New York State WC Fraud Up 28% in 2024
- The New York state inspector general’s office said workers’ compensation fraud uncovered during 2024 was up 28.4% compared to the previous year.
- The office’s investigation resulted in 14 arrests, a 30% increase from 2023, according to its annual report released Tuesday.
- Inspector General Lucy Lang in the report noted that more than $1.4 million in restitution and fines were awarded to defrauded state agencies, insurers, and employers, also up from 2023.
- Lang said an extensive public outreach program helped drive 1,436 complaints alleging fraud by medical providers, employers, and claimants.
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Travelers Unit Found Erred in Massachusetts Covid Benefit Denial
- Travelers Indemnity erred in denying workers’ compensation benefits to a utility worker who contracted COVID-19 while on the job, a job the state had deemed as “essential” during the pandemic, a Massachusetts court found.
- The insurer had denied the claim on the basis that the risk of contracting COVID-19 was not inherent in the nature of the individual’s employment as a lineman for the electric utility Unitil.
- Travelers failed to reasonably consider how the pandemic changed working conditions for the worker, including that Massachusetts had declared a state of emergency due to the pandemic and ordered all nonessential businesses and services to close.
- However, the lineman was one of the designated “essential workers” who continued to work.
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SFM Exec Shawn Miner Tapped for Kansas Plan Board
- Shawn Miner, SFM’s VP of Regional Business for Iowa/Nebraska/Kansas Accounts, has been appointed to the governing board of the Kansas Workers’ Compensation Insurance Plan.
- The appointment comes less than five years after the Minnesota carrier started writing business in Kansas, according to a company announcement.
- The organization, facilitated by the Kansas Department of Insurance, primarily focuses on the residual workers’ compensation market and the administration of the state’s assigned risk plan.
- Miner’s three-year term began at the start of 2025.
- The group’s board members include insurance carriers, agents, business leaders and others. It consults and collaborates with the Kansas Insurance Department and the National Council on Compensation Insurance.
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