Overall workers compensation medical payments have continued to decline, according to the Workers Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s statewide Workers Compensation Aggregate Medical Payment Trends report, the bureau announced Tuesday. The report compares medical payment information from 2016 to 2018 and also analyzes utilization and cost of opioid prescriptions over time and by region. Medical payments for pharmaceuticals and…
A lack of effective worker participation in process safety efforts heightens the risk of employee injuries and serious safety incidents, according to a new report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. Worker participation is an “essential element” to improve process safety and prevent chemical incidents and is required by several existing federal safety regulations, including the U.S….
Telemedicine has been touted as a trend to watch in workers compensation yet the use of technology to link medical providers and injured patients has been slow to take hold in the comp sector because of regulatory and other obstacles, experts say. But telemedicine as a way to treat minor on-the-job injuries holds promise, said Rick Sumner, director risk of…
A state agency says a northern Indiana company was partly responsible for the death of a 43-year-old employee who was killed when welding equipment fell from a forklift. The Elkhart Truth reports that the investigation by Indiana’s workplace safety agency revealed that Bravo Trailers in Bristol didn’t ensure that each forklift operator was properly trained and ensure that forklifts only…
A Chicago police officer has pleaded guilty in federal court to taking at least $10,000 in bribes from the owner of an attorney referral service in exchange for information about crash victims and their insurance carriers. The Chicago Tribune reports that 47-year-old Milot Cadichon entered his guilty plea to bribery on Aug. 22 as part of a plea agreement with…
Nearly three dozen people have sued the operator of a suburban Chicago medical equipment cleaning plant they claim emits fumes that have adversely affected their health, lawyers for the plaintiffs announced. The 32 lawsuits filed against Sterigenics LLC this week in Cook County seek damages from the company, which operates a plant in Willowbrook. Jeanne Hochhalter is one of those…
An Illinois construction company that waited six years to inform its excess insurer that it had been sued cannot expect coverage from that carrier, and it can’t go after the insurance brokerage that sold it the policy either, a federal appellate court ruled. “Waiting five to seven years before telling an insurance company that its policy may be implicated in…
Illinois alleges that a company that provides water to a Chicago suburb made changes without permission from state regulators that caused lead to contaminate the village’s drinking water. Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against Aqua Illinois, the company that supplies water to residents of University Park, a village about 40 miles south of Chicago. The lawsuit says Aqua…
An East St. Louis man alleges he was fired by a local trucking company after being injured on the job in 2018 and receiving workers’ compensation benefits. Roderick Jones filed suit July 31 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against Zade Trucking, alleging violations of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act. “There is a causal connection between [Jones]’ exercise of his…
A new report found it is becoming less common for workers to be prescribed painkillers after an on-the-job injury in Illinois. The Workers Compensation Research Institute monitors how often workers injured on the job are given prescription opioids in 27 select states. The organization’s new report found the percentage of Illinois workers who received a prescription paid for under workers…
