We know that workers’ comp is at times controversial, and that case related decisions and determinations rarely make everyone happy. Still, through the din of disagreement there is usually a thread of logic that can help define issues and justify outcomes.

Members of the claim management team should be empowered to engage injured employees, even when they are represented by an attorney, to try and settle workers’ compensation claims.

On May 12, 2020, the New Jersey Supreme Court answered a long-standing subrogation question regarding whether a workers’ compensation carrier is entitled to subrogation and/or reimbursement from a third-party tortfeasor who is covered by New Jersey no-fault insurance, even though the employee does not otherwise meet the verbal threshold allowing him or her to sue the tortfeasor.

Technology and automation are everywhere in workers’ comp. Artificial intelligence (AI) allows insurers to analyze workers’ comp claims and flag ones that could go awry. Apps check in on injured workers.

The scenes from May 30 looked like they had been plucked out of the 1960s. News networks alternated between covering nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was allegedly killed by a police officer while in custody, and SpaceX’s first crewed launch to the international space station.

A delivery driver who used his wife’s name to try to pull off one of the state’s largest workers’ compensation fraud cases has been ordered to pay back nearly $340,000.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent reverberations through every industry and has the potential to take a heavy economic toll on workers compensation insurers and self-insurers in particular. The current environment creates many questions. Here are answers to those being most frequently asked.

Oh, what a difference a state line makes. In Florida, a work-at-home workers’ compensation claims professional who tripped over her dog while reaching for a cup of coffee could not receive workers’ compensation benefits. If she moved just a few miles north, over the Georgia border, it would now be a different story.

The state-level workers’ comp system is difficult enough to navigate in an average world. But combined with ever-changing federal mandates related to Coronavirus, it adds a complexity to the pandemic environment that will impact employers for a long time to come, as they seek to not only protect employees, but also mitigate their legal and compliance risks.

In a survey released at the end of April by Mitchell International, half of the responding workers’ compensation professionals reported that cost containment is the driving factor for adopting advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, telemedicine, wearables, mobile technology and chatbots.

As our nation’s population continues to diversify across racial, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, so does our labor workforce. However, the rate at which the country’s labor force continues to diversify is not equally mirrored in our claims professionals and administrators.

Insurance plays a significant role in everything imaginable. One reason why is because it must be legally owned to perform certain activities — think of auto insurance and driving a car; other examples of compulsory insurance include workers’ compensation and professional liability insurance.

Browse any online news site or listen to a newscast and you’d be hard pressed not to find information about the effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on how employees are doing their jobs.

A perfect storm of macro factors has supercharged several trends in the insurance industry, producing almost touchless processes for claims and enabling cycle times of seconds, minutes and hours instead of days and weeks.

It is no secret that technology is continuing to disrupt the auto casualty and workers’ compensation industries. Further digitizing the claims process can provide a variety of benefits for payors and claimants alike, including improving the consumer experience, boosting efficiencies, reducing fraud and allowing for adjusters and other claims handlers to focus on what matters most—helping restore claimants’ lives after a challenging event.