Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Report Examines Migraine Drugs as a Potential Cost Driver in California Workers’ Comp

Oct 8 2024 // Migraine drugs represent a small percentage of prescriptions dispensed to injured workers in California, but they make up a larger share of workers’ compensation drug payments, a new report shows.Fewer than 1% of all...

Long COVID Claims Still Impact California’s Workers Comp System, Report Shows

Oct 7 2024 // The impact and surge of long-term COVID on the California workers’ compensation system since 2020 has been prevalent, including long-term impacts on disability and long-term patterns of medical cost and treatment on...

NCCI Unveils New, More Precise Workers’ Comp Medical Price Index

Oct 7 2024 // In recent years, workers’ compensation insurers have struggled to accurately gauge the precise trends in medical costs, and have had to rely on indexes that weren’t quite on-point: The U.S. Consumer Price Index...

WCIRB Summarizes 2024 California Workers’ Comp Legislation

Oct 4 2024 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau is giving its take on bills passed and passed on by California Legislature this year.The Legislature recessed for the year and Gov. Gavin Newsom had until Sept. 30 to...

Employer, Workers’ Comp Insurer, Survivor Join Baltimore Bridge Collapse Litigation

Oct 2 2024 // The road construction firm that employed six workers who were killed and another who was seriously injured in the collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge, along with its workers’ compensation carrier, have filed...

Delaware’s Workers’ Compensation Claims Cost Grew 3% a Year: WCRI

Oct 1 2024 // The average cost of workers’ compensation claims in Delaware, for cases with more than seven days of lost work, went up by 3% per year between 2019 and 2022, according to a new study from the Workers Compensation...

Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Costs to Drop Again in 2025

Oct 1 2024 // Connecticut workers’ compensation insurers are recommending an overall 6.1% reduction in loss costs in the voluntary market and a 6.2% overall reduction in the assigned risk market for next year.If the recommendation...

OSHA Cites Company for Multiple Safety Violations Following Cargo Hold Fire in Ohio

Sep 30 2024 // Federal safety inspectors found a crew working aboard the Cuyahoga, a commercial iron ore vessel moored at the Port of Ashtabula, narrowly avoided disaster after a large fire erupted as they welded off paint in a cargo...

Cal/OSHA Cautioning Employers to Protect Workers From Wildfire Smoke

Sep 25 2024 // Cal/OSHA is urging employers to protect workers from unhealthy air due to wildfire smoke.The Line Fire is impacting air quality in areas around San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Employers are required to monitor air...

Washington Metal Fabricator Faces Felony in $340K Workers’ Comp Scam

Sep 19 2024 // A Washington man who claimed he was too injured to work while operating a metal fabrication shop faces a felony charge in an alleged $340,000 workers’ compensation scam.Travis Lee Johnson, 52, of Spokane Valley,...

OSHA Orders Building Materials Supplier to Reinstate Whistleblower Truck Driver

Sep 19 2024 // A federal whistleblower investigation has found a Virginia subsidiary of one of the world’s largest building materials manufacturers fired a truck driver in September 2023 illegally after the employee raised safety...

Oregon Workers’ Comp Pure Premium Rate to Drop 3.2%

Sep 13 2024 // Oregon employers will pay on average less for workers’ compensation coverage in 2025.The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services the decline in workers’ comp rate, which marks 12 years of average...

Pinnacol’s EverPeak Workers’ Comp Coverage Expands Into South Carolina

Sep 12 2024 // EverPeak Insurance, a workers’ compensation insurer that specializes in hard-to-place industries and small businesses, has recently expanded into South Carolina. Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Vlad...

SAIF in Oregon Declares $60M Dividend for Workers’ Comp Policyholders

Sep 11 2024 // The board of SAIF, a not-for-profit workers’ compensation insurer in Oregon, declared a $60 million dividend for their current policyholders. The funds will start being dispersed starting in October, with 51,288...

‘Dr. Taxes’ in Georgia Charged With Taking Workers’ Comp Premiums From Clients

Sep 10 2024 // A businessman in south Georgia who called his business a tax preparation site for immigrants is now facing multiple charges that he swindled clients out of thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation insurance...

New Hampshire Approves 5.6% Workers’ Compensation Loss Cost Decrease for 2025

Sep 6 2024 // The New Hampshire Insurance Department (NHID) reports that it has approved a workers’ compensation rate proposal that will reduce voluntary loss costs by 5.6% on average.The new lower rates will apply to voluntary...

NCCI Calls For Tiny Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease for Florida After New Doctor Fees

Sep 4 2024 // Annual workers’ compensation rate cuts in the double digits have become routine in almost every U.S. state in recent years. That trend may have now come to an end in Florida, where the National Council on...

Vocational School Owner Arraigned in $1M Workers’ Comp Fraud Case

Aug 30 2024 // Los Angeles area vocational school owner, Guillermo Frias, 65, of Paramount, and the school’s accounting manager, Yesid Colon, 54, of Baldwin Park, were arraigned following a California Department of Insurance...

Cal/OSHA Cites Nine Employers for Silica Safety Violations

Aug 29 2024 // California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited nine employers in Sun Valley following efforts to address the growing number of silicosis cases among stone workers in California.The safety violations...

New Jersey Raises Workers’ Compensation Attorney Fee Cap to 25%

Aug 26 2024 // New Jersey has raised the cap on fees for attorneys handling workers’ compensation cases from 20% to 25% of settlements.The primary sponsors of S2822/A3986 were Senator Joseph Lagana and Assemblymen Anthony Verrelli...