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: Jury Awards $240M for Long-Term Abuse of Workers With Intellectual Disabilities . TRIA Extension Hits...
By John Stahl, Esq. The latest report on Florida from the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) is a trifecta in the sense that it addresses topics that arguably are the current “top three” workers’ compensation drug-related issues: · Overuse of opioids...
By John Stahl, Esq. Enhancing the regulation of physician-dispensed drugs is one tactic that workers’ compensation jurisdictions use in the war against the opioid epidemic that is costing workers’ compensation systems millions of dollars. These methods include severely limiting the ability...
It’s the Labor Market, Stupid A significant flaw regarding how many experts have analyzed factors that determined the economic costs of workers’ compensation insurance coverage was that these professionals limited their scope to the long list of usual suspects, which included pill mills...
But the $64,000 question is whether IMR will actually reduce medical costs As proponents and critics of controversial Senate Bill 863–California’s latest legislative effort to “reform” the state’s workers’ compensation laws–continue their argument about the...
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist of the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers' compensation State Workers’ Comp Acts: Are They Effective? How does a state legislature determine if its workers’...
Karen C. Yotis, Esq., a Feature Resident Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , provides insights into workplace issues and the nuts and bolts of the workers’ comp world. As policymakers, risk managers, and insurers seek to contain medical expenditures in workers’...
A significant proportion of physician-dispensed strong opioids may not have been necessary at all Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation. ...
Anyone familiar with the Workers Compensation Research Institute’s 31-year history of providing the data and analysis that industry mavericks rely upon to understand, manage and effect real change have come to expect WCRI conferences to provide the kind of keen insight, new lessons, and key strategies...
By Ryan Benharris, Esq. The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on National Workers’ Compensation was the leadoff session at the 2015 Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) Annual Convention. “Resilience or Renovation,” was the overall theme of this year’s event, which...
Closing session at WCRI’s annual conference examines workers’ comp systems in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Florida By Ryan Benharris, Esq. Focusing on Resilience or Renovation, the 2015 Workers Compensation Research Institute Annual Convention (WCRI) closed its seminar on March 6...
As incentives within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) push more and more patients toward so-called “capitated” health insurance plans—in which payments are “prospectively” made to health care providers at the beginning of the plan year on a per capita...
According to a study recently released by Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), California enjoyed a five percent decrease in medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in 2013 on a year-over-year basis, likely reflecting the early impact of the so-called reforms contained...
Opt-out cannot become a viable alternative to problematic state systems until a reasonable balance is attained between the interests of injured workers and employers alike By Jennifer C. Jordan, Esq., General Counsel, MEDVAL LLC As opt-out discussions continue despite the recent Oklahoma agency...
By Deborah G. Kohl, Esq. The last several years have seen the “opioid epidemic” become the hot topic in the workers’ compensation industry. It is a problem that everyone from elected officials, government agencies, insurance carriers, doctors and ultimately families have had to address...
The Surprising Results of a Recent WCRI Study Often, the subject of attempts to reform workers’ compensation focuses on matters of choice. Injured workers and their advocates allege that by providing them more choice, better treatment can be obtained. The employer, on the other hand, wishes...