Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
It’s Official: Florida Workers’ Comp Rates Going Up Nearly 15%
Oct 11 2016 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has issued a final order granting approval to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) for an overall combined statewide average rate increase of 14.5 percent....
OSHA: 36 Workers Have Died on the Job in Illinois This Year
Oct 7 2016 // Federal safety regulators say 36 Illinois workers have died on the job since Jan. 1, 2016. That number represents an average of one life lost each week in the state. Since 2013, Illinois worker deaths have increased 28...
Texas Mutual’s Gergasko Named Best Large Company CEO in Central Texas
Oct 7 2016 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co.’s president and chief executive officer (CEO), Rich Gergasko, has been named the 2016 Best CEO of a large company in Central Texas by the Austin Business Journal. The ABJ has presented the...
Workers’ Comp Benefits for Injured Workers Reach Historic Lows: Report
Oct 6 2016 // Workers’ compensation benefits as a share of payroll have reached historically low levels, according to a new study released this week. Despite growth in employment during the economic recovery — and the...
Lien Consolidation Court, Fraud Part of Focus at California Comp Conference
Oct 5 2016 // The state’s top two labor officials were understandably high on the impact they expect two bills recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will have on California’s workers’ comp system and bad actors who have...
Houston Machinery Rebuilder Fined $155K for Workplace Hazards
Oct 4 2016 // A machinery rebuilding company in Houston was cited by federal safety regulators on Sept. 28 for exposing employees to workplace hazards. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
New Ohio Workers’ Comp Opioid Prescription Rule now in Effect
Oct 4 2016 // A new rule governing the prescribing of opioids to treat Ohioans injured on the job took effect on Oct. 1, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) reported. The changes target the prevention of opioid...
California Workers’ Comp Board Submits Amended Rate Filing to Department of Insurance
Oct 4 2016 // The WCIRB has submitted a pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance proposing Jan. 1, 2017 advisory pure premium rates lower than the corresponding industry average and less than the average...
Kansas Workers’ Comp Rates to Drop Next Year
Oct 4 2016 // Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer announced that many business owners in the state will pay less for workers’ compensation insurance in 2017. It will be the second consecutive year for workers’ comp rate...
Berkshire’s Applied Underwriters Defends Workers’ Comp Products, Says Brokers Should Not Be at Risk
Oct 3 2016 // Legal and regulatory squabbles in New York, California and other states involving Berkshire Hathaway and its Applied Underwriter affiliates over particular workers’ compensation products should not have any negative...
CEO of Hawaii’s Largest Comp Provider Says to Embrace Predictive Analytics
Oct 3 2016 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Getting employee buy-in may be the biggest key in getting a company to successfully adopt predictive analytics and other cutting-edge technologies, said Martin Welch, CEO of Hawaii Employers...
Worker Safety Measures Questioned After Employee Killed in Atlanta Hotel Freezer
Oct 3 2016 // Federal regulators and hotel employees are calling for new safety measures after a worker was found dead inside a walk-in freezer at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in downtown Atlanta. Investigators believe Carolyn Mangham...
Report Details Drug Dispensing in California Workers’ Comp
Oct 3 2016 // California’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has issued a report that shows the share of drug payments made directly to dispensing physicians compared with pharmacies fell by 20 percent over three...
Oklahoma Workers’ Comp Opt Out Ruled Unconstitutional
Oct 3 2016 // It’s back to the drawing boards for proponents of workers’ compensation alternatives now that the Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s Opt Out Act is unconstitutional. The high court’s...
JLT Re Names Brodsky Senior Vice President in Washington Workers’ Comp Unit
Sep 30 2016 // JLT Re has named John Brodsky a senior vice president in Seattle, Wash. Brodsky will be part of the workers’ compensation unit, and will focus on the expansion and development of JLT Re’s casualty practice. He...
Wells Fargo Employees Claim They Were Fired for Reporting Sales Tactics
Sep 30 2016 // At least five Wells Fargo employees have sued the bank or filed complaints with regulators alleging that they were fired after reporting the opening of customer accounts without their permission, according to a Reuters...
Study Links Obesity to Higher Workers’ Compensation Costs
Sep 30 2016 // Obese and overweight workers are more likely to incur high costs related to workers’ compensation claims for major injuries, reports a study in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine,...
Owners of a Massachusetts Company Charged in Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
Sep 29 2016 // The owners of Caron Contracting, a Fall River, Mass., based contracting company, have been indicted on charges of workers’ compensation fraud over failure to disclose the true nature of their company’s work,...
Oklahoma to Hold Free Forums for Workers’ Comp Agents, Adjusters
Sep 28 2016 // Workers’ compensation professionals in Oklahoma will have the opportunity to learn crucial information about the industry at two free events. The Oklahoma Insurance Department and the National Council on Compensation...
Michigan Counties Work Comp Fund Distributes $28K in Safety Grants
Sep 28 2016 // The Michigan Counties Workers’ Compensation Fund (MCWCF) announced grants to agencies in nine counties to help reduce employee accidents and injuries on Sept. 17 at the 2016 Michigan Association of Counties Annual...
