While truckers are winning misclassification suits on the West Coast, the fate of similar lawsuits elsewhere in the country is less predictable. The Seventh Circuit court of appeals in Chicago recently dismissed a class action lawsuit that claimed a trucking company misclassified drivers as independent contractors. On Nov. 20, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed…
The Illinois Legislature has overturned the veto of a bill by Gov. Bruce Rauner that amends the state’s workers compensation law to allow medical providers to sue insurers over interest stemming from unpaid bills, among other changes hammered out in last-minute compromises. Gov. Rauner vetoed S.B. 904 in August, but the Senate on Nov. 14 voted 55-1 to overturn his…
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has released its bi-annual analysis of workers’ compensation premiums across the country and it is good news for Illinois. For several years our high ranking in the Oregon Premium Rate Survey – which ranks states based on how much employers pay for workers’ comp insurance -has been used by the business community…
A report from Oregon shows that workers’ compensation costs are falling in Illinois, but a manufacturing group said employers here have yet to see any savings. The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association heralded a report this week from the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services that ranked Illinois workers’ compensation costs at the 22nd highest in the nation, down from…
The payments for similar knee and shoulder surgeries performed in ambulatory surgery centers were lower compared with hospital outpatient departments in many study states, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Researchers with the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute examined payments in 18 states in 2016, finding that in 14 of them payments for knee surgeries done…
Eugene Keefe argues that Senate Bill 904 lurks as an ever-greater disaster waiting to happen in relationship to doctors and hospitals across the state being able to get compensated in a timely manner. “Our concern is SB 904 would further increase litigation and concomitant employer costs in a system where Illinois already has what the Stat-Rats opine is the second…
Today the Indiana Department of Labor released the state’s results from the 2017 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses report, which measures incidents of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses on an annual basis. Indiana’s nonfatal occupational injury and illness rate remains at the lowest in state history for the second year in a row, with an…
The Democrats winning control of the U.S. House of Representatives and of governorships and legislatures in multiple states in elections last week could result in improvements in health care access at the federal level and the passage of bills at the state level that could boost comp benefits for injured workers. “My initial reaction was to look at the states…
The Illinois Senate on Wednesday voted 55-1 to overturn a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner that would amend workers compensation law to allow medical providers to charge insurers interest at a rate of 2% a month when bills are not paid promptly, among other changes. Specifically, S.B. 904, which passed both the state Senate and House in May and was…
Workplace fatalities are on the rise, but new safety research is outlining the ways that a deep dive into could-happens, near misses and smaller, less serious incidents could help prevent on-the-job deaths. Referring to a pyramid to illustrate workplace incidents, with the relatively small number of fatalities at the top and droves of noninjury accidents at the bottom, a researcher…
