Free Republic

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez has taken a lucrative seat on the board of directors for a workers' compensation insurer after helping broker a 2004 deal that benefited the industry. The Los Angeles Democrat was termed out of the Assembly on Sunday, and on Monday, Zenith National Insurance Corp. appointed him to its board. Company filings say that directors are paid $90,000 per year, with an additional $40,000 paid for every committee on which they serve. Núñez said he did not know if his post was paid. "You have to ask Zenith," he said. Zenith did not return calls for...

Workers' compensation has been a bright spot for cost-conscious California businesses in recent years, with rates dropping 65 percent since 2003. Those days may be over. The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau filed a proposal Friday for a 16 percent increase in the pure premium rate, an advisory figure used by insurance companies in determining how much to charge employers. Bureau officials said that most of the proposed increase comes from rising medical costs related to workers' comp claims. "Medical costs were declining for several years in a row due to the workers' comp reforms that went into effect in...

German Andrade for about 15 years lifted, loaded and carried out other physically demanding jobs as an illegal immigrant. Then came the bucket. It crashed from a skid loader onto Andrade's left foot at a landscaping work site. Fractures led to a lingering limp, which led to back problems and, said a judge, a 45 percent loss of earning capacity. At the time of the accident, Andrade, a husband and father in his early 30s, was earning $12 an hour. Andrade's case took a public twist when his Sarpy County employer balked at forking over injury-related workers' compensation - and...

While his accountant investigates what happened, DFL Senate candidate Al Franken will pay a $25,000 penalty he owes New York state for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance for nearly three years for people who worked for his personal corporation. "We decided to make the payment and the accountant can deal with the files," which promises to be a complicated and detailed process, said Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for the Franken campaign. If it turns out that the New York Workers' Compensation Board was in error, Franken's corporation -- Alan Franken Inc. -- would likely receive a rebate on the...

California's scandal-plagued government-run workers' compensation insurance company spent more than half a billion dollars over the last decade for outside marketing help that often provided "minimal services," a scathing new state audit shows. About half that money went to organizations with direct financial ties to two former board members of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, said the audit to be released today. The company sells workers' compensation insurance to 220,000 California employers. Some marketing groups were paid millions of dollars for merely sending members quarterly newsletters, providing few other services, the report said. The report paints a picture of an...

INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana appeals court upheld a worker's compensation award Tuesday for an exotic dancer who was injured while performing on a pole at a strip club. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Angela Hobson and ordered the state Worker's Compensation Board to determine if she was entitled to double compensation. Hobson claimed she suffered neck pain and numbness after injuring herself while dancing at the Shangri-La West club in Fort Wayne on Dec. 20, 2001. She underwent surgery for a herniated disc in her cervical spine, according to court records. Hobson said she reported her...

KnoxNews http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_5292769,00.html Foreign dependents have rights to workers' comp aid By Associated Press January 20, 2007 NASHVILLE - Foreign dependents of employees covered by the workers' compensation system are eligible to receive benefits if the worker is killed, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled. The case hinged on the 2002 death of Jaime Humberto Diaz Pedraza, a Mexican national who fell while working at a Nashville construction site. Pedraza's parents in Zempoala, Mexico, sought workers' compensation benefits, claiming that they were wholly supported by the money their son wired to them between 1999 and his death. Article truncated

Jose Hernandez was good with a machete. So he was the top choice when his boss needed someone to chop down young trees that were choking parts of Florida's Everglades. On one trip to the swamps, the workers flew in by helicopter and quickly cut a stand of sprouting trees. But when they took off again, something went wrong: The chopper lurched left, then plunged into murky water. A broken rotor blade slashed through Hernandez's left thigh. Doctors saved his life but couldn't save his leg. To pay for his costly medical care, Hernandez filed a workers' compensation claim, which...

Senator charges state's largest workers' comp provider with enlisting lobbyists to block probe A state lawmaker on Wednesday accused California's largest provider of workers' compensation insurance of attempting to obstruct efforts to fully audit the carrier, including how rates are set on premiums to pay injured workers. The accusations marked the latest skirmish in a battle over a proposed bill that would enable the state Legislature to audit the administrative and business practices of State Compensation Insurance Fund. State Fund is the largest workers' comp carrier in California with a roughly 38 percent market share. State Fund has spent an...

A Beverly Hills lawyer who represents injured workers before the state has told doctors that he and his colleagues will not refer clients their way unless they contribute at least $2,500 each to defeat Gov. Schwarzengger. The group representing the attorneys who specialize in workers compensation insurance cases immediately disavowed the lawyer's comments. Attorney Lawrence Stern, in a June 26 email, said that "we at CAAA (California Applicants Attorneys Association) have taken a pact not to support any (doctor) who has not contributed at least $2,500 to the elections…" The mail was sent to Marlena Garland, who markets the services...

Answering frequent complaints by contractors, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed legislation to crack down on workers' compensation insurance fraud plaguing the roofing industry. The measure, Assembly Bill 881 by Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands, calls for insurers to conduct annual audits of roofing company payrolls and empowers the Contractors State License Board to strip roofing licenses from contractors who fail to carry state-mandated workers' compensation insurance. Insurers and contractors are counting on the law to lower premiums for employers in the long run. Unscrupulous contractors will underreport the number of roofers on their payroll. Some won't carry coverage at all,...

More good news about the economy was released Monday. Manufacturing expanded nationwide and March showed an all-time high in consumer spending, indicating an awakening from an end-of-year slumber. In California, real estate has pushed a new- home construction boom that's increased jobs in that sector. But it's not the only economic indicator. Almost across the board, California industries say expansion and employment rests on the rollbacks in state workers' compensation rates, poised to dip even further. Drops have been driven by changes put in place two years ago. Those included an HMO-type physician network specifically addressing work injuries, uniform treatment...

AS A SMALL business consultant for the past 10 years, I saw the effect that high workers' compensation insurance had on small businesses, and I can tell you that the changes instituted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago most definitely have benefitted California. First, we have 575,000 new jobs in California while Schwarzenegger has been in office. Before he became governor, businesses were fleeing California for states with lower costs of doing business. Now, job-creation is vibrant in our state. Second, we have workers' comp cost-savings that are topping 40 percent. And another 16-percent cut in premiums is on...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday declared the sweeping workers' compensation changes he pushed through the Legislature two years ago a "huge success," but critics called them a disaster for injured workers. "Gov. Schwarzenegger broke his promise to protect injured workers," said Mark Hayes, president of Voters Injured At Work, a group that represents employees who suffer job-related injuries. "He has not fixed workers' compensation, as he claims, but has made things worse for Californians injured on the job." Schwarzenegger said when he took office in 2003 high workers' comp insurance rates were driving businesses out of the state...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's overhaul of the workers' compensation system has saved California employers billions of dollars over the last two years, but it also has led to a significant drop in benefits paid to disabled workers, according to a new report. The analysis from the state Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation found that the regulations adopted in 2004 have reduced the average cash award given to permanently disabled workers by 50 percent. Critics of the governor's reforms said the study's findings are proof the system does not treat injured workers fairly and that changes...

SACRAMENTO — California's overhaul of its troubled workers' compensation insurance system has saved employers at least $8.1 billion over the last three years, and the benefits to the economy are expected to continue, according to a study sent to the governor and Legislature on Friday. The report commissioned by the state Department of Industrial Relations found that workers' comp premiums paid by businesses and nonprofit organizations, which soared as much as 200% in the early part of the decade, have been almost cut in half since July 2003. What's more, rates in California, the highest in the nation in 2004,...

Omar Santos-Cruz came to the United States illegally from Mexico and went to work building houses in one of Alabama's fanciest neighborhoods before he was seriously injured in March of last year at age 17. A court has now ruled that Santos-Cruz is due workers compensation benefits and medical care for life despite being in the country illegally. The case is a possible legal precedent and a sign of things to come for builders who have come to rely on immigrant laborers in a booming housing market. But the Home Builders Association of Alabama cited the immigration status of Santos-Cruz...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A state law requiring workers to provide their Social Security numbers when claiming compensation for on-the-job injuries is invalid because it violates federal privacy rights, the Florida Supreme Court decided Thursday. The seven justices unanimously upheld a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling that reinstated benefits for Ricardo Cagnoli, a South Florida man. A compensation claims judge had denied worker compensation benefits to Cagnoli because he had failed to include his Social Security number on his application as required by Florida law. The Federal Privacy Act, however, makes it illegal for any state, federal or local...

Undocumented workers who are hurt on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, a state appeals court ruled. The 2nd District Court of Appeal made the finding in a case involving Torrance-based coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co., which had tried to deny workers' comp benefits to an employee who was in the country illegally. The company argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's workers' compensation system, which provides medical care and disability benefits to injured employees. The court disagreed, upholding an earlier decision against Farmer Bros. by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. "California law has expressly declared...

Illegal immigrants injured on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits despite their legal status, a California state appeals court ruled. The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in a case involving Torrance-based coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co., which had tried to deny workers' comp benefits to an employee who was in the country illegally. Farmers Bros. argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's workers' comp system, which provides medical care and disability benefits to injured employees. The court disagreed, upholding an earlier decision against Farmer Bros. by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. "California law has expressly...