Tag: Workers Comp

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday that it cited a Texas metal refinishing company over various respiratory health and safety hazards.

OSHA cited Houston-based Outdoor Furniture Refinishing Inc., operating as Allied Powder Coating, for 39 “serious” violations and five “other-than-serious” violations and proposed $338,094 in penalties following a December 2023 workplace investigation.

The company exposed employees to hazards that could lead to respiratory disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other health issues, OSHA said.

The agency said Outdoor Furniture failed to use required engineering controls and respiratory protection to prevent health hazards related to exposure to triglycidyl isocyanurate, arsenic, cadmium beryllium and lead.

Unsafe levels of exposure to these chemicals can cause birth defects, may lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and could lead to the development of skin lesions and cognitive impairment, OSHA said. Beryllium exposure can cause permanent lung tissue scarring.

The “other-than-serious” violations were for failing to evaluate and certify forklift operators and not providing easily accessible fire extinguishers.

Outdoor Furniture, which offers metal refinishing services for industrial, residential and commercial customers, has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties. 

 

 

Workers compensation insurers in Mississippi do not have the right to void a policy based on a material misrepresentation made by an employer, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Answering a certified question from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, the state high court determined that policy rescission is not an available remedy in Mississippi – while cancellation and nonrenewal are permitted.

The case, American Compensation Insurance Co. vs. Hector Ruiz, Doing Business As Los Primoz Construction, stems from a 2018 workplace incident in which Raul Arpacio, an employee of Mr. Ruiz, was severely injured after falling 15 feet. Mr. Ruiz’s company was a subcontractor for Jesco Inc.

American Compensation Insurance, Mr. Ruiz’s workers comp insurer, paid more than $250,000 in medical and indemnity benefits to Mr. Arpacio but later sought court approval to retroactively void the policy because Mr. Ruiz said in his insurance policy application that his company didn’t perform work more than 15 feet in height.

Jesco, the general contractor on the project, sought the suit’s dismissal, contending the insurer wasn’t permitted to void the policy under state law. A federal judge agreed with Jesco and dismissed the lawsuit.

The state Supreme Court said it is the duty of workers comp insurers to pay benefits to injured workers regardless of whether employers made misrepresentations, and that rescinding a policy after the fact is not permitted under the state’s workers comp law.   

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an Ohio manufacturer over the death of an employee who was fatally burned by molten metal.

OSHA cited Hubbard-based Ellwood Engineered Castings Co. for 11 “serious” violations and proposed $145,184 in penalties, the agency said Thursday.

The worker was burned by the 2,000 degree molten metal as he was working at the bottom of a pit below the casting operation, OSHA said.

OSHA said Ellwood did not have an effective process for containing and managing molten metal leaks. The company also failed to develop and implement a permit-required confined space program and it failed to properly train employees on the hazards of working in the pit, the agency said.

The company has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.

 

Eighty-three percent of employees agreed they were open to trying and using new safety technologies in the workplace yet “purchase cost remains a key barrier in adopting safety technologies,” according to a report released Thursday by the National Safety Council.

The NSC has been analyzing trends in workplace hazards and safety technology implementation since 2020. For the latest research, the researchers surveyed 1,000 employees and 500 employees to gauge interest in technologies and address overall workplace safety concerns.

The most notable increases in technology usage were for risk management software, proximity sensors and drones, while use of other technologies has remained flat. The report also highlighted gaps in interest in using technologies and the application thereof, with the widest gaps seen in worker impairment detection, virtual reality, and wearables to track worker health.

Of safety concerns, fatigue topped the list of workplace dangers, followed by heavy equipment operation, heat stress, and working at heights, according to the study. Of the workplace risks that have caused accidents and injuries, fatigue was named among 44% of workers surveyed, followed by lack of proper training at 42% and lack of workplace awareness at 41%.

 

 

Costs for medical-legal evaluations and reports used to resolve medical disputes in California workplace injury claims have increased sharply, with the average payment for a comprehensive exam up 52%, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute reported Thursday.

The analysis of costs after the state in 2021 initiated a new fee schedule for med-legal evaluations found that the increase was “primarily due to new per-page fees for record review,” fees paid in addition to flat fees for med-legal evaluations services and which accounted for nearly 75% of the increase in payments, according to CWCI.

The changes also resulted in a 29% increase in costs for supplemental reports for med-legal evaluations.

The per-page record review payments added an average of $1,338 to the flat fee for follow-up evaluations with excess page review and $1,335 to the flat fee for supplemental reports with excess page review.

Additional charges for excess record review were found on 43.3% of the comprehensive evaluations, 24.9% of the follow-up evaluations, and 30.8% of the supplemental reports. For comprehensive evaluations, the new per-page record review fee added an average of $1,817 to the $2,015 flat fee payment for services with page review, CWCI reported.

Physicians specializing in orthopedic surgery provided 44% of the med-legal services in 2023, followed by chiropractors who provided 11% of the services.

When the California Division of Workers’ Compensation adopted the new schedule, it anticipated it would result in a 25% increase in payments for med-legal services.

 

 

Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Physician charges per procedure performed increased by 11% in workers compensation claims from 2020 through 2022, outpacing the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Consumer Price Index of 7% during that time, according to a pricing report released Wednesday by Enlyte LLC.

Enlyte showed a more modest increase of 2% from 2022 to 2023 for medical services. From 2023 to year-to-date, the costs remained flat or “negligible” in high-volume workers comp states of California, Florida, New York and Texas.

The report was based on Enlyte’s own observations of charges and trends from professional service medical bills.

 

 

 

Lawmakers in New Jersey are considering a bill that would give doctors discretion over which health conditions qualify for medical marijuana use.

S.B. 3484 would amend New Jersey’s 14-year-old medical marijuana law that lists more than a dozen conditions that qualify for medical marijuana use by adding the language “any other medical condition or disease for which a healthcare practitioner determines that a patient would receive palliative or therapeutic benefit from the use of medical cannabis.”

The bill, introduced Monday, was referred to the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.