Vol. 6, Issue 36

Find Solutions & Strategies                   September 8, 2015

Industrial Injuries in the U.S.

A 14-year analysis of trends & health care costs 
In This Issue
A Note From the Editor
industrial injuries in the u.s.
A 14-Year Analysis of Characteristics, Trends and Health Care Costs

By Robin E. Kobayashi, J.D. and Karen C. Yotis, Esq.
 
An ambitious new study that examines industry-related injuries in the U.S. for the period 1998 to 2011 has shed some light on the characteristics of occupational injuries as well as the resultant costs that burden the shoulders of the employer/worker/society triumvirate supporting the "grand bargain." According to the study, we're talking about an estimated $250 billion in 2007 alone for injuries that relate to an array of risk factors that are difficult to pinpoint and even harder to predict or fully understand. The authors used the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database, a tool developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The NIS in turn is part of the...read more.
john burton releases latest research report
Issue 10 of the Workers' Compensation Resources Research Report examines the employers' costs of workers' compensation. Part I relies on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to examine national trends from 1986 to 2014. For private-sector employers, costs dropped...read more.
LARSON'S SPOTLIGHT ON RECENT CASES
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., our Feature National Columnist, is the co-author of Larson's Workers' Compensation Law (LexisNexis). 
  
Utah: Employer's Knowledge of Earlier Accident on Same Day May Point to Intentional Tort. A divided Supreme Court of Utah held that a dispute of a material fact precluded summary judgment in an intentional tort action filed by a plaintiff-employee against the employer where...read more.

Massachusetts: "Alternative Employer Endorsement" in Staffing Company's Policy Provides Immunity Protection for Special Employer Sued by Injured Worker. An "alternate employer endorsement" written into the workers' comp insurance policy maintained by an employment staffing company that named the defendant special employer as...read more.

Alabama: Court Approves Award for Erectile Dysfunction Medication in Spite of Rule Limiting Such Awards. An Alabama appellate court affirmed an award for a prescription medication in the form of a "time release" medication for erectile dysfunction that an employee contended was associated with...read more.

Nebraska: Nurse Awarded PTSD Benefits After Series of Assaults by Patients. A nurse, who suffered a series of assaults by patients at her employer's hospital may recover for her mental disability-major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder-in spite of Nebraska's general rule that...read more.
national & state news
burton, cont. 
Report
... for the ninth consecutive year and represented 1.77 percent of payroll in 2014, the lowest figure since 1986. For all non-federal employers, which includes state and local government employers in addition to private sector employers, employers' costs of workers' compensation were 1.76 percent of payroll in 2014, which was the ninth consecutive year of declining costs and the lowest figure since the data series began in 1991.

The National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) also publishes estimates of the employers' costs of workers' compensation for all non-federal employers. The results of the two estimates diverge after 2010, with the NASI data showing three years of increases in employers' costs from 2011 to 2013 (the latest year with NASI data) while the BLS data show nine years of declines through 2014.

Part II provides information based on the BLS data on the variations among employers' costs of workers' compensation in 2014 depending on the employers' region, industry, the occupations of the firms' employees, firm size, and union status. The variations among industries were significant, ranging from 4.71 percent of payroll in construction to 0.57 percent of payroll in the financial industry.

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