Claims and Costs News

Scientists Look to Measure Pain Better

Is the pain stabbing or burning? On a scale from 1 to 10, is it a 6 or an 8? Over and over, 17-year-old Sarah Taylor struggled to make doctors understand her sometimes debilitating levels of pain, first from joint-damaging …

WCRI: Texas Workers’ Comp Medical Costs Per Claim Down Since 2014

Medical payments per workers’ compensation claim in Texas decreased from 2014 to 2016 for claims with more than seven days of lost time, evaluated as of 2017. This followed several years of increasing medical costs, according to a recent study …

Illinois Doctor Convicted of Billing Insurers for Treatment Never Performed

A federal jury has convicted a Chicago doctor on fraud charges for billing insurance companies for purported chiropractic manipulations that were never performed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois reported. Dr. Paul Madison, an anesthesiologist and …

The Hartford: Employers Need to Address Opioids in the Workplace

A recent survey by The Hartford shows the opioid epidemic is having a tangible and growing impact on employers of all sizes nationwide, and a majority of U.S. workers and Human Resources (HR) professionals feel they have limited knowledge and …

7 Technology Features to Look For In a Medical Management Software Platform

As medical costs continue to rise, workers’ compensation payors are looking for methods to identify expenses that can be controlled and ways to handle claims more efficiently. According to a Lockton white paper, medical expenses are now averaging well over …

New Puerto Rico Laws Govern Insurance Claims Handling Post-Maria

The governor of Puerto Rico overhauled the U.S. territory’s insurance laws on Tuesday to help protect policyholders as thousands of claims remain unresolved more than a year after Hurricane Maria. Gov. Ricardo Rossello signed six laws into effect as he …

Commentary: Digitizing Claims Processing Can Be a Real Claim to Fame

By enabling anytime, anywhere accessibility to a simpler self-service online system, forward-thinking carriers can digitize claims processing, making it dramatically simplified, intelligent, and cost-effective, while boosting customer loyalty at the same time. The argument of ‘digital versus brick-and-mortar’ is almost …

Injury Rates Spike at Coal Giant’s West Virginia Mines

Injury rates have more than doubled at five West Virginia coal mines acquired by Murray Energy Corp. in 2013, according to a Reuters review of federal data, as the firm sharply increased the amount of coal produced per manhour. Although …

Lockton: Higher Costs Associated With Denied Workers’ Comp Claims

Workers’ compensation claim denial rates increased a little over one percent between 2014 and 2017, according to a white paper published earlier this year by Lockton. The increase is significant because of the increased costs associated with denied claims. The …

New Mexico Appeals Court Says Employee Owed Workers’ Comp

An employee that tripped and fell at work is owed workers’ compensation benefits despite his employer’s argument that the accident didn’t arise our of and in the course of his work, according to a recent ruling by the New Mexico …