News

A Lake County court lacked jurisdiction to award nearly $2 million in attorney fees arising from a permanently injured man’s Illinois worker’s compensation case. The Indiana Court of Appeals on Wednesday vacated the judge’s order on fees entered in the man’s guardianship case. An appellate panel vacated Lake Superior Judge Marissa McDermott’s order for Hartford Insurance Co. to pay $1.9…

Growth in employee portion of coverage bill outpaces nation Workers' out-of-pocket costs for employer-provided health insurance jumped 13.5 percent in Indiana last year, twice the nationwide increase, The Commonwealth Fund reported Thursday. Hoosier workers on average faced paying $7,462 in premiums and potential deductibles last year, an increase of $888 from the previous year. Nationally, out-of-pocket expenses averaged a potential…

The Indiana Workers’ Compensation Board has posted online the Official Disability Guidelines formulary, which will become effective on Jan. 1. The state legislature mandated adoption of the ODG formulary, published by MCG Health, with passage of Senate Bill 369, signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in March. Indiana is the 15th state to adopt a drug formulary for workers’…

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…