Things you should know

BLS: Nonfatal workplace injuries increased in 2021, but illnesses dropped significantly

The number of reported workplace injuries in the private sector increased in 2021, but a decline in respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 helped drive down the combined number of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Workers in the private industry experienced an estimated 2.2 million nonfatal injuries in 2021 - up from 2.1 million the previous year. However, employers reported 365,200 nonfatal illnesses in 2021, down from 544,600 in 2020. Likewise, the number of recorded respiratory illnesses declined to 269,600 from 428,700 in 2020. By comparison, before the COVID-19 pandemic,the total was 10,800 in 2019.

Other 2021 data highlights:

• The transportation and warehousing industry and the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry had the highest rate of nonfatal injuries, each at 4.3 per 100 full-time workers.
• Health care and social assistance had the highest rate of workplace illnesses, at 115.9 per 10,000 full-time workers. By comparison, the industries with the next highest rates were retail trade (46.2) and manufacturing (42.8).

CDC releases new opioid prescribing guidelines

The CDC recently updated its six-year-old guidelines for opioid prescribing. The revised Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain focuses on improving communication between clinicians and patients about the benefits and risks of prescription opioids and how other pain treatment strategies can be viable options. It notes that the 2016 recommendations resulted in "misapplication" of strategies for limiting opioid prescribing and in some cases jeopardized a patient's health. The recommendations address tapering for patients who have been on long-term opioid therapy, urging physicians to utilize a slow approach to lowering medication strength and dosages. The recommendations aim to support flexible, tailored, patient-centered care rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Medicare setaside guide updated and new report

Version 3.8 of the setaside guide clarifies re-review requests when errors exist in the submission documentation, as well as re-review limitations (Sections 16.1 and 16.2).These re-review changes are only available for approvals from September 1, 2022 forward.

A new report titled Workers' Compensation Medicare Set-Aside (WCMSA) Fiscal Year Statistics 2022 provides information on various aspects of the WCMSA process.

Rating bureaus issue report on 2021 COVID-19 claims

While COVID-19-related workers compensation claims declined last year compared with 2020, indemnity-only claims continued to represent the biggest share. According to the report from the NCCI and nine other rating bureaus, the average claim cost over the two years was $9,600. Countrywide, the number of comp claims and losses decreased by more than half, with COVID-19 claim counts falling to 4% of all claims in 2021 from 11% in 2020 and total payments falling to 1% from 2%.

About 75% of COVID-19-related lost-time claims in 2020 and the first half of 2021 were from the healthcare sector, while the sector only accounts for about 9% of non-COVID-19 lost-time claims. Healthcare facilities with overnight care, which includes retirement homes and nursing homes, had the highest relative share of COVID-19 claims.

NLRB aims to control electronic monitoring and algorithmic management of employees

In a new memo, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo vows to "vigorously" enforce existing law to protect worker's Section 7 rights in the face of heightened electronic monitoring and management. The memorandum highlights various types of employee monitoring that are already illegal and then suggests a framework to analyze new monitoring and management technologies.

An employer will have "presumptively violated" the law if the employer's surveillance and management practices "would tend to interfere with or prevent a reasonable employee from engaging in" protected activity. The mere utilization of surveillance and management practices that could theoretically prevent an employee from engaging in protected activity may be deemed unlawful.

According to an article on JDSUPRA, employers should:

• Avoid surveillance or monitoring during break times, meal periods, or in non-work areas where protected activity and conversations are more likely to occur
• Avoid imposing a "breakneck pace" set by algorithmic monitoring that could prevent a worker from breaks with coworkers when they may engage in protected activity or conversations
• Avoid monitoring employees outside of work, including social media
• Ensure that monitoring and management are "narrowly tailored" to a legitimate business need
• Comply with wiretapping and similar laws disclosing the types of monitoring used, how they are used, and why they are used.

Study shows that texting toolbox talks to supervisors helps improve safety

A recent study of residential construction supervisors in Oregon who received toolbox talks via text messages showed that their compliance with Oregon OSHA's standard on safety meetings increased and the delivery method was welcomed. Researchers sent seven different toolbox talks, based on Oregon Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation reports, to 56 supervisors via text every two weeks for three months. Results show that adherence to the agency's standard, which requires at least one safety meeting a month and a meeting before the start of each job that lasts more than a week, rose 19.4 percent among the participants.

The study was published online in the journal Occupational Health Science.

New hazard alert on cannabis dust

Exposure to cannabis dust, fume or smoke can lead to the development of work-related asthma, warns a new hazard alert from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Workers at risk include cannabis growers, production staff, extract manufacturers, retail stockers, laboratory and research personnel, and police and drug enforcement officers.

Report ranks states by cost of comp: New Jersey tops list

New Jersey maintained its spot as the most expensive state for purchasing workers compensation coverage in the latest biennial rate ranking by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. While the top half of the list included perennials such as California, New York, and Hawaii, Wyoming joined the top 10 following a more than 29 percent increase in average costs this year.

Report on California's heat stress rule

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council examines California's 17-year-old heat stress rule. Key findings:

• Heat-related illnesses and injuries affect agricultural workers most, but also hundreds of other industries. These include bus and delivery services, janitorial services, home health care, museums, and newspaper publishers.
• Most of the citations, including those for deaths, were issued to employers who failed to train employees effectively or failed to keep good training records.
• Hundreds of businesses repeatedly cited for violating the heat rule skirted higher fines for a "repeat violation."
• Many of the citations stemmed from employee complaints, rather than routine inspections.

Information quality leads to lower injury rates - study

According to a study from the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business, there is a link between a firm's workplace injuries and the information quality in its accounting statements. According to researchers, rigorous accounting can quantify the benefits of workplace safety and show managers the full costs of those injuries. That includes the legal, reputational, and regulatory costs that go beyond medical expenses and disruption in productivity. Careful accounting can quantify the benefits of workplace safety and reveal the full costs of injuries, motivating management to improve workplace safety. Further investigation reveals that the effect is stronger when more decision rights reside in headquarters; when decision-making authority is invested in branches decisions are made using local information, not firmwide.

Few railroads participate in FRA safety system

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsors a voluntary confidential program allowing railroads and their employees to report close calls, called C3RS. Although it is confidential and employees and railroads receive protection from FRA enforcement for events reported within C3RS, very few railroads participate in it. According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office Report, only 23 of the nearly 800 railroads in the U.S. participate. The GAO recommends that the FRA, in collaboration with NASA, make C3RS safety information, including broader safety trends, more accessible to the wider railroad industry, and that the FRA ensure that the program's success stories are effectively communicated and shared with the wider industry.

State News

California

• The Workers' Compensation Institute said temporary total disability (TTD) and permanent total disability (PTD) benefits will increase more than 5 percent next year due to an increase in the state's average weekly wage. TTD and PTD maximum benefits will increase to $1,619.15 from $1,529.71.
• The state accounted for 20.1 percent of all cash and medical benefits paid to injured workers throughout the country in 2020, according to a Workers' Compensation Institute bulletin.
• The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) released the 2022 WCIRB Geo Study, which underscores regional differences in claim characteristics across the state. The web-based interactive map allows you to quickly view key measures across regions.

Florida

• The Insurance Commissioner, David Altmaier, approved an 8.4% decrease in workers compensation rates for 2023, in accordance with NCCI's filing.
• The Division of Workers' Compensation proposed rules to define injuries that would qualify for post-traumatic stress disorder claims and address how long an employer has to comply with a written request for business records.

Missouri

• Voters passed Amendment 3, legalizing marijuana for personal use, effective December 8, 2022. Beyond legalizing marijuana for nonmedical purposes, the measure provides employment protections for medical marijuana users, which has important implications for employers.
• The Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) is recommending a 6.4 percent decrease in workers' compensation insurance loss costs for 2023.
• The Division of Workers' Compensation announced employers and insurers will not pay a supplemental surcharge to support the state's Second Injury Fund next year. Based on current actuarial reviews, the supplemental surcharge will be 0% until 2025, at which point a 0.75% assessment may be needed to maintain solvency of the fund. A separate levy for the fund will remain at 3%, the maximum allowed by law. The administrative tax and administrative surcharge that fund DWC operations will both increase to 1.5% from 1% in 2023.

Nebraska

• The maximum weekly benefit for injuries occurring on or after Jan. 1 will increase by 4.7 percent to $1,029 from $983 the Workers' Compensation Court announced. The minimum weekly benefit remains unchanged at $49.

New Jersey

• The Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau announced a 6.1% decrease in workers compensation insurance rates effective in 2023. Effective Jan. 1, 2023, the maximum weekly benefit for all types of workplace injuries, except permanent partial disabilities, will be raised to $1,099 from $1,065. The minimum weekly benefit will increase to $293 from $284.

New York

• The New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF), the state's largest workers' compensation insurer, announced that it will extend coverage to out-of-state employees for the first time. Any New York-based employer that has at least 50% of its workforce based in the state can offer its out-of-state employees NYSIF workers' compensation coverage. This means these employers will not have to buy a policy from another insurer for out-of-state employees. More information
• The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) workplace vaccine mandate for all private businesses in New York City ended on November 1, 2022. Businesses can still require proof of vaccination or masking indoors if they choose.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers against a group of teachers, firefighters, and others who challenged the policy.