Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
OSHA: Missouri Plumbing Contractor Fined $299.5K for Trench Safety Violations
Feb 18 2021 // Barely two years after an Oak Grove, Missouri, plumbing contractor agreed to adopt a comprehensive trench safety program following the December 2016 death of an employee in an unprotected trench, federal inspectors...
Many Firms Aren’t Paying OSHA Fines Levied for COVID-19 Safety Violations: Reuters
Feb 18 2021 // U.S. workplace safety regulators have announced more than $4 million in penalties on more than 300 employers they say put workers at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. But about two-thirds of these employers aren’t...
Brown Reappointed as Texas Workers’ Compensation Commissioner
Feb 16 2021 // Cassie Brown has been reappointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) for a term set to expire on Feb. 1, 2023. Brown has led the Division of...
Head of South Carolina Workers’ Comp Fund Ousted Over Deal with Husband’s Firm
Feb 11 2021 // South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday removed the head of the State Accident Fund, calling for an investigation into whether she improperly steered a $600,000 government contract to her husband’s company. In a...
Barta Reappointed as Texas Injured Employee Public Counsel
Feb 10 2021 // Jessica Barta has been reappointed as Texas’ Injured Employee Public Counsel, a role in which she has served since October 2014. Her current term would expire on Feb. 1 2023. The Public Counsel helps injured...
It Could Have Been Worse. An Update on COVID-19 Impact on Workers’ Compensation.
Feb 9 2021 // While it obviously presented challenges, 2020 is looking like it may not have been such a bad year for workers’ compensation insurers and insureds after all. Insurers took in less premium but paid fewer claims. They...
Study: 40 Out of 120 Texas Workers’ Comp Insurers Are ‘High Performers’
Feb 5 2021 // Forty workers’ compensation insurance carriers out of 120 assessed in Texas scored high enough to be placed in the “high performer” tier in a study recently released by state workers’ comp...
Workers’ Compensation Underwriters Under the Gun to Understand Pandemic Data
Feb 4 2021 // Workers’ compensation underwriters are about to be tested in the marketplace like never before. While the current situation is not all because of the pandemic, the pandemic has “put gas on a fire that was...
California Warehouse Worker Arraigned for Alleged Workers’ Comp Fraud
Feb 3 2021 // Crescencio Velasco Covarrubias, 45, of Button Willow, Calif., was arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly failing to disclose prior work-related injuries in order to collect...
‘A-‘ Rating Assigned to Illinois Workers’ Comp Carrier Pekin Select Insurance
Feb 3 2021 // AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” to Pekin Select Insurance Co. (PSIC), headquartered in Pekin, Ill., a subsidiary of Pekin...
House Committee to Probe Tyson, Smithfield, OSHA Over Covid Outbreaks
Feb 2 2021 // A Democratic-led House panel is launching a probe into coronavirus outbreaks at meatpacking plants and whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration adequately enforced worker safety rules. Representative James...
OSHA Issues COVID-19 Workplace Safety Guidance
Feb 1 2021 // President Joe Biden’s administration released new workplace guidelines Friday that signaled a more proactive approach to protecting workers from the coronavirus. The new guidance from the U.S. Occupational Safety and...
California Passes 103K COVID-19 Workers’ Comp Claims for AY 2020
Jan 28 2021 // The monthly count of COVID-19 job injury claims reported rose to a record 32,549 cases in December, bringing the total number of COVID-19 claims for accident year 2020 to 103,712, or more than one out of every six...
Unions File OSHA Complaint Over No Mask Mandate at Iowa Capitol
Jan 25 2021 // A labor union representing state workers has filed a complaint with the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, arguing that a lack of a mask mandate at the Iowa Capitol threatens the safety of everyone who...
How COVID Effect on Workers’ Compensation Claims Has Varied by State, Industry
Jan 25 2021 // The percentage of COVID-19 claims among all workers’ compensation paid claims has varied greatly among states and occupations, as has the decrease in non-COVID claims, new research shows. The percentage of COVID-19...
New California Trade Group Targets Illegal Workers’ Comp in Staffing Industry
Jan 25 2021 // The California Staffing Agency Reform Association has been established by staffing industry leaders to “clean up” the worker’s compensation marketplace for staffing. Cal-SARA, a new nonprofit, trade...
New Wave of Virus Claims Hit California Workers’ Comp
Jan 25 2021 // A California Workers’ Compensation Institute analysis of claims reported to the state Division of Workers’ Compensation as of Jan. 11 shows that the number of COVID-19 claims in the California workers’...
California Construction Worker Charged with Workers’ Comp Fraud
Jan 22 2021 // Jose Zepeda, 45, of Fresno, Calif., self-surrendered this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud and attempted perjury after filing a workers’ compensation insurance claim and allegedly misleading the...
Biden Orders OSHA to Step Up COVID Workplace Safety Guidance, Enforcement
Jan 22 2021 // The Biden Administration has instructed federal workplace safety officials to do more to help halt the spread of the coronavirus on the job. On his first full day on office, President Joseph Biden signed an executive order...
Texas Extends Workers’ Comp Insurer COVID-19 Data Call to June
Jan 19 2021 // The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has extended until June 2021 its mandatory data call for information related to COVID-19 injuries reported to selected insurance carriers on or after Dec. 1,...
