Quote of the day
"It would be unconscionable to deny [workers' comp] to those who labored at Rocky Flats."
Rocky Mountain News editorial regarding a workers' program for sick nuclear workers, and the eligibility of workers at a Colorado facility
WCIRB Study: Reform Keeps Employers’ Costs Down
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California, in its review of workers’ comp insurers’ for 2006, finds that California employers are continuing to pay less for coverage post-overhaul. Moreover, statewide premium was less than the prior year, filed claims continue to decline, loss ratios are healthy, and insurers apparently have billions of dollars more in reserves than they might need. By Kelly Johnson, Sacramento Business Journal
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Commentary: Panel Must Do Right by Colorado’s Sick Nuke Workers
A presidential advisory panel meeting in Denver has the opportunity to right a long-standing wrong by granting Cold War-era employees of a Colorado nuclear weapons facility workers’ compensation for certain radiation-related cancers without their having to prove illnesses are work-related. That status has already been given to workers at 21 other atomic weapon sites. Rocky Mountain News
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Investment Scandal: Ohio BWC Briber Gets Three Years
A judge sentences Clarke Blizzard, the investment marketer who admitted to conspiring to bribe the chief financial officer of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation in exchange for lucrative bureau investment business, to 37 months in federal prison. By Steve Eder and James Drew, Toledo Blade [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…
Workers’ Comp Prices Help to Thwart New Biz, Says N.Y.
Workers’ compensation is one of the costs that make launching and growing business difficult in New York, according to Kenneth Adams of the Business Council of New York State. But he expects additional workers’ comp reform, including expedited judicial hearing processes and programs to help the injured get back to work. By Sarah Bradshaw, Poughkeepsie Journal
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Wal-Mart Loses in Arkansas Appellate Court
The Arkansas Court of Appeals rejects a Wal-Mart appeal in affirming benefits to a worker injured at a company store. The court concludes substantial evidence existed to support a state Workers’ Compensation Commission’s finding that an employee suffered a compensable injury after falling from a ladder in February 2005. The Morning News
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Injured Firefighter’s Statements at Comp Office Cost Him His Job
A firefighter accused of making threatening statements against a superior at Tampa workers’ compensation office loses his job. For his part, the firefighter claims he has been a victim of harassment since he was injured at work and has had problems getting workers’ compensation benefits. By Tampa Tribune via Fire Engineering
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New Ontario Regs Presume Firefighters’ Cancers
Changes to Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act will make it easier for firefighters to qualify for compensation for job-related cancers and heart attacks: New regulations will identify eight types of cancer presumed to be work-related when contracted by full-time firefighters. CTV (Toronto)
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CRM Holdings Reports 1Q Revenues
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based workers’ compensation insurer CRM Holdings Ltd., posts a 135 percent increase, to a record $34.7 million, for the first quarter of 2007. CRM provides fee-based services to self-insurance trusts in several states, including New York and California. By Craig Wolf, Poughkeepsie Journal
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