Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

N.C. Court: No Workers’ Comp for Employee Injured While Smoking on Break

May 18 2018 // A North Carolina city employee isn’t owed workers’ compensation for an injury he suffered while smoking during a lunch break, the state appeals court ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the North Carolina...

Fitch Sees Small Profit But Still Negative on U.S. Commercial Lines Outlook

May 18 2018 // After a tumultuous 2017, the U.S. commercial lines market should eke out a small underwriting profit in 2018 assuming catastrophe losses return to more historical norms, Fitch Ratings said in a new report. Still, Fitch is...

Workers’ Compensation Professionals Form Kids’ Chance of New Hampshire

May 17 2018 // Workers’ compensation professionals have created Kids’ Chance of New Hampshire, a 501c3 organization that provides scholarships for the children of workers who are seriously injured or killed on the...

Worldwide Facilities Creates National Workers’ Compensation Unit

May 16 2018 // National wholesale insurance brokerage and managing general agent Worldwide Facilities has created a new workers’ compensation division. Davis Moore, CEO of Worldwide Facilities, noted that while his firm has a...

Former Texas Workers’ Comp Commissioner Opens The Brannan Firm

May 16 2018 // Ryan Brannan, former Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation in Texas and advisor to former Gov. Rick Perry, has founded The Brannan Firm, which will provide clients with legal and government relations...

CPro Associates Acquires Pan-American Benefits Solutions’ Nonsubscription Business

May 16 2018 // Dallas, Texas-based CPro Associates Inc., a provider of nonsubscriber occupational injury benefit plans, has purchased Pan-American Benefits Solutions’ nonsubscription book of business, effective May 14, 2018. CPro...

Mass. SJC Rules Independent Contractor Statute Doesn’t Apply in Workers’ Comp Case

May 16 2018 // The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has ruled the state’s independent contractor statute does not determine whether a claimant is an employee eligible for workers’ compensation benefits in a case...

Texas to Hold Hearing on Request to Extend Work Comp Experience Modifier Deadline

May 14 2018 // The Texas Department of Insurance will hold a public hearing on the petition by the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas to extend the expiration date of negotiated experience modifiers in the National Council on...

Top 25 Workers’ Compensation Insurers

May 14 2018 // The top 10 workers’ compensation insurers capture 46 percent of the market across the country, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The top three —...

California Security Company Busted for $3.2M Workers’ Comp Premium Fraud

May 11 2018 // Security Code 3 Inc. owner Troy Carson, 55, of San Jose, was arrested by California Department of Insurance detectives for allegedly underreporting payroll by more than $12 million in an attempt to secure a lower...

Morrison Mahoney Hires Two in Rhode Island

May 10 2018 // Morrison Mahoney LLP, a litigation firm, is expanding its Workers’ Compensation and General Liability Team in Providence, R.I., adding two attorneys to assist these growing practices. Jonathan R. Myhre joined the...

Paid Workers’ Comp Claims in Minnesota Drop by Half Over 2 Decades

May 9 2018 // A recent report shows the number of paid workers’ compensation claims in Minnesota fell 54 percent relative to the number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees from 1996 to 2016. The 2016 Minnesota Workers’...

Court Approves Patriot National Bankruptcy, Reorganization

May 9 2018 // The bankruptcy and reorganization plan filed by insurance technology and outsourcing firm Patriot National has been approved and the transition of ownership of the Florida-based company can now move forward. According to a...

Commercial Insurance Renewal Prices Rose in April Except for Workers’ Comp: IVANS

May 7 2018 // Last month, major commercial lines insurance renewal premiums continued their upward trend except for workers’ compensation, which remains in negative territory for the year, according to the latest IVANS...

Insurers Should Take Notice of Ohio Workers’ Comp Subrogation Ruling

May 7 2018 // The Ohio Supreme Court has held two insurers jointly and severally liable to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) for past, present and estimated future payments the BWC made under a workers’...

People

May 7 2018 // Appalachian Underwriters, Inc. has hired workers’ compensation underwriter Alon Cohn to its Sanford, Fla., office. Cohn will focus on the production of new workers’ compensation business in the Southeast...

Texas Attorney Sentenced in $26.5M Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme

May 7 2018 // An attorney in Grand Prairie, Texas, has been sentenced to 120 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $26,572,458.93 in restitution for his role in a workers’ compensation fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors say...

Making Sure Food Delivery Doesn’t Take Out Restaurants

May 7 2018 // With a growing number of apps and on-demand services, millennials in particular love ordering take-out food from their favorite restaurants. But as more restaurants expand services into delivery, risk managers must be...

California Man Nabbed for Collecting Workers’ Comp from Multiple Insurers While Working

May 4 2018 // Michael Williams, 34, of Daly City, Calif., has been arrested on 21 felony counts of insurance fraud and grand theft after allegedly working for multiple employers while collecting over $85,000 in workers’...

Frakes, Texas Mutual’s Third Employee, Retires

May 4 2018 // Terry Frakes has retired from Austin-based workers’ compensation insurer, Texas Mutual Insurance Co., after more than 25 years of service to the company. Frakes was Texas Mutual’s third employee after it was...