Quote of the day
"If you don't require that evidence, it is more likely [an increased number of employers] will get a license without worker's compensation. What we are saying is logically, that without evidence of workers' compensation coverage, someone won't have it at a time when an employee is injured."
Robert Jaekle, Connecticut Auditor of Public Accounts
Workers’ Comp One of San Diego Mayor’s Eight Priorities
In San Diego, the only area of Mayor Jerry Sanders’ eight enumerated budget priorities in the city’s fiscal 2008 budget to receive no funding is the workers’ compensation fund, which Sanders intends to boost $35 million by fiscal 2012. The city currently has only $18.3 million in its self-insurance fund to cover workers’ comp claims the city estimates could cost it $150 million. By Matthew T. Hall, San Diego Union-Tribune
Go to the Full Story…
Conn. Agency Failed to Verify Comp Coverage for a Decade
For more than 10 years, the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection stopped verifying that employers had workers’ compensation insurance when their licenses came up for renewal. As a result, state auditors warn that the violation of state law increases the state’s financial liability, especially with new home construction workers. By Diane Weaver Dunne, Hartford Business
Go to the Full Story…
Reports: BrickStreet Overbilled State of West Virginia
West Virginia’s exclusive workers’ compensation insurer BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. may have improperly spent $3.5 million in state funds since its inception in 2005: the West Virginia Insurance Commission estimates that BrickStreet improperly charged $3.3 million to state credit cards and, according to a state legislative auditor’s report, executives ran up “excessive hospitality expenditures” of more than $158,000 from three different agency funds. By Paul J. Nyden, Sunday Gazette Mail (Charleston, W.V.)
Go to the Full Story…
Former BWC Investment Chief Broke, Say His Hired Guns
Terrence Gasper, who once managed a $19 billion investment portfolio as chief financial officer for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, is broke on the eve of his expected sentencing, his lawyers say. Gasper will likely get at least six years in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to racketeering. By Mike Tobin, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Go to the Full Story…
Former B.C. Bus Driver: ‘I Can’t Take It Anymore’
A 64-year-old former Greyhound bus driver who says WorksafeBC has “tried to cut me off financially from all directions” in connection with his workers’ comp claim for a work-related knee injury, says he is on the verge of suicide. The former British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board agreed the driver could not return to work and in 2002 awarded him his full annual salary retroactive to the accident, but he hasn’t received that award because of alleged fraud. By Don Harrison, the Province (Vancouver, B.C.) [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…
Big Sky Country Gets First Non-Increase in Six Years
Montana State Fund, Big Sky Country’s state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, authorizes an overall 1-percent decrease in workers’ compensation rates for the coming year, marking the first time in six years that the provider has not raised its premiums. By John Harrington, Billings Gazette
Go to the Full Story…
Disagreement over NSW Teachers Stress Claim Numbers
New South Wales schoolteachers make more than 800 workers’ compensation claims a year for stress-related injuries on the job. But the state department of education shows a much bigger and consistent drop in the number of public school teachers making such claims. By Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald
Go to the Full Story…