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Steve Schneider, Midwest region vice president for the American Insurance Association (AIA), issued the following statement before testifying today before the Illinois Senate Executive Committee on SB 12, workers' compensation reform legislation. Mr. Schneider will represent an industry group that includes: AIA, the Illinois Insurance Association (IIA), the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) and the Property and Casualty…

Illinois’ House of Representatives has passed a bill that would create a state-monitored insurance company with the intention of driving down workers’ compensation insurance costs in the state. The House voted 62-43 on a plan that would establish an independent underwriter with a $10 million state loan. It would act as an insurance company in the market and pay back…

Ohio in January became the 36th state to allow firefighters who are diagnosed with certain cancers to file for workers compensation, and so far two more states are seeing proposals for certain cancers suffered by firefighters to be compensable. With presumption laws in place, firefighters who suffer from certain cancers can claim workers comp if they meet certain requirements, which…

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether employers can require workers to sign arbitration agreements that prevent them from pursuing group claims in court. The justices agreed to consider an issue affecting millions of workers who have signed forms waiving rights to bring class-action lawsuits over unpaid overtime, wage disputes and other workplace clashes. Businesses have increasingly…

A study on painkillers and how they affect a workers' compensation claim found that an injured worker who’s prescribed opioids often stays that on disability much longer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, medical providers wrote nearly a quarter of a billion opioid prescriptions in 2013, enough for every American adult to have their own bottle of…