Pennsylvania takes steps to improve workers’ comp

• Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys and Labor & Industry Acting Secretary Nancy Walker approved a loss-cost filing, including a 3.33 percent reduction in loss costs.
• Loss costs are a component in determining workers’ comp insurance rates paid by businesses, and this reduction should lead to lower premiums for many Pennsylvania businesses.
• This loss-cost revision was filed by the Pa. Compensation Rating Bureau (PCRB), an independent bureau that makes filings to the Insurance Department on behalf of companies that write workers’ compensation insurance in Pennsylvania.
• Workers’ compensation insurance covers the cost of medical care and rehabilitation for injured workers, lost wages, and death benefits for the dependents of those killed in work-related accidents.
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Nine people sentenced for workers’ comp fraud

• Nine defendants were sentenced for their roles in a years-long, multi-state scheme to defraud the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and TRICARE, the health care program for U.S. service members and their families.
• The defendants included three compounding pharmacy owners, a physician, two pharmacists, and three patient recruiters –
• The perpetrators submitted false and fraudulent claims to the OWCP and TRICARE for prescriptions for compounded and other drugs prescribed to injured federal workers and members of the armed forces.
• The defendants also paid kickbacks to patient recruiters and physicians to prescribe these drugs.
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Amazon workers still complain of warehouse risks

• Amazon warehouse staffers have complained about unsafe working conditions and injury risks for several years.
• Facility-level data released last month from the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration underscores worker concerns, showing that in 2022 Amazon laborers were injured at a rate of 6.9 for every 100.
• In January, OSHA investigators cited Amazon for “failing to keep workers safe.”
• Amazon’s injury rate was almost 1.5 times the industry average in 2o21, sometimes as high as 12 workers out of 100 suffering injuries.
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Bill would expand workers’ comp for nurses with PTSD

• SB 5454 passed the Washington State House 57-40 on April 7th.
• The bill is now waiting for a concurrence vote from the Senate to support the changes made by the House.
• The House amendment added a presumption back into the bill which puts the burden of having to prove that an employee didn’t get PTSD on the job at work on the employer.
• This presumption is important because it will speed up the workers’ claims process and reduce barriers for nurses seeking care for their PTSD.
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