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Less than a month after the introduction a Florida bill that would provide workers compensation coverage for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder, a separate bill is making its rounds in the state Senate that aims to reduce hurdles for police officers and firefighters claiming mental injuries. ​ Senate Bill 1088 was introduced Monday by Florida Sen. Victor Torres, D-Osceola, and would provide workers comp for firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and law enforcement officers who suffer a mental injury — regardless of whether they have an accompanying physical injury — and have a “preponderance” of evidence showing the mental injury arose out of their work, according to a copy of the bill posted online. The legislation would also provide survivor benefits to family members if the mental injury results in the death of the first responder. Click here to read more:

A Florida woman was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $600,000, including $18,603 in restitution to American International Group Inc., for a workers compensation fraud scheme she orchestrated. Between May 2013 and May 2016, Orquidea Quezada of Orlando, Florida operated a comp insurance scheme that funneled about $17.4 million through her company, Winter Park, Florida-based Orquicely Construction L.L.C., to subcontractors who frequently employed undocumented workers, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday. Click here to read more: ​

A Tennessee woman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a $5.9 million workers compensation scheme that involved collecting premiums for nonexistent comp policies. Andrea Rudd faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the plea agreement filed earlier this month in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville. Ms. Rudd also pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion totaling $10.4 million, which carries the same potential sentence. Click here to read more: ​

Employers may be missing simple opportunities to implement light-duty return-to-work programs that can help them reduce workers compensation and training costs and maintain the productivity of their workforces, according to experts. An employee out of work has a 50% chance of returning to work in the same position after six months, but if the employee is out for one year, that chance drops to 25% and is virtually zero if they have been out for two years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Click here to read more: ​

The manager of an Orange Park area pizzeria faces felony charges for having cancelled his business’ workers’ compensation insurance policy at least two times in the past five years. ​ The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Terry Lee Miller, 40, on June 26 using an arrest warrant procured by the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Workers’ Compensation Compliance Division. ​The investigation began on November 9, 2016 when state investigator Scott Erickson conducted a compliance check at Miller’s place of employment, The Infield Pizzeria and Sports Bar at 330 College Dr. According to documents filed with the Florida Division of Corporations, Miller is listed as a principal with the pizzeria’s parent company, Hoosiermama LLC. ​ Click here to read more:

A bill that would put insurance ratings agencies on notice and allow insurers to independently research and file their own workers compensation insurance rates in Florida, among other key changes, is making its way through the state Senate. Click here to read more:

Employers can do more to prevent fatal struck-by injuries in the construction sector, according to a report released Wednesday. Struck-by hazards are a major cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in construction, with 804 construction workers dying from struck-by injuries, more than any other major industry, during the period of 2011 to 2015, according to a study by CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver Spring, Maryland. Click here to read more:

Dilated pupils, red eyes, anxiety and paranoia are some of the signs employers in Maine are being told to watch for in the state Department of Labor’s “impairment detection training” as Maine grapples with balancing anti-discrimination provisions in the recreational marijuana law with its mission to maintain safe workplaces. Click here to read more:

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a woman who uses marijuana for medicinal purposes in compliance with Connecticut’s marijuana law can sue an employer who rescinded a job offer after a positive pre-employment drug test. Click here to read more:

A Florida roofing contractor faces penalties of more than $1.5 million for 14 workplace safety violations and has been placed in the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program due to high-gravity, willful, egregious violations related to fall hazards, the agency said Wednesday. Click here to read more:

A federal appeals court affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court decision involving a daycare that challenged a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary’s insurance business practices related to a workers comp policy in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Minnieland Private Day School Inc., a private daycare based in Woodbridge, Virginia, entered a reinsurance participation agreement in 2013 with Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Company Inc. According to the three-year agreement, one or more insurers, all of which were Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, would issue workers comp policies to the daycare. The agreement also established a “segregated protected cell” through which Minnieland would share the issuing insurers’ profits and losses related to Minnieland’s policies, according to court documents in Minnieland Private Day School Inc. vs. Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Company Inc. Click here to read more:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued an Oklahoma-based oil and gas drilling company for declining to hire potential employees based on age or previous history of filing workers comp claims. Purcell, Oklahoma-based Horizontal Well Drillers violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it “engaged in a pattern or practice of failing to hire qualified job applicants for drilling rig positions because of their disabilities, perceived disabilities and/or record of disabilities as indicated by their workers compensation claim or disability pension history,” according to the lawsuit filed by the EEOC on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Click here to read more: