Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
How to Use Social Media, Surveillance to Catch Workers Compensation Lies
Mar 28 2016 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv As workers’ compensation fraud costs top out at an estimated $7.2 billion a year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, insurers are looking at ways to combat the...
Security Worker Dies, Possibly from Nitrogen Exposure, in Ohio Steel Plant
Mar 25 2016 // A security worker at a steel plant in Ohio may have died from nitrogen exposure, federal investigators said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the 32-year-old worker was found dead inside...
OSHA Issues Final Rule on Silica Exposure Protections; Industries Vow to Overturn
Mar 25 2016 // Capping a decades-long effort, U.S. workplace regulators on Thursday announced a final rule to boost protections against occupational exposure to crystalline silica, a carcinogenic dust ubiquitous in construction,...
OSHA Cites West Virginia Saw Mill for Safety, Health Violations
Mar 25 2016 // Federal regulators have cited a Princeton saw mill for alleged workplace safety and health violations, including a lack of protective equipment worn during the operation of a chainsaw. The Occupational Safety and Health...
California Workers’ Compensation Institute Elects 2016 Board
Mar 22 2016 // Susan Gordon, head of workers’ compensation underwriting at Zurich North America, was elected board chair of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute for 2016. Gordon was elected at CWCI’s 52nd...
Mississippi Sisters Arrested For Workers’ Comp Fraud
Mar 22 2016 // Deputies in Harrison County, Mississippi, have arrested two relatives in an ongoing case of worker’s compensation fraud that occurred at a Gulfport business. The Sun Herald reports Sheriff Troy Peterson said...
Texas Seeking Employer Representative for Workers’ Comp Appeals Panel
Mar 21 2016 // The Texas Department of Insurance is seeking an employer representative to serve on the Texas Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel. The panel resolves policyholder disputes with insurance carriers that are referred by...
Why Companies Won’t be Opting Out of Opt-Out Anytime Soon
Mar 21 2016 // A recent ruling by the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court undercutting so-called “opt-out” systems has set off a flurry of speculation about such systems, including whether this ruling signals the...
Oklahoma’s Workers’ Comp Opt-Out, 180-Day Cutoff Ruled Unconstitutional
Mar 21 2016 // The Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission has determined that the opt-out portion of the state’s 2013 workers’ compensation statute is unconstitutional. Ruling on an appeal under the provisions of the...
Safety Regulators Back Nebraska Man Who Refused to Drive Truck
Mar 21 2016 // Federal safety regulators say a southeast Nebraska company wrongfully fired a driver who refused to operate a truck that violated Iowa law. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Massachusetts Court Rules on Damages for Injured Workers
Mar 21 2016 // Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled in a case of first impression that a workers’ compensation insurer is not entitled to a lien on the money awarded to claimants for pain and suffering. This ruling...
July Explosion Leads to OSHA Fine for New Mexico Pot Business
Mar 18 2016 // A medical marijuana dispensary in New Mexico has been fined for safety violations after an explosion badly burned two workers. The Albuquerque Journal reports that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Oklahoma Court Says Workers’ Comp 180-Day Rule Is Unconstitutional
Mar 15 2016 // Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system took a hit on March 1, 2016, when the state’s Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the provision in the 2013 Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Act that...
Texas Adopts Revised Workers’ Comp Classification Relativities
Mar 9 2016 // Texas Insurance Commissioner David Mattax has issued an order adopting revised workers’ compensation classification relativities. The order reduces the overall level of the classification relativities by 10...
Washington Casino Dealer Ordered to Repay $27K in Workers’ Comp Scam
Mar 9 2016 // A Spokane, Wash. card dealer caught working at casinos while receiving disability benefits must repay more than $27,000. Victor Arredondo, 58, pleaded guilty this week in Spokane County Superior Court to felony...
OSHA Cites Biofuel Company over Louisiana Hydrogen Gas Explosion
Mar 8 2016 // The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a Geismar, La., biodiesel plant $70,000 and has cited a biofuels company over a September hydrogen gas explosion. The Advocate reports that OSHA also cited...
California Construction Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Workers’ Comp Fraud
Mar 7 2016 // The owner of a Sacramento, Calif. construction company has pleaded guilty to tax evasion and workers’ comp insurance fraud. The Sacramento Bee reported that 47-year-old William Alan Huffman entered his plea last week...
Nevada Insurance Commissioner Approves Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease
Mar 7 2016 // Acting Nevada Insurance Commissioner Amy L. Parks approved a filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance for an average decrease of 5.5 percent for Nevada workers’ compensation voluntary insurance loss...
Report: Most California Workers’ Comp Medical Review Decisions Upheld
Mar 7 2016 // An examination of California workers’ compensation independent medical review decisions shows roughly nine-in-10 of disputed medical service requests reviewed by an IMR physician agree with the utilization review...
Vermont Fines Continental for Workers’ Comp Overcharges
Mar 7 2016 // Vermont Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Susan L. Donegan announced on Feb. 26 that Continental Indemnity Co., a subsidiary of Applied Underwriters Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, has paid Vermont...
