Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has vetoed a bill that would have provided for prejudgment interest in the recovery of damages in personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits. House Bill 3360 “provides for the recovery of prejudgment interest on all damages set forth in a judgment in any action brought to recover damages for personal injuries or wrongful death, whether by…
Prescriptions for opioids and compounds continue to decline in workers compensation, but dermatologicals — particularly physician-dispensed drugs — continue to be a cost driver, according to the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Preliminary data from 28 states showed that the payment share of dermatologicals increased from 11% in 2015 to 21% in the first quarter of 2020, while opioids’ payment share…
State regulators have fined Northern Indiana Public Service Co. more than $1 million — the largest in Indiana history — for pipeline safety violations the utility has faced twice in the previous four years. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission ordered the natural gas supplier to pay $1.138 million in civil penalties for violations related to the company’s failure to locate…
An Illinois-based container shipping company faces proposed penalties of $156,038 after an employee suffered a leg amputation and crushed pelvis when he fell off and was then run over by a powered heavy-lift vehicle used to move and stack steel containers at the firm’s Chicago facility. The 30-year-old recent hire suffered the injuries after being allowed to ride unsecured on…
Health care workers’ exposure to COVID-19 most often comes from community spread, not their occupational activities, according to a study conducted by Emory University released Thursday. Researchers from Emory in Atlanta, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Rush University in Chicago and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed the antibodies of more than 24,000…
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories now account for more than a third of all drugs dispensed to injured workers, and just two NSAIDs account for two-thirds of prescription payments in that drug category, according to a report released Wednesday by the California Workers Compensation Institute. Oakland, California-based CWCI analyzed changes in the distribution of workers comp prescriptions and prescription payments in the state…
The renewal process for 2021 included several changes spurred by the pandemic, as companies changed workers’ job duties and insurers wanted to know more about what was being done to manage risks associated with COVID-19. Much depended on the type of business involved, said JoEllen Thelen, St. Louis-based middle market practice leader for the central region for Aon PLC. “With…
Workers’ compensation insurers aren’t getting the large aggregate volumes of COVID-related claims projected during the early months of the pandemic, but different data sources give varying readouts on developments for individual U.S. states and classes of workers. In fact, while claim frequencies are down for workers’ compensation overall with business shutdowns bringing lower numbers of non-COVID claims, and while the…
A bill filed in the Illinois General Assembly would transfer the responsibilities for investigating workers’ compensation fraud to the state insurance department. Under HB 2947, the pending business of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission’s Insurance Compliance Division would be transferred to the Illinois Department of Insurance. he change would transfer “all powers, duties, rights, responsibilities, personnel, books, records, papers, documents,…
Lawmakers in Illinois will consider making post-traumatic stress disorder compensable for certain first responders under a bill presented on Friday. H.B. 3081 states that “post-traumatic stress disorder is to be rebuttably presumed to arise out of and to be causally connected to the hazards of employment” for firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics. Lawmakers also read H.B. 3697, which states…
