MN - Supreme Court Upholds Award to Social Worker for PTSD
04/19/2024 | 0
The Minnesota Supreme Court upheld an award of benefits to a social worker for post-traumatic stress disorder and clarified that comp judges may review the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria when considering the persuasiveness of expert reports, but they can't make their own diagnosis of a claimant’s condition.
Janine Tea was a social worker for Ramsey County, and her clients were those with a history of mental illness who had trouble functioning in society.
In February 2020, one of Tea’s clients killed his girlfriend in an act of extreme brut...
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An Ohio appellate court upheld an order of the Industrial Commission correcting an error of law and awarding a worker temporary total disability benefits.
Case: State ex rel. Jack Thistledown Racino LLC v. Person, No. 23AP-20, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts and procedural history: Chanel Person worked for Jack Thistledown Racino LLC. She fell while at work in July 2019 and established her entitlement to benefits for muscle strains in her back. In 2021, Person’s claim was expanded to include the substantial aggravation of preexisting spondylolisthesis.
Dr. Louis J. DeMicco reported that ...
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that an employer could not be made a third-party defendant in a civil action filed by its employees arising from a fatal retaining wall accident.
Case: Hernandez v. Hajoca Corp., No. COA23-1001, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts: W.D. Building Rentals LLC leased property in Hendersonville to Hajoca Corp. Tina Ward Foster owns the adjacent property, which is situated at a higher elevation than the one Hajoca leased. A concrete and cinderblock retaining wall marked the property line.
A storm damaged part of the retaining wall in 2020, and it was not immedi...
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker should not have been denied summary judgment on his Labor Law claim for injuries from falling through an unguarded opening.
Case: Blacio v. Related Construction LLC, No. 157518/22, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts: Jimmy Blacio allegedly suffered injuries while moving large wooden panels from the basement to the 12th floor of a construction project. Blacio and a co-worker had to walk past a stairway on the 12th floor. As he was passing the stairway, he fell through an unguarded opening.
Procedural history: Blacio filed suit against Related Construc...
We’ll say it as often as we have to: Preferred provider organization discounts do not apply to bills for medical-legal services.
It’s a lesson that Sedgwick Claims Management Inc. has yet to learn. The third-party administrator recently applied a PPO discount to charges for medical diagnostic tests rendered as part of a medical-legal evaluation.
California regulations instruct that diagnostic testing is reimbursed according to the rates established by the Physician Fee Schedule. However, using Physician Fee Schedule rates does not make testing pe...
A California legislative committee passed a bill that would require notifying workers of their right to consult an attorney.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday voted 15-0 to pass AB 1870, by Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, which would update what is to be included on notices that employers must post to include the right of injured workers to consult an attorney.
The bill also would require that workplace posters explain that injured workers’ attorney fees are paid out of any benefits they receive.
The Assembly Insurance Committee voted 12-...
The Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill that would allow insurance carriers to send cancellation notices electronically.
The state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 90-0 to pass SB 1627, by Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore.
The bill would declare that electronic notice that an insurance policy is being canceled has the same effect as sending the notice by mail.
Cancellation notices can be sent electronically only if the recipient consents and the carrier complies with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
The measure has not been amended since the Senate voted 44-3 to pass ...
The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation announced that continuing education credit will be available to attorneys who attend its next quarterly meeting with insurance carriers.
The division holds quarterly meetings with providers and carriers to discuss what’s happening with the state’s comp system.
Earlier in April, the division announced that the upcoming carrier and provider meetings will feature a review of how administrative complaints are processed, implementation of new designated doctor billing rules and an overview of a report about access to care.
The carrier...
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau Governing Committee on Wednesday voted for a fifth consecutive time to recommend that the California insurance commissioner increase the advisory pure premium rate.
The Governing Committee voted 8-3, with all members representing insurance companies voting “yes,” to recommend a 0.9% increase in the advisory rate.
In what’s become something of a trend in recent years, the successful vote came after the failure of a motion by public members to use their actuary’s calculations that indicated a 3.3% rate red...
The Montana Workers’ Compensation Court ruled that an employer could compel an injured worker to attend an independent medical evaluation and to sign the provider’s “informed consent” document, but the claimant did not need to complete any other paperwork.
Case: Roberts v. Arch Insurance Co., No. 2023-00278, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts: Sonja Roberts slipped and fell in the parking lot at her workplace in February 2023. She allegedly sustained injuries, which she aggravated while lifting at work in March 2023.
Arch Insurance Co. provided workers’ compensation ...
An Ohio appellate court upheld an enhanced award of benefits to an injured worker, finding his employer’s violation of a specific safety requirement for hydraulic presses was the proximate cause of the accident.
Case: State ex rel. Universal Metal Products Inc. v. Industrial Commission, No. 22AP-608, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts: Christopher Ladson worked for Universal Metal Products Inc. He suffered crush injuries in April 2019 when his right hand got caught inside a hydraulic press.
Ladson had worked on the press several times before his injury. The press had two levers, one on the ...
The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a $15 million award of damages on a Jones Act claim for a 22-year-old seaman’s death.
Case: Love v. Osage Marine Services Inc., No. ED111905, 04/16/2024, published.
Facts: Casey Redmond worked for Osage Marine Services Inc. On Dec. 15, 2019, Redmond and his supervisor were working as deck crew on a tugboat.
When the tugboat got an assignment to help put a barge into a fleet, Redmond and his supervisor prepared to board the barge. Both had life vests on.
The supervisor stepped onto the barge and noticed cornmeal on the deck. He then heard the...
A New York appellate court ruled that an injured worker was not entitled to a finding of total disability for her mental and physical injuries.
Case: Matter of Seide v. Brooklyn Hospital Center, No. CV-22-2147, 04/11/2024, published.
Facts: Marie Seide worked for the Brooklyn Hospital Center. After a workplace accident in 2016, Seide established her entitlement to benefits for physical injuries to her back, left knee and right shoulder, as well as psychological injuries consisting of depressive disorder and post-concussion syndrome.
Procedural history: A workers’ compensation law judg...
Prosecutors in southeastern New York announced that two people were arrested and charged with grand larceny and insurance fraud for allegedly cashing workers’ compensation checks sent to one of the suspect’s dead mother.
Bryan Dunn, 51, and Hunter Diaz, 26, are accused of working together to steal more than $30,000 in workers’ compensation benefits sent to Dunn’s mother after she died.
"The innocent victims of crimes like these are hard-working members of our community who ultimately foot the bill for rising insurance premiums,” Orange County District Attor...
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill creating a guaranty association to step in and pay workers’ compensation benefits because of the insolvency of a self-insured employer.
The governor signed the Tennessee Self-Insurers’ Guaranty Association Act in HB 2306/SB 2909 on April 9.
The measure creates the nonprofit guaranty fund and requires that all individually self-insured employers remain members as a condition of their authority to self-insure.
The guaranty fund will be managed by a five-person board of directors and will be authorized to establish minimum security deposits and...
A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a worker’s civil case against his former employer, finding his claims for retaliation and the negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress all failed as a matter of law.
Tom Faley worked as a district manager for Ferrellgas Inc. He was supervised by Denise Whisman. Jesse Lamkin was one of two Ferrellgas employees whom Faley supervised.
In August 2018, Faley underwent his first performance review in his position as a manager, and he was informed that he needed to improve. In the months that followed, Whisman communi...
