Tag: Workers Comp

Lawmakers in New York are trying to define temporary total disability as it applies to workers compensation.

A.B. 6707, introduced in the Assembly on Friday and sent to the Labor Committee, would amend workers comp law to elaborate that temporary total disability “shall consist of the injured employee’s inability to perform his or her pre-injury employment duties or any modified employment offered by the employer that is consistent with the employee’s disability.”

Current law only states what a worker is entitled to in terms of indemnity: 66 2/3% of average weekly wage. 

 

The Appellate Court of Maryland reversed a trial court ruling that caused the widow of a county firefighter to lose partial death benefits awarded after her husband’s death.  

The appeals court Wednesday determined a trial court wrongly reversed a Workers’ Compensation Commission decision awarding Janet Conrad partial death benefits after the 2017 death of her husband, Montgomery County firefighter Joseph Conrad.

Mr. Conrad was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in 2012 and later died.

In May 2019, Ms. Conrad filed a comp claim seeking dependency benefits, and the commission found Ms. Conrad was partially dependent on her husband at the time of his death. It awarded her partial death benefits.

Ms. Conrad argued the commission erred in calculating her dependency from the time of her husband’s death rather than the time of disablement. The trial court found she was not entitled to death benefits.

The trial court, which also found that Ms. Conrad became wholly self-supporting after her husband’s death, granted the county’s motion for summary judgment and remanded the case back to the commission for a new order.

Ms. Conrad appealed the decision.

The appeals court found there was no dispute that Ms. Conrad, who wasn’t employed when her husband became ill, was entirely financially dependent on her husband.

The appeals court said the trial court erred in ruling that to award the appropriate level of death benefits, the commission must determine a widow’s dependency level at the time of death, and not the disablement date. 

 

Maine lawmakers have introduced legislation that would tie workers compensation benefit amounts to the rise in the price of goods and services.

The measure introduced on Thursday, Senate Bill 1896, would amend the state’s workers comp law to mandate that compensation for injured workers be annually increased to account for inflation by the amount of increase in the consumer price index compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics updates the consumer price index on an annual basis. It was last updated in January.

Senate Bill 1896 was sent to a joint House/Senate Committee on Labor and Housing for consideration.

 

 

(Reuters) – The Kroger Co. has agreed to pay West Virginia $68 million to settle claims that it fueled the opioid epidemic through lax oversight of its pill sales, bringing the state’s years-long litigation over opioids to a close.

The deal, announced Thursday by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, comes a month before the grocery store had been set to go to trial against the state. All other companies sued by the state over opioids had already settled.

Mr. Morrisey at a news conference said the deal marked “a big day for West Virginia.”

Kroger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

 

 

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has declared a Midwest roofing contractor in default after failing to properly address workplace safety violations, assessing full financial penalties against the company.

The commission, in a March decision publicized Wednesday, found Joshua Herion, and his Waukegan, Illinois-based company, ECS Roofing Professionals Inc., in default after the company refused to comply with proceedings relating to safety violations it was issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

OSHA inspectors in Illinois and Wisconsin cited the company following separate job site visits in October 2021 after finding numerous violations of construction standards, including willful, repeat and serious violations.

OSHA proposed penalties of $360,531, and the company, through its attorney, contested the citations.

The attorney subsequently withdrew from the case, and the company stopped responding to various discovery and other requests and failed to meet required deadlines, according to the review commission.

The commission, in finding the company in default, called the case significant in that it involves alleged violations of fall protection standards for roofers.

“The court does not take lightly issuing a default judgment where the consequences are so substantial,” the commission wrote.

The commission assessed the total penalty of $360,531 against the company.

At the time it issued the citations, OSHA said workers were found exposed to deadly fall hazards at the two commercial and residential job sites because they were working high above the ground without adequate fall protection.

  

 

The Court of Appeals of North Carolina ruled that a lower court wrongly allowed a lawsuit initiated by the family of a deceased woodworker to proceed since the matter should have fallen under the jurisdiction of workers compensation.

The appeals court on Tuesday reversed a trial judge’s decision denying summary judgment to Randy Reinhardt, who worked as a supervisor with Dimension Wood Products Inc.

In March 2020, Rodney Baker, a 24-year company employee, died after being crushed by a machine.

His surviving spouse received workers compensation benefits, but the estate later filed suit against Mr. Reinhardt and his brother, David Reinhardt, for reckless negligence.

The estate argued the lawsuit was permitted because the nature of the alleged negligence was so serious that it should have been treated as an intentional injury falling outside of comp.  

The brothers sought to have the case dismissed based on workers comp exclusivity. A trial judge granted summary judgment to David Reinhardt but not his brother.   

The appeals court determined the trial judge should have also granted summary judgment to Randy Reinhardt.

The court wrote that “uncontroverted evidence” showed the company operated an award-winning safety program, and that Mr. Baker attended safety briefings in the weeks before his death.

The court said the Reinhardt brothers didn’t instruct Mr. Baker to clean around the machine at the time of his death, and that Mr. Baker’s estate failed to prove that the brothers acted with willful and reckless negligence. 

 

 

 

The Liberty Company Insurance Brokers Inc., a privately held insurance brokerage headquartered in Gainesville, Florida, on Wednesday announced the launch of its newly formed National Complex Workers’ Compensation Practice Group.

Liberty managing partner Kirk Aguilera, a former Brown & Brown Inc. executive with 30 years of experience in the property/casualty market, will lead the team. The group will also include those with workers comp experience with middle-market clients across various industries, including manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, health care, security, and restaurant/hospitality businesses, according to a Liberty statement. 

 

 

Rich Ives is vice president of business insurance claims for Travelers Cos. Inc. Based in Hartford, Connecticut, Mr. Ives manages the workers compensation sector for Travelers, which is among the largest comp insurers in the country. He spoke with Assistant Editor Louise Esola recently about issues facing the industry. Edited excerpts follow.

What are some of the issues with inflation and its effect on workers compensation?

Overall, severity in the workers compensation line has been benign, especially in the medical space. There are reasons for that; there are mechanisms in the workers compensation system that help to control for significant medical inflation, with the largest of those being fee schedules. We know in the industry that fee schedules help to control the increasing medical costs involved with treating injured workers. Those are updated annually, which does slow inflationary impact on work comp medical costs. We do, however, believe that inflation in the workers compensation line will become a bigger concern in the future. There are five states particularly without fee schedules, and we do see a higher rate of medical inflation in those states currently, the reason being there are fewer controls in those states to manage the cost of treatment for injured workers. And we believe those same cost pressures that exist in those states will eventually work their way into the scheduled states over time.

Changes in the workforce are also a concern for the industry. What are some of the elements you are seeing?

We see a large portion of workers compensation losses coming from individuals who are new in their role. According to our most recent injury impact report for 2023, which we are releasing this week, we found individuals while they’re in the job the first year, regardless of their age or their industry experience, represent 34% (of claim activity) … and accounted for nearly 7 million missed workdays due to an injury. The other thing that is a key speaking point for us here is age can also be a factor, meaning that those that are injured less often than any other age group are those aged 60 and older, because it’s a smaller portion of the workforce. But we are seeing an aging of the workforce. Employees aged 60 and older had higher average costs per claim, totaling nearly 15% more than employees between the ages of 35 and 49, and approximately 140% more than those ages 18 to 24.

Mental wellness is also a concern. How has this affected comp claims? 

Mental wellness in the workforce continues to deteriorate, with employees struggling with issues such as anxiety and depression. We know from our data that factors unrelated to an individual’s injury, such as fear and unrealistic expectations or their lack of sleep or minimal social support, can extend the recovery process. It can extend the recovery process by up to 50%. We also found that 40% of injured employees who are missing time from work experience one of these types of psychological or social barriers to recovery.

How is the industry managing this?

Some of this is not related to the work or to the injury. We’re not going to pay for the treatment to treat those issues. But what we will do is provide helpful supports and aids to mitigate those issues, because it has an impact on the overall outcome. A good example would be, if we know someone’s struggling, sometimes it’s just knowing that and providing a little more empathy in the way we are working with that individual. And that involves talking or frequent touch points, or maybe it’s a virtual visit, for example. It’s being able to really understand that individual in their circumstance.