Category: Daily News

While it obviously presented challenges, 2020 is looking like it may not have been such a bad year for workers’ compensation insurers and insureds after all.

Insurers took in less premium but paid fewer claims. They managed to achieve one of the lowest combined ratios in history. An increasing number of workers were able to be treated via telemedicine, meaning they did not have to travel. Injured workers, including COVID-claimants, appear to have received their medical care without much delay. And the vast majority of COVID-19 claimants needed only limited treatment.

On the down side, 2020 may have seen a return of opioid over-prescribing.

Experts from the industry’s data and rating organization, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), recently shared their preliminary analysis of 2020 claims data. In a virtual roundtable, COVID-19 and Workers Compensation, summarized by the Insurance Journal.

NCCI looked at results through the third quarter of 2020 and extended those through the end of the year. NCCI uses data from private carriers and state funds in 41 jurisdictions but its data does not include many public entities such as first responders or health care entities including hospitals and nursing homes that are largely self-insured.

Some highlights of the year include:

– – The pandemic has “put gas on a fire that was already burning,” that is, workers’ compensation loss costs have been on a downward trend for years and expense ratios have been climbing.
– – The percentage of COVID-19 claims among all workers’ compensation paid claims has varied greatly among states and occupations, as has the decrease in non-COVID claims, according to research from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).
– – While at least 17 states have passed laws or issued orders that expanded access to workers’ compensation benefits for employees who contract COVID-19, many of those directives are creating new exposure for only a sliver of the workforce, new research by the WCRI shows.
– – Although the nation’s focus may have shifted to the coronavirus pandemic, the opioid crisis not only remains a challenge, but also may have worsened due to COVID-19, according to speakers at a forum sponsored by the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
– – Written premium for the full calendar year of 2020 is expected to be the lowest since 2012.

The NCCI figures are calendar year and do not reflect the full costs of treating COVID-19 or other health conditions with long-term effects.

Overall for 2020, NCCI projects an 8% decline in premium to $38.6 billion, the lowest since 2014. That is accompanied by a 7.6% decline in losses and a favorable 86% calendar year combined ratio.

Worker claims due to COVID-19 have ranged from no symptoms to critical care, hospitalizations and, unfortunately, fatalities in some cases.

The overall COVID-19 claims picture is by no means dire. The larger majority of the cases are small and have only required the injured worker to miss work and quarantine or recover at home.

For many years the life expectancy for the average American increased, and as a result, so did the reserve estimate for lifetime awards in workers’ compensation claims. Maybe it is time to re-think that assumption in the mathematical calculation.

American life expectancy decreased by a full year in the first half of 2020, hitting its lowest point since 2006, as the Covid-19 pandemic burned through the country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the findings Thursday in a first-of-its-kind report based on provisional vital statistics data, joining the annual and decennial national life tables that the agency typically publishes.

According to the analysis in the report by Courthouse News, life expectancy summarizes the mortality conditions in a given year, providing a baseline for health officials to track changes across populations and over time.

According to the latest data, pandemic-related deaths have deepened life-expectancy disparities along racial and ethnic lines that were already striking.

The CDC put the latest life-expectancy gap between Black and white Americans at six years – the largest since 1998. In addition to reporting on the three-year fall in the expected life spans of Black Americans, the CDC observed a nearly two-year drop in the lives of Hispanic Americans, another group whom white Americans statistically tend to outlive.

“This is a huge decline,” Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC, announced on Thursday. “You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.”

The study from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics backs up what other researchers have been finding.

In an email, University of Southern California postdoctoral scholar Theresa Andrasfay called it “another important piece of evidence of the enormous mortality toll – and the large racial and ethnic disparities – of Covid-19.”

Andrasfay was the co-author of a similar study on the subject that appeared last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The California Labor Commissioner has cited a Los Angeles McDonald’s franchisee $125,913 for workplace retaliation and labor law violations, after the Labor Commissioner found that the employer illegally fired four workers for reporting unsafe working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The four employees of the Marengo Street McDonald’s, operated by R&B Sanchez, Inc., filed retaliation complaints with the Labor Commissioner’s Office last September.

The workers had advised their employer, Cal/OSHA and the Los Angeles County Health Department about unsafe work conditions that they were concerned exposed them to COVID-19 infections. They had also participated in strikes over safety conditions at the Marengo Street McDonald’s, and subsequently received termination letters from their employer.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office on February 12th issued citations totaling $125,913 in wages and penalties against McDonald’s franchisee R&B Sanchez, Inc. Also named in the citations as jointly and severally liable are owners Robert Sanchez and Beverly Sanchez, as well as Brian Sanchez, who served as the franchisee human resources officer.

The citations include $45,193 in lost wages, $720 in interest due, $40,000 in Section 98.6 retaliation penalties, and $40,000 in Section 1102.5 retaliation penalties. R&B Sanchez must reinstate the four workers to their jobs, remove any negative references from their personnel files, and post information on the citations and violations in the workplace.

“Too many workers fear retaliation if they report a problem or stand up for their rights,” said Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower. “California law has anti-retaliation protections in place that make it illegal for employers to punish workers for exercising their labor rights, such as reporting a workplace safety hazard. My office is committed to ensuring those laws are enforced.”

The Labor Commissioner’s Office enforces more than 45 labor laws that specifically prohibit discrimination and retaliation, including Equal Pay Act violations. The Labor Commissioner’s Office investigates workplace retaliation complaints including instances of termination, suspension, transfer or demotion, reduction in pay or hours, disciplinary actions or threats, or unfair immigration-related practices.

The Labor Commissioner’s Office has launched an interdisciplinary outreach campaign, “Reaching Every Californian.” The campaign amplifies basic protections and builds pathways to impacted populations so that workers and employers understand legal protections, obligations and how to defend them. Californians can follow the Labor Commissioner’s Office on Facebook and on Twitter.

The coronavirus variant first seen in Los Angeles in July now accounts for about 44% of new infections in Southern California and more than a third of new infections throughout the state, researchers reported Thursday.

In addition, the variant has spread across the United States and to six countries around the globe, according to the study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

It “remains uncertain” whether the genetic changes that characterize the fast-moving variant have improved its ability to transmit from person to person, or to make people infected with it sicker, a team from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles acknowledged in the JAMA report. But the virus’ rapid propagation in California is a cause for some concern, they wrote.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the homegrown variant is distinct from other versions of the virus present in the U.S., including the B.1.1.7 strain from the United Kingdom and the B.1.351 strain from South Africa. But like those new strains, this variant is defined by several mutations in the virus’ spike protein, the “docking mechanism” the virus uses to latch on to human cells.

One of the California variant’s five mutations, known to scientists as L452R, could alter a particularly critical part of the spike protein called the receptor-binding domain.

A study conducted last year by Howard University researchers found that the mutation helps the virus attach more firmly to human cells. It therefore has the potential to enhance the virus’ transmission.

At both Cedars-Sinai and the UC San Francisco Medical Center, samples of the new variant are being tested in an effort to detect whether its altered genetic makeup has given the virus new powers to spread or sicken.

Its rapidly increasing share of California cases is also ominous, the study authors said.

Although the variant was barely detectable in early October, it accounted for 24% of roughly 4,500 viral samples gathered throughout Southern California in the last weeks of 2020, and 18% of statewide samples. Less than a month later, its share of new infections had climbed.

From Jan. 1 to Jan. 22, the variant accounted for 44% of coronavirus samples collected in Southern California and 35% of samples from throughout the state.

Shaolei Teng, a Howard University biologist who led a team exploring the effect of the virus’ genetic changes, said the variant’s L452R mutation clearly improved its ability to bind to human cells. In all likelihood, he said, the change also makes it easier for the virus to get inside cells – a crucial step in the replication process.

What’s more, the variant has begun to travel widely. It has been detected in Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington, D.C.

It has also made its way to Australia, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Foster Farms, the nation’s 10th largest poultry producer, operates a plant in Livingston, California, about 100 miles east of San Jose. It employs over 2,500 workers there, making it the largest employer in Merced County.

The first outbreak at the Livingston plant peaked in August 2020. In total, nearly 400 workers tested positive and nine died. Merced County’s public health director called the incident “one of the largest occupational fatalities experienced during COVID-19 in the state of California.”

The county health department shut down the plant for six days, during which Foster Farms completed two rounds of deep cleaning of its facilities and COVID-19 testing of its workforce.

In the aftermath of the first outbreak, United Farm Workers of America, the union that represents about 2,000 employees at the plant, alleged that Foster Farms had not been following county public health orders and other directives related to limiting the spread of COVID-19.

Fisher Phillips reports that following a second COVID-19 outbreak at Foster Farms, a California judge issued what is likely the first injunction in the nation against a meat processing plant over corona virus safety.

Soon after the suit was filed, the court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) at the plaintiffs’ request. A TRO typically lasts no more than 30 days.

The court set a a preliminary injunction hearing on January 29, 2021 and decided to issue an injunction incorporating the TRO’s 20 requirements imposed on Foster Farms.

The ruling leaves in place the substance of a December 2020 temporary restraining order requiring the employer to take 20 specific steps to protect workers from the spread of the virus. The lawsuit was brought by the union that represents the employees at the plant.

Those requirements include:

– – Requiring all workers to wear face coverings and supplying them with masks;
– – Promoting social distancing by staggering employees’ works schedules and break times, and installing additional break areas;
– – Installing physical dividers in areas where social distancing is difficult to maintain, like production lines;
– – Training employees on COVID-19 hazard mitigation and informing them of testing requirements, outbreaks that occur, areas affected, and training on safety requirements; and
– – Warning and appropriately disciplining employees who do not comply with its new COVID-19 policies.

Foster Farms plans to appeal the ruling, characterizing it as unnecessary court intervention, as both the county public health department and Cal/OSHA already have oversight of the plant. Company officials also highlighted the fact that Foster Farms has administered nearly 100,000 COVID-19 tests to its workforce since the pandemic began, 40,000 of them at the Livingston plant.