Quote of the day
"We are continuing to pursue corrective actions because we don't think the (Department of Health Services) has done a good job on the corrective actions. Sometimes we see repetitions of the same mistake with the same doctor and the same nurse and they don't do the corrective action as effectively as they should."
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, about the findings of the city's annual risk management report
L.A. County’s Workers’ Comp Costs Rise
Following an 8 percent drop in legal and workers’ compensation costs in Los Angeles County government the past two years, costs rose 6 percent to $437 million in 2006-07, according to the annual risk management report. Major drivers: a 30 percent jump in administrative costs, an 18 percent increase in legal costs, a 55 percent spike in medical malpractice payouts and a 74 percent upward spiral in payouts for vehicle accidents. By Troy Anderson, Los Angeles Daily News
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SEC Charges Five Former Workers’ Comp Execs with Fraud
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges five individuals with defrauding shareholders of $30 million from a now-defunct employee leasing company that provided workers’ compensation insurance and other services to employers in 32 states. By Douglas McLeod, Business Insurance
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Q&A: Am I Being Shortchanged?
Question: My workers’ comp benefits add up to about two-thirds of what I was making when I was able to work. I thought workers’ comp was supposed to guarantee I’d be making at least 80 percent of my regular pay. Am I being shortchanged? By Harry Wessel, Orlando Sentinel
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Who Will Take Top Job at WSI?
Former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp is interested in becoming the state’s temporary workers compensation chief executive, an agency director says. But wait—no, she isn’t. So who, from the list of candidates reportedly interested in the job, will take it? By Dale Wetzel, AP via Grand Forks Herald
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Attorney Blasts Connecticut’s Workers’ Comp Reform
The former president of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association argues that present state law, which caps wage-loss awards regardless of the severity of the injuries or long-range economic impact upon workers and their families, is arbitrary and unfair, and that since the state’s reform in the early 1990’s, insurers have reaped windfall profits at the expense of injured workers. By Robert R. Sheldon, Hartford Courant
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Farming, Fishing May Be Included in P.E.I. Workers’ Comp
The Prince Edward Island Legislative Review Advisory Committee makes 69 recommendations for change to the provincial Workers Compensation Act, including removing the exclusion of farming and fishing operations.
Go to the full story in CBC News
Go to the full story by Teresa Wright, Guardian (Charlottetown, P.E.I.)
Injured Durango Fire Volunteers Can Collect Workers’ Comp
Two volunteer firefighters who were injured in a February fire are eligible for workers’ compensation, the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority says. By Chuck Slothower, Durango Herald
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