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Employers continue to struggle with fall prevention and protection more than two years after federal regulators updated workplace safety rules in an effort to reduce fall-related fatalities, experts say. With falls killing more workers than ever in recent years, employers should place a renewed focus on reevaluating and managing the risk, they say. “I think (employers) are still getting the…

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…

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 ' exercise of his…