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Curated Content Articles of Interest from Around the Web

    Think Tank Claims Oklahoma WC Reforms at Risk

     

    Oklahoma Think Tank Claims State’s High Court Dismantling WC Reforms   

    • A decade after Oklahoma’s workers’ comp reform went into effect, the state’s Supreme Court is unwinding the changes, according to conservative think tank Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
    • In a Sept. 6 blog post, Curtis Shelton, policy research fellow, said that the Council’s judicial scorecard highlights five instances since 2016 in which the Oklahoma Supreme Court chipped away at the reforms. 
    • “Over the next eight years, workers’ compensation costs fell by only 28 percent, which is 5 percentage points less than in the first three years after the reforms were enacted,” he wrote.
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    DC Court Rules WC Review Panel Erred on Soccer Player’s Injury 

    • A former professional women’s soccer player’s workers’ comp claim for a knee injury has been sent back to the District of Columbia’s Compensation Review Board to determine whether the injury is compensable.
    • In a Sept. 5 decision, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated a Review Board decision upholding the denial of workers compensation benefits Skylar Little.
    • She suffered a left knee injury playing for the Washington Freedom soccer team though later filed a workers comp claim related to a separate right knee injury, which she claimed was caused by her overcompensating for the left knee injury.
    • An administrative law judge determined the right knee injury wasn’t work-related, a decision upheld by the review board.
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    Nova Scotia Construction Group Backs WC Review Committee Report 

    • Industry group Construction Safety Nova Scotia will support efforts to address the 10 priority areas for reform identified recently by the province’s Workers’ Compensation Review Committee.
    • “This report reaffirms the critical role that industry organizations play in leading change within their sectors and preventing injury,” MJ MacDonald, CEO of the group, said in a statement on Thursday.
    • The Review Committee report in July revealed that the province has some of the country’s highest employer premiums, lowest benefits for workers who are unable to work due to injury, the longest duration of injured workers off work due to injury, and among the lowest percentage of workforce coverage.
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