Quote of the day
"That's a lot of bananas in the course of a year that you've got to sell."
Jeff Rhodes, owner of a Toledo fruit and vegetable company, who says his workers' compensation premiums exploded from $600 to $12,000 in one year after he filed claims for two significant injuries
WCIRB: Costs Continue Downward Trend
California’s workers’ compensation system is continuing to make strides, according to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California: written premium reported for the first nine months of 2006 is estimated at $12.8 billion, 21 percent below the same period in 2005. By Kelly Johnson, Sacramento Business Journal
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Napa Claims Administrator Busted for Suspected Comp Fraud
A 59-year-old Napa workers compensation examiner is arrested for making illegal payments of more than $246,000 to a San Anselmo licensed practical nurse between 2002 and 2004. By Marsha Dorgan, Napa Valley Register
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Downstate Illinois Crane Op Sues Employer
A construction worker who suffered various head and body injuries while using a crane sues his employer in Illinois plaintiffs’ jurisdiction Madison County, seeking $15,000 in damages for allegedly failing to provide a safe workplace. By Steve Gonzales, Madison County Record [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…
RSD: A ‘Pain Like No Other’
A Rhode Island woman who has lived with excruciating pain for 16 years describes the hell of living with reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a condition for which there is no cure, and her ongoing battles in workers’ compensation court against insurance company lawyers. By Bob Kerr, Providence Journal
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Most New Hampshire Employers Catch a Break Next Year
New Hampshire’s Insurance Commissioner announces that workers compensation rates overall will be slightly lower in 2007, except for construction contractors, who will have to absorb an increase of an average 4 percent. By David Darman, New Hampshire Public Radio
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Little Guys Decry Rate Spikes, Special Treatment for Cronies
The final installment of the Toledo Blade’s three-part series on the scandal-plagued Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation focuses on small employers with safe workplaces who are experiencing skyrocketing premiums in group-rating pools, as investigators probe whether politically-connected businesses got improper rate reductions they did not deserve. By Steve Eder, Toledo Blade [With Photos] Go to the Full Story…
Ohio Scandal: The Critical Question
Investigators looking into the 27 businesses that had their Ohio Workers’ Compensation rates reduced need to move on to the critical question: Why did bureau officials cut the businesses’ rates? Were there logical, acceptable reasons or were the rates reduced because of political pressure? Wheeling (W.V.) Intelligencer
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Study: Ratings Don’t Accurately Predict Disabilities
A study of settlement decisions in workers’ compensation claims for low back pain finds—counterintuitively—almost no relationship between the rating of the disability’s severity at the time of settlement and reported pain and disability 21 months later. PhysOrg.com
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