Kansas Reduces Workers’ Comp Costs

June 7, 2023

No workers’ comp fund assessment for Kansas

  • Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt announced there will not be a Workers Compensation Fund assessment this year.
  • Carriers, pools, and self-insured businesses will not be required to pay into the assessment fund for the fiscal year 2024.
  • This will reduce the cost of doing business by at least $3 million over the previous fiscal year.
  • “Due to the healthy balance of the Workers Compensation Fund, I have determined that imposing an assessment is not warranted for the upcoming fiscal year,” Schmidt said.
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Texas workers’ comp division releases final COVID stats

  • The Texas Department of Insurance’s Division of Workers’ Compensation designated as the last update to its report providing information on the impact of COVID-19 on the state’s workers’ comp system.
  • COVID-19 claims: As of April 30, 2023, insurance carriers reported nearly 100,000 COVID-19 claims and 472 fatalities to DWC. A little more than half of these claims (51%) and fatalities (55%) involve first responders and correctional officers.
  • Claims with positive test or diagnosis: More than two-thirds of all COVID-19 claims (72%) involved injured employees who tested positive or were diagnosed with COVID-19.
  • Despite more than 27,000 denials of COVID-19 claims with positive tests or diagnoses, there were only 258 disputes filed with DWC as of April 30, 2023.
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Washington State levies largest worker safety fines

  • Three confidential complaints from an employee of a King County business have resulted in 175 safety and health violations and a $2 million fine from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
  • L&I conducted inspections in Nov. and Dec. 2022 at Young Corporation’s Seattle headquarters, where they make excavator equipment, and two other divisions of the company: the Nordick Manufacturing and the Meltec Foundry division.
  • Across the three locations, L&I found 31 willful serious, seven willful general, 94 serious and more than 40 general violations.
  • The total fine, $2,013,120, is among the largest in L&I history.
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Amazon union rep terminated after filing workers’ comp

  • A union organizer at Amazon who testified before a Senate committee has been terminated by the company after she filed for workers’ comp.
  • Jennifer Bates is dealing with injuries she received while working at Amazon and her termination comes shortly after reaching three years of service with the company.
  • Bates, who has also testified in Washington at a hearing on income inequality, took workers’ comp leave at Amazon’s recommendation in order to tend to her injuries.
  • When she returned to work, Amazon refused to make adjustments to her work schedule and work type despite repeated doctors’ letters and she was later fired.
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