Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Pennsylvania Adopts Exception to Ban on an Insurer Subrogating Against an Insured
Feb 24 2022 // The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has sided with an insurer seeking subrogation for payments it made to an injured worker before it was determined the insurer was not obligated to make the payments. The state’s highest...
COVID Underscores Lack of Whistleblower Protections
Feb 22 2022 // Originally posted on Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Inside a partially completed Amazon warehouse here, workers last summer walked on conveyor belts four stories high without safety harnesses,...
Foresight in California Expands Workers’ Comp Class Codes for Agribusiness, Construction, Manufacturing
Feb 22 2022 // San Francisco, California-based Foresight, a workers’ compensation insurtech focused on the middle market, announced the expansion to include four new class codes and 23 incidental adjacencies to serve more customers...
W.R. Berkley Optimism About 2022 Comes With Caution About Workers’ Compensation
Feb 21 2022 // Executives for commercial lines insurer W.R. Berkley Corp. indicated in a fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call that while they are optimistic about 2022, they are exercising caution when it comes to...
Texas Workers’ Comp Division Releases Health Care Provider Oversight Results for 2021
Feb 18 2022 // This week the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) released the 2021 Health Care Provider Performance Based Oversight (PBO) assessment. Health care providers were assessed on their...
California Couple Sentenced in $1M Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Feb 16 2022 // Carmen Hall Soruco, 70, and her husband Antonio Soruco, 75, both of Novato, California, were sentenced after pleading guilty to workers’ compensation fraud charges. Hall was sentenced on multiple felony counts to two...
North Carolina High Court Ends ‘Absurd’ Windfall for Comp Insurers on Temp Workers
Feb 15 2022 // For years, workers’ compensation insurers in North Carolina have been able to enjoy a windfall in some cases that involved temporary workers or those who gigged for a number of employers. Insurers have often charged...
North Carolina OSHA Starts Probe into Fertilizer Plant Fire
Feb 11 2022 // The North Carolina Department of Labor has opened an investigation into the safety conditions and fire at a fertilizer plant that erupted in flames Jan. 31, forcing the evacuation of thousands because of explosive...
Higher Fees Don’t Disqualify a Comp Treating Physician, Florida Appeals Court Finds
Feb 11 2022 // A workers’ compensation judge may not disqualify a treating physician simply because the doctor’s prices exceed the Florida workers’ comp fee schedule, a state appeals court decided this week. “In...
Unlicensed California Agent Sentenced for $1.4M Insurance Fraud
Feb 11 2022 // Unlicensed insurance agent Karyl Lynn Reed, 58, formerly of Cosa Mesa, California, was convicted last week on multiple felony counts of embezzlement and white-collar fraud enhancements after defrauding three victims of...
W.R. Berkley Optimism About 2022 Comes With Caution About Workers’ Compensation
Feb 10 2022 // Executives for commercial lines insurer W.R. Berkley Corp. indicated in a fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call that while they are optimistic about 2022, they are exercising caution when it comes to...
Maine Moves to Extend Workers’ Comp Mental Health Benefit for First Responders
Feb 9 2022 // A Maine legislative committee has signed off on a proposal to help emergency responders gain better access to mental health support. The proposal would continue a presumption that firefighters, emergency medical...
Massachusetts Excludes Supplemental Workers’ Comp From Retirees’ Formula
Feb 7 2022 // The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has clarified that a retirement board should not consider sick leave or vacation benefits that an injured employee received as a supplement to workers’ compensation payments...
Commercial Auto Among Lines With Flattening Rates in 2022, USI Forecast Predicts
Feb 7 2022 // Although it wasn’t the headline of a commercial insurance broker’s market pricing report last month, the report’s observation that “commercial auto liability coverage rates are starting to...
Illinois Supreme Court: Privacy Claims Not Barred by Workers’ Comp Act
Feb 4 2022 // The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act (IWCA) does not bar claims for statutory damages under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a Feb. 3...
Texas Lumber Company Faces $389K in Penalties After Worker’s Fatal Fall
Feb 4 2022 // An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration into fatal injuries suffered by an 86-year-old worker at a Henderson, Texas sawmill and pallet manufacturer found the...
BTIS Launches Expanded Workers’ Comp Coverage in California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, Texas
Feb 2 2022 // Builders & Tradesmen’s Insurance Services Inc. announced access to an expanded workers’ compensation coverage option, which is now available in California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Texas. BTIS...
Arkansas Insurance Commissioner to Chair NAIC Workers’ Comp Task Force
Jan 28 2022 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Alan McClain has been appointed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to serve as the Chair for the Workers’ Compensation (C) Task Force, a subgroup of the...
California Business Owner Couple Nabbed in $4.5M Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
Jan 28 2022 // Wei Wen Wu, 54, and Feng Wen Lam, 49, both of Arcadia, California, were charged with 43 felony counts of insurance fraud, grand theft, and conspiracy after allegedly underreporting nearly $4.5 million in employee...
Vermont Workers’ Compensation Loss Costs to Drop 4.9% in April
Jan 27 2022 // Vermont businesses will see a rate decrease of 4.9% in workers’ compensation costs. The reduction will be effective on April 1, 2022, and is estimated to save Vermont employers more than $8 million in premiums over...
