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ethnic bias | |
Evidence of Bias in Workers' Compensation Awards: Study Shows Whites Receive Higher Benefits Than Other Groups for Comparable Harm, by John Stahl, Esq. Despite the basic workers' compensation principle that every claimant should receive equal medical and wage-loss benefits for the same type of compensable injury and that those benefits should reflect the extent of that harm, relevant statistics have indicated that someone's ethnic background may impact the awarded compensation. An article entitled "Analysis of Ethnic Disparities in Workers' Compensation Claims Using Data Linkage" that Lee S. Friedman, Ph.D. and his co-authors wrote for the October 2012 edition of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine addressed the issue of race-based differences regarding workers' compensation benefits in the context of compensable injuries that construction workers in Illinois sustained. Read more. |
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msp: conditional payments | |
 Medicare Secondary Payer: Conditional Payment Reimbursement Policies for Certain Liability Settlements, by Jennifer C. Jordan, Esq. In an effort to resolve Congressional concerns about the cost of MSP recovery efforts compared to the recoveries themselves, CMS started creating policies in the fall of 2011 to reduce the agency's involvement in low dollar liability settlements. $300 Threshold for Recovery Exemption: Starting September 6, 2011, if a Medicare beneficiary receives a lump sum liability insurance (including self-insurance) settlement of $300 or less, Medicare will not recover from that settlement so long as the injury was physical trauma based and not due to ingestion, implantation or exposure, the beneficiary does not expect to receive any other related settlements, judgments, awards or other payments and no demand letter has been issued by Medicare. Read more.
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Larson's on intoxication presumption | |
 Injured Worker Successfully Rebuts Intoxication Presumption, by Thomas A. Robinson. A Louisiana appellate court recently held that a worker, who tested positive for Dihydrocodeine, Hydrocodone, and Oxycodone when he was taken to a hospital following a work-related accident, had nevertheless successfully rebutted the presumption of intoxication contained La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 23:1081(5) where the employer offered no other evidence to indicate intoxication caused the worker to fall from a wet and slippery scaffold and where the worker testified that he had not taken any medication in the days before the accident and his supervisor indicated that just prior to the accident, the worker was alert and obeyed instructions. Read more about this case and other cases on heart attack, arising out of employment, and death benefits.
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Ethnic Bias in Workers' Comp Awards
Workers' Comp Fraud Blotter: Former Insurance Agent Sentenced To Jail For One Year In Premium Theft Case
Cody Varnes, the Sequel...and a Whole Lotta Nothin' at the Delaware IAB, by Cassandra Robert, Esq. 
Missouri: Court Finds No "Equal Exposure" From Carrying Helmet During Fall at Work, by Martin Klug, Esq. 
