Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines

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

Cal/OSHA Cites Multiple Employers for COVID-19 Violations

Mar 5 2021 // Cal/OSHA has cited multiple employers for not protecting workers from COVID-19 following inspections in various industries throughout the state.Violations were identified in industries including construction, garment,...

Workers’ Comp Benefit Denied to Family of Missouri Officer Who Died from Virus

Mar 3 2021 // The family of a Lebanon, Mo., police officer who died of COVID-19 has been denied workers’ compensation, city officials said.Officer Kendle Blackburn died Dec. 28 after a long battle with the virus. A release from...

North Texas Foam Recycling Plant Burns; 3 Workers Injured

Mar 2 2021 // Three workers were injured as a massive North Texas foam recycling plant fire burned all day on Feb. 25 and into the night. The fire at the Advanced Foam Recycling plant in the Fort Worth suburb of Richland Hills was...

Mass. Court Says Injured Worker Can’t Charge Insurer for Medical Marijuana Expenses

Mar 1 2021 // The Massachusetts Appeals Court has found that a worker can’t charge his workers’ comp insurer for the cost of medical marijuana treatment due to a work-related injury.This comes after Mark T. Delano initially...

California Agriculture Company Owner, Daughter Sentenced in $2.5M Workers’ Comp Scheme

Feb 26 2021 // Felipe Saurez Barocio, 63, of Atwater, Calif., owner of Agriculture Services Inc., and his daughter, Angelita Barocio-Negrete, 34, of Merced, were sentenced to 10 years after pleading no contest to six felony counts of...

Illinois Bill Would Move Workers’ Comp Fraud Probes to Insurance Department

Feb 26 2021 // A bill filed in the Illinois General Assembly would transfer the responsibilities for investigating workers’ compensation fraud to the state insurance department.Under HB 2947, the pending business of the Illinois...

Workers’ Compensation and COVID: More Data on Evolving Claims

Feb 25 2021 // Workers’ compensation insurers aren’t getting the large aggregate volumes of COVID-related claims projected during the early months of the pandemic, but different data sources give varying readouts on...

California School Employee Arraigned for Workers’ Comp Fraud After Virus Diagnosis

Feb 23 2021 // Stephanie Medrano, 33, of West Covina, Calif., was arraigned on Tuesday on multiple counts of grand theft and insurance fraud after allegedly making misrepresentations following a COVID-19 diagnosis in an attempt to...

Miami Business Owners Accused of Evading $300K in Workers’ Comp Premiums

Feb 22 2021 // An investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Investigative and Forensic Services (DIFS), Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Fraud, has led to the arrest of two business owners for...

It Could Have Been Worse. COVID-19’s Impact on Workers’ Compensation

Feb 22 2021 // While it obviously presented challenges, 2020 is looking like it may not have been such a bad year for workers’ compensation insurers and insureds after all.Insurers took in less premium but paid fewer claims. They...

OSHA: Missouri Plumbing Contractor Fined $299.5K for Trench Safety Violations

Feb 18 2021 // Barely two years after an Oak Grove, Missouri, plumbing contractor agreed to adopt a comprehensive trench safety program following the December 2016 death of an employee in an unprotected trench, federal inspectors...

Many Firms Aren’t Paying OSHA Fines Levied for COVID-19 Safety Violations: Reuters

Feb 18 2021 // U.S. workplace safety regulators have announced more than $4 million in penalties on more than 300 employers they say put workers at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.But about two-thirds of these employers aren’t...

Brown Reappointed as Texas Workers’ Compensation Commissioner

Feb 16 2021 // Cassie Brown has been reappointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation at the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) for a term set to expire on Feb. 1, 2023. Brown has led the Division of...

Head of South Carolina Workers’ Comp Fund Ousted Over Deal with Husband’s Firm

Feb 11 2021 // South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday removed the head of the State Accident Fund, calling for an investigation into whether she improperly steered a $600,000 government contract to her husband’s company.In a...

Barta Reappointed as Texas Injured Employee Public Counsel

Feb 10 2021 // Jessica Barta has been reappointed as Texas’ Injured Employee Public Counsel, a role in which she has served since October 2014.Her current term would expire on Feb. 1 2023. The Public Counsel helps injured employees...

It Could Have Been Worse. An Update on COVID-19 Impact on Workers’ Compensation.

Feb 9 2021 // While it obviously presented challenges, 2020 is looking like it may not have been such a bad year for workers’ compensation insurers and insureds after all.Insurers took in less premium but paid fewer claims. They...

Study: 40 Out of 120 Texas Workers’ Comp Insurers Are ‘High Performers’

Feb 5 2021 // Forty workers’ compensation insurance carriers out of 120 assessed in Texas scored high enough to be placed in the “high performer” tier in a study recently released by state workers’ comp...

Workers’ Compensation Underwriters Under the Gun to Understand Pandemic Data

Feb 4 2021 // Workers’ compensation underwriters are about to be tested in the marketplace like never before.While the current situation is not all because of the pandemic, the pandemic has “put gas on a fire that was...

California Warehouse Worker Arraigned for Alleged Workers’ Comp Fraud

Feb 3 2021 // Crescencio Velasco Covarrubias, 45, of Button Willow, Calif., was arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly failing to disclose prior work-related injuries in order to collect...

‘A-‘ Rating Assigned to Illinois Workers’ Comp Carrier Pekin Select Insurance

Feb 3 2021 // AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” to Pekin Select Insurance Co. (PSIC), headquartered in Pekin, Ill., a subsidiary of Pekin...