Workers compensation patients who undergo lumbar surgeries have higher percentages of reoperation and readmission compared to those undergoing similar surgeries in group health, the Workers Compensation Research Institute reported in a study released Thursday. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based WCRI researchers examined 30- and 90-day reoperation and readmission rates for injured workers who underwent lumbar spine surgeries in 18 states from October 2015…
A construction company that appealed the Indiana Workers Compensation Board’s award of medical and disability to a worker who fell through the roof not only lost its appeal, but saw the worker’s award increased by 5% by the court. In KNK Group v. Sarver, the Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed the board’s ruling that the company did not…
The increase in facility costs for hospital emergency room visits has “significantly” outpaced medical inflation, with facility costs growing approximately three times faster than the hospital outpatient producer price index, according to an analysis of workers compensation emergency room costs released Friday by the National Council on Compensation Insurance. The Boca Raton, Florida-based ratings agency said in its report that…
Despite substantial reductions in recent years, opioids continue to be widely dispensed to workers with work-related injuries in several states, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute studied factors that are associated with longer-term opioid use, finding that the strongest predictor of such use is opioid prescribing early in a claim….
Heath D. Shelton, a 36-year-old Smithton man, has pleaded guilty to a single count of making a false statement to receive federal disability compensation under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. Shelton was working for the US Postal Service as a letter carrier when he injured his back in 2012. He started receiving federal disability payments for his injury. Later on,…
An insurer that covered a subcontractor must defend the contractor in the electrocution death of a subcontractor employee, an Illinois federal district court ruled Monday. Columbus, Ohio-based State Auto Property & Casualty Insurance Co. issued an insurance policy to Centralia, Illinois-based Rock Branch Ironworks Inc. for the policy period April 2018 to April 2019, according to the ruling by the…
Indiana had 21 work-related deaths on farms deaths last year, the fewest number of documented cases since 2013, Purdue University announced on Sept. 22. Three of the victims were children under the age of 5, while 11 were 60 or older, Purdue’s Agricultural Safety and Health Program announced. “Every one of these lives mattered to someone. Each one was an…
Employers nationwide are following the legislative push to accept COVID-19 claims by presumption in workers compensation, changes that aren’t necessarily guaranteeing that such infectious disease claims will be greenlighted but instead promise a surge in litigation and confusion, experts say. Given the new laws’ many nuances, employers are “worried about staying on top” of the presumption trend, said Ralph Touch,…
The exclusivity provisions of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act do not bar a worker’s claims for statutory damages for violating her rights under a state biometric privacy law, an appellate court held Friday. In McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park LLC, the Illinois Court of Appeals, Fifth District unanimously answered that a class of workers could proceed with their claims of…
The Supreme Court of Illinois on Thursday ruled a chef’s knee injury, suffered as he knelt to look for a tray of carrots, was compensable, reversing several earlier court decisions that in part found the injury to not be work-related. In 2014, sous chef Kevin McAllister was working at Chicago’s North Pond restaurant setting up for his shift when another…
