Woman Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud
- Alene Bako of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced in Ada County for two counts of felony insurance fraud. Bako pled guilty in August 2023.
- The Idaho Department of Insurance began investigating the matter and discovered Bako was providing false information to obtain workers’ comp benefits.
- Bako had filed over 30 different workers’ comp claims over the years, and she admitted that at least several of them were self-inflicted wounds.
- Bako was sentenced to a suspended sentence of five years in prison with 2 years fixed, placed on 5 years of supervised probation, and ordered to serve 30 days in jail. Bako must pay a $1,000 fine for each count, $1,174.75 in restitution and $1,460.39 to the DOI.
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Medical payments in Texas are stable
- Medical payments for the treatment of workers injured on the job in Texas changed little between 2016 and 2021, according to a study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute.
- Utilization of nonhospital services decreased by 11 percent from 2020 to 2021, mainly because of fewer visits per claim.
- Hospital outpatient payments per workers’ compensation claim increased from 2019 to 2021 mostly due to growth in payments per service.
- Payments per workers’ compensation claim were lower in Texas than typical for both nonhospital and hospital care.
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Spokane Amazon facility dealing with an influx of workers’ comp claims
- In the three years since an Amazon facility opened in Spokane, Washington, workers there filed more than 400 workers’ compensation claims for work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
- This was the highest injury rate of any Amazon warehouse in the state.
- Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries is finalizing a new rule that will require companies like Amazon to disclose quotas for warehouse workers and notify employees if those expectations change.
- The legislation, set to go into effect in July 2024, would give L&I the authority to take action if a quota puts workers at risk.
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Virginia pipeline worker injured
- A Mountain Valley Pipeline worker was flown to a hospital by Lifeguard 10 after sustaining an injury while working.
- Roanoke County Fire and Rescue responded to Precision Pipeline where an employee was injured while working on a steep terrain in a remote area on Poor Mountain.
- According to responders, the worker was extracted from the area with the help of Technical Rescue personnel and flown to the hospital with internal injuries.
- The condition of the worker has not been released.
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