The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the denial of a widow’s claim for a truck driver’s fatal heart attack. Case: Dnistranskiy v. Brite Logistics Inc. (WCAB), No. 414 C.D. 2023, 05/10/2024,…

The Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee on Tuesday held an informational meeting to hear testimony from industry experts on the harmful effects of worker misclassification. Christopher Hallock, deputy secretary of…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld an administrative decision finding that an employer could not join another entity and its insurance carrier as liable parties for a worker’s fatal accident. Case:…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that an injured worker was precluded from trying to challenge the validity of his settlement agreements with his employer. Case: May v. Dana Corp., No.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that an injured firefighter was not entitled to reinstatement of his benefits. Case: Marinack v. City of Pittsburgh (WCAB), City of Pittsburgh v. Marinack (WCAB),…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld a determination that a worker was required to pay the full amount of her employer’s lien against her third-party recovery, even though the estimate…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the modification of an injured worker’s benefits from wage loss to a specific loss based on the partial amputation of a toe. Case: Perkins v.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that an employer should have been allowed to set aside its stipulation of facts agreeing to the enlargement of an employee’s claim. Case: VNA of…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld an award of benefits to the widow of a paramedic who died of a heart attack. Case: Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. v. Reeder (WCAB), No.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the termination of a worker’s benefits for her injuries from a slip-and-fall accident. Case: Tarawallie v. Magee Memorial Hospital for Convalescents (WCAB), No. 717 C.D.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the dismissal of an insurance carrier’s breach-of-contract claim against a third-party claims administrator and a malpractice action against the former attorney for the carrier. Case: Pyramid…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania rejected another constitutional challenge to the state's new impairment rating evaluation procedure and scolded the attorney responsible for bringing the repetitive claims. Case: Bernard v. City…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the modification of a worker’s status from totally to partially disabled. Case: Hines v. Aria Health (WCAB), No. 708 C.D. 2023, 08/22/2024, unpublished. Facts and procedural…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld a finding that a worker sustained a compensable aggravation of his preexisting lumbar spine degenerative disease and lumbar radiculopathy. Case: Chester Water Authority v. Swiggett,…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld an employer’s entitlement to terminate its payment of benefits to an injured worker. Case: Carter-Zimmitt v. City of Philadelphia (WCAB), No. 1597 C.D. 2022, 09/10/2024,…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld a utilization review determination that a worker’s ongoing treatments were neither reasonable nor necessary. Michael Perry worked for the Mid Atlantic Hose Center LLC. He…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania rejected an employer’s challenges to orders reinstating a worker’s benefits, the expansion of his claim and the imposition of penalties. Case: Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board v. Berardi (WCAB),…

The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a bill that would make direct deposit the default method for paying workers' compensation benefits, and the Senate signed off on a measure that would make…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania overturned a ruling that an employer had waived its subrogation claim for the benefits it paid to an injured worker in a settlement. Case: American General Life Insurance…

Goldberg Segalla announced the addition of Angela G. DiSanti to the firm’s workers' compensation defense group in Philadelphia. Angela G. DiSanti DiSanti has more than 10 years of experience counseling and…

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania upheld the denial of a municipal employer’s petition to convert an injured worker’s status from temporarily totally disabled to temporarily partially disabled. Lamont Turner worked for…

A Missouri appellate court ruled that an employer was entitled to direct a worker’s future medical care even though it had refused to pay for her treatment for more than a…

The Missouri Court of Appeals reinstated a jury’s verdicts in favor of an injured worker on his disability discrimination claim. Scott Caldwell worked for the UniFirst Corp. as a district sales…

A Missouri appellate court ruled that a worker could not proceed with a civil suit against a company that qualified as his statutory employer. Case: Montgomery v. Coreslab Structures (Missouri) Inc.,…

Missouri Employers Mutual announced a new brand identity, MEM, that unites the work comp carrier and its subsidiary, Previsor, under a single banner. The rebranding coincides with the carrier’s transition to…

Although the Idaho Industrial Commission erred in several credibility findings, the remainder of its determinations finding that an injured worker was not a reliable witness were supported by substantial and…

The Idaho Department of Insurance on Wednesday announced that it accepted the National Council on Compensation Insurance's rate filing for an average 6.7% reduction in workers’ compensation rates. Dean L. Cameron The…

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation on Friday announced additional changes to the hospital outpatient department and ambulatory surgical centers section of the Official Medical Fee Schedule to align with…

The California Senate unanimously passed a bill that would allow carriers to continue using debit cards to pay benefits for another two years. The Senate on Monday voted 38-0 to pass…

The California Assembly Appropriations Committee passed bills that would create a presumption that heat injuries are compensable for agricultural workers and would expose employers to penalties for denying injured workers’…

California lawmakers passed a bill that, if approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would allow county park rangers to collect full salary-continuation benefits in lieu of temporary disability for up to…

The owner of a vocational school in Los Angeles was charged with fraud for billing carriers for services not provided and allegedly paying illegal kickbacks to vocational counselors for referrals,…

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly known as Cal/OSHA, has increased staffing in its Bureau of Investigations Unit to take on more probes into serious workplace injuries across the…

A bill that would require some doctors performing utilization review to be licensed in the state was brought back to life after spending roughly a year on the California Assembly’s…

Electronic signatures would be allowed for all California workers’ compensation documents, under a recently amended bill. Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, last week amended AB 2337 to strike a provision that…

The California Assembly voted to send Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill that would create the presumption that heat injuries and illnesses arose out of employment for agricultural workers whose employers…

The California Legislature passed a bill that would increase salaries for Insurance Department fraud investigators. The Senate on Aug. 26 voted 32-7 to pass AB 2872, which had not been amended…

The California Assembly passed a bill that would require some doctors who perform utilization reviews to be licensed in the state. The Assembly on Thursday voted 54-13 to pass SB 636,…

California lawmakers closed out the 2024 legislative session by passing a bill that would allow electronic signatures on all work comp documents, and a bill requiring that doctors who do utilization review on claims…

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board issued an en banc decision Wednesday consolidating five cases to resolve a dispute over how to split fees between an injured worker’s current and former…

The California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation opened registration for its 21st annual Conference, Legislative and Educational Forum. The three-day event will feature four general sessions and 15 breakout discussions about issues…

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health reminds employers of the requirement to protect their workers from unhealthy air as wildfires in the southern part of the state fill…

An injured worker’s 2023 medical malpractice action was time-barred because more than three years had passed since she underwent the physical therapy that allegedly caused the additional injuries, a California…

The California Chamber of Commerce on Thursday issued a statement urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would create a presumption of compensability for certain heat-related injuries suffered…

The Governing Committee for the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau will review pending legislative, regulatory and judicial actions during a Sept. 25 meeting. Committee members will hear reports on the annual…

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation opened registration for its 32nd annual Educational Conference that will be held in March. The conference is the largest work comp training event in the…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed bills that would have required some utilization review doctors to be licensed in the state and would have increased salaries for fraud investigators at the…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing electronic signatures in the state’s workers’ compensation system. Newsom on Sunday signed AB 2337, by Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach. As introduced, the…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill delaying by two years the implementation of a universal workers’ compensation coverage requirement for all contractors. The bill Newsom signed Sunday also includes a…

A California appellate court revived a worker’s claims against his employer for harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jose Rivera worked for FSC Corp. at Il Pastaio restaurant in Beverly…