Workers Compensation

Overview

• Cornell University Law School, Law Information Institute.  Workers’ Compensation: An Overview. Workers’ compensation laws protect people who are injured on the job. They are designed to ensure that employees who are injured or disabled on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses. Some laws also protect employers and fellow workers by limiting the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer and by eliminating the liability of co-workers in most accidents. State statutes establish this framework for most employment. Federal statutes are limited to federal employees or those workers employed in some significant aspect of interstate commerce. This page summarizes and links to the half-dozen federal laws related to workers’ compensation as well as an illustrative state law from CA.
  
• Injury Rate. For private-sector employers, the number of injuries involving missed work days, job restrictions or transfers to different chores dropped to 1.8 per 100 full-time workers in 2011 from 2.6 in 2003, according to federal data.
• Costs. The average cost of workers’ compensation per $100 of payroll fell to $1.79 last year from $2.67 in 1994, according to John Burton, an economist and emeritus professor at Rutgers University.

Government Agencies

Foreign Governments

• Canada’s National Centre for Occupational Health & Safety (CCOHS)

U.S. Federal Government Workers Compensation Agencies

• U.S. Department of Labor | Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). OWCP administers four major disability compensation programs which provides to federal workers (or their dependents) who are injured at work or acquire an occupational disease.
• Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
• Federal Employees’ Compensation Program
• Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Program
• Black Lung Benefits Program

Other U.S. Federal Government Agencies

• Environmental Protection Agency
• National Labor Relations Board
• U.S. Department of Labor | Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
• U.S. Department of Labor | Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). OWCP administers four major disability compensation programs which provides to federal workers (or their dependents) who are injured at work or acquire an occupational disease.
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | National Institute for Occupational Safety
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. State Government

• All 50 States’ & D.C.’s Home Pages and WC Agencies

Health Policy Research Organizations

• Insurance Information Institute. Workers Compensation. Detailed overview of workers compensation system, including a compendium of Worker Compensation Laws for Domestic Workers by State
• Public Risk Management Association (PRIMI)
• Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI)

Professional Organizations

Policymakers

• American Association of State Compensation Funds
• International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions
• Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA)
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
• Public Agency Risk Managers Association (PARMA)

Health/Safety Industry

• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM)
• American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA)
• American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSR)
• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

Insurance Industry

• Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW)
• Case Management Society of America
• Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers
• Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters
• Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America
• National Association of Insurance Women (NAIW)
• National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA)
• National Association of Subrogation Professionals
• National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI)
• National Council of Self Insureds
• Property Casualty Insurers Association of America
• Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI)
• Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS)
• Self Insurance Institute of America (SIAA)
• Society of Actuaries

General Resources

• Sengupta, Ishita, Marjorie L. Baldwin, Workers’ Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, 2013. National Academy of Social Insurance, August 2015. This is the eighteenth in a series begun by the National Academy of Social Insurance to provide the only comprehensive national data on this largely state-run program. The study provides estimates of workers’ compensation payments – cash and medical – for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and federal program providing workers’ compensation.
• Insurance Information Institute. Workers Compensation. Detailed overview of workers compensation system, including a continuously updated table of Worker Compensation Laws for Domestic Workers by State.
• Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (Lexis-Nexis). Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law is the premier source for analysis of workers’ compensation law.
• International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC). This includes a directory of federal and state statutes and rules on workers’ compensation. Also, there is an extensive list of links to other workers’ compensation sites, including the sites of the state industrial commissions and agencies that have them.

• N. C.Industrial Commission. Workers compensation expert Lex Larson claims “this site is without doubt one of the most useful workers’ compensation sites in the country. Like the IAIABC site, many useful links are included.”

• Cornell University Law School, Law Information Institute.  Workers’ Compensation Resources. This includes links to all federal statutes, regulations and judicial opinions related to workers’ compensation as well as parallel links to state law, and legal opinions.
• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. ACOEM Policies & Position Statements
• adjuster.com
• Job Accommodation Network (JAN). JAN is the leading source of free, expert, and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues. Working toward practical solutions that benefit both employer and employee, JAN helps people with disabilities enhance their employability, and shows employers how to capitalize on the value and talent that people with disabilities add to the workplace.
• Lynch Ryan | Workers Comp Insider. This weblog is written and maintained by employees of Lynch Ryan. It contains frequent updates on news items, tools and resources about workers compensation, risk management, and related topics. The information changes frequently so you may want to bookmark the page and visit often. We welcome links to our site, or to individual weblog entries. RSS Feed.
• Workers Comp Matters. Catering to both lawyers and their clients, Workers’ Comp Matters focuses on people and the law. Host and workers’ compensation attorney Alan S. Pierce interviews industry leaders, lawyers, and doctors, covering all elements of workers’ compensation from cases and benefits to recovery.
• workerscompensation.com. This site purports to be the original and largest regulatory and compliance information center available for the workers’ compensation industry. Serving thousands of workers’ compensation professionals and employers for over a decade, WorkersCompensation.com is the unquestioned leader for relevant and critical information for the workers’ comp industry. Whether it is our extensive library of over 3,500 fillable workers’ comp forms, keyword searchable laws and regulations for 53 jurisdictions, or extensive compliance information, exclusive Topic Comparison Center and 50 State Comparative Charts, we have what you need to manage the world of workers’ compensation.