Quote of the day
"Most other states cap permanent-partial benefits, but we don't. ... We've got to come up with a way to get labor to the table."
Frederick Buse, an Albany, N.Y.-area insurance consultant who assembled a report finding that New York businesses pay the most per workers' comp claim in the nation
Go to the full story in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Empire State Workers’ Comp Overpriced: Report
Despite paying the lowest maximum weekly benefits of any state in the country, the New York workers’ compensation system is among the most expensive in the U.S, according to a new report compiled by an Albany-area insurance consultant based on 2002 figures. Permanent-partial disability claims are said to be the heart of the problem. By Jay Gallagher, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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Overcharged South Carolina Employers to Get Refunds
The South Carolina Department of Insurance reverses a June decision and orders refunds for businesses that were overcharged for their workers’ compensation policies. The agency originally determined that insurers should make up the overcharges through future discounts. By Peter Hull, Charleston Post and Courier
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Forest Safety ‘Blitz’ Nets 650 Compliance Orders in B.C.
During a three-month pilot in British Columbia earlier this year, WorkSafe B.C. inspected 300 forest industry worksites and issued 650 compliance orders for violations of the Workers’ Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. Will the effort have a significant effect on an industry that experienced 49 deaths and 100 severe injuries last year? By Aaron Bichard, Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial (British Columbia)
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Effort to Repeal Ohio Workers’ Comp Changes Hits Major Obstacle
An attempt to get voters to repeal legislative changes reducing benefits for some injured workers comes up short of the signatures needed to get on the November ballot. The Ohio Secretary of State has started the countdown to fix the deficiencies in the petitions, which will prove difficult: county boards of elections have declared more than 100,000 signatures—nearly half the total filed—invalid. By Jim Provance, Toledo Blade
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Testing Guidelines Still Lag for WTC Workers
Ailing Ground Zero recovery workers who have left the state of New York in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, also have left behind medical expertise in treating illnesses related to the cleanup effort. Moreover, the creation of testing guidelines for such illnesses has been shelved for years. By Devlin Barrett, AP via Houston Chronicle
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Tip Trips Up Ohio Home Health Care Worker
A Marion, Ohio man must repay nearly $2,000, plus a fine after pleading guilty to workers’ compensation fraud. A call to the fraud hotline reportedly tipped off the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s special investigations unit that the man had been working as a home health care aide while receiving disability benefits for a purported back injury. Marion Star
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Hungry Judge the Ticket to Mountain State Osteopath’s New Hearing
A West Virginia osteopath who was barred in 2005 from practicing in the workers’ compensation system will get a new hearing because a judge who said he was concerned with the late hour and people not having eaten cut his defense short, a circuit judge rules. For his part, the doctor claims physicians hired by the Workers’ Compensation Commission and BrickStreet Mutual disagreed with his analysis of dangers posed by chemicals used in coal-cleaning and ammunition-demilitarizing plants. By Paul J. Nyden, Charleston Gazette
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Pennsylvania Court Lets Benefits Ruling Stand
A Pennsylvania court refuses to disturb a ruling made by the state Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board and a workers’ compensation judge in the case of a man who suffered hand and arm injuries in an industrial accident, after his employer sought to modify benefits. By Joe Pinchot, Sharon Herald
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