Worker comp fraud costs $9B annually
- Insurance fraud cost U.S. consumers and businesses $308.6 billion annually, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
- The new yearly cost of insurance fraud estimate is the first time in 27 years the figure has been updated
- The new figure extends beyond property & casualty insurance to include fraud in lines ranging from life and health to workers’ comp and auto theft.
- Around $9 billion of that total comes from workers’ comp premium fraud,
PTSD can lead to workers comp claims
- Employees diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following a traumatic workplace incident can be eligible for workers’ compensation.
- The Virginia Court of Appeals decided in favor of a UPS driver who witnessed a gruesome homicide and filed to have PTSD covered as a work-related injury.
- The driver could not have anticipated arriving at this type of scene during the course of his employment and alleged that he suffered from PTSD as a result.
- However, if a job entails observing trauma, then PTSD might not be covered.
Employers must have workers comp for remote employees
- Remote and telecommuting workers are covered under workers comp’ policies if the injury or illness occurs if the employee suffers the injury while working.
- Employers are responsible for providing the same safe work environment for both their on-site workers and remote workers.
- Often, an employee’s home environment does not have the same safety standards you have put in place at your workplace.
- Other injuries occur from painful conditions affecting muscles, tendons, and nerves, resulting from inefficient workstations.
New Hampshire electric employee killed
- An electric company employee working on a backup generator project at Keene, N.H., wastewater treatment plant suffered an injury and died, city officials said.
- The employee worked for Hamblet Electric employee when he was fatally injured.
- Other employees used a defibrillator and performed CPR before ambulance and fire department crews arrived.
- The town of Swanzey and OSHA have opened an investigation.