares 35...
California Workers’ Comp Division Says Temporary Total Disability Rates to Increase for 2019
Jun 26 2018 // The 2019 minimum and maximum temporary total disability rates will increase on Jan. 1, 2019, the California Division of Workers’ Compensation announced on Tuesday. The minimum TTD rate will increase from $182.29 to...
