Quote of the day
"Those who refuse to pay, we will sue. If they don't cooperate, we'll ask the Attorney General's office to step in."
Mary Beth Woods, director of licensing for the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, if self-insured trusts do not agree to cover shortfalls
Program for Sick Weapons Workers Hands Out Millions in Bonuses
While thousands of former Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers suffer debilitating illnesses and remain mired in the bureaucratic hell of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act, Labor Department executives have doled out more than $3.2 million in bonuses to administrators since the program began. By Anne Imse, Rocky Mountain News [with video] Go to the Full Story…
New York State WCB Sues Self-Insured Trusts
The first lawsuit in the collapse of 11 groups that provided workers’ compensation insurance seeks $29 million from 267 employers, and scores of other employers may be sued in the near future. The current round of litigation involves four self-insured trusts that collapsed in 2006 and is unrelated to seven recently failed trusts that were managed by Compensation Risk Managers. By Mary Beth Pfeiffer, Poughkeepsie Journal
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Town Settles with County in Empire State Workers’ Comp Dispute
The Town of Royalton, N.Y., settles with Niagara County on a six-year-old workers’ compensation case, agreeing to pay the county $210,000. Royalton was one of several municipalities the county sued in early 2007 to try to collect cash the county thought it was owed by former members who pulled out of the county’s workers’ compensation insurance plan in 2001 and 2002. By Thomas J. Prohaska, Buffalo News
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Buffalo Social Worker Gets Year in Jail for Fraud
A Buffalo, N.Y.-area social worker who pleaded guilty in February to health care fraud gets 12 months in jail for defrauding insurers and the state through its Workers’ Compensation Program, and its no-fault auto insurance law, between 2002 and 2007. Buffalo News
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Oregon Agency Proposes Paperless Reporting System
Oregon’s Workers’ Compensation Division is proposing a new process for maintaining and reporting proof of workers’ comp coverage: a reporting system that allows insurers to report data electronically, in order to reduce costs and eliminate the use of paper. Cascade Business News
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Opinion: Buckeye State Lawmaker’s Hypocrisy on Paid Sick Days
Ohio Sen. Kirk Schuring, in the past, has supported cutting workers’ compensation benefits. He is against 2.2 million Ohio workers earning seven paid sick days a year—but then again, he gets paid sick days courtesy of taxpayers, writes local AFL-CIO official Daniel F. Sciury. Canton Repository
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Zurich Throws Hat in the West Virginia Ring
In West Virginia, competition for workers’ compensation insurance is heating up and Zurich, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, is among the carriers actively seeking the business. Competition for the coal industry’s business is one of the battlegrounds. By George Hohmann, Charleston Daily Mail
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Carrier Launches Billboard Campaign in Mountain State
BB&T Carson Insurance Services launches a billboard campaign it hopes will attract some workers’ comp business in West Virginia’s newly-competitive market. By George Hohmann, Charleston Daily Mail
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