Denver Worker's Compensation Info: injured workers

Showing posts with label injured workers. Show all posts

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Workers comp premiums will increase if Congress fails to renew TRIA in 2015

If the federal terrorism reinsurance backstop program isn't reauthorized during the first quarter of 2015, employers renewing their workers compensation coverage could be forced to the residual markets and face significant premium increases.

Established by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act in 2002 following the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks, the program expired Dec. 31 due to objections in the Senate, surprising and dismaying insurers and buyers.

While many industry experts expect TRIA will be reauthorized by the new Congress that convenes Jan. 6, workers comp insurers and reinsurers are keeping quiet as they evaluate what risks they would underwrite without the backstop safety net, experts said.

“The market is still operating under the presumption that TRIA is going to be reauthorized in January,” said Robert Hartwig, president of the New York-based Insurance Information Institute. “If we get to the middle of February and there's still no reauthorization, that becomes a game changer.”

Though uncommon, some insurers are including language in workers comp policies that would allow them to rescind coverage for companies that have large concentrations of workers in “high-risk, Tier 1 cities” such as New York and San Francisco if TRIA isn't extended, Mr. Hartwig said.

Workers comp pricing also will spike in such areas, but “it will be muted initially,” he said.

It seems insurers are prepared to honor workers comp policies with effective dates through March, said Tim DeSett, executive vice president of risk practices at Lockton Cos. L.L.C. in Kansas City, Missouri.

Some insurers “have their own filed endorsements, which they used to say, "This is how much premium we are charging for terrorism risk,' “ said Pam Ferrandino, executive vice president and casualty practice leader at Willis North America Inc. in New York.

Such endorsements allow insurers to adjust their pricing down the road, she said.

Since terrorism coverage can't be excluded from workers comp policies in any state, insurers will look to limit any potential losses, sources said.

“I've heard from some carriers that they're trying ... to issue a nonrenewal notice for the entire account only so they can carve out the states where they have concentration,” Ms. Ferrandino said. In other words, they'd cancel a company's nationwide account and “issue a renewal term on an all-other-states basis.”

If TRIA hasn't been reauthorized by February, sources said some employers could have trouble renewing or purchasing traditional workers comp coverage and be forced into residual markets, known as the insurers of last resort.

The cost of residual market coverage could be “considerably higher,” according to a 2014 Rand Corp. report, which said 32 states and the District of Columbia have assigned risk pools, and 14 states direct all residual market business to competitive state funds.

While the Rand report said a nationwide estimate of residual market costs was not available, it did note that the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission advised employers that premiums are 45% more in the residual market than the traditional market.

In addition, state workers comp funds could see their market share increase “significantly” as employers are denied coverage in the standard market, said Bruce Wood, Washington-based vice president and associate general counsel at the American Insurance Association.

“So if companies are forced into higher markets or residual markets, then laying off people becomes an option they would have to face,” said Carolyn Snow, Louisville, Kentucky-based director of risk management at Humana Inc.

TRIA's expiration didn't affect workers comp rates for Kelly Services Inc., which renewed its workers comp coverage with Ace Ltd. effective Jan. 1, said Gary Pearce, vice president of risk management group at the Troy, Michigan-based temporary staffing firm.

Mr. Pearce said Kelly Services is a more desirable risk since workers aren't concentrated in one high-risk area, but also said the company would be hit if TRIA is not reauthorized.

“Our employees are the first ones to be laid off,” Mr. Pearce said. “So to the extent that there's a deficient insurance backstop, that could hurt employment.”

Insurers also could be adversely affected, Mr. Wood said.

Workers comp insurers that leave the voluntary market to avoid terrorism losses still could be assigned to cover such risks in the residual markets for various states, he said.

“In that sense, there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide,” Mr. Wood said.

Self-insured employers have unique concerns, since excess workers comp insurers can exclude terrorism risks from their policies, except in New York and Florida, Ms. Ferrandino said.

“To the extent that TRIA expiration reduces insurers' willingness to provide these alternatives to traditional (workers comp) coverage, self-insurance may become more difficult,” according to the Rand report.

Ms. Snow said Humana, which funds its comp coverage through its captive insurer, had not yet heard from its excess insurers following TRIA's expiration.

“The markets have just been really quiet,” Ms. Snow said. “I suspect it's because they expect action in the first quarter, but it's kind of been surprising how quiet (insurers and reinsurers) have been. ... Everything at this point is speculation.”

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Any content of this blog is intended for informational purposes only.It is not intended to solicit business, provide legal advice from The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. and does not serve as a medium for an attorney-client relationship. Therefore, The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. is not responsible for the information on this blog which may not apply to every reader. Always seek professional counsel if you have any legal matters. Contents within the blog of The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C., logos and other related media are protected by the copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Work Comp, Mental Injuries, And Hiring Your Next Comp Claim

By ReduceYourWorkersComp 10/02/2013 09:30:00

Work comp, when it first started, paid only for obvious traumatic injuries. It did not pay for slow starting injuries (repetitive stress), occupational diseases, or physical injuries which, when they healed, left the worker with mental damage (depression, phobia, etc.).

Dissatisfaction With Life Often Leads To A Large Work Comp Claim

Eventually, all those became covered in nearly all states. But what about purely “mental stress” injuries which were not accompanied by physical symptoms? These, perhaps, account for more than half of all comp costs, but they have become masked by a comp system that insists that a treating doctor, at some point, link the claim to physical consequences, either at the start or the end of a claim.

What is the purely “mental stress” that causes so much increase in comp costs? It is nearly always dissatisfaction with a life situation, oftentimes not work related. A bad relationship often leads to a large claim with a large settlement.

Why do such situations become entrenched in the comp system? Well, there is no affordable way that an investigation can gather enough credible evidence to limit such claims, even though the correlation of bad claims with bad life situations is no secret to claims departments.

Every defense comp attorney has seen, at some point, an employer who tries to develop a defense, but has to drop it when it becomes far too obvious that it will require family members to disclose the darkest secrets and, moreover, to testify against each other. Obviously, an administrative disability system is not the best way to deal with this.

Do Not Hire Next Year’s Work Comp Claim

An employer is also poorly equipped to deal with this, but is far better than a claims unit. The first piece of advice is to recognize potential danger signs, preferably before, not after, the time of hire. The author said, twenty years ago, “Do not hire next year’s claim”. But he surely wasn’t the first to say it. Nor, judging from remarks posted on the web, has he been the last.

So improved hiring practices are the most effective way to deal with the most troublesome of all claim situations; dealing with dissatisfaction with life by trying to buy it off. It simply does not work.

But what can be done once you have hired next year’s claim, and the year is nearly over? Unfortunately, even the best outcome doesn't come cheap, but if it is not viewed as a learning exercise it will become a “repetitive stress” experience for the employer, since such claims have a way of growing.

Danger Signs Should Be Detected In Interview

A small employer, with only a single office secretary as his work staff, discovered, the hard way, two valuable lessons. However, he learned both far too late to save his business. The first lesson was that a single part time clerk still has to be covered by work comp – and he didn’t have a policy. The other lesson was that a young employee, willing to work for a minimal wage, had too much education to be content with such a wage, unless something was very wrong. The worker, once out on a back claim, continued to remain on it for 18 years, and continues on it.

The real reason for the extended disability had nothing to do with back pain. Instead, there was a real desire to retreat from the world and live at home, never developing outside relationships at all. The danger signs should have been detected at the interview.

Employers must be aware that work comp is the law which is most tilted in favor of the worker. “In favor of” means that claims which probably should not be paid usually are paid. And that includes claims which are due to pre-existing “stress” with no relationship to work.

The lesson is, for employers, that an extra hour during an interview, can replace $100,000 in disability payments. (The case mentioned above has cost the employer $241,000 to date, with no end in sight. In return, the employer received a year of substandard work.)

Original Source

Let attorneys: Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro help you with your case today!
Contact them at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Have there been any Criminal Code convictions for health and safety violations?

By Terry Bogyo 47 minutes ago

Two events separated by 17 years came to mind when I was asked the above question recently. The two events may seem unrelated: 26 miners killed in a 1992 Westray mine explosion in Nova Scotia and four construction workers falling to their death on Christmas Eve 2009 in Toronto. Connecting them is Bill C-45 amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada passed in 2004.

The investigation into WestRay revealed the limits of sanctions the law would allow. The commission of inquiry found that the explosion and resulting deaths were predictable. The operation put economic considerations ahead of worker safety. Commissioner K. Peter Richard concluded the story leading up to the explosion was

“…of incompetence, of mismanagement, of bureaucratic bungling, of deceit, of ruthlessness, of cover-up, of apathy, of expediency, and of cynical indifference.”

Despite the strength of this finding, no one was found criminally responsible.

In response to the significant public outrage, Bill C-45 was introduced and eventually passed into law amending Canada’s Criminal Code. The main amendment makes a clear statement. Section 217 now reads

Duty of persons undertaking acts217. Every one who undertakes to do an act is under a legal duty to do it if an omission to do the act is or may be dangerous to life.

Duty of persons directing work217.1 Every one who undertakes, or has the authority, to direct how another person does work or performs a task is under a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to that person, or any other person, arising from that work or task.

Since these sections became law, I am aware of only two applications of this new section. The first was in Quebec and is known as Transpave where the employer plead guilty and a fine $100.000 was imposed. The case involved a young worker being killed by a malfunctioning machine. The employer knew the machine malfunctioned but did not take it out of service or properly train the worker in appropriate procedures. The employer was remorseful and invested heavily in safety measures to ensure a similar event would never happen.

Then, in 2009, six construction workers were on a swing stage at the 14^th floor. The usual number of workers on the swing stage was just 2. There were only two lifelines and only one was properly engaged. Two workers survived but one was severely and permanently injured; four were killed. The employer, Metron Construction Corporation, plead guilty and was fined $200,000. The Crown appealed and the Ontario Court of Appeal raised that fine to $ 750,000. The OCA ruling is available on line. As of this writing, the ruling has not been appealed further.

We now have two cases testing the Criminal Code amendments flowing from Westray. Has a company official been sentenced to prison for criminal negligence? No, not yet. Will we see more cases? Unfortunately, yes. I say unfortunately because the cases so far involve completely avoidable deaths and, sadly, the potential for more deaths exist elsewhere. On the other hand, perhaps the successful convictions will be a wake up call to manages, supervisors, directors, and owners to review their own practices or lack of safety practices. At a minimum, financial risk analysts will now have new data to consider when weighing the risks of failing to train, keep equipment in good repair and put the safety of workers first.

Original Source

The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. can help you with your workers' compensation or Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer