Employee turnover at California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) skyrocketed to 22.7% last year, thanks to unrest caused by the company’s aggressive restructuring plan and a buyout offer for targeted workers. The workers’ comp carrier says it parted ways with more than four times the number of workers as it did in either 2009 or …
In the eyes of the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) board of directors, State Fund President Tom Rowe earned every penny in the bonus he was eligible to make in 2011, and as a result will pocket an extra $135,000 (30% of his $450,000 annual salary) for his efforts to reform the carrier’s operations. But …
Regional and national players in the workers’ comp insurance business report fourth-quarter and year-end financials with mixed results. Profits are still being made but not necessarily at the same rate as in past years. State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) says it lost $580 million on underwriting last year and that it continues to lose accounts, especially …
Was it effective utilization review or unfair restraint of trade? That’s a central question in a lawsuit now pending between the maker of an electronic medical device used for treating pain and one of the California workers’ comp system’s largest providers of utilization review services. Disputes over proposed treatments for injured workers have been on …
A year-end program to offer workers at State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) an incentive to leave the carrier of last resort voluntarily reduced the number of workers that will have to be laid off, but the carrier says it still needs to eliminate 705 positions to reach its goals. When fully implemented later this spring, …
A Silicon Valley contractor will be in jail for three months before serving three years on probation for failing to have workers’ comp coverage and lying about that fact. The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office secured the conviction against Sergio Gayton Gonzales, Sr., 57, of San Jose. Gonzales falsely held himself out to be …
State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) has formal approval from the Department of Personnel Administration in hand for a plan that will axe more than 1,400 positions across the state, but the number of actual layoffs will be much lower. The quasi-governmental workers’ comp carrier says only around 800 workers will have to be laid off, …
California’s workers’ comp community underwent a significant amount of change in 2011 from the top and on down the line, and much of that change is setting the stage for an even more eventful 2012. Workers’ comp costs continue to increase and rates are following suit, but not all the metrics are reported as they …