The COVID-19 omicron variant appears to be waning and several states have lifted their mask mandates in recent weeks, but legislators are just getting started when it comes to the pandemic and workers compensation.

Most people now recognize the energy savings benefits of green buildings. These buildings use less water, energy and other natural resources. In some cases, they can increase biodiversity, produce their own energy and reduce the urban heat island effect.

If you ever find yourself in a room of claims and litigation professionals and need a good icebreaker, be sure to ask the person closest to you this question: Did you find the industry, or did the industry find you?

Monday, we wrote about a proposed bill in Utah that would allow firefighters combatting fires in states other than their own to collect workers’ compensation benefits if they were injured on the job. Legislators there are running into significant headwinds, in the form of paranoid accusations that they are really establishing paramilitary services to enslave people and violate the rights of citizens.

It is undisputed that the claims adjuster sits in the hot seat of the workers’ compensation claims process. At the frontlines of claims management, they must balance the interests of multiple stakeholders while juggling important and often time-critical authorization decisions that impact an injured worker’s care in relation to their workers’ comp claim.

The health care supply chain is experiencing a multitude of disruptions, delays, wage pressures and shortages, some of which have an impact on workers’ compensation medical care.

A recent webinar delved into the biopsychosocial treatment model and return to work, with special emphasis on identifying the presence of psychosocial risk factors in poor outcomes.

With the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously holding that employers and insurance companies must pay for medical marijuana when ordered by the court, and the Minnesota Supreme Court holding that federal law preempts the state’s medical marijuana law, companies and claims management professionals are stuck trying to sort out a legal turf war fit for a mafia movie.

It’s been almost two years since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. In that time, we’ve experienced a master class in just how unprepared the U.S. was for a global pandemic.

Legislation being hailed for allowing faster workers’ compensation claims settlements was signed into law last week by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. It changes the requirements regarding the signing of legal paperwork for those workers eligible for a C&R – a Compromise and Release settlement.

From whether COVID-19 is reimbursable to developments in medical marijuana’s compensability, it has been a busy year for workers’ comp decisions at both the state and federal level.

No employer wants to find themselves in the midst of a workers compensation matter, especially when the employee in question was injured through no fault of the employer.

This problem starts with California’s notoriously employee-friendly workers compensation rules, which requires employers to pay for employees’ medical treatment if they are hurt on the job. This holds true even in cases where the employer is not at fault and injuries were caused by a negligent third party.

Fortunately, California also gives businesses or their workers compensation carriers the right to subrogate against those negligent third parties to recover any benefits they might have paid to injured workers. Through additional litigation, employers can seek reimbursement for these paid benefits that were made on behalf of an injured employee.

Harris County Fire Marshal’s officials are investigating an overnight fire at the ExxonMobil’s Baytown refinery that left four people injured.

Finally, life felt normal again. No video conferences. No remote meetings. Just a smattering of masks. This year for the Workers’ Compensation Institute in Orlando, their behemoth of an educational conference rose like a Phoenix from the desolate ashes of a detested pandemic

For Tyler Wright, sheriff’s deputy with Florida Law Enforcement, the anxiety and flashbacks that came with PTSD were becoming unbearable.