Workers comp fraud in Minnesota

• The state of Minnesota has charged a Princeton, Minnesota, construction firm with workers’ compensation fraud after the firm claimed it had no employees for two years.
• The criminal complaint stemmed from a worker’s claim that he injured his eye with a nail on a job site but was denied workers’ compensation medical coverage.
• The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Nelson Israel Lopez Giron, the owner of wood-framing firm Giron Construction, with workers’ compensation fraud.
• Giron told his insurer the injured man was not his employee. A state investigation found otherwise and concluded more than a dozen workers on the job site on the day of the injury were directly employed by Giron’s company.
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Pro athletes at odds with workers’ comp proposal

• An amendment drafted by Ohio Rep. Bill Seitz would prohibit professional athletes contracted with a major league team from filing a permanent partial disability claim over work-related injuries or illnesses.
• The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has accused the Cincinnati Bengals of attempting to “strip all players” of their workers’ compensation benefits.
• If passed, athletes would foot the bill for their treatment.
• Seitz claims the measure is meant to prevent athletes from “double dipping” on benefits, often while earning million-dollar salaries from their team.
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Maine firefighters fight to get workers’ comp

• The law in Maine recognizes that firefighters are at higher risk of certain types of cancers than the general population.
• Firefighters who develop specific cancers and meet other requirements got sick as a result of their employment, entitling them to workers’ compensation benefits to cover their medical costs or lost wages.
• However, over the past decade, one of the 34 Maine firefighters who submitted cancer claims saw their employers oppose their request for benefits, according to the Maine Workers’ Compensation Board.
• The initial denials required firefighters to sometimes wait many months before their claims were ultimately determined to be valid.
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Bill could provide workers’ comp for vaccines

• A bill in Montana was approved in the Senate that would allow healthcare workers in the state who were injured or had serious complications from an employer-mandated vaccine to apply for workers’ compensation coverage.
• The measure now in the House Business and Labor Committee
• The bill would let workers negatively affected by mandated vaccines apply for workers’ compensation. But, the bill doesn’t guarantee that they’ll be covered.
• Employees would still need to prove that their injuries were actually caused by the vaccine to get the money.
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