At the 2022 WCRI Annual Conference, a panel discussed how the pandemic has changed the workplace. The speakers were: Denise Algire – Albertsons Companies Dan Allen – Construction Industry Service Corporation Craig Ross – Liberty Mutual Sebastian Negrusa – WCRI Vaccine Requirements Educational efforts around the vaccine have been successful in many industries, leading to high vaccination rates among employees. While some companies implemented vaccine mandates for a variety of reasons, most did not feel this was necessary. Long COVID The Department of Labor (DOL) has classified “long COVID” as a disability that requires accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities
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At the 2022 WCRI Annual Conference, Robert Hartwig, Associate Professor of Finance from the University of South Carolina, talked about a variety of issues impacting the economy and workers’ compensation. Inflation Overview and Impact The current drivers of inflation are rooted in pandemic-related supply chain disruption and monetary policy changes made in response to the pandemic. The federal government passed six COVID relief bills totaling $5.7 trillion, creating a substantial influx of cash into the economy which had a very predictable impact on inflation. Inflation is also being heavily influenced by high oil prices. As it relates to workers’ compensation,
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At the 2022 PARMA Conference, a session discussed the evolving ways that police departments are responding to situations involving mentally ill suspects. Speakers included: Kevin Allen – Allen, Glaessner, Hazerwood & Werth John Robinson – Allen, Glaessner, Hazerwood & Werth Thomas Sims – Watsonville Police Department About 10% of police interactions involve someone with mental illness and 25% of officer-involved shootings involve a suspect with mental illness. These interactions are riskier because typically the calls last longer, require more than one officer, do not involve a felony, and are volatile situations involving risk to the safety all parties. According to
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At the 2022 PARMA Annual Conference, a panel discussed the importance of mental health wellness programs for your employees. The speakers included: Jena Covy – City of Bakersfield Christie Tenter – City of Bakersfield Alan Ernst – City of Modesto Tina Casola – First Alarm Wellness Traditional employee wellness programs have always focused on physical health. However, any good wellness program needs to address mental health, as this is an important and neglected component in overall employee health. There are many stressors in everyone’s lives, both from workplace and personal issues. These problems can persist and worsen unless an employee
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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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