Florida Cuts Rates by 1%, Smallest in 8 Years

• Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has ordered an average 1% rate decrease in workers’ compensation rates effective Jan. 1.
• The decrease applies to both new policies as well as renewals.
• It is the smallest reduction in eight consecutive years of rate cuts.
• However, the National Federation of Independent Business Florida office said it may be time to take a closer look at the exemptions to allow more businesses to qualify.
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Seminar to Cover Impact of Attorney Representation on WC Payments

• WCRI will host a 30-minute webinar this week covering the group’s recent study, Impact of Attorney Representation on Workers’ Compensation Payments.
• On Nov. 21, 2024, at 2 p.m. ET, author Dr. Bogdan Savych discusses key findings, addressing questions on how attorney involvement impacts the indemnity payments injured workers receive, and looks at the effect of attorney representation across different injury types, such as fractures, lacerations, contusions, low back pain, inflammations, and non-back sprains and strains.
• The webinar is free for WCRI members and $50 for non-members, with participation capped at 500 attendees.
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N.Y. Court Turns Away Physical, Mental Claims by Telecommuter

• A New York City employee who worked from home during the pandemic reviewing construction documents did not suffer an occupational illness related to sitting at a desk for up to 12 hours, a state appeals court ruled last week.
• In 2024 NY Slip Op 05610, the woman argued that in April 2020 her workday went was 8-12 hours long and that she “sustained physical injuries, including to her back, right knee and right wrist, as well as certain psychological injuries, all due to working unusually prolonged hours from home in a static position at her desk.”
• Claiming “health complications,” she stopped working in July 2021, filing a workers compensation claim two months later.  
• An administrative law judge ruled  that she “did not meet her burden of establishing that the alleged physical and psychological injuries were either an occupational disease or accidental injuries that developed over time.” The New York Workers’ Compensation Board affirmed.
• In affirming, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York cited “insufficiencies in the medical evidence,” stating that “the general medical conclusion that claimant’s physical injuries were causally related to working from home were not supported by a recognizable link between claimant’s physical injuries and a distinctive feature of her work in order to establish an occupational disease.”
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