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Liberty Mutual Receives Innovation Award

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Liberty Mutual Insurance has been awarded an Innovation Award for its new Injured Worker Portal and Workers Compensation Guide. The award was presented by Business Insurance magazine. This is the fifth Business Insurance Innovation Award Liberty Mutual has received since 2015.

Technology has been improving and simplifying the claims process. The company’s Injured Worker Portal and Workers Compensation Guide provide more information to injured workers through an easier-to-access platform and help injured workers access the care they need faster and more easily.

The guide and portal are part of Liberty Mutual’s broader investments to improve the digital experience of commercial customers, which also include a recently launched customer portal.

“The Workers Compensation Guide and Portal solve two key issues facing workers compensation policyholders and TPA clients,” said Senior Vice President of Workers Compensation Claims Wes Hyatt. “The first is fully engaging injured workers in the claims process, their recovery and eventual return to work. The second is the experience of the injured worker, a paramount concern of mid-size and large employers.”

Liberty Mutual’s award-winning Injured Worker Portal and Workers Compensation Guide are being rolled out to more of Liberty Mutual’s workers compensation policyholders and customers of Helmsman Management Services, its wholly owned third-party administrator (TPA).

Other Innovation awards received by Liberty Mutual include:

— Workers’ Compensation Automation – Harnesses artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to better manage workers compensation claim costs and fully engage injured workers in their recovery.
— Liberty Mutual SmartVideo – Delivers personalized online videos to workers comp claimants summarizing key information specific to each claim in order to produce better outcomes more quickly for injured workers.
— LM Expedite – An application that speeds commercial auto claims by letting drivers take photos of damage and instantly request an estimate from their mobile phones.
— Managing Vital Driving Performance – Helps reduce commercial auto accidents by quickly sorting through complex telematics data to recommend ways to improve commercial driver performance.
— RiskTrac Workers Compensation Analytics Interactive Dashboard – A dashboard added to Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.’s risk management information system that provides workers compensation policyholders with a customized predictive model.

Liberty Mutual offers workers compensation solutions through its Global Risk Solutions (GRS) division.

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Telecommuting New Normal for Comp Industry

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If workers’ comp professionals weren’t already hopping on the tech-train, a report in Risk and Insurance claims they certainly are now as much of the workforce transitioned to telecommuting when COVID-19 collided with our realities back in March.

Digitization has been well on its way for decades, but the suddenly urgent need for remote work changed what it means to utilize technology.

A July 23 survey of 400 American workers’ compensation professionals, conducted by Lightico and Sapiens, highlighted the challenges and burdens of an amplified technology surge.

According to the report, technology is most easily and efficiently leveraged by companies with 500 to 1000 insureds. Forty-two percent of professionals within companies of that size said their organization is leveraging technology to its maximum ability. Forty-four percent of companies of the same size said that their processes have already been completely automated. Quick Improvements in New Environments

In the survey, 87% of respondents claim that they are currently leveraging data to improve underwriting and product development to drive revenues and profitability.

In addition to increased investment in technology, here’s what insurance companies are considering as they prepare for a new normal:

— 76% of respondents are rethinking injury prevention training and education due to the new threat of COVID-19;
— 86% of workers’ comp professionals are considering incorporating telemedicine into their overall medical cost containment strategy;
— 89% are actively exploring better ways to communicate with employers and injured workers through multi-channel communication alternatives, such as texting;
— 79% are looking at incorporating additional services or programs to insureds to offset premium impacts; and
— 93% have seen a greater need for offering more flexible payment options to policyholders and injured workers (i.e. pre-paid debit card, ACH, virtual card, etc.).

A majority of respondents cited processes such as paperwork, compliance signatures, document collection, claims management and payments as the most burdensome during this transition to digitization.

Preparing for the new normal requires rethinking not just how technology can apply to these administrative processes, but every aspect of a program. Nearly all respondents, for example, are utilizing digitization to attract the next generation of claims handlers.

While the coronavirus has upended virtually every industry and aspect of life, it has also created a window for growth. For workers’ comp, it’s looking like that window will most likely be a computer screen.

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Mountain View Contractor Gouged NASA for Comp Costs

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Fiore Industries provides qualified management, personnel, and equipment to operate and maintain effective, self-sufficient Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting and airport operational support services. These services are compliant with Federal Aviation Regulations Part 139, OSHA, NFPA, and IFSTA.

The company agreed to pay the United States $1,200,000 to resolve allegations that it caused false claims to be submitted to the government for payment.

Fiore is a subcontractor that provide fire protection services at NASA’s Ames field center in Mountain View, Calif. According to the settlement agreement made public today, the settlement resolves the government’s claims that in 2016 Fiore overcharged the government by seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional payments from NASA based on inflated workers’ compensation rates. The government claimed that the rates Fiore submitted to justify the additional payments did not account for discounts Fiore knew it would receive but did not disclose to NASA.

“Federal contractors and subcontractors must deal squarely and honestly with the government at all times,” said U.S. Attorney Anderson. “By signing this agreement, Fiore agrees to account for various deductions to which the government is entitled and also agrees to cooperate with any further investigation into other parties that may be responsible for overcharging. This agreement protects taxpayers by holding government contractors accountable for their claims practices.”

The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharanya Mohan handled the matter for the government, with assistance from Kurt Kosek. The settlement is the result of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the NASA Office of Inspector General, with significant assistance from other components of NASA.

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August 17, 2020 – News Podcast

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Rene Thomas Folse, JD, Ph.D. is the host for this edition which reports on the following news stories: Uber and Lyft Ordered to Classify Drivers as Employees. Daly City Restaurant Resolves Wage Theft Claim for $2.6M. Construction Worker Faces Fraud Charges for False Statement. Man Arrested for Selling Fake COVID Medication. Each New Drug Costs $2.6B and Takes 15 Years! WCIRB Suggests 2.6% Rate Increase for 2021. WCAB Expands Hearing Options with LifeSize Video. Conference Call Public Hearing Set for MTUS Update. Surgical Specialties Fees Reduced in 2021 Medicare Fee Schedule. Safeway Store Janitors Protest Limited COVID-19 Safety Gear.

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Uber and Lyft Avoid Shutdown With Last Minute Stay

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Ride-hailing will continue in California for the time being as Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. won more time Thursday in their appeal of a ruling that ordered them to immediately classify their ride-hailing drivers as employees in compliance with state law.

The companies have five days to agree to expedited procedures outlined by a state appeals court judge Thursday, which includes consolidating both appeals and requiring the companies to submit sworn statements by Sept. 4 from their chief executives that the companies have developed plans to obey an Aug. 10 order to classify their drivers as employees instead of independent contractors.

“Should Lyft or Uber fail to comply with these procedures, the People may apply to this court to vacate this stay,” wrote Stuart Pollak, presiding judge of the First District Court of Appeal in California. He set an Oct. 13 date for oral arguments in the case.

Uber and Lyft confirmed they will not be shutting down their ride-hailing services, as they had planned to do if they failed to secure an emergency stay.

“While we won’t have to suspend operations tonight, we do need to continue fighting for independence plus benefits for drivers,” said Julie Wood, spokeswoman for Lyft.

Uber spokesman Davis White said, “We are glad that the Court of Appeals recognized the important questions raised in this case, and that access to these critical services won’t be cut off while we continue to advocate for drivers’ ability to work with the freedom they want.”

In May, California’s attorney general and the city attorneys of San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego sued Uber and Lyft, accusing them of failing to obey California law by continuing to consider their drivers as independent contractors, and asked the court for an injunction to force the companies to classify them as employees. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Aug. 10 that the ride-hailing giants must immediately comply but gave them a 10-day stay for their appeals. That expired Thursday.

The two companies are counting on California voters to approve Proposition 22, an initiative they and other gig companies have poured $110 million into to exempt gig workers from the law, Assembly Bill 5, which became effective Jan. 1.

With Prop. 22, the companies are proposing a “third way” that they say gives additional pay and benefits to drivers and preserves their flexibility to choose when they work. But the initiative falls short of classifying drivers as employees with all the benefits that entails, including being eligible for unemployment insurance.

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OC Comp Attorney Arrested for Investment Fraud Scheme

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Lawyer Scott Hughes, 44, of Newport Beach, California, has been accused of helping launder at least $20 million in an alleged cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. He is a personal injury and criminal attorney, and reportedly represented applicants in workers’ compensation matters in Orange and Los Angeles Counties.

The indictment unsealed Tuesday claims that Hughes and four other defendants promised guaranteed returns for phantom investments in cryptocurrencies through a company called the AirBit Club. Hughes is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Acting United States Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “As alleged, the defendants put a modern-day spin on an age-old investment scam, promising extraordinary rates of guaranteed return on phantom investments in cryptocurrencies. Thanks to HSI, the defendants are in custody and facing serious criminal charges.”

Prosecutors say “those arrested today have not only been charged with running a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency investment fraud and money laundering ring, but also for allegedly spending their victim’s money on luxury cars, jewelry, and homes. These alleged fraudsters pulled out all the stops to sell their scheme to their victims with enticing recruitment events, then shamelessly used proceeds of their scheme to recruit additional victims through even more aggressive and lavish marketing pitches.

According to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment the defendants participated in a coordinated scheme in which victim-investors were induced to invest in AirBit Club based on the promise of guaranteed profits in exchange for cash investments in club “memberships.”

They marketed AirBit Club as a multilevel marketing club in the cryptocurrency industry, and falsely promised Victims that AirBit Club earned returns on cryptocurrency mining and trading and that victims would earn passive, guaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased.

Attorney Hughes, who is licensed to practice law in California, had previously represented two of the co-defendants in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation related to another investment scheme known as Vizinova before aiding the two in perpetrating the AirBit Club Scheme by, among other things, helping to remove negative information about AirBit Club and Vizinova from the internet.

In many instances, as early as 2016, Victims who attempted to withdraw money from the AirBit Club Online Portal and complained to a Promoter were met with excuses, delays, and hidden fees amounting to more than 50% of the Victim’s requested withdrawal, if they were able to make any withdrawal at all.

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31,612 California COVID Comp Claims – So Far!

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The number of California workers’ compensation claims for COVID-19 continues to climb, as data from the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) show that as of August 10, there were 9,515 claims reported for the month of July, bringing the total for the year to 31,612 claims, or 10.2% of all California job injury claims reported for accident year (AY) 2020.

Those claims include 140 death claims, up from 66 reported as of July 6.

Updated figures for May and June show sharp increases in COVID-19 claims for each of those months, as the number of COVID-19 claims with June injury dates more than doubled from 4,438 claims as of July 6 to 10,528 claims as of August 10, while COVID-19 claims with May injury dates rose from 3,889 cases to 4,606 claims (+18.4%), indicating a time lag in the filing, reporting, and recording of many COVID-19 claims.

Using claim development factors the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) projects there could ultimately be 29,354 COVID-19 claims with July injury dates and 56,082 COVID-19 claims with January through July injury dates.

Health care workers continue to account for the largest share of California’s COVID-19 claims, filing 38.7% of the claims recorded for the first 7 months of this year, followed by public safety/government workers who accounted for 15.8%. Rounding out the top 5 industries based on COVID-19 claim volume were retail trade (7.9%), manufacturing (7.0%), and transportation (4.7%).

The updated data is included in the latest iteration of CWCI’s COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Interactive Claim Application, an online data tool that integrates data from CWCI, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and the DWC to provide detailed information on California workers’ comp claims from comparable periods of 2019 and 2020.

The new version features data on 710,224 claims from the first 7 months of AY 2019 and AY 2020, including all 31,612 COVID-19 claims from AY 2020. The application allows users to explore and analyze:

CWCI will continue to update the application and expand its features and functions as more data on claim type and average and systemwide costs become available..

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National Law Review Highlights COVID Litigation Risk

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The National Law Review spotlight is on a category of COVID-19 related workplace complaints that undoubtedly has caused many sleepless nights for employers around the country: deaths caused by COVID-19 infections allegedly connected to the workplace.

This week’s update to the tracker includes two such cases – one relates to the alleged wrongful death of an employee from COVID-19, and the other concerns the death of an employee’s spouse.

In each case, the plaintiffs allege a lack of effective institutional response to the virus, as well as a failure to warn employees who may have come in contact with the COVID-19 virus in the workplace. The allegations in these cases demonstrate the importance of employers implementing a plan of action to mitigate the dangers to the workforce.

First, in Iniguez v. Aurora Packing Company, Inc., the plaintiff, administrator of a deceased woman’s estate, filed a wrongful death and survival action against the defendant, a meat-packing facility. The defendant employed the decedent’s husband as a butcher. The plaintiff alleges that in late April 2020, the decedent’s husband contracted COVID-19 while at work, and infected his wife, who died from the virus on May 2.

According to the plaintiff, the defendant knew employees had contracted COVID-19 at its facility, yet did nothing to mitigate the spread of the virus in the facility. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant was negligent by, among other things, failing to warn employees of a COVID-19 outbreak and failing to implement an infectious disease preparedness and response plan or infection prevention measures consistent with CDC and state department of health guidelines.

The plaintiff also asserts that the defendant actively created risk, including by “choosing not to”: provide employees with PPE, implement engineering controls to prevent the virus from spreading, take reasonable measures to allow for social distancing, screen and monitor workers, implement and communicate leave policy, and provide handwashing breaks, hot water, and sanitizer.

In Montgomery v. Prevarian Senior Living, LP, the plaintiffs, the surviving family members of a deceased assisted living facility worker, allege wrongful death and gross negligence under Texas law. The plaintiffs allege that both the deceased and their daughter, one of the plaintiffs, worked for the assisted living and memory care facility, and both were exposed to COVID-19 when assigned by their employer to sit for hours at a time, unprotected, with a resident whom the employer knew (but did not tell its employees) had tested positive for the virus.

The plaintiffs allege that assisted living facilities have often been described as “epicenters” for COVID-19, and that the deceased in particular was at higher risk of experiencing severe COVID-19 complications, including death, due to being overweight and a minority. The plaintiffs allege that the employer owed the deceased a duty to provide a safe workplace.

As the pandemic continues, the unfortunate reality is that we expect to see more illness among employee populations, and more litigation alleging that an employer’s alleged unpreparedness and lack of transparency relative to COVID-19 resulted in the spread of the virus among an employee population, and caused sickness or even death.

As ever, mindful employers would do well to understand and follow the public health guidance coming out at the local, state, and federal levels.

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Mostly Positive News for California COVID-19 Developments

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California received a batch of mostly positive pandemic-related developments on Monday with data showing that the number of people dying of COVID-19 is beginning to decline and hospitalization rates continue to fall steadily.

Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced that San Diego County, the state’s second largest, has made enough progress against the novel coronavirus that it could be removed from the watch list as early as this week.

In one of the key pandemic metrics, the seven-day daily rolling average of fatalities fell to fewer than 130 deaths per day on Sunday for the first time since last month, according to a Times analysis of state data. The number of hospital patients with COVID-19 has declined steadily for a month, the data show.

Community spread appears to be falling, too: The share of Californians who tested positive over a two-week period dipped to 6.5% Monday, an early indication that California is “stabilizing, and moving broadly in the right direction,” Newsom said.

The promising data come two weeks after Newsom touted a falling infection rate, then backtracked after officials found errors in how the data had been reported. On Monday, for the first time since the data breakdown, the state updated its watchlist of areas with high case rates, offering a mixed picture around the state.

Although Santa Cruz was taken off the list, four small counties – Amador, Mendocino, Inyo and Calaveras – were added and must close businesses by Thursday.

The infection rate in San Diego has stayed beneath 100 cases per 100,000 residents for nearly a week. “It’s extraordinarily good news, speaking on behalf not just of the county but the state of California,” Newsom said.

Los Angeles County continues to make progress toward getting off the watchlist, with the average daily number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths falling steadily, said Barbara Ferrer, the head of the Department of Public Health.

The county meets five of the six metrics used to measure progress against the pandemic, including testing more than 150 people per 100,000 residents per day, and maintaining a healthy margin of available intensive-care beds and ventilators.

The county continues to make progress on reducing community transmission to meet the most stubborn benchmark: a 14-day average of fewer than 100 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents for three consecutive days.

Last week, the county reported 335 cases per 100,000 residents; on Sunday, the rate was 298 cases per 100,000.

Daily hospitalizations in Los Angeles County have fallen 37% over a month, from 2,219 cases per day in mid-July, to 1,388 cases in mid-August, Ferrer said. The average number of daily deaths has fallen from 43 to 30 over the same time period, she said.

The hospitalization rate data is “one of our best indicators that our efforts over the last few weeks are actually working,” Ferrer said, in part because it was not affected by the data reporting errors.

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3.8 Billion Views of Misleading Health Info on Facebook

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Misleading health content has racked up an estimated 3.8 billion views on Facebook over the past year, peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocacy group Avaaz said in a new report here on Wednesday.

The report found that content from 10 “superspreader” sites sharing health misinformation had almost four times as many Facebook views in April 2020 as equivalent content from the sites of 10 leading health institutions, such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The social media giant, which has been under pressure to curb misinformation on its platform, has made amplifying credible health information a key element of its response. It also started removing misinformation about the novel coronavirus outbreak that it said could cause imminent harm.

“Facebook’s algorithm is a major threat to public health. Mark Zuckerberg promised to provide reliable information during the pandemic, but his algorithm is sabotaging those efforts by driving many of Facebook’s 2.7 billion users to health misinformation-spreading networks,” said Fadi Quran, campaign director at Avaaz.

“We share Avaaz’s goal of limiting misinformation, but their findings don’t reflect the steps we’ve taken to keep it from spreading on our services” said a Facebook company spokeswoman.

“Thanks to our global network of fact-checkers, from April to June, we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of COVID-19 misinformation and removed 7 million pieces of content that could lead to imminent harm. We’ve directed over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities and when someone tries to share a link about COVID-19, we show them a pop-up to connect them with credible health information,” she said.

Avaaz’s report also said that warning labels from fact-checkers were applied inconsistently even when misinformation had been found to be false.

The report tracked how content from a sample of misinformation-sharing websites was shared on Facebook by interpreting available Facebook data between May 2019 and May 2020.

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