While people have been fussing and fretting about the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its almost certain and inevitable destruction of life on this earth, a new study just released shows that automation in the workplace has already been killing us. Turns out we’ve been worrying about AI for nothing. By the time Artificial Intelligence is…
How Rebuttable is a Presumption in Workers' Compensation?
Minnesota earlier this month passed legislation extending Covid workers’ compensation coverages for certain frontline workers in the state. Governor Tim Walz signed House File (H.F.) 1203, extending the presumption for workers who contract COVID-19 at work. The prior law that provided these presumptions expired on December 31, 2021. The law applies to first responders, emergency…
Hamster Testicles and Beautiful Healthy People
You know, you just can’t go to any old blog to find not one, but two completely useless stories crammed into a single relevant post. But thanks to the wizardry of the rubber mallet handily stored on the cluttered desk, that is what you find here today. Containing useless data from studies likely funded by…
Abbie Hudgens New Blog Will Be COMPlicated
Abbie Hudgens had an idea. The Administrator of the Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation wanted to start a conversation with and within the workers’ compensation community, geared to the future and addressing the challenges faced by the industry. Her concept was a blog; a blog that would not just allow her and other authors to…
Big Surprise, Things Are Not Always What They Seem
We have a discussion forum here on WorkersCompensation.com that, while open to anyone, is dominated by injured workers. Posting activity has slowed during the pandemic, but historically it has been a very active area for people to ask questions and learn about workers’ comp. In its current format, since 2007, the board has generated 15,915…
On Second Thought, Leave Your Webcam Off
Somehow, over the years, my email address has wound up being listed on various press release distribution lists, with the result being that I get many emails every day announcing everything from company mergers to new tongue straightening toothpaste. It is almost as if the people who send these think I care. Silly people. Some…
California Wage Statement Dreamin'
My company is currently in the process of expanding the calculator section within our WorkCompResearch.com service. And we might save the workers’ compensation industry in the process. Foremost among the efforts, and most requested by the workers’ comp professionals we serve, is an Average Weekly Wage Calculator. Our Compliance people and Developers have been toiling at that…
Workers' Comp Fraud, Like Everything Else, Must Keep Up with The Times
No matter what the endeavor, it is important to keep up in our rapidly changing world. I suppose that it is no different in the world of workers’ compensation fraud. Especially in the era of Covid, when fake slip and falls are so “yesterday.” Last month a New York man was arrested and accused of submitting multiple…
A New Podcast, and Other Exciting Stuff
It has been a busy year for many people, and that is no different for those of here at WorkersCompensation.com. We’ve been diligently planning a few exciting new projects; one of which I can announce, but the others must for now remain cloaked in secrecy and intrigue. Oh, and another of those new ideas is…
A Nation Divided: Covid and the Legislative Challenges It Brings
Monday, we wrote about a proposed bill in Utah that would allow firefighters combatting fires in states other than their own to collect workers’ compensation benefits if they were injured on the job. Legislators there are running into significant headwinds, in the form of paranoid accusations that they are really establishing paramilitary services to enslave…