workers’ compensation News

Pace of COVID-19 Claims in Calif. Slower than Projected So Far

California workers had filed 5,093 COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims as of Tuesday, according to the state Department of Industrial Relations, a pace that might lead to a lower impact on costs than projected by actuaries. The potential cost of the …

Rating Bureau Chief Assesses Impact of COVID-19 on California Work Comp

Bill Mudge has been put in a unique position during the pandemic. He’s got a sizeable workforce he’s had to reconfigure and manage much differently, and he heads the bureau that regulators, employers and insurers in the largest state in …

More States Push COVID-19 Claims to Work Comp; Potential Cost Anyone’s Guess

Regulators and lawmakers in more states are demanding that workers who claim they were sickened by COVID-19 get a fair hearing, if not an outright presumption in their favor. The Wyoming House of Representatives and Senate both passed a bill …

A.M. Best: Global Insurance Market Is Well Capitalized in the Face of COVID-19

Global insurers are well capitalized to absorb the hit from rising claims and costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, ratings agency AM Best said on Monday, citing a stress test it conducted to gauge the immediate impact of outbreak on …

Federal Lawmakers Propose Heroes Compensation Act For Essential Worker Comp

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a plan to compensate essential workers who fall sick of die from COVID-19, modeling the Pandemic Heroes Compensation Act after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-NY, …

Workplace Worries Mount as US Tracks New COVID-19 Cases

NEW YORK — Even as President Donald Trump urges getting people back to work and reopening the economy, thousands of new coronavirus infections are being reported daily, many of them job-related. Recent figures show a surge of cases in meat-packing …

Work Comp May Need Backstop as Presumptions Push Claim Costs into Billions

An executive order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week is the most aggressive yet among the directives issued by 13 states that require workers’ compensation insurers to pay at least some COVID-19 claims. Pressure is growing on workers’ compensation …

Viewpoint: How COVID-19 and Recession Are Upending Workers’ Comp

COVID-19 and the onset of a deep global recession are reshaping every corner of workers’ compensation, from legal issues surrounding coverage to the delivery of care to injured workers. Some of the changes can be anticipated based on prior recessions. …

Willis: COVID-19 Losses Offset by Reduced Claims for Auto Lines

If the novel COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control soon, the disease’s impact on the insurance industry as a whole may be pretty much a wash. If not, the industry may be on the verge of an historic catastrophe. A …

Analyst Projects COVID-19 Presumption for Work Comp Will Cost $10 Billion

While the potential cost of relaxing a tenet of the workers compensation system to deal with extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19 could top $50 billion, it’s more likely to be one-fifth of that, an analyst reported last week. States like Michigan …