Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Negligence Led to Mississippi Grain Bin Death, OSHA Finds
Apr 25 2023 // A South African teenage farm worker who suffocated to death after falling into a grain storage bin would still be alive had a Mississippi soybean farm followed federal workplace safety standards, inspectors with the U.S....
Cal/OSHA Cites Equipment Company, Refers Contractor for Prosecution in Confined Space Deaths
Apr 21 2023 // The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited Meeder Equipment Co. of Rancho Cucamonga and referred D&D Construction Specialties Inc. of Sun Valley for criminal prosecution in two separate cases of...
Workers’ Comp Takes Bite Out of Employee Right to Sue Third Party: Pennsylvania High Court
Apr 20 2023 // A Pennsylvania employer cannot be sued for blocking an employee from suing the third party responsible for her workplace injury, the state’s high court has ruled in reversing two lower courts. In a case involving an...
California Workers’ Comp Committee OK’s .03% Higher Pure Premium Filing
Apr 19 2023 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s Governing Committee voted on Wednesday to authorize the WCIRB to submit a Sept. 1, 2023 pure premium rate filing to the state’s Insurance...
As NCCI Turns 100, a Look at What’s Now, What’s Next for Workers’ Comp
Apr 19 2023 // Editor’s note: This article first ran in Insurance Journal’s sister publication, Carrier Management, earlier this month. It was written by CM Editor Susanne Sclafane. The National Council on Compensation...
California Workers’ Comp Fraud Task Force Uncovers $1.6M in Unreported Payroll
Apr 18 2023 // California private security company owner Luis Burgos, 50, and his former business partner, Sohan Singh, 57, were charged for their alleged involvement in a workers’ compensation insurance fraud scheme after an...
Taking Care of Business: Workers’ Comp Opportunities in a Soft Market
Apr 17 2023 // Workers’ compensation is getting the job done. Premiums are decreasing, claims are stable and retention is high. But even good news can present its own set of challenges, Burns & Wilcox indicated in its webinar,...
WCRI: Injured Workers’ Emergency Room Use Varies Widely by State
Apr 17 2023 // Nearly a third of injured workers in Massachusetts sought treatment for strains and sprains in a hospital emergency room, while in California and Nevada only 10% did, according to a study by the Workers’ Compensation...
Amazon Worker Injuries Dip Last Year, but Higher Than 2020
Apr 14 2023 // Amazon’s total injury rate for warehouse workers took a dip last year, but injuries were still worse than they were in 2020, according to an analysis released Wednesday by a coalition of labor unions. The report,...
California Landscapers Arraigned in Workers’ Comp Premium Fraud Scheme
Apr 13 2023 // Five defendants were arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after a California Department of Insurance investigation found a landscaping company some of the defendants owned allegedly...
Iowa Court: Husband Eligible for Work Comp Death Benefits Despite Separation
Apr 11 2023 // The husband of a deceased worker is not ineligible for workers’ compensation death benefits merely because he no longer lived with his wife when she died, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday. In a 4-2 decision,...
Massachusetts Approves 10.2% Workers’ Compensation Rate Cut
Apr 6 2023 // Massachusetts workers’ compensation rates will fall an average 10.2% starting July 1, a considerably bigger reduction than the industry recommended. Insurance Commissioner Gary Anderson signed off on the cut that...
WCRI: Consolidation of Health Care Driving Up Prices in Work Comp
Apr 3 2023 // Consolidation of physician services into larger groups owned by hospitals and health care systems is driving up the cost of care in workers’ compensation, according to a new study by the Workers’ Compensation...
How a Labor Supplier and Insurance Broker Schemed to Evade Workers’ Compensation
Mar 30 2023 // An unlicensed labor broker for the construction industry has pleaded guilty to participating in a fraud scheme in order to evade more than $1 million in workers’ compensation premiums. According to Manhattan...
People Moves: California Workers’ Comp Institute Elects 2023 Board
Mar 30 2023 // Sharon Thaler, National Director of Workers’ Compensation Field Underwriting Operations at AF Group/CompWest, was reelected as chair of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute board of directors for...
Taking Care of Business: Opportunities Within Soft Workers’ Comp Market
Mar 29 2023 // Workers’ compensation is getting the job done. Premiums are decreasing, claims are stable, and retention is high. But even good news can present its own set of challenges, Burns & Wilcox indicated in its webinar,...
WCRI: Injured Workers’ Emergency Room Use Varies Widely by State
Mar 27 2023 // PHOENIX — Nearly a third of injured workers in Massachusetts sought treatment for strains and sprains in a hospital emergency room, while in California and Nevada only 10% did, according to a study by the Workers’...
OSHA Probe of Teen Worker’s Fall Uncovers Other Wage, Child Labor, Safety Issues
Mar 23 2023 // A federal investigation into why a 17-year-old worker – who fell 24 feet from the roof of a New Castle, Pennsylvania, home improvement store in October 2022 – was doing work that violated child labor laws led to a...
Cal/OSHA Cites Company $838K for Exposing Employees to Toxic Chemical
Mar 22 2023 // Cal/OSHA issued 18 citations to Parter Medical Products Inc. for reportedly failing to protect its employees from overexposure to ethylene oxide, a toxic chemical. The penalties total $838,800. Six of the citations were...
Workers’ Compensation Must Reimburse for Medical Marijuana Costs in Pennsylvania
Mar 21 2023 // Injured workers in Pennsylvania are entitled to be reimbursed for medical marijuana costs under the state’s workers’ compensation law. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania has ruled that while the Medical...
