The long-feared spike in workers’ comp cumulative trauma claims due to the Covid-19 pandemic and recession may now be materializing. For two years, industry analysts have been looking for early indicators of a spike in CT claims in transactional data, but it wasn’t apparent. Until now. The first unit stat data for 2020 shows a …
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal heard oral arguments in a case to overturn a decision that holds the workers’ comp exclusivity provision bars a lawsuit alleging employer liability for the case of Covid-19 contracted by the spouse of an employee. The underlying decision in Kuciemba v. Victory Woodworks is at odds with a recent …
Researchers from the Rand Corp. say that the workers’ comp presumptions California enacted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic likely targeted the occupations most at risk of contracting the virus but say it is unclear if they were beneficial overall. The report also casts doubt on the benefits of cutting employers time to investigate claims, …
The pandemic put a heavy strain on the healthcare system’s ability to deliver care amid surges in cases and high infection rates among healthcare workers. But new research indicates that the workers’ comp system continued delivering timely care to injured workers throughout the pandemic. Alex Swedlow (see photo) with the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) …
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau says that roughly one out of every ten workers’ comp claims involving mild infections for Covid-19 were still requiring medical treatment four months later. In severe and critical cases, the prevalence of so called “long Covid” was much higher at 36% and 40%, respectively, according to a new report. …
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s governing committee approved making a regulatory filing to create a new companion class for two classifications in the Electronics Industry Group. The filing will also bring changes to the experience rating plan that would allow Covid-19 claims to factor into an employer’s X-Mod. The Bureau is a private organization …
A California employer has filed with the California Supreme Court asking it to apply the Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusivity provision to a third-party liability claim alleging a take-home case of Covid-19. The petition alleges a decision by the Second District Court of Appeal effectively created a “virus” exception to the long-standing derivative injury rule that …