Husband-Killer Nailed in Texas WC Fraud Case

Frances Hall was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication in Texas last week after pleading no contest to charges that she was part of a multi-million dollar workers’ compensation fraud scheme.
She was charged in 2022 over providing false payroll information over a seven-year period to avoid more than $9 million in insurance premium payments while she was co-owner of the eponymous company with her late husband, Bill Hall Jr., whom she was convicted in 2016 of murdering.
The company is still active, doing business under the name of Iron Horse Transportation and Construction, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The Travis County prosecutor who obtained the indictment, Jessica Bergeman, is a member of the state’s Division of Workers’ Compensation prosecution unit.
READ MORE

New Hampshire employers have won the right to challenge certain workers’ compensation decisions, following a decision Tuesday by the state’s Supreme Court.
The court compelled the New Hampshire Department of Labor to offer employers a department-level hearing allowing them to challenge denials of their applications for reimbursement from a state fund covering people with second injuries.
Eight employers — including BAE Systems, Shaw’s Supermarkets and the city of Manchester — were parties to the case.
READ MORE

Workers compensation claim rates and benefits paid by Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry are following long-term declines, according to a new report from the agency.
In 2022, on a current-payment basis, the three biggest components of total workers’ compensation system cost were: medical benefits (33%), insurer expenses (31%) and indemnity benefits other than vocational rehabilitation (30%), according to the report.
Relative to the number of full-time-equivalent workers, the total number of paid claims fell by 45%, indemnity claims by 3% and medical-only claims by 56% from 2002 to 2022.
Total disability duration decreased 30% from 2019 to 2022 due to the significantly shorter duration of COVID-19 claims, while temporary partial disability (TPD) duration increased 4% during the same period.
When COVID-19 claims were included, there was a 31% decrease in TPD benefits per paid indemnity claim from 2019 to 2022.
READ MORE

Employer Holdings, a specialty provider of workers’ compensation insurance and services, is working with Simply Business to enable the digital insurance broker to quote and bind WC policies.
Simply Business said the collaboration will support its sales to more than 300 different types of businesses in all states where the company is eligible to write policies.
Employer Holdings serves small and mid-sized businesses engaged in low-to-medium hazard industries.
Last year, Simply Business added Cerity Insurance to its roster of WC providers.
READ MORE