Claims for Assaults on School Workers Decline

The 2023-2024 school year saw 39% fewer workers’ compensation claims, at 868, for school employees assaulted by students, according to data from Gallagher Bassett.
The cost of total incurred claims was nearly halved, to be $5 million.
The Illinois-based third-party insurance claims and risk solutions provider’s data covered some 2,000 schools and 1.25 million students across the U.S.
Assault claims include incidents of being struck or injured by a student, bitten by a student or any other kind of human violence and alleged assault from a student to a school employee.
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The Idaho Supreme Court last week ruled that the state’s Industrial Commission was acting within reason when it denied workers’ compensation benefits for a auto sales company employee who injured his back on the job.
Diagnostic testing conducted by a physician after the incident — when he bent down to raise a garage door and felt a pop in his back — determined that the worker, who weighed more than 390 pounds, likely caused an arthritis flare up.
In an independent medical exam arranged by his employer, another physician diagnosed that the back problems were caused by his morbid obesity and were not industrially related.
The physician concluded that the back pain was likely due to shifting epidural fat related to the worker’s restlessness while sleeping.
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Updates to the Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set Aside Reference Guide & Self-Administration Toolkit were issued on Aug. 1, specifically focused on Medicare Part C & D.
The set asides are determinations of anticipated post-settlement medical expenses and prescription drugs tied to the underlying WC injury and otherwise covered under Medicare.
They are segregated from WC settlements to cover treatments related to the injuries associated with the WC claim, in order to avoid shifting the costs to Medicare.
The set aside money must be used up prior to Medicare paying for related care.
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