Response to objections to the California Insurance Department’s rehab plan

• The trial court in the Applied Underwriters’ California Insurance Company conservation issued a tentative decision late in response to CIC’s objections to the California Insurance Department’s rehabilitation plan.
• “The Court finds the Amended Plan is “reasonably related to the public interest in rehabilitating the insurer and not be arbitrary or improperly discriminatory” or “contrary to [a] specific statute,” and the arguments raised, and evidence cited by CIC in its objections asserted in opposition and in surreply do not demonstrate otherwise,” Judge Greenberg wrote in the tentative decision.
• The Tentative is strongly written and is unlikely to be changed by whatever argument Applied/CIC presents today.
• Workers’ Comp Executive is in the San Mateo courtroom this morning and will have additional coverage of the proceedings as developments warrant.
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Worker’s amputation leads to propose penalties 

• A federal investigation into an employee’s amputation injury at a Neenah, Wisconsin, manufacturing plant in February 2023 found one of the nation’s oldest and most recognized companies again failed to follow required safety procedures.
• An inspection of the Dixon Ticonderoga Co.’s facility found the art supply manufacturer lacked adequate machine safety procedures. Since 2020, the agency has cited the Neenah facility three times for similar violations.
• Inspectors determined the injury occurred as the worker tried to clean a press used to imprint images in labeling and packaging processes, which lacked required safety guards.
• OSHA cited the company for two repeat and four serious violations and proposed $203,806 in penalties.
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Two insurers expand relationship

• Gradient AI expanded its relationship with MEMIC, a workers’ compensation insurer.
• MEMIC has chosen Gradient AI to enhance its claims management outcomes.
• Under this expanded agreement, MEMIC will leverage the advanced capabilities of Gradient AI’s Claims Benchmarking and
• These innovative tools empower MEMIC to identify trends and outliers, improve the decision-making process and refine its reserve management processes so that sufficient funds are set aside to address anticipated claim costs.
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Longstanding impact of pandemic

• About 6% of workers who filed workers’ compensation claims for catching COVID-19 between March 2020 and September 2021 have also received care for Long COVID, according to a new report.
• Of these workers, many of them continued receiving medical care for ongoing symptoms a year after their infections, researchers said.
• Among all 50 states, Massachusetts was found to have the second-fewest amount of workers who filed Long COVID claims, behind Missouri.
• About 3%of workers in the state filed claims for Long COVID care. Oregon, with the most claims in the country, had about 10 percent of sampled workers who continued to be affected by the virus.
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