Editor’s Note: This is the first of a weeklong series of articles related to workers’ compensation fraud, generated from discussions at a recent conference of the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California. It was the overriding message that came out of a “Speed Networking” session held at the WCIRB Annual Conference in San Francisco last week.…
WCIRB Reports on the Whale in Workers' Comp
If workers’ compensation were an aquarium, most states would be a small to medium sized fish. A couple would be guppies. Some would be dolphins. Illinois would be a shark. And California would be a whale. Representing over 20% of the entire workers’ compensation market, the significance of the state in the overall system is…
Do Your Comp Carrier's Interests Align with Yours?
Monday, we wrote a piece about a man who had experienced a stroke on the job which was misdiagnosed by a company nurse. He applied for workers’ compensation benefits, but they were denied. Instead of appealing, he sued his employer based on the damages from the company nurse’s misdiagnosis of his condition. The point of…
The Liability of a Company Nurse and the Cost of Winning a Workers' Comp Defense; You Can't Hide Behind That Which Was Denied
This is a story of a workers’ comp claim denied, followed by what appears to be a herculean effort to seek protections under the same legal pretense that was previously refused. It is a lesson that we should be careful what you wish for; you just might end up getting what you deserve. It is…
From the Archives: In My Blog, Job Related Lightning Death Does Strike Twice
Bob has been in the Four Corners area this week, attending to family business. In his absence, we republish this article from 08/13/13. This article was a follow up to the archived post republished yesterday. __________________________ Last week I wrote a tongue in cheek article about why more men are killed by lightningwhile on the job…
From the Archives: Why Men are More Likely to be Killed by Lightning (on the Job)
Bob has been in the Four Corners area this week, attending to family business. In his absence, we republish this article from 07/31/13. This original article also resulted in a follow up post, available here, and which will be republished tomorrow. ___________________________________ I really have no directly citable evidence that more men than women are killed…
Floridians, Happy Jefferson Davis Day
Today is a legal holiday in the State of Florida. June 3rd is the birthday of one Jefferson Davis, first, only and not coincidentally, last president of the Confederate States of America. In his early days Davis attended West Point, where he was once placed under house arrest for his role in the 1826 Eggnog Riot, which started…
In Maine, Failure to Understand History Means Risk of Repeating It
Oh, how quickly we forget. A Maine joint legislative committee voted earlier this week to endorse a workers’ compensation reform bill designed to significantly increase indemnity benefits for injured workers. The bill has now been sent to the floor as part of an omnibus bill that includes about two dozen legislative reforms for workers’ comp in…
Idiot Felon Proves Multi-tasking is Difficult
The concept of multi-tasking is all the rage. The technology obsessed among us in the workforce think they have everything under control while trying to simultaneously process 32 different things. Recent studies, however, are showing that not to be the case. The best proof of the dangers of multi-tasking sometimes come from the unlikeliest of…
"Alleged Buttock Wound" Case is Only Warning We Need Regarding Federalization of Workers' Comp
For those people who still believe that a federal government takeover of workers’ compensation would solve the issues of the industry, they need to take a look at the case of Albert Gaines. They might realize that having all comp claims managed by the compassionate Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) at the U.S. Department of…