Last legislative session, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced H.B. 2664, which sought to add a new subsection to the Workers’ Compensation Act addressing post-traumatic stress disorders in certain first responders. That Bill never made it out of committee, but that’s not the end of the story.
Last month, H.B. 432 was introduced. Like it’s…
On October 17, the Pennsylvania Senate signed the previously approved House Bill 1840, known as the “Protz Workers’ Compensation Legislative Fix,” which is expected to be signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf within the next several days.
Why is a “Protz Fix” necessary? Employers in Pennsylvania suffered a major blow, when the Impairment Rating…
In an effort to combat opioid addiction, the Wolf Administration recently rolled out a set of opioid prescribing guidelines to assist health care providers treating workers’ compensation patients. Highlighting the need for reform, Governor Wolf stated: “[i]n 2017, there were more than 174,216 workers’ compensation claims made in Pennsylvania, and our state ranks third highest…
The Commonwealth Court issued several interesting “unreported memorandum opinions” in the past several weeks. The Court revised its Internal Operating Rule 414 several years ago, allowing unreported or unpublished opinions to be cited and relied upon by counsel, for persuasive value, but not as binding precedent in future cases. Thus, it is sometimes important to…
In a recent case, decided on June 19, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania granted appeal to clarify the scope of subrogation reimbursement under the Pennsylvania Workers Compensation Act (the “Act”).
By way of background, the Act makes an employer liable for paying disability benefits and medical expenses of an employee who sustains an injury in…
The first cases addressing the impact of Pennsylvania’s Construction Workplace Misclassification Act (“CWMA”) in the context of the Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act, have finally reached the Appellate Courts. The CWMA, which became effective on February 10, 2011, imposes criminal and administrative penalties for the misclassification of employees as “independent contractors” at commercial and residential construction…
What should a Pennsylvania employer do when an employee seeks workers’ compensation benefits after injuring himself by engaging in risky behavior at work? Companies may be tempted to take the position that workers’ compensation isn’t available to workers who hurt themselves by intentionally doing dangerous things on the job. Recently, however, the Commonwealth Court found…
An ever-increasing number of employers are sponsoring wellness incentives as a means of encouraging employees to developing healthy habits. In turn, employers gain healthier, more productive work forces. Wellness incentive programs aren’t without their risks, however. In this podcast, Denise Elliott discusses whether employees are covered by workers’ compensation benefits for injuries sustained while…
Picture this. You have just settled a problem workers’ compensation case and you or your carrier have disbursed settlement checks totaling $100,000 in exchange for a full and complete compromise and release of “any and all past, present and/or future benefits, including but not limited to, wage loss benefits, disfigurement benefits, medical benefits, or any…
Prior to June 20, 2017, a powerful tool was available to employers and workers’ compensation carriers to cap exposure on long term workers’ compensation claims. That tool, provided by the Act 44 amendments in 1996, was called an impairment rating evaluation (IRE) and generally worked like this: once a claimant had received 104 weeks of…
