A well-known workers’ comp number cruncher and an actuary are calling Chicken Little on insurance industry warnings about the cost of COVID-19 claims. Health Strategy Associates owner Joe Paduda and Bickmore Actuarial principal Mark Priven dispute assertions by Moody’s, the …
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 …
Workers’ compensation insurers are reporting dramatic reductions in opioid use by injured workers. In some cases, all it took was asking doctors to stop renewing prescriptions. A peer-reviewed study by Mitchell International and Utah’s WCF Mutual Insurance Co. found that …
Opioids remain the most common type of prescription drug used to treat California injured workers with lost-time injuries, but sustained efforts to curb their use are paying off as new data show that in the past decade they fell from …
A study on the use of spinal fusion surgeries in California workers’ compensation shows that in 60 percent of spinal fusion claims the initial report of injury was for a sprain or strain, a majority of the fusions occurred within …
Workers’ compensation wonk Alex Swedlow will become the fourth president of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute in 50 years following the announced retirement on Monday of J. Michael Nolan as president of the group. Nolan’s retirement is effective May 1. …
A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute study shows that on average, California work injury claims from 2002 through 2011 that involved physician-dispensed repackaged drugs had 17 percent higher medical benefit costs, 13 percent higher indemnity costs and 9 percent more …
A report issued last week by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute shows workers’ comp insurers’ loss and expense payments rose to nearly $12.5 billion in 2011, an increase of over $1 billion. The report, compiled from statistics from the Workers’ …
Compwest Insurance Co. founder Bill Mudge is no longer president and chief executive of the firm he started in 2004. Mudge’s name has been removed from the company’s phone system, and it disappeared off its website on Thursday. A spokeswoman …