Quote of the day
"It is distasteful to know that our government allows the negligent employers of this state to get away with the deaths of unmarried workers who leave no dependents of their own. Who brings these people to real justice?"
Donald Coit Smith, a Texan whose 22-year-old son was electrocuted in an industrial accident; a Houston Chronicle analysis finds that nondependent relatives were not able to collect than $17 million in compensation benefits between 2003 and 2006
WCAB Judge: Permanent Disability Formula Arbitrary
Applicants’ attorneys claim a major victory after Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Judge Jacqueline C. Duncan rules that the state’s formula for calculating permanent disability benefits is arbitrary. “This is the first time they’ve gotten a judge to rule on the merits that the schedule is invalid,” says Lachlan Taylor, a workers’ compensation judge and a researcher at the state-backed Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation in San Francisco. By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
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Some Still Label California System ‘So Unfair’
Some lawyers and insurers are claiming that California’s relatively recent workers’ compensation reform hasn’t changed much in the system, that applicants’ attorneys are being driven from the profession because they “can’t make a living,” and that more reform is necessary. By Reina V. Slutske, the Signal (Santa Clarita)
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Dead Workers’ Kin Shafted in Lone Star State
In Texas, where about 450 people are killed every year in workplace accidents, relatives of 140 dead workers could not collect more than $17 million in compensation benefits between 2003 and 2006 because of the state’s narrow definition of who can receive the money. Some relatives believe the unpaid benefits, which go to a workers’ comp fund, end up unfairly enriching insurance companies. By Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle [With Slideshow and Video] Go to the Full Story…
Cold War Workers’ Comp System Clearly Ill
Of the 72,000 processed workers’ compensation claims by Cold War Era nuclear weapons workers, more than 60 percent have been denied, and thousands of other applicants have been waiting for years for an answer from the federal program that is supposed to help them. Who is to blame? By Michael Alison Chandler and Joby Warrick, Washington Post [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…
Did Mountain State Create a Monster?
“I guess while they were eating shrimp and caviar, we’ve got people lying in bed that can’t get a doctor’s appointment, can’t get their medicine,” says West Virginia State Delegate Mel Kessler, about the state’s privatized workers’ compensation system and a recent audit that found questionable hospitality and entertainment spending. “We’ve created a monster.” By Mannix Porterfield, Beckley Register-Herald
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Keeping Workplaces Safe from Rising Claim Costs
In Massachusetts, where ongoing changes in the experience modification formula have caused employers with even a small number of claims to see dramatic increases in their modifier, an insurance exec offers advice on controlling workers’ compensation costs and minimizing premium increases. Worcester Business Journal
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Ohio BWC Probes Far from Over, Says AG Dann
Ohio Attorney General Mark Dann says the investigation into wrongdoing at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation will continue, especially in light of statements by recently-sentenced former chief financial officer Terrence Gasper “that he was getting directions from above.” By Jeff Nash, Crain’s Cleveland Business
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Queensland Cuts Comp Rates; Now Lowest in Australia
Australia’s Queensland state is cutting workers’ compensation premium rates more than 4 percent from last year and 21 percent lower than Victoria in 2007-2008. Queensland Business Review
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