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As employers wait to see whether the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will create a temporary workplace safety standard for COVID-19, their legal experts hope the federal government avoids what they contend are costly and inflexible measures put in place by individual state OSHAs. President Joe Biden on Jan. 21 signed an executive order calling on OSHA by Feb. 4…

Health care workers pose the greatest risk of developing COVID-19 infections and, relatedly, have been most likely to submit workers compensation claims, according to the results of a study released Tuesday. The study, published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and conducted by AF Group in Lansing, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, revealed that…

A former truck driver for a gas and chemical company is alleging he was told to resign or be fired in retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim. Joel Straus filed a complaint Jan. 4 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Air Products and Chemicals Inc., alleging retaliatory discharge. Straus was employed as a truck driver for Air Products…

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on workers compensation claims varied substantially by state in the first half of 2020, with claims figures significantly affected by outbreak severity and whether a coronavirus presumption order or law was in place, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based WCRI researchers said there was “tremendous variation…

Indiana lawmakers have proposed a bill Monday that would allow workers to choose their own physicians to treat their workplace injury or occupational disease. H.B. 1339 would allow workers to choose their own attending physician and require employers or their insurers to reimburse the chosen health care provider for the treatment of the compensable injury or illness. The bill states…

A bill introduced Wednesday in Illinois would make several changes to the state’s workers compensation code, including introducing protocols for investigating insurer premiums and changing the way cumulative trauma is covered. H.B. 218 would amend the Employer's Liability Rates Article of the Illinois insurance law, to state that “a premium is excessive if it is likely to produce a profit…