The Supreme Court of Minnesota held that an injured worker had failed to establish that his long-term use of Endocet—an opioid—was in line with long-term treatment parameters established pursuant to Minn. R. 5221.6110 (2019). Accordingly,... Read More

By Stuart Colburn, Esq., Downs Stanford, P.C. A November 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report describes prescription painkiller abuse as “a public health epidemic.” The CDC concludes that “improving the way... Read More

Larson's Spotlight on Intoxication Presumption, Heart Attack, Arising Out of Employment, and Death Benefits. Larson's surveys the latest case developments that you need to know about. Thomas A. Robinson, the staff writer for Larson's Workers'... Read More

By Karen C. Yotis, Esq. When a workers’ compensation maven of Rebecca Shafer’s caliber shares her expertise about implementing cost containment best practices, industry professionals can’t afford to do anything but listen. Likewise... Read More

Sign up here for our free workers' compensation enewsletters (National or California Edition) to receive weekly news items. Be sure to select the enewsletter of your choice. NATIONAL NEWS: Workers Comp State Legislative Battles to Watch . CMS... Read More

CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 78 No. 12 December 2013 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS... Read More

By Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law Prescription drugs continue to be a significant contributor to the medical expenses segment of workers’ compensation claim costs, and drug formularies are... Read More

NCCI Study Analyzes Medical Benefits Expenses Knowing that high prescription drug costs are a large component of the current challenges related to curbing workers’ compensation expenses is of limited value. Finding feasible methods to reduce... Read More

Last week LexisNexis published an Emerging Issues Analysis article on prescription drugs and workers’ compensation written by Thomas A. Robinson, the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law . The article examines opioid use,... Read More

A new analysis of independent medical review decisions issued in 2014 suggests that the medical dispute resolution process mandated by the workers’ compensation reform bill enacted in 2012 is working to assure that the treatment provided to California... Read More

The topic of opioid abuse in workers’ compensation largely focuses on the causes and costs of that abuse to the effectiveness of the state-level reforms that address what some experts identify as a “plague.” Particularly alarming opioid... Read More

An Alabama appellate court affirmed an award for a prescription medication in the form of a “time release” medication for erectile dysfunction that an employee contended was associated with his use of prescription narcotics to manage pain... Read More

Oakland – A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) study uses data from 1.2 million drug prescriptions dispensed to California injured workers in 2014 to model the impact of the draft Medical Treatment Utilization Schedule ... Read More

Right now the two books on our night stand were both written by finance guru and born-again Christian Dave Ramsey. Tom is reading The Total Money Makeover and I am engrossed in Financial Peace. Dave also created a money management series called Financial... Read More

Increased Utilization of Predominantly Expensive Drugs Fuel Cost Rise An August 2011 research brief by the National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc. (NCCI) analyzed the trend of prescription drugs constituting a disproportionately high percentage... Read More