News

Indiana lawmakers Tuesday read through a new bill that would require the state Department of Education to provide adequate employer liability and workers compensation insurance coverage for students enrolled in a work-based learning course. H.B. 1094 would also designate certain career and technical education programs as youth apprenticeship programs, providing $500 grants to school corporations for each pupil enrolled in…

A federal district court has refused to dismiss a putative class action lawsuit filed against Amazon.com Inc. by a former employee who contends the company violated Illinois’ biometric law. William Naughton, who worked for two months in 2020 as a “picker” at an Amazon fulfillment center in Joliet, Illinois, charges the company violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act by…

Closed drug formularies continue to attract attention in states’ workers compensation systems as a tool to manage the utilization of prescription drugs and provide evidence-based guidance to physicians prescribing drug treatments for injured workers. The Official Disability Guidelines Workers Compensation Drug Formulary, also known as the ODG Formulary, has been adopted by several states including Indiana, Kentucky and Montana. In…

A contractor working at a Caterpillar Inc. foundry in central Illinois fell to his death when he apparently stepped off a ladder at the plant, authorities said. The Peoria County coroner said Scott M. Adams, 50, of East Peoria, was pronounced dead about 11 a.m. Thursday after his fall at the foundry in Mapleton. Autopsy findings are pending, the (Peoria)…

A construction worker injured in a building collapse was, in fact, an independent contractor, the Court of Appeals of Indiana has concluded, rejecting an earlier finding that the worker was actually an employee of the company he sued. In December 2018, Richard Palmer was injured while doing carpentry work on top of a pole barn that partially collapsed. The building…

Employers may be warming up to the idea that fighting some workers’ compensation claims and medical treatments can be counterproductive, and new emphasis should be placed on keeping injured workers happy – and out of the courtroom. “The workers’ comp system should be self-executing and so many times, it’s not,” said Michele Adams, vice president of risk management for Walmart.…