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The widow and son of a Monroe County Jail officer murdered in 2005 will receive more than $275,000 in federal funds from the Public Safety Officer Benefits program. The payment was approved last week, seven years after the benefit claim was filed and 13 years after Sgt. Bill Brand was shot and killed. The funds will be used to provide…

Federal and state policymakers are implementing a variety of strategies to address inappropriate prescription use in the treatment of injured workers, and the damaging effects of increased opioid use for pain treatment. Inappropriate use of prescription drugs has a negative impact on patient health and returning to work. Patients often stay out of work longer than those with similar injuries…

State Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon), the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and others recently spoke out against two eerily familiar Democrat-sponsored bills that would overhaul worker's compensation in Illinois. SB2863, which amends the Employer's Liability Rates Article of the Illinois Insurance Code, along with HB4595, which amends the Illinois Insurance Code provision concerning the Illinois Workers' Compensation…

Who are the most expensive workers to insure in Illinois? It's not roofers or sawmill operators, coal miners or painters. Nor is it loggers, steelworkers or carnies. In 2018, oil and gas drillers paid the highest rates for workers' compensation in the state. High risk for severe injury plus a tiny pool of industry players combine to generate rates of…

Workers’ compensation is the third-largest line in property & casualty insurance, accounting for 9% of all P&C net premiums, according to a J.D. Power analysis of S&P Global Market Intelligence data. Four states comprise 37% of direct premiums written for workers’ compensation in the United States: California, New York, Florida and Illinois. Although the workers’ compensation line has been profitable…

The prescribing of topical pain-management creams rose in 2017 workers compensation claims that were not monitored by pharmacy benefits managers, according to a report released Wednesday by Coventry Workers Comp. The second in a series covering workers comp drugs trends, Downers Grove, Illinois-based Coventry compared its 2017 data on managed claims, representing 77.6% of total comp prescriptions, and unmanaged claims,…

Hospital outpatient payments were higher and growing faster in states with percent-of-charge-based fee regulations or no fee schedules, finds a study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) that compares 35 states. States with percent-of-charge-based fee regulations had substantially higher hospital outpatient payments per surgical episode than states with fixed-amount fee schedules—30 to 196 percent higher than the median of…