News

There were 5,333 fatal workplace injuries recorded in the United States in 2019, a 2% increase from the 5,250 in 2018 and the largest figure since 2007, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday. Demographics data painted a different picture: fatalities among workers age 55 and over increased 8% from 1,863 in 2018 to…

Workers compensation will likely continue to face challenges from the pandemic and will need to adapt to address COVID-19-related treatment gaps, according to a report released Thursday by Mitchell International Inc. In its 2020 Industry Trends Report, the San Diego-based property/casualty technology company predicts that the workers comp industry will continue to see shortages of primary care physicians and delays…

While at least 17 states have passed laws or issued orders that expanded access to workers’ compensation benefits for employees who contract COVID-19, many of those directives are creating new exposure for only a sliver of the workforce, new research by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute shows. WRCI studied policies adopted by Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota and Missouri in…

The number of employees who may be covered by the various state laws and executive orders providing some level of compensability for workers who acquire COVID-19 on the job varies substantially based on workforce and the nature of the order, researchers from the Workers Compensation Research Institute found in a study released Tuesday. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based WCRI used data from…

It has been more than eight months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and the impact on workers compensation claims continues to be less than predicted, experts say. In much of the country, the number of COVID-19 workers comp claims accepted — even in the 17 states with a presumption law or executive order that allows…