Tag: Workers Comp

Lawmakers in Maryland are considering a bill that would allow an injured worker or surviving family member to sue an employer for intentional acts that the employer had “actual knowledge” would occur. 

S.B. 750, introduced Thursday, would provide an exception to exclusive remedy in workers compensation, making an employer liable if an employee is injured or killed “as the result of the deliberate intent of the employer to injure or kill the covered employee.”

Under the proposal, deliberate intent means the employer “acted in a manner that was premeditated or willful in causing the injury to or death of the covered employee” or “had actual knowledge that an injury or death was substantially likely to occur and willfully disregarded that knowledge.”

If passed, the change would go into effect Oct. 1 and would apply retroactively to Jan. 1, 2022.

 

 

 

Lawmakers in South Carolina are considering a bill that would amend its workers compensation laws to provide the requirements for a first responder to file a workers comp claim for a “stress or mental injury” that is not accompanied by a physical injury.

H.B. 4992, introduced Wednesday and referred to the Committee on Judiciary, states that a first responder must witness a “(s)ignificant traumatic experience or situation” to qualify for benefits, listing 11 types of incidents that one must have “see(n), hear(d), or smell(ed) for oneself,” most of which include death or grave bodily harm.

The bill defines a first responder as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical technician employed by state or local government. A volunteer law enforcement officer or firefighter engaged by state or local government would also be eligible. 

 

 

 

 

Workers compensation is the only health care payer system that has seen a year-over-year decline in hospital inpatient discharges for more than a decade in California, according to new research findings published Wednesday by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.

The report, which examined inpatient care utilization trends between 2012 and 2022, shows that workers comp continues to represent an extremely small share of in-state hospitalizations, accounting for 0.3% of all inpatient discharges in 2022.

Researchers said that legislative and regulatory reforms enacted in 2012 designed to improve injured worker care and establish enhanced utilization controls helped to improve inpatient hospitalizations, which at the time was the No. 3 cost driver in California’s workers comp system.

The report looked at more than 28.7 million inpatient stays under four different payment systems – workers compensation, Medicare, Medi-Cal and private health insurance coverage. Workers comp accounted for 0.4% of those hospitalizations. 

Over those 10 years, injured worker hospital stays fell 51.1%.

The report also said the state saw a decline in workers comp inpatient surgeries due to the number of spinal fusions and joint replacement procedures now performed on an outpatient basis. 

 

 

 

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated a teacher’s claim for benefits for his methicillin-resistant staph infection, which he contracted in a wound he suffered while on a school-sponsored camping trip.

Peter Southworth was working for Proctor Academy as an English teacher in September 2015 when he was a faculty supervisor for a multiday school camping trip. When returning from the trip, Mr. Southworth noticed an area on his leg that appeared to be inflamed or cut. Lab cultures collected from his right thigh lesion later confirmed the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, according to re Appeal of Southworth, No. 2022-0544, which is unpublished.

Mr. Southworth’s condition worsened despite treatment. In October 2015, he collapsed and went into a coma. He spent a month in the hospital undergoing several surgeries to drain an epidural abscess that extended from his cervical spine to his lumbar area.

He later filed a workers compensation claim and the Department of Labor found he was entitled to benefits. The Compensation Appeals Board reversed and denied the claim, noting that there was expert medical testimony that MRSA is often community-acquired and that it is impossible to determine whether Mr. Southworth contracted his infection at work.

The state’s highest court reversed, stating that it is “well-established that an employer remains liable for subsequent injuries that are the ‘direct and natural result’ of a prior, work-related injury.”

Since it was undisputed that Mr. Southworth suffered a work-related injury to his thigh, the court said, it was not necessarily his burden to prove that he “actually contracted MRSA at work.” The court said it remains to be determined whether the MRSA infection was a direct and natural result of the injury Southworth sustained on the camping trip.

WorkCompCentral is a sister publication of Business Insurance. More stories here.

 

 

An Alabama appellate court ruled Wednesday that a trial court wrongly dismissed a worker’s compensation claim filed by a nursing assistant who said she was left permanently disabled after contracting COVID-19 at the nursing home where she worked.

The Court of Civil Appeals ruled the trial judge improperly found that COVID-19 was not compensable under state law when it ruled for the employer, Opp Health and Rehabilitation LLC.

Rena Meeks filed a workers comp claim in May 2021, saying she suffered injuries to her lungs and airway that left her permanently disabled.

The company challenged the claim as non-compensable, and the trial court agreed.

Ms. Meeks argued in her appeal that her condition was compensable as a “non-accidental injury.”

The appellate court ruled that Ms. Meeks was entitled to pursue her claim because her job duties exposed her to a “danger or risk materially in excess of that to which people are normally exposed in their everyday lives.”

The case was remanded for further proceedings.  

 

 

A transportation company in New Jersey faces $437,860 in fines after Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors repeatedly found workplace safety and health hazards involving chemicals.

OSHA initiated its investigation of Dana Container in Paulsboro in July 2023 in response to an employee complaint that alleged safety and health deficiencies.

The agency cited the company for one willful violation because it did not properly maintain safety data sheets for chemicals, including corrosives, and three repeat violations because container labels were not updated, leaving workers unaware of the names of new chemicals; eyewash stations that were not properly maintained; and failure to conduct medical evaluations for workers prior to respirator use.

OSHA cited Dana Container in 2019 and 2023 for similar violations.

The company was also cited for four serious citations after the latest investigation for failure to inspect hoists, establish a written hazard communication program and ensure safety requirements were met during use of a lifeline fall protection system.

The company has 15 business days to comply or contest the findings.

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A 20-year analysis of health care treatment released Wednesday revealed a significant rise in use of complementary health approaches, such as yoga and meditation, especially for pain management.

The analysis, conducted by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the percentage of individuals who reported using at least one of seven alternative approaches to care increased from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022.

For pain management, the use of alternative therapies increased from 42.3% in 2002 to 49.2% in 2022.

Researchers utilized data from the 2002, 2012 and 2022 National Health Interview Survey to evaluate changes in the use of seven complementary health approaches, including yoga, meditation, massage therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, naturopathy and guided imagery/progressive muscle relaxation.

 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday that it cited a Florida drywall contractor following a worker’s fatal head injury in July 2023.

OSHA cited Homestead-based Stucco Works Inc. after a worker was struck by the hoist arm of a pulley system used to lift buckets of concrete at a residential work site in Miami Beach.

The hoist arm had detached from the scaffold and struck the worker in the head.

OSHA cited the company for 12 serious violations for failing to maintain a safe working environment and proposed $74,555 in penalties.

Stucco Works has already contested the citation and proposed penalties before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. 

 

 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court said Tuesday that an injured worker was improperly denied permanent total disability benefits from the state’s Multiple Injury Trust Fund.

The high court reversed a Workers Compensation Commission decision, which affirmed a workers comp judge’s decision to deny the claim by Gary Stricklen, who worked for the Grand River Dam Authority for two decades.

Mr. Stricklen had four previous workers comp adjudications for injuries he suffered between 2008 and 2019 at the time he filed another claim in June 2021 for permanent total disability with the trust fund, which acts as a second injury fund to provide employers with protection from liability when they hire workers with preexisting disabilities.

The fund pays 90% of the state’s permanent disability benefits.

The fund argued it wasn’t liable for the claim because the phrase “subsequent employer” in the statute that created the fund meant a claimant’s injuries must occur with an employer other than the one at the time of the most recent injury.

The workers comp judge and commission both agreed with the fund in denying the claim, but the appeals court said the claim should have been accepted because the fund misinterpreted the statute.

The term “subsequent employer” in the statute refers to the employer at the time of an employee’s “subsequent injury,” the court wrote.

The court remanded the case to the commission for further proceedings.