Category: Daily News

Despite the softening of rates and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the Insurance Journal reports that one Midwest-based workers’ compensation insurance provider that opened its doors just over three years ago reports that it not only has experienced significant growth during that time, it simultaneously has managed to maintain a loss ratio that is one of the lowest in the industry.

Since its launch in October 2017, Omaha National, based in Omaha, Nebraska, has gone from $0 to $100 million of in-force premium and grown from a six-person operation to one with more than 150 employees.

That brisk pace of growth is expected to continue, says Reagan Pufall, president and CEO of the managing general agent (MGA) / insurance carrier. The company will move into a new office building this summer “because we’ve run out of room where we are,” he said. “Five years from now, we expect to be well over $400 million in-force premium.”

Omaha National launched as an MGA with California as its initial target market. It is now offering coverage in 14 states and will continue to expand into other states, including New York this year, Pufall said. It also established Omaha National Insurance Co., which currently “acts as a reinsurer for a portion of the risk that we write. So even as an MGA, we are already on the risk, which is what we like.”

However, “the intention has always been to become a direct writer. And we’re now approaching the time when it looks like we will be able to initiate that transition to becoming a carrier,” he said.

A complementary division of the company is its payroll service. “It’s an optional part of what we offer. Any company that is insured by us, if they choose, they can also make use of us as their payroll service,” Pufall said.

Small- to mid-size companies operating in industries where employees work with their hands are Omaha National’s core customers – landscapers, framers, electricians, plumbers, parcel delivery services, for example. “We like to say that we insure the companies that build America,” Pufall said.

The falling rates in the workers’ compensation line are a challenge as they are for any insurer, Pufall said. “But we designed this company to prosper throughout the market cycle, in hard markets and soft markets. None of what we’re encountering or anything we see in the future causes us substantial concern. Of course, we will look forward to the day when the market cycle changes, and the rates are rising again. But until then, we’re doing just fine, even during this soft market.”

The wave of COVID-19 claims that hit the California workers’ compensation system at the end of 2020 has subsided for the time being as the number of claims reported to the state Division of Workers’ Compensation for February fell to the lowest level in a year, an analysis by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute Shows.

The CWCI report shows the projected ultimate claim count for February came in at 4,533 cases, down nearly 90% from the record 43,158 claims projected for December.

The figures from CWCI’s COVID-19/Non-COVID-19 Interactive Application show that after surging to an all-time high in December, the monthly COVID-19 claim count fell by more than 50% in January, a decrease that coincided with the steep drop in new coronavirus cases in the state.

“Claim counts from December through February are still incomplete as additional claims for those months are still being reported, but the COVID-19 claim totals reported as of March 8 show that the DWC has recorded 40,188 claims with December injury dates and 19,493 claims with January injury dates, but just 2,747 COVID-19 claims with February injury dates,” the CWCI report states.

The addition of the February figure pushed the number of virus claims reported to the DWC since the pandemic began to 135,566, including 751 death claims, and COVID-19 clams have accounted for just 9% of all claims reported thus far for February, though they have accounted for 18.8% of all claims since the first claims were reported in January of 2020, according to the CWCI.

The latest results are from the March 11 update to CWCI’s COVID-19/Non-COVID-19 Interactive Claim App, which integrates data from CWCI, DWC, and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics to provide current and historical data on California work injury claims.

The app includes COVID-19 data dating back to January 2020, as well as from the most recent 12 months, and is available to the public.

The Division of Workers’ Compensation has posted proposed changes to Disability Evaluation Unit (DEU) regulations to the online forum where members of the public may review and comment on the proposal. Comments will be accepted on the forum until 5 p.m. on April 7, 2021.

The proposed changes update commutation tables and delete references to services no longer provided by the DEU. Other proposed changes include updating two forms used for requesting consultative ratings and reconsideration of summary ratings.

The Labor Code provides for the determination and payment of permanent disability benefits and mandates life pensions for certain cases. Injured workers are allowed to petition the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) for a commutation of future weekly permanent disability and life pension benefits in order to receive a lump sum amount.

The proposed changes update the commutation tables to reflect updated life tables which offer a more accurate present value of lifetime benefits. As life expectancy has increased, it is estimated that this update will provide a general 5% increase of commutations for life pensions and permanent total disability.

The Commutation Instructions provide examples to illustrate various methods of commuting permanent disability and life pension benefits. The most common commutation is for attorney fees when settling cases at the WCAB.

The DEU will continue to provide formal rating determinations, summary rating determinations and consultative rating determinations, but will no longer provide informal rating determinations.

The new proposed forms are:

– – Summary Rating by the Administrative Director – DWC-AD Form 103.
– – Request for Consultative Rating – DWC-AD Form 104 (DEU).

The forum can be found online on the DWC forums page under “current forums.”

Last month, Walmart Inc. was hit with class allegations in California that it ran afoul of federal and state labor law by failing to pay workers for time spent on mandatory pre-shift COVID-19 screenings.

And this week, Arizona Walmart workers hit the retail giant with a $5 million proposed class action Monday, alleging Walmart required employees to arrive at their shifts early to undergo COVID-19 screenings but flouted the law by failing to fully compensate them for their time.

Workers filed the putative class action in Arizona federal court, claiming the Arkansas-based retail behemoth required them to arrive at their shifts 10 to 15 minutes early to undergo mandatory COVID-19 screening but didn’t compensate them for all that time.

Plaintiff attorneys say the screenings involved standing in line with co-workers to get temperature readings and answering questions about health conditions, recent travel and potential exposures to anyone with the virus. After passing the screening, workers were given masks and gloves. Only then were they allowed to clock in for the day, they allege.

Walmart, however, maintains that it has compensated its hourly retail associates for pre-shift time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings. A Walmart spokesperson told Law360 on Monday that its workers have received compensation for the “extra time” they spent being screened for symptoms of the virus.

“All hourly associates have extra COVID screening time systematically added to their daily shifts and paychecks. This is in addition to our manual process for adding extra time if there ever is a reason this additional time is not sufficient. We will respond as appropriate with the court once we have been served with the complaint,” the Walmart spokesperson said.

Walmart workers aren’t the only ones seeking compensation for virus screenings.

Earlier this month, Apple was found to owe a class of California retail store workers for time they spent working off the clock undergoing bag checks. The amount of damages will be determined in a jury trial.

This March, a New Jersey federal judge ruled that Amazon warehouse workers seeking compensation for time spent in obligatory security screenings could amend their complaint to include a claim for compensation of pre-shift time spent undergoing COVID-19 screenings. The amended complaint alleges the tech giant should pay workers for the time they spend getting their temperatures taken and answering a COVID-19 questionnaire prior to their shifts.

That same month, workers sued a California tennis company seeking compensation for time they spent undergoing mandatory temperature checks as a precaution during the pandemic.

The Merchant of Tennis Inc., which operates retail tennis stores in the U.S., has been allegedly underpaying workers at its facility in San Bernardino, California, the overtime wages to which they’re entitled and made the workers undergo temperature checks while they were off the clock, according to the complaint filed earlier this month by one of its employees.

And back in June, Converse reached a $1.87 million settlement to resolve claims that it failed to pay workers for time they spent clearing post-shift security checks.

New cases of Covid-19 are once again on the rise across more than half of the United States as officials race to vaccinate additional people before highly contagious variants become prevalent in the country.

As of Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases rose by 5% or more in 27 states, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Across the U.S., the nation logged an average of 54,308 new cases per day over the past week – a 1% rise from the prior week after months of rapidly declining case numbers, according to the data.

Even as the U.S. picks up the pace of vaccinations, giving about 2.5 million shots every day, some health officials have warned the country remains in a precarious spot. The lifting of restrictions in many states and the spread of more contagious variants in the U.S. threaten to undo the nation’s progress, which has seen cases, hospitalizations and deaths all fall dramatically since the peak earlier this year.

Lifting restrictions is a “serious threat to the progress we have made,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters at a news briefing Monday. Walensky said she’s worried about an unavoidable surge in cases. “We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road.”

Daily new deaths continue to fall, likely helped by the prioritization for vaccination of the elderly and those with comorbid conditions who are most likely to die of Covid-19. About 68.8% of those 65 and older have received at least one shot of a vaccine as of Sunday, according to the CDC. In total, more than 124.4 million doses have been administered, but most of those are for two-dose vaccines.

As optimism around the steady rise in vaccinations picks up, many states have begun to ease restrictions on businesses and gatherings, despite warnings from the CDC not to do so. Though some states, such as New Jersey, are beginning to consider holding off on further reopening as cases begin to rise.

White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci urged states last week not to declare victory prematurely. Fauci said he was concerned about a number of states and cities that were pulling back on public health measures and dropping mask mandates.

Adding to the urgency of the need to get people vaccinated quickly is the looming threat of new variants, which appear to have already caused severe surges across much of Europe and other parts of the world. The CDC has projected that the more contagious and potentially more deadly B.1.1.7 variant, which was discovered in the United Kingdom, could become the dominant strain in the U.S. by the end of the month.

Some health officials have said that the B.1.1.7 variant could be what’s behind some particularly worrying surges seen in various states, including Michigan, where cases have risen dramatically in recent days. According to data from Johns Hopkins, Michigan is reporting an average of almost 3,000 new cases per day, up by about 50% from a week ago.