Quote of the day
"We should be treating our Cold War veterans ... with the same respect they have treated our country."
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., urging the Bush administration to address the backlog of cases that are delaying payments to sick former nuclear weapons workers and their surviving relatives.
Orange County’s CorVel Acquires Maryland Claims Processor
Irvine-based workers’ compensation manager CorVel announces its purchase of Schaffer Cos. Ltd. of Baltimore, which manages employers’ workers’ comp claims processing. The deal closed June 1. Orange County Register
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Golden State’s Rates to Drop July 1
Hundreds of thousands of California employers can expect their workers’ compensation costs to decrease July 1, when State Compensation Insurance Fund, which last week filed its new rate proposals calling for an 11 percent average decrease in premiums, sets new rates for new policies and renewals. By Marton Dunai, Contra Costa Times
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Senator: Funds Needed for Sick Nuke Workers’ Program
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, asks the Bush administration to provide more money to a federal workers’ compensation program for Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers, citing concerns about a budget shortfall and reported cutbacks in claims-processing. By Frank Munger, Knoxville News Sentinel
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Did Ohio BWC Cut Rates for Lawmaker’s Business?
Former Ohio State Sen. Jeffry Armbruster, the target of an ethics investigation, reportedly sought ways to reduce workers’ compensation rates for his company, going so far as to ask other public officials how to do it. The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation reportedly gave Armbruster Energy Stores an 88 percent rate reduction for its gas stations. By AP via Akron Beacon-Journal
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Land of Lincoln Worker Claims Retaliatory Firing
A worker files a $150,000 suit against his former employer in Illinois’ notorious plaintiffs’ jurisdiction St. Clair County, claiming he lost his job in March 2006 for filing a workers’ compensation claim in connection with two job-related injuries. By Ann Knef, Madison – St. Clair Record
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Judge Chops Punitive Damage Award in Furniture Makers’ Suit
Mississippi’s tort reform laws lead a judge to reduce a $7.5 million punitive damage award by more than three-quarters for former furniture manufacturing plant workers who claimed they were made ill by exposure to an adhesive containing propyl bromide in unventilated areas. A lawyer for the plaintiffs, who claimed they were not provided with personal protective equipment, characterizes the case as an exception to workers’ compensation exclusivity. By Nell Luter Floyd, Jackson Clarion-Ledger
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Charm City Claims Adjustor Cops to Comp Check Scheme
A former insurance claims adjustor pleads guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to issuing more than $153,000 in fraudulent workers’ compensation checks in a scheme involving a former city police officer, according to the Maryland attorney general’s office. Baltimore Sun
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