News Digest 5/3/2007

By: Rick Waldinger

Quote of the day

"We brought it on ourselves."

Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, contending that the chamber was not made aware of the possible consequences of 2003 legislation that made changes to the state's Second Injury Fund, which NCCI blames for its request for a 23.7 percent workers' comp premium boost

Go to the full story in the Charleston Post and Courier

L.A. Construction Demo Firm Ordered to Pay $100K to State Fund
A business competitor tips off State Fund about misclassification, and now a Los Angeles construction demolition company must pay $100,000 in restitution for premium fraud. Workers’ Comp Executive
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NCCI Seeks Another Rate Boost in South Carolina
Barely five months after its last rate increase took effect in South Carolina, the National Council on Compensation Insurance applies for a 23.7 percent increase. The council contends the latest increase is necessary because the system pays more in claims than it raises, and because of a change that lawmakers made in 2003 to the state’s Second Injury Fund. By Peter Hull, Charleston Post and Courier
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Steps to Cut Claim Delays on Tap for New York
In New York, a variety of steps aimed at cutting delays in workers’ comp claims, which now average four months to conclude, will be proposed by the end of the month. That’s according to a letter by New York Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo to Gov. Eliot Spitzer on the drafting of an implementation framework for the state’s recently-revised workers’ comp law. By Daniel Hays, National Underwriter
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Stricken Miners, Nuke Workers File Class Action Suit
Sick and dying former uranium miners and Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers file a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Department of Labor is delaying the processing of their workers’ compensation claims. Recent GAO and Republican congressional reports concluded that the Office of Management and Budget and the Labor Department were trying to limit payouts to nuclear weapons workers. By Katherine Torres, Occupational Hazards
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Boston-Area Individuals Admit to Payroll Scheme
Three Quincy residents who ran a staffing agency plead guilty to federal charges of running an under-the-table payroll scheme that allowed them to avoid paying workers’ compensation insurance premiums. By Rob Margetta, Standard-Times (New Bedford, Mass.)
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Indicted BWC Chief Had It All Planned Out, Say Prosecutors
Prosecutors say that before his alleged kickback scheme came to light, indicted former Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation chief financial officer Terrence Gasper was expecting to retire with a full pension and to live at least part of the time in a Florida Keys condo provided to him by two Cleveland-area investment brokers. Gasper is scheduled to be sentenced in about a week, after admitting that he took bribes from money managers in exchange for doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in lucrative state investment business. By Steve Eder and James Drew, Toledo Blade [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…