CA - Speakers at CWCI Conference Say Reforms Are Coming but Not Likely in 2025
04/04/2025 | 0
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Although the time for the next round of system reforms is coming, political observers speaking at the California Workers' Compensation Institute's 61st Annual Meeting on Thursday in Sacramento said they don't think it's going to happen this year.
CWCI Chief Operating Officer Gideon Baum, who will succeed Alex Swedlow when he retires as president of the Oakland-based research and educational organization later this summer, said pressure is building to increase permanent disability benefits that haven't been adjusted since the last round of ref...
Read More
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that a city’s payment of wage continuation benefits to a police officer after he contracted COVID-19 was not an acceptance of liability for his illness as compensable.
Case: Schuck v. City of Philadelphia, No. 533 C.D. 2024, 03/28/2025, unpublished.
Facts: James Schuck worked for the City of Philadelphia as a police officer. He contracted COVID-19 in November 2020.
Schuck informed his supervisor that he was sick and said he believed he had contracted COVID-19 at work. He has not returned to work since his illness.
The city paid Schuck...
A New York appellate court ruled that the Workers’ Compensation Board received sufficient notice to meet the threshold for the filing of a timely claim via a report from a medical professional who had treated an injured worker.
Case: Matter of Davenport v. Oxford Central School District, No. CV-23-2137, 03/27/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Charles Davenport established two workers' compensation claims with different employers — one in 1998 and one in 2008.
In February 2020, Davenport injured his back while working for Oxford Central School District.
A p...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld a denial of authorization for a worker’s surgery and related treatment for conditions that were never accepted as compensable.
Case: Caldwell v. Health Team Critical Care Transport LLC, No. 24-ICA-345, 03/24/2025, published.
Facts: Ervin Caldwell worked for Health Team Critical Care Transport LLC. He injured his back at work in December 2019.
A claims administrator for HTCCT’s insurance carrier accepted liability for a lumbar strain.
Caldwell began seeing Dr. James Harman in January 2020. Harman theorized that Caldwell ...
Media Contact:??
Robin Carr??
Landis Communications Inc.??
415.766.0927??
CNS@landispr.com??
Centre For Neuro Skills to Open Clinic in Plano; Fifth in Texas
New 20,000+ square foot facility expands cutting-edge brain injury care in North Texas
PLANO, TX (March 19, 2025) — Centre for Neuro Skills (CNS), a premier provider of treatment for traumatic and acquired brain injury, today announced the opening of i...
Low-back pain is a global issue causing pain, disability and economic burden. It’s a leading cause of missed work and decreased productivity.
Nonsurgical and noninterventional treatments are the first line of treatment for low-back pain. But which ones really work?
What the research says
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis published in the BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine journal aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nonsurgical, noninterventional treatments for low-back pain compared to placebo. Researchers analyzed 301 trials involving 56 different therapies ...
A New York appellate court upheld a determination that a worker was not entitled to a redetermination of extreme hardship.
Case: Matter of Ackerler v. Asplundh, No. CV-23-2356, 03/27/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: John Ackerler injured his back in 2012 while working for Asplundh. In 2014, his claim was expanded to include his depressive disorder, and he was classified with a permanent partial disability and an 82% loss of wage-earning capacity, entitling him to 450 weeks of indemnity benefits.
In December 2022, before the exhaustion of his indemnity benefits, Acker...
The San Diego County District Attorney's Office announced that a commercial plumbing contractor has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution for insurance premium fraud.
Daniela G. Birdwell, the 41-year-old owner of Spring Valley-based GPS Plumbing, will pay State Compensation Insurance Fund $1,030,062 for premium fraud and serve two years of formal felony probation and 320 hours of community service. GPS was ordered to pay $10,000 per month toward restitution.
SCIF provided coverage to GPS from June 2016 to May 2021. State Fund noticed a large discrepa...
Workplace injuries are a growing financial burden on small businesses, according to a new safety report by Pie Insurance.
Denver-based Pie's 2025 State of Workplace Safety Report, based on data from more than 1,000 owners and other principals, reveals that 75% of small businesses had injury incidents last year, half of which were reported as preventable. More than 30% of small businesses had injury costs exceeding $20,000, lost four employee workdays and experienced three full business days of disruption.
Commercial traffic accidents affected 42% of small businesses that o...
The Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that a worker who prevailed on a workers’ compensation claim against his uninsured employer and was unable to collect any payment could not turn to the Tort Victims’ Compensation Fund for help because he was not an uncompensated tort victim.
Christopher Ellis worked for JK Concrete LLC. In June 2017, Ellis was working outdoors while the temperature was over 90 degrees. He informed his foreman and the owner of JK Concrete that he was not feeling well.
The foreman took Ellis to a local clinic. From there, took an ambulance to the hospital where h...
A New York appellate court upheld an award to a worker for his injuries from the second in a series of car accidents that occurred while he was intoxicated.
Case: Matter of Ferra v. Paramount Global, No. CV-23-2141, 03/27/2025, published.
Facts: Jorge Ferra worked for Paramount Global as a sound engineer. He was involved in a motor vehicle accident while traveling from his home in New Jersey to a job assignment in New York.
According to Ferra, it was a minor collision, he was uninjured and no harm was done to his vehicle. He pulled over to the shoulder of the road, ...
A New York appellate court upheld a lifetime ban on a worker’s receipt of benefits for his egregious misrepresentation of his condition for years.
Case: Matter of Tirado v. Symphony Space Inc., No. CV-22-2386, 03/27/2025, published.
Facts: Alejandro Tirado worked for Symphony Space Inc. He established a workers’ compensation claim for injuries from painting in September 2013.
Tirado also established a claim for injuries after tripping at work in December 2013.
Between 2018 and 2021, Tirado underwent numerous independent medical examinations.
In July 2021, the insuran...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals overturned a denial of compensability for a worker’s cervical disc conditions, finding that the Board of Review committed a clear error in failing to consider a treating doctor’s opinion on causation.
Case: Adkins v. Sound Mind Inc., No. 24-ICA-295, 03/24/2025, published.
Facts: Rachel Adkins worked for Sound Mind Inc. She suffered injuries in a motor vehicle accident in October 2021.
That same day, Adkins sought medical treatment for complaints of neck and right wrist pain. She was diagnosed with a cervical myofascial strain a...
The California Senate unanimously passed a bill that would add firefighters at certain airports and other federal facilities to the statutes creating presumptions covering ailments ranging from hernias to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections to cancer.
The Senate voted 50-0 on Tuesday to pass Senate Bill 230, by Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz.
The bill would add firefighters at commercial airports regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration to the cancer presumption in Labor Code Section 3212.1 and the post-traumatic stress disorder presumption in 3212.15.
The bill wou...
A California lawmaker introduced legislation that seeks to address the shortage in the Division of Occupational Safety and Health's enforcement division.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor's AB 694, filed in February, proposed that the Department of Industrial Relations contract with the University of California, Berkeley's Labor Occupational Health and the University of California, Los Angeles' Labor Occupational Safety and Health programs for a study to evaluate understaffing and develop a strategy for training inspectors.
On March 24, the Inglewood Democrat a...
Montana lawmakers unanimously passed a bill that would authorize a benefits administrator to receive payments on behalf of a minor or an incompetent person.
The state House of Representatives voted 99-0 on Tuesday to pass SB 338, by Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson.
SB 338 would also authorize a workers' compensation judge to appoint and rescind the appointment of a benefits administrator to pursue benefits or receive payments on behalf of someone under 18 or a person determined to be incompetent.
Parties would not have to satisfy dispute resolution requirements before petitioning th...
Maryland lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill that would increase a special assessment for the Uninsured Employers' Fund to 1.5% from 1% to ensure the stability and solvency of the program.
The Senate voted 34-13 to pass House Bill 193, by the House Economic Matters Committee, and send the bill to the governor. The measure has not been amended since the House voted 101-37 to pass it March 11.
Maryland's Uninsured Employers' Fund is financed by a 1% assessment on permanent disability and death benefit awards against employers, as well as amounts payable under settlement agreements...
