The ever-present immigration debate continues to spill into the workers compensation industry, with undocumented workers who are injured on the job left to consider whether to pursue medical care and benefits at the risk of arrest and deportation, experts say. Case law and state statutes vary widely regarding what benefits may be afforded to an injured undocumented worker, and these…
Dean Foods was ordered to pay $3.3 million in punitive damages after an Illinois jury found that the company retaliated against an employee who filed workers’ compensation claims. The jury found that Dean Foods refused to call Richard Jankowski back to work after his on-the-job injury and after he refused work that exceeded his medical restrictions, the Northwest Herald reported….
A former worker for Rock Island County, Illinois, once accused of accessing a co-worker’s computer, will receive thousands of dollars in a settlement with the county, including almost $26,000 for a workers’ compensation claim. Rock Island County board members this week approved the settlement, on the condition that Ronna Baney never seeks work with the county again, according to a…
A family claims they were poisoned by carbon monoxide and are blaming a dislodged furnace exhaust pipe, according to a lawsuit filed against a roofer they are allege was partly responsible. Amanda and Eric Zimmerman filed suit Nov. 1 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against roofer, Luis Perez who was hired as a sub-contractor to carry out work on…
A pedestrian claiming he was the victim of a hit and run driver has filed suit against the motorist, whom the complaint states was later charged with aggravated battery. Ryan Gentelin filed suit against Roger Lawver amid claims the motorist was negligent and intoxicated when the incident happened on Langdon Street in Alton on Sept. 27. In his complaint, filed…
Nearly 1,200 surgical patients may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV and other infectious diseases due to a sterilization failure, a northern Indiana hospital says. A Goshen Hospital sterilization technician failed to complete one crucial step in the sterilizing process of some surgical equipment, potentially exposing to communicable diseases patients who underwent surgery at the hospital between April 1 and…
High rates of employee turnover and a young workforce may be behind increases in workplace injuries reported in the retail sector, but male employees and aging workers are cost drivers in retail workers compensation, according to two reports released in November detailing injury and illness rates for retail workers in 2018. Occupational injury and illness rates for all industries have…
An employee has failed to persuade an appeals court that his workers’ compensation claim was linked to a new injury that happened in the course of his employment. The Fifth District Appellate Court, in an order filed Nov. 6, affirmed a decision by a lower court that confirmed a ruling by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission in a case taken…
A lack of transparency in workers compensation pharmacy continues to be an issue for much of the industry, according to a CompPharma study released Tuesday. Opioid prescriptions and overall pharmacy spend declined between 2017 and 2018, reported Maggie Valley, North Carolina-based CompPharma in its 16th annual Survey of Prescription Drug Management in Workers Compensation study. However, 83% of the survey…
Compared with rising medical costs, cash benefits paid to injured workers are continuing to decline, which experts peg to safer workplaces curbing injury severity and time away and legislative changes that make it tougher to claim workers compensation among the reasons. “We’ve been doing an outstanding job in modernizing workers compensation and taking a lot of waste and abuse out…
