Colorado Governor Seeks to Privatize Pinnacol Assurance

• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will try to privatize Pinnacol Assurance, selling off the state’s stake in the company that serves as the workers’ compensation insurer of last resort for the state, serving high-risk industries.
• The move has been tried twice in recent years as the state seeks to find money to fund its growing budget deficit.
• Colorado could ultimately raise $305 million, with Polis reportedly proposing to spin Pinnacol into a fully private enterprise. In its 2023 financial statements, Pinnacol reported total assets of just over $3 billion.
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Bill Proposes NY WCB to Issue Stop-Work Orders to Uninsured Employers

• A bill slated to be introduced in the New York State Senate in coming days would require the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) to issue stop-work order to employers that knowingly fail to provide WC coverage to employees.
• SB 162 will be introduced by Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), and would require the WCB to notify employers of its intent to issue a stop-work order within 72 hours of finding a violation.
• The bill also imposes penalties for failure to comply with a stop-work order, including fines of up to $5,000 per day. Additionally, the bill provides protections for employees affected by a stop-work order, requiring the employer to pay their regular rate for a specified period.
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Connecticut Supreme Court Rules WC Cancellations Must Be Unambiguous 

• The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that when an insurer cancels a workers’ compensation insurance policy, that insurer must comply with not only the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, but with contract law, stipulating the cancellation notice must be definite and unambiguous.
• Ace American Insurance Co. was accused by Thomas Napolitano, owner of Napolitano Roofing, of breach of contract when the insurer canceled Napolitano’s workers’ compensation insurance amid conflicting cancellation notices.
• The court ruling acknowledged “the leverage insurers have over insured parties … we resolve all doubts in favor of coverage and require that insurers give objectively definite and certain notices of cancellation to insured parties.”
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BTW Settles Whistleblower Suit on Overbilling of Federal WC Program

• Arkansas-based BTW Solutions agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil suit that began more than seven years ago with a whistleblower who worked for the drug wholesaler and billing service for physicians treating workers’ compensation patients.
• The company was charged with violating the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute for improperly billing the Department of Labor’s Workers’ Compensation Programs for certain pain creams.
• According to the government, BTW induced the sale of its pain creams to physicians by offering them at or near cost, then billing the government on behalf of the physicians at an exorbitant markup and then splitting the reimbursement with the physicians.
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Does NYC Delay the Most WC Claims in the State?

• The New York City Law Department, which runs the  Big Apple’s workers’ compensation insurance program, has been cited more than 10,000 times for legal infractions each year since the pandemic, New York Focus reported.
• From 2019 through 2023, it received three penalties for every four new workers’ comp cases it processed. 
• Those included over 34,000 penalties for late filings and nearly 29,000 for other procedural violations like failing to properly pay claimants.
• The state-managed New York State Insurance Fund received less than half as many procedural complaints.
• The NYC Law Department said that “staffing remains a challenge as we process this huge volume of claims under worker compensation rules that have grown exponentially more complex over the last decade.”
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Washington State Move to Create Ergonomics Rules for High Claims Industries

• The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries will develop ergonomics rules in an effort to reduce work-related musculoskeletal disorders in industries with high rates of worker injuries.
• It will start with Ground Crew Operations in Scheduled Airlines, beginning with a scoping virtual meeting on Jan. 9.
• The state legislature tasked the agency in 2023 with creating rules for industries or risk classes with workers’ compensation claim rates exceeding twice the statewide average.
• However, the agency is limited to adopting one rule per year targeting either an industry or a risk classification.
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