Tag: Workers Comp

Workplace fatalities jumped 8.9% in 2021 from the prior year, while the fatal work injury rate increased only minimally during that same period, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The country saw a total of 5,190 fatal work injuries last year, up from 4,764 in 2020.

The fatal work injury rate stood at 3.6 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, an increase over the 3.4 fatalities per 100,000 in 2020.

The 3.6 figure represents the highest annual rate of fatal occupational injury since 2016, with the 2019 pre-pandemic rate standing at 3.5 per 100,000.

The BLS said one worker died every 101 minutes from a work-related injury last year.

The share of Black workers fatally injured on the job reached an all-time high in 2021, increasing from 11.4% of total fatalities in 2020 to 12.6% in 2021.

Black and Hispanic/Latino workers saw fatality rates in 2021 that were higher than the all-worker rate of 3.6.

The most common cause of workplace fatalities was from transportation incidents, although the BLS noted that such incidents were down 6.6% from 2019.

Women in 2021 comprised 8.6% of all workplace fatalities but represented 14.5% of intentional injuries.

Fatalities from workplace violence and other injuries increased 7.9% in 2021 from 2020.

Another key highlight of the report concerned fatalities from exposure to harmful substances, which caused 798 worker deaths in 2021, the highest figure since 2011.

An upside to the report was that suicides on the job continued to trend down, with 236 workplace suicides in 2021 compared to 259 in 2020, representing an 8.9% decrease. 

 

 

Texas lawmakers in both chambers are set to consider legislation that would require contractors in construction to carry workers compensation coverage when in contract with a government entity.

S.B. 283, pre-filed Wednesday, is identical to H.B. 778, which was pre-filed on Nov. 21. Both bills said all contractors and subcontractors on public projects may provide an “owner-controlled” insurance policy as an alternative to an outside insurance policy.

Texas is the only state that does not require employers to purchase comp insurance.

 

 

 

 

 

While the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs had anticipated no additional risks associated with telehealth services during the pandemic compared with in-person visits, its Office of Inspector General found some potential program integrity risks, according to a report released Wednesday.

The risks included providers potentially billing for supplies not rendered and unnecessary medical services, treating claimants without required supervision, and billing without appropriate billing codes, the report said.

In line with a national trend, the federal program saw a dramatic increase in telehealth services during the pandemic: claimants used about 58,000 telemedicine services between March 2020 and February 2021, compared with 1,700 telehealth services used between March 2019 and February 2020, the report said.

Most of the telemedicine services were for primary care provider and specialist appointments and behavioral health services, according to the report.

The OIG encouraged the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs to develop additional guidance for providers to ensure the development of proper telehealth modifier codes used in medical billing.

The number of Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors has fallen “steadily” from a high of 860 in 2014 to 750 in 2021, an issue that has made it difficult for the agency to protect workers at an estimated 8 million work sites, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General on the department’s top management and performance challenges.

The annual report follows a similar one in November, where the OIG said OSHA during the pandemic “did not sufficiently protect workers from COVID-19 health hazards.”

Tuesday’s report noted that it can take up to five years for an inspector to be fully trained, and that more money in the agency’s budget this year did not correct the issue. “Even though OSHA’s budget request included the hiring of 155 new inspectors in FY 2022, the current lack of available inspectors and time lag for an inspector to become fully trained can lead to less inspections, diminished enforcement of high-risk industries, and ultimately, greater risk of injuries or compromised health for workers,” the report said.

In addition, OSHA has been at a disadvantage to protect workers who report potential worksite safety violations and complete subsequent whistleblower investigations within the statutory requirement of 30, 60, or 90 days, the inspector general’s office found.

“The pandemic caused a significant increase in the number of whistleblower complaints OSHA received, while the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, including inspectors within OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program, decreased,” the report said, adding that during the preliminary months of the pandemic, Feb. 1, 2020, through May 31, 2020, OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program received 4,101 complaints, a 30% increase over the complaints received during the same period in 2019.

Underreporting of injuries by employers is also an issue that makes it difficult for the agency to determine the most hazardous worksites, “which limits their ability to focus inspection and compliance efforts where they are most needed,” the report said. 

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Wisconsin-based heavy fabrication manufacturing company after a worker’s leg was crushed by a falling load.

OSHA said Monday it cited Kewaunee Fabrications LLC, which manufactures aerial ladders and mounting plates primarily used for fire trucks, for one willful and 11 serious violations and proposed a penalty of $250,696.

The agency said the worker was seriously injured when a falling load from a below-the-hook magnet crushed his leg at the manufacturing site in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, on June 7.

The company has 15 business days to contest the citations.

Washington legislators will consider a bill that would reinstate state workers fired for not getting a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, per a directive issued by Gov. Jay Inslee, because of the “unnecessary hardship” it caused employees who were fired.

H.B. 2029, pre-filed Monday, also states that “not allowing qualified, experienced employees to work in their professions does nothing to benefit the state, especially during this time of worker shortages.”

Gov. Inslee officially ended the statewide COVID-19 state of emergency on Oct. 31, thus ending the vaccine mandate for most workers, but kept the mandate for state workers — issued Aug. 5 — in effect.

Minus language to cancel that mandate, the new bill calls on legislature “to create a pathway for those employees to be reemployed in their former positions if they choose.” The bill also states that it “is also the intent of the legislature to encourage local governments and private sector employers to create pathways to reemploy employees who have lost their jobs due solely to vaccine mandates.”

 

 

Bennabis Health Inc. has launched a program in New Mexico with Alta Vida, an Albuquerque-based cannabis dispensary, to help reimburse injured workers for their medical marijuana in workers compensation cases.

Cranford, New Jersey-based Bennabis said New Mexico is among the states that require reimbursement by insurers when medical marijuana is deemed a necessary alternative to opioids in workers comp cases.

A Bennabis spokeswoman said in an email Monday that the company acts as a conduit between the patient and workers comp payor.

The spokeswoman said medical marijuana workers comp patients who cannot afford upfront costs for the medication can pick up marijuana from Alta Vida at no cost.

Bennabis then pays the dispensary for the medication and bills the workers comp payor, with the patient paying nothing to Bennabis, Ms. Tantum stated.

 

 

A subsidiary of Dillard’s Inc. has not proven it is immune to a lawsuit by a worker who tripped on her way out of the store, an appeals court in Kentucky ruled Friday in reversing a grant of summary judgment based on the state’s exclusive remedy provisions.

When she fell in 2019, Betty Oard was working part-time at the Dillard’s department store in the Crestview Hills Town Center in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. The Higbee Co. owns this Dillard’s location and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dillard’s Inc, and Dillard’s held a workers compensation insurance policy, which listed Higbee as a named insured, according to Oard v. The Higbee Company, filed in the Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

After filing a workers comp claim naming Dillard’s as her employer, which accepted the claim, she later filed a negligence lawsuit against Higbee and other parties associated with management of the property, not naming her direct employer Dillard’s as a defendant.

Higbee filed a motion for summary judgment, wherein it argued Kentucky immunized it from liability because of exclusive remedy. A circuit court agreed and granted summary judgment. 

The appeals court disagreed, stating that “Higbee’s status as a wholly owned subsidiary of Dillard’s is not, on its own, enough for it to be immunized from suit.”

The court, on remanding the case back to a lower court, said there exists legal question on employment and that “(a)s to the first inquiry, Higbee was obviously not Oard’s direct employer. As Oard notes in her brief, Dillard’s paid her and directed her employment. Nothing in the record suggests Higbee ever provided directions to Oard or otherwise engaged with her as her employer. So, summary judgment in favor of Higbee was only proper if Higbee is a contractor — and therefore Oard’s statutory employer — as contemplated” by workers comp law in Kentucky.

 

 

 

 

 

The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld a decision that an injured worker’s post-traumatic stress disorder was not a compensable injury despite its stemming from a workplace incident.

The court, in its Thursday decision, agreed with the findings of North Dakota Workforce Safety & Insurance, an administrative law judge and a district court judge, all of whom found Cliff Provins’ PTSD non-compensable.

Mr. Provins, who was employed by Dickinson, North Dakota-based Baranko Environmental LLC, was injured in May 2019 when he was crushed by a 2,000-pound trailer at work.

WS&I approved Mr. Provins’ claim for workers compensation benefits while he was out of work being treated for his injuries but in August 2020 denied benefits for a subsequent PTSD diagnosis and retroactively discontinued disability benefits as of Nov. 5, 2019.

An administrative law judge affirmed WS&I’s decision, as did a district court judge.

In upholding the district court ruling, the North Dakota Supreme Court said that “a reasoning mind reasonably could conclude Provins failed to establish the requisite causal connection between his physical injuries and his PTSD, as compared with all other contributing causes.”