Tag: Workers Comp

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration  Thursday released its findings from an investigation into a deadly Pennsylvania candy factory explosion, faulting the company for failing to evacuate the building after workers reported smelling gas.

Seven workers were killed in the March 24 explosion caused by a natural gas leak at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading.

OSHA cited the company under its general duty clause for not evacuating employees and for failing to clearly mark emergency exits. The agency proposed $44,483 in penalties.

“The company could have prevented this horrific tragedy by following required safety procedures,” Kevin T. Chambers, OSHA area director in Harrisburg, said in a statement.

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

 

 

 

Medical payments per claim decreased by 3% on average in 17 states for 2021 injuries with costs that extended into the first quarter of 2022, according to a set of studies released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

The main driver of the decline was a decrease in the utilization of medical services, likely as a result of the pandemic, according to WCRI, which attributed the lingering decreases to stay-at-home orders and suspensions of nonemergency surgeries and procedures that were delayed or withdrawn in 2020.

The studies cover the period from 2016 through 2021, with claims experience through March 2022, including non-COVID-19 claims from the first and second years of the pandemic.

The 17 states studied represent about 60% of the nation’s workers compensation benefit payments, according to a WCRI spokesman.

 

A truck driver who was injured during a workers compensation treatment session for another injury is entitled to additional benefits, the Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims ruled Wednesday.

Clayton Rash was injured at work and approved for disability benefits and medical treatment. During a physical therapy session, he suffered a rotator cuff tear and sought additional benefits under the state’s “direct and natural consequences” rule.

His employer, Fine Line Transportation LLC, denied the request, arguing the shoulder injury may not have been caused by physical therapy exercises.

The comp court ruled that Mr. Rash was entitled to medical and temporary disability benefits for the shoulder injury because he was likely to prevail at a hearing to address the merits of the secondary injury claim.

The court wrote that new or aggravated injuries are compensable if they are a direct result of the original work injury.  

Business Insurance on Thursday named the 2023 winners of its annual Women to Watch awards program.

The program, which began in 2006, recognizes women leaders doing outstanding work in risk management and commercial insurance. From the beginning, the program has recognized winners working around the globe, and in 2017 the publication expanded the awards to include a separate program specifically for women executives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Business Insurance readers nominated candidates for Women to Watch, and a panel of Business Insurance editors selected the honorees based on those nominations.

Below are this year’s 30 honorees for Women to Watch and 20 honorees for Women to Watch EMEA.

Profiles of the winners will appear in the December edition of Business Insurance. The awards will be presented during events in London on Nov. 7 and New York on Dec. 4-5.

Women to Watch

Joan Bauer, WKFC Underwriting Managers and CorRisk Underwriting Managers, units of RSG Underwriting Managers LLC

Laura Beckman, AmRisc Group, a unit of Truist Insurance Holdings Inc.

Jill Beggs, Everest Insurance, a unit of Everest Group Ltd.     

Sharon Burger, IMA Inc.

Becky Carlson-Krzywonos, American International Group Inc.

Ania Caruso, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

April Chan, Insurance Office of America Inc.

Jordann Coleman, Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Rachel Cushing, Chubb Ltd.

Amber Finch, Reed Smith LLP

Cynthia Garcia, Bernards Brothers Inc.

Marcia Giesler, Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc.

Diana Shafter Gliedman, Anderson Kill P.C.

Denise Gordon, Willis Towers Watson PLC    

Kim Gore, Hub International Ltd

Jaime Henry, Origami Risk LLC

Melissa Hollingsworth, Atlanta Housing Authority

Jenna Kirkpatrick Howard, Lockton Cos. LLC

Jenise Klein, Allianz Commercial, a unit of Allianz SE

Elizabeth Kramer, Munich Re Specialty Insurance, a unit of Munich Reinsurance Co.

Lisa Leftwich, Zurich North America

Christine Loiselle, Hylant Group Inc.

Amanda Lyons, Aon PLC

Megan McClellan, Marsh LLC

Catherine Miller, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Co.

Courtney Ramirez, Alliant Insurance Services Inc.

Stephanie Snyder Frenier, CAC Specialty                 

Rachel Thuerk, Vicinity Energy

Belen Tokarski, Mylo LLC

Violet Xu, ReSource Pro LLC

Women to Watch EMEA         

Sarah Breslin, Pen Underwriting Ltd., a unit of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Andrea Brock, QBE Insurance Group Ltd.

Joanna Chardon, Akur8 SAS

Ana Dores, Axa XL, a unit of Axa SA

Gabrielle Durisch, Allianz Commercial, a unit of Allianz SE

Josianne El Antoury, Covington & Burling LLP

Andiara Nordang Fleischer, Crawford & Co.

Emily Fraser, RSA Insurance Group Ltd.

Roxanne Griffiths, American International Group Inc.            

Julia Holm, Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc.

Liliana Lapadatoni-Huluta, Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.

Sophie Meiklejohn, Miller Insurance Services LLP

Kay McMenamin, Willis Towers Watson PLC 

Karen Nordblom, SiriusPoint Ltd.

Crystal Png, Euclid Transactional, a division of Euclid Insurance Services Inc.

Penny Seach, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.

Jacqueline Sinclair, CFC Underwriting Ltd.

Catherine Tillyard, McGill and Partners Ltd.

Meghan Walker, Liberty Specialty Markets, a unit of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.     

Hannah Witzel, FM Global      

For more information on the London event, click here. For more information on the New York event, click here.

The U.S. Department of Labor Tuesday announced a settlement agreement with a New Jersey contractor that was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after workers were exposed to high-voltage power lines at a work site.

As part of the agreement, Wayne-based Litana Development Inc. will pay $180,000 in penalties for two willful citations it was issued as general contractor at a Paterson, New Jersey, work site where workers employed by subcontractors were discovered working near live power lines.

Litana and the subcontractors had been ordered by a judge to stop work within 11 feet of the power lines, which were eventually relocated across the street in order for work to resume.

Under the settlement, Litana must create and submit a safety plan to OSHA, inform the agency of all current and future work sites, implement a subcontractor management plan, and retain a safety professional to complete a job hazard analysis for all existing and future work sites.

The U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday that a Boise, Idaho, dog daycare business owner has agreed to pay $25,000 each to two former employees who were fired after raising concerns about being exposed to COVID-19 on the job.

The consent agreement, entered Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, also requires House of Hounds LLC to remove any negative reference to the incident from the former workers’ employment records and to apologize to the individuals publicly on social media.

The workers were fired after expressing concerns to management about working alongside a coworker who had been awaiting COVID-19 test results, the DOL said.

A third employee who also raised concerns was not disciplined because they didn’t file a complaint with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to the DOL.

OSHA said the company violated federal whistleblower regulations by retaliating against the two workers who filed complaints with the agency.

The agreement also requires the company to provide OSHA-approved management training and to send out employee rights notices.  

From wearables to apps that track movement, technology has fast become key to helping employers reduce musculoskeletal injuries. Citing confusion over the matter, the National Safety Council on Wednesday issued a white paper on how employers can best pursue such technology. 

In examining products and services available, researchers found that computer vision “may be a helpful tool” for large organizations that can effectively aggregate and analyze ergonomic risks across their business.

In instances where implementing engineering controls is not financially feasible, researchers found that workers may benefit from the use of wearable sensors, which can provide real-time feedback to reduce back injuries caused by poor posture, over-reaching and improper lifting.  

To reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders caused by manual materials handling, organizations may consider adopting passive exoskeletons, which have been shown to reduce muscle activity by up to 40% and, in one case study, decreased worker fatigue by 45% and boosted organization output by nearly 10%. 

 

The Ohio Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation can’t recover costs for a doctor’s review in a case to recover proceeds from a third-party lawsuit filed by a worker injured in a vehicle accident initially covered by workers comp.

Lamar Thomas, whose initial claim was paid by the BWC, sought to have his injury expanded to include an aggravation of his preexisting degenerative disc disease and spondylolisthesis, according to Thomas v. Logue. The BWC denied the claim, contending the subsequent conditions were unrelated to the accident.

The BWC hired a doctor to review Mr. Thomas’ medical records, resulting in a determination that the additional conditions were degenerative and unrelated to the injury. The Industrial Commission upheld the decision to deny the claim’s expansion.

After Mr. Thomas pursued a civil suit against the motorist at fault for the accident, the BWC asserted a right of subrogation and attempted to collect the fees it had paid for a medical examination related to expanding the claim.

Mr. Thomas subsequently filed a class-action lawsuit against the BWC, seeking a declaration that the subrogation recovery practices were unlawful.

The Court of Claims ruled in favor of the BWC’s practice, but the Court of Appeals reversed.

The Ohio Supreme Court affirmed in a 4-3 decision that the fees cannot be part of subrogation because the BWC’s interest is “statutorily” defined as the “past, present and estimated future payments of compensation, medical benefits, rehabilitation costs or death benefits” and that the medical review “expense was not for medical treatment, nor was it any other form of cognizable compensatory expense that Thomas could have presented in his third-party tort case to recover as damages.”

The dissenting judges argued that the BWC’s obtaining an independent medical review is in the best interest of claimants and should be recoverable in third-party lawsuits.

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

 

As retailers begin hiring seasonal workers to meet the demands of the upcoming holiday season, experts are stressing the importance of safety training for temporary employees who may be new to fast-paced industries such as warehousing and delivery.

Over the years retail work has shifted more toward mail-order and has become a focus for safety regulators as the demanding labor has led to more strains and other injuries.

Seasonal workers pose a dilemma, experts say.

Such temporary workers “might be willing to compromise safety or to take additional tasks and additional risks associated with those tasks to impress their potential employer,” said Vernon Iturralde, a Houston-based assistant vice president of risk control with Gallagher Bassett Services Inc. “And if they’re not trained or expected to do that, then they could really put themselves at a disadvantage from a risk perspective.”

Amazon.com Inc. announced Sept. 19 that it will be hiring 250,000 people, some of them for seasonal roles. United Parcel Service Inc. said it’s planning to bring on an additional 100,000 temporary workers to meet holiday demand.

On Sept. 27, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General issued a report critical of workplace safety inspections in warehousing. It said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has not effectively addressed high injury and illness rates occurring in warehouses.

This time of year, retail distribution centers are “on steroids,” as companies attempt to meet increased demand with additional workers, said Don Enke, vice president of risk services for St. Louis-based Safety National Casualty Corp.

Some companies are onboarding temporary workers at “warp speed,” which is a concern as temporary workers tend to get hurt more frequently than full-time employees, Mr. Enke said.

New employees tend to get hurt within the first six months on the job, he said, meaning the addition of part-time, seasonal workers who may have never done the job before could translate into increased work injury rates, which could be a concern for workers compensation insurers.

Companies can avoid workplace injuries — and corresponding comp claims — by taking steps to ensure temporary workers receive proper guidance on workplace safety, Mr. Enke said.

“The better employers are going to put them through the same program and process as they would if they were hiring full-time employees,” Mr. Enke said.    

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company is doing just that: offering seasonal workers improved safety training after developing a new curriculum designed to improve workplace safety practices.

Experience is also a concern, as many seasonal workers fall between the ages of 18 and 24 and thus it could be the first time they’ve been exposed to forklifts and other dangerous machinery, said Jon Wilson, Lombard, Illinois-based senior loss control consultant with Gallagher Bassett.

“You can’t treat them the same way that you’re going to treat somebody who has spent 10 years in a warehouse,” Mr. Wilson said.

Increased work injuries, however, are not just traced to novice employees, he said, but also to increased volume or demand of work regardless of who is performing it.

“When we have that increase in production or those increases in work hours, it’s more likely that we’re going to see a lot more injuries,” Mr. Wilson said.