Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Several States See Drop in Opioid-Related Workers’ Compensation Claims: WCRI
Aug 4 2017 // As states institute opioid policies to address the opioid epidemic, a new study has found considerable decreases in the prevalence of longer-term dispensing of opioids to injured workers in a number of states studied. The...
Workers’ Comp Lien Proceedings in California Scheduled for Drobots
Aug 3 2017 // The Division of Workers’ Compensation has scheduled lien consolidation proceedings in August for suspended providers Michael D. Drobot, Michael R. Drobot and Philip A. Sobol. Combined, the three have roughly 13,000...
Commercial Lines Insurance Renewal Rates Continued Rising in July: IVANS
Aug 2 2017 // In July 2017, premium renewal rate change for the majority of standard commercial lines products remain in positive territory. Workers’ compensation was the one product that trended negatively, dipping below -1.00...
Best of 2017 (so far)
Aug 2 2017 // It’s hard to believe, but 2017 is already more than half way through. There is much to write about these days from insuretech and blockchain to the political drivers of insurance, including the pending expiration...
California Workers’ Comp Drug Formulary Would Reduce Costs, Study Shows
Aug 1 2017 // Roughly one-in-three prescription drugs currently dispensed to injured workers in California will be no longer require authorization prior to dispensing under the state’s proposed workers’ compensation...
Former Postal Worker Sentenced in Texas for Federal Workers’ Comp Fraud
Aug 1 2017 // A U.S. district judge in Texas has sentenced a former postal employee to 21 months in federal prison for participating in a scheme to defraud the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Worker’s Compensation...
Wisconsin’s United Heartland Names 3 Top Territory Agencies
Jul 27 2017 // New Berlin, Wis.-based workers’ compensation insurance company, United Heartland, has announced its top territory insurance agencies for 2016. United Heartland’s three 2016 Agency of the Territory winners: TIS...
Former Texas Workers’ Comp Commissioner Bordelon Joins Granite Public Affairs
Jul 27 2017 // Former Texas Public Insurance Counsel and former Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Rod Bordelon has joined Austin-based Granite Public Affairs where he will lead the firm’s insurance and regulatory affairs...
Chevron Spending $20M to Protect Workers in Wake of California Fire
Jul 26 2017 // Chevron Corp. and state regulators have reached a settlement related to a 2012 fire at its Richmond refinery that will require the company to spend about $20 million on safety improvements, officials announced this...
Team Work Ready Execs Sentenced in Federal Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
Jul 25 2017 // Two officials with Team Work Ready (TWR), with chiropractic and physical therapy clinics in Texas and Louisiana, have been sentenced for defrauding the federal Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and United...
Southern California Agent Charged for Targeting Injured Workers’ Benefit Funds
Jul 24 2017 // Tom Fallon, 63, of Long Beach, Calif., is being arraigned today in Superior Court in Long Beach on multiple felony charges including theft by embezzlement and money laundering. Fallon’s daughter, Christina Fallon,...
Pennsylvania Court Rules Section of State Workers’ Comp Act Unconstitutional
Jul 24 2017 // The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in June 2017 found a section of the state Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) unconstitutional in a move that challenges the way Pennsylvania has assessed workplace injuries for the...
Mississippi Court: Workers’ Comp Benefits Owed to Officer Injured While Speeding
Jul 24 2017 // Mississippi’s Court of Appeals says the city of Jackson can’t deny workers’ compensation benefits to a police officer injured in a wreck while he was speeding. The court ruled 10-0 that the city must pay...
California Workers’ Comp Bureau Rolls Out 2018 Experience Mod Estimator
Jul 24 2017 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has launched the 2018 Experience Modification Estimator for insurers, agents and brokers to help policyholders understand how their payroll and claim experience will...
California Workers’ Comp Medical Review Runs Through 13K Disputes Every Month
Jul 24 2017 // A progress report from the California Department of Industrial Relations on the department’s independent medical review program shows that 13,000 decisions run through the medical dispute resolution process each...
California Department of Workers’ Comp Says 441K-Plus Lien Declarations Filed
Jul 24 2017 // The California Division of Workers’ Compensation is reporting that 441,070 supplemental lien declaration forms were filed. This amount represents half of the 882,648 liens filed in California’s workers’...
Lobbyists at California Conference Call D.C. Vs. Sacramento Tension ‘Palpable’
Jul 24 2017 // The tension between Washington, D.C., and Sacramento seems to have created extra work for some lobbyists. “It’s absolutely palpable,” Paul Yoder, managing director for the California Coalition on...
Morris Reappointed to Louisiana Workers’ Comp Advisory Council
Jul 21 2017 // Michael D. Morris of Baton Rouge has been reappointed to the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council. Morris is an attorney and the chief executive officer of the Louisiana Home Builders’ Association....
Fired OSHA Whistleblower Claims Investigator Turns Whistleblower
Jul 21 2017 // A fired U.S. whistleblower investigator says his old employer didn’t take whistleblowers seriously enough. So he’s lodging a complaint — with the same ex-employer he claims doesn’t take...
Texas Bill Would Change Workers’ Comp Medical Causation Report Law
Jul 20 2017 // A medical causation narrative report is one created by a doctor that explains a causal connection, if any, between a compensable workplace injury and the diagnoses or conditions specified in the insurance carrier’s...
