At the 2022 PARMA Annual Conference, a panel discussed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claims for public entity employees. Speakers included: Dr Ron Heredia – Westwood Evaluation and Treatment Center Vicki Lindquist – Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP Dr. Tyrone Spears – City of Los Angeles Under California law, a “violent act” causing a mental injury is compensable if it is considered “substantial”. The courts ruled this accounts for roughly 30% of the mental injury causes, which is a very low threshold. California also has a PTSD presumption statute for first responders in California meaning claims for PTSD are presumed
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At the 2022 PARMA Annual Conference, Anthony DeMaria from DeMaria Law Firm provided an update on liability exposures and defense strategies for California public entities facing claims relating to sexual assault and molestation (SAM) claims. There are several ways that a negligence claim can be pursued against a public entity relating to SAM claims. Negligent Hiring Were candidates properly screened? Employers are legally obligated to conduct background checks on school employees, including fingerprinting and checking references. While social media checks are not required, they are advisable. Employers need to be consistent. One area of concern is schools utilizing a number
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At the 2021 WCI Conference in Orlando, Scott Westman, Sr. Vice President Casualty Operations at Sedgwick and Steve Figliuolo, Enterprise Risk Management at Chick-fil-A, Inc., discussed how they approach workers’ compensation claims. Advocacy Approach Chick-fil-A tries to take the same customer service approach with their claims handling that they do with the customers in their stores. That means going the extra mile to advocate for their injured workers. To assist their employees, they set up a 24-hour call center for people to reach out with basic workers’ compensation questions. The system can be complex and they hoped this would take some
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What are the most important focuses for workers’ compensation programs that lead to quality claims outcomes and what are the claims strategies and initiatives that best drive results? At the 2021 Workers’ Compensation Institute Conference in Orlando, a a panel of risk managers share what has worked well for them, and how they drive those focuses to produce better outcomes and results for their companies. Speakers included: David Stills – Senior VP, Carrier and Risk Practice, Sedgwick Tara Acton – Director, Claims & Counsel, Lumen Technologies Teresa Gunter – Manager Sr. Claims, The Adecco Group NA Marc Salm – VP
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The 2021 SAWCA All Committee Conference kicked off with a panel of regulators discussing some of the challenges they are facing in their state agencies. The participating states were CO, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, SC, TN, TX, VA and WI. Do you have COVID-19 claims that have litigated to conclusion in your state? Colorado – Only a handful of claims have litigated through the hearing process, and most of those were ultimately denied. Florida – There are a small number of COVID-19 claims in litigation currently. Georgia – There are no COVID-19 presumptions in the state. Only
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On May 11, 2021, NCCI held their Annual Issues Symposium. NCCI is the largest workers’ compensation rating agency representing 34 states, which is the data used in their analysis. The main event of the Annual Issues Symposium is always their State of the Line Presentation. Here are some highlights from that presentation: Net written premium is down 10% in 2020 vs 2019. This is due to the significant decline in payroll caused by the pandemic. The private carrier calendar year combined ratio was 87% which is about a 2% increase from 2019. This makes four years in a row with
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Public entity risk professionals face unique challenges that most recently include issues with law enforcement liability and a variety of workers’ compensation presumptions. This RIMS 2021 session discussed investigated these various challenges and offered approaches to managing those issues. Speakers included: Mark Walls, Vice President Communications & Strategic Analysis, Safety National Barry Scott, Risk Manager, City of Philadelphia Julie Mileham, Director, Risk Management, Colorado State Office of Risk Management Legislative Changes In Colorado, the legislature recently introduced 557 bills, 178 of which directly apply to the risk management division of the state. Of them, 73 have included fiscal notes, which
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Between the shift to remote learning and mitigating the risks of COVID-19, higher education has had a tumultuous year. And with new risks emerging almost too regularly, retentions and limits are increasing, making obtaining coverage a challenge. In this session at RIMS 2021, four higher education risk management specialists covered the dominant risks shaping coverage for higher education and how they’re impacting coverage. Guests included: Courtney Curtis – Assistant Vice President, Risk Management & Resilience Planning, University of Chicago Craig McAllister – Executive Director, Risk Management, University of Miami Risk Management Susan Liden – Director of Risk Services, Pacific Lutheran University
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Identifying emerging risks and their potential impact is critical to any organization’s ability to achieve business objectives and longer-term strategy. This session at RIMS 2021 investigated various practices in recognizing and assessing emerging risks. Speakers included: Jana Utter, Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management, Centene Corporation Lorie Graham, Chief Risk Officer, American Agricultural Insurance Company Suzanne Christensen, Chief Risk Officer, Invesco Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager, RIMS Emerging risks can come in many forms – they can be novel (not seen before), evolving (behaving differently than they one had) or known/unknown (knowledge of the risk existed, but it just now affects
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Ergonomics concepts can be traced back to WWII when it was first used to assist pilots—minimizing fatigue, reducing error and keeping pilots flying longer. Shifting to today, we’re dealing with the health effects from computer overuse while working from home and injuries from handheld devices, like “texter’s neck” and “gamer’s thumb.” In this session at RIMS 2021, Michelle Despres, Vice President of Physical Therapy at One Call, discusses ergonomics best practices for employees working from home and the cost reduction for employers when an ergonomics program is established. Working From Home A recently published article from The Stanford Institute provides
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