An interstate comparison and analysis

Roger Rabb, J.D., Special Correspondent for the LexisNexis Workers' Compensation eNewsletter

Although the common perception may be that using an Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) will save money compared to using a hospital for outpatient surgery, that may not always be the case. In fact, the results can vary greatly from state to state. That was the lesson to be learned at a December 2014 webinar sponsored by WCRI, Interstate Comparisons of Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payments. During the webinar, presenter Dr. Bogdan Savych discussed two primary issues involving ASC payments, first looking at variations in payments to ASCs from state to state and discussing what may account for those variations, then looking at how payments to ASCs varied from payments to hospitals in the same state for the same outpatient surgeries...read more.

(Everywhere but the 9th Circuit)

Kentucky: Divided Supreme Court Draws Distinction Between Deviations in Work Performance and Those During Personal Comfort Activity. A divided Supreme Court of Kentucky held that injuries sustained during a paid break by an office worker, when she was hit by a car as she crossed a street in front of her employer's premises did not arise out of and in the course of her employment because.. .read more.

South Carolina: Supreme Court Moves Close to Positional Risk Standard in Hallway Fall Case. The Supreme Court of South Carolina, moving ever so close to a positional risk standard, reversed a decision by the state's Court of Appeals, holding that an office employee could recover benefits for injuries sustained when she fell as she walked down an...read more.

Hawaii: Worker's Depression Caused by "Misperception" of Work Event, Not the Event Itself. Where an employee's claimed "psychological condition" was the result of his "misperception of various events and communications" and "was not caused or aggravated by work but was entirely imported by [the employee] into the workplace," the employee did not sustain a...read more.

Federal: Workers' Civil Action Against Employer Related to Chemical Release Can Continue Toward Trial. A civil action filed against BP Products North America, Inc. ("BP") by more than 500 plaintiffs-including some 315 employees-in connection with an accidental chemical release by the refinery may continue toward trial, held a federal district court in Texas...read more.