Appeals Court in New Mexico Rules Medical Marijuana Should Be Paid By Workers Comp A New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled recently that an employer’s workers comp coverage should go to pay for an injured worker’s medical marijuana. This is, so far, the first appellate court ruling in favor of medical marijuana treatment paid by an insurance company for a work place injury. The injured worker, George Vialpando, was working at Ben’s Automotive Services in Santa Fe in 2000 when he seriously injured his back. His physician testified that … [Read more...]
Fear of Job Stability Affects Workers Comp Outcomes
June 24, 2014 by
Workers’ Fear of Job Loss Affects Workers Comp Outcomes Researchers looking at workers comp outcomes have identified job anxiety as a major factor in treatment and injury outcomes. “Better information about the predictors of poorer worker outcomes may allow payors and doctors to better target health care and return-to-work interventions to those most at risk,” said Dr. Richard Victor, executive director of the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), which looked at workers comp across eight states. The study, Predictors of Worker … [Read more...]
BP Sued for Failing to Pay Workers Compensation After Spill Clean-Up
June 19, 2014 by
BP Faces Lawsuit for Failing to Pay Workers Compensation After Oil Spill Clean-Up A company that helped provide clean-up services after the 2010 oil spill caused by BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster has filed a lawsuit against the petroleum company for millions of dollars for failing to pay workers compensation costs. Fluor Corp. is suing British Petroleum (BP) for violating a contractual agreement and failing to pay litigation costs that Fluor incurred from workers comp claims. A subsidiary of Fluor agreed to help BP clean up the Gulf of … [Read more...]
Fines Issued To Apple Store Contractors
June 10, 2014 by
Apple Store Contractors Fined for Failing to Provide Workers Comp Coverage The Connecticut Department of Labor has issued fines against three contractor companies that work with a local Apple Store after discovering that the companies failed to provide workers comp coverage for their employees. The state agency said it would investigate other Apple stores and their employment contractors for potential workers' comp violations. Gary Pechie, the agency’s director of wage and workplace standards, said that the DOL put a “stop work” poster … [Read more...]
Commission Cracks Down on Workers Compensation Fraud
June 9, 2014 by
Tennessee Cracks Down on Employer Workers' Comp Fraud in the Construction Industry The Tennessee Department of Labor announced that it has been expanding its efforts to uncover employer workers compensation fraud in the construction industry in order to better protect workers in the construction industry who are entitled to file a workers compensation claim. The Workers Compensation Division has implemented new procedures to identify potential workers comp and payroll fraud such as intentionally misclassifying workers as independent … [Read more...]
Louisiana Workers Comp Bill Against Saints Shelved
May 30, 2014 by
Louisiana Shelves Workers Comp Bill Changing Rules for Football Louisiana lawmakers have decided to shelve a bill that would change workers comp rules for football players, after the debate between New Orleans’ Saints owner Tom Benson and the NFL Player’s Association became heated. Representative Chris Broadwater (R-Hammond) said on Tuesday, May 27th that the state’s lawmakers would shelve the workers comp proposal in the hopes that the team and its owner can come to an agreement instead. The proposed changes to the state’s workers comp … [Read more...]
NFL Players Union Blasts Louisiana Workers Comp Bill
May 20, 2014 by
NFL Players Association Fights Changes to Louisiana Workers Comp The New Orleans Saints recently supported a bill that changed workers comp premium payouts for football players, and now the NFL Players Association is fighting back. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said of the legislation, which passed the Louisiana House of Representatives on May 7th, that the workers comp changes “specifically targets professional athletes, to take away or limit their workers’ compensation benefits.” The workers comp legislation proposes to … [Read more...]
Workers Comp Terrorism Insurance Bill Questioned
May 12, 2014 by
Terrorism Insurance Surcharge Is Coming Up for Renewal, But Lawmakers Question the Workers Comp Add-On For 10 years, states across the US have paid a small workers comp surcharge that would cover employees and businesses in the event of a terrorist attack. The bill is now approaching renewal, and lawmakers are beginning to question the validity of the workers comp addition. Although the amount each state workers comp insurer charges is relatively small - in Illinois, the surcharge is around 4 cents, while in Virginia, the surcharge is … [Read more...]
Louisiana Workers Comp Cost Higher Than Most
May 1, 2014 by
Louisiana Outpatient Services Get Higher Workers Comp Payments, Premiums Higher In a recent survey of 16 states, conducted by the Workers Compensation Research Institute, Louisiana workers comp payments for medical care were higher, and growing faster, than other states surveyed. The WCRI study, CompScope Medical Benchmarks for Louisiana 14th Edition, found that medical payments from workers comp grew 7% per year from 2006 to 2011 – a faster growth rate than other states surveyed. The major contributor to the high workers comp payments … [Read more...]
Senate Bill Could Cut Workers Comp
April 29, 2014 by
Senate Bill Could Cut Workers Comp for All Federal Employees A bill currently in the US Senate proposes several changes to cut the costs of the US Postal Service, which lost $5 billion in the 2013 fiscal year. However, the bill makes some subtle proposal changes to the federal workers comp legislation, which could effect more than just postal service employees. The proposed bill, which has already been approved by Homeland Security and the Governmental Affairs Committee, proposes to cut some payments made through Federal Employees’ … [Read more...]
