Tag: Workers Comp

Commercial insurance rates continued to rise for all major lines except workers compensation last month, but the pace of increases eased for most coverages, according to a report Thursday from Ivans Insurance Services, a unit of Applied Systems Inc.

Umbrella liability was the only line of coverage where average renewal rate hikes accelerated, rising to 9.5% in April from 7.1% in the prior month.

In other lines, commercial property rates increased 10%, compared with 10.5%; commercial auto rates were up 8.2%, compared with 9.6%; business owners policy rates rose 7.9%, compared with 8.8%; and general liability rates were up 4.8%, compared with 6.1%.

Workers comp rates fell 2.2%, compared with a 1.6% decline, Ivans reported.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday announced that it has moved closer to publishing a proposed rule to offer greater workplace heat protections to employees in both outdoor and indoor settings.

OSHA said it presented a draft rule during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health in late April.

The committee subsequently recommended that the agency move forward with an expedited notice of proposed rulemaking.

“OSHA is working aggressively to develop a new regulation that keeps workers safe from the dangers of heat,” Assistant OSHA Secretary Doug Parker said in a statement. “As we move through the required regulatory process for creating these protections, OSHA will use all of its existing tools to hold employers responsible when they fail to protect workers from known hazards such as heat.”

OSHA said that in the interim, it has prioritized programmed inspections in the agricultural industry that employs temporary, seasonal, nonimmigrant workers through the H-2A program. Those workers are at a particularly high risk for hazardous heat exposure, the agency said.

While the rulemaking process on heat protections moves forward, OSHA said it continues to direct “significant existing outreach and enforcement resources” to help educate employers on the Occupational Safety and Health’s Act general duty clause, which, in the absence of a heat protection rule, is used to cite employers for various violations, including dangerous heat exposure. 

 

 

Lawmakers in New Jersey on Monday read through the latest version of carryover legislation from 2023 that would create a heat standard for workers, calling on businesses to provide water, breaks and shade for those working in high temperatures.

S.B. 2422, which was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, calls on the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to create and enforce rules for employers on or before June 1, 2025.

In addition to providing water and shade, such rules would include regular heat monitoring, paid breaks and heat acclimatization practices, and limits to heat exposure throughout the workday. The measure also includes rules for maintaining records on heat-related illnesses and deaths and language on anti-retaliation for workers who report unsafe conditions.

The bill also includes parameters for fining and prosecuting employers, with fines of up to $5,000 per day under certain conditions and sentences of up to 100 days. 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that it cited a supply-chain transportation company after a worker was hospitalized for serious injuries after being struck by a semi-tractor-trailer at a Nebraska grain yard.

OSHA cited Latham, New York-based Rail Modal Group LLC for 21 “serious” and two “other-than-serious” violations and proposed $261,375 in penalties over a November 2023 incident at a grain facility in Fremont in which a yard manager was directing congested traffic in a storage yard when she was struck by a passing truck.

OSHA cited the company over violations relating to struck-by hazards, machine guarding, fall protection and confined spaces.

The agency said inspectors also found the company failed to meet OSHA’s grain-handling safety standards and failed to implement a hazardous communication program to train employees about hazardous materials.

Rail Modal, which also has facilities in Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas, has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.  

 

The New York State Insurance Fund on Wednesday released a health care-focused report that found a higher correlation between workplace injury frequency and severity and days of extreme temperatures.

The report, based on an analysis of about 95,000 injury claims, states that claims were 45% more likely to occur when the heat index is over 80 degrees, while severity increased by 20%. It also says hospitals should take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced a voluntary climate action pilot program for hospitals focusing on improving worker health and safety.

The program offers premium credits of up to $1 million to NYSIF-insured hospitals that pledge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and help mitigate climate-related hazards that “contribute to steep increases in workplace injuries and illnesses,” the governor’s office said in a news release.

The program also offers hospitals access to NYSIF’s risk control services, which include consultation, resources and training.

New Jersey lawmakers filed legislation Monday that would extend liability to company owners in cases where employers fail to pay for workers compensation insurance.  

Assembly Bill 4283 “expands the reach of the ‘uninsured employer’s fund’ through subrogation, to pursue payment for benefits of the claims related to an employee’s injury from an uninsured employer to include any principal owner of the employer, in addition to the employer,” the bill states.  

Under New Jersey law, employers who fail to provide workers comp insurance face a $1,000 penalty and an additional assessment of 15% of the award in workers comp claims. The penalties are added to the uninsured employer’s fund.

Employers and principal owners would be subject to joint and several liability under the bill, making any penalties for failing to pay for comp insurance collectible against both the employer and owner.

The bill was referred to the Assembly Labor Committee. 

 

 

The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday announced a settlement with two New Jersey contractors that resolves a citation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over fall hazards.

The settlement affirms a citation for four “willful” violations over the companies’ failure to ensure stairways at construction sites had handrails and stair rails, creating a fall hazard for employees.

Primetime Construction LLC and subsidiary Primetime Contractors LLC, both of Paterson, agreed to pay $215,000 in penalties as part of the settlement, and they also agreed to undertake several “significant safety measures,” including conducting prejob hazard assessments for each job, ensuring field employees receive at least 10 hours of OSHA training, and retaining a safety consultant to conduct work site audits, the DOL said.

The companies had initially contested the citation and penalties before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The DOL had amended the citations to add Primetime Construction to the case later during the litigation, according to the agency.

 

 

SAN DIEGO — Missed medical appointments due to lack of transportation, late-reported claims over fears of job and income loss, and language barriers are all pegged as factors that can delay workers compensation claims progression, according to experts.

By examining so-called social determinants of health and considering such factors as workplace demographics, culture and geography, employers and claims handlers can gain insights into what may be needed to help claims along, say speakers Tuesday at Riskworld, the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.’s annual conference.

“It’s looking at a person’s family, social and economic condition in relation to others in the community; and the three factors that we’re looking at here are income, education and occupation,” said Nikki Jackson, Charlotte, North Carolina-based vice president of strategy at MTI America, a company providing ancillary comp services.  

Ms. Jackson relayed a labor statistic that 17% of working Americans are considering “working poor,” and that a workplace injury causes a spiral of worry that may delay even reporting the injury over fear.

“The number one question (following an injury) is am I going to lose my job? Then they worry about, will I get paid?” said Dawn Watkins, Los Angeles-based chief risk officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Addressing issues outside of what may be on a claims form is key, according to Ms. Watkins, who said open-ended questions can help sift through the challenges the worker is facing outside of the injury itself.

Language barriers are a common issue, Ms. Watkins said, adding that even if a person can speak English, it doesn’t mean they can understand the paperwork and lexicon common in comp. “Let go of the jargon and the QME, PT, MMI, MPN,” she said of common acronyms used in the industry. “We could do the alphabet soup game right here. It’s hard for people; they don’t understand.”

Ms. Watkins stressed the importance of staying in contact with injured workers.

“It may be questions about transportation…  I’ve had nurses come back and say they had a claimant take three buses to get to this appointment,” she said of an issue that could spell missed appointments and delayed return to work. The solution is often to provide transportation.

“We try to think what will help that injured worker where they are,” Ms. Watkins said.