Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Blog

Attorney General Martha Coakley said “Premium avoidance is a serious crime that undermines the insurance system and puts lawful employers at a disadvantage. The prosecution of these schemes prevents the increase in insurance premiums that often result from these crimes.”

James Lydon pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to the charge of five counts of workers’ compensation fraud. After the plea, Lydon was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered him to pay a lump sum of $42,000 in restitution.

OSHA found that the facility lacked satisfactory procedures to prevent the inadvertent startup of machinery while employees performed service and maintenance to the equipment. The company also failed to provide employees with adequate information and training on how to power down and lock the power sources before performing maintenance on the machines.

Because of these conditions, the company was cited for $55,000 for two repeat violations. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation within the last five years within the last five years. Similar violations were cited in 2008 at this same location.

P. Gioioso & Sons Inc. works mainly on underground water and sewer mains. They have been cited nine times since 2000 by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for violations of OSHA’s trenching and excavation safety standards.

OSHA recently found employees working in unprotected trenches in both Cambridge and Framingham. It then issued citations worth $354,000 in proposed fines. Gioioso opposed the citations, and the OSHA regional solicitor drafted a settlement agreement that would require Gioioso to increase safety standards to protect its workers.

The decrease in total costs per claim reflects the state’s recovery from the Great Recession costs of 2009. Previously, total costs per workers’ compensation claim rose ten percent per year during the recession period of 2007 to 2009.

The WCRI study analyzed claims involving workplace injuries that cause an employee to miss more than seven days of work. The study found that because the rise in unemployment was less severe in Massachusetts than that of the United States, injured workers may have had more opportunities to return to work with their employers or find new jobs in states with higher unemployment rates.

Inspectors from OSHA were driving by the intersection on the border of Bedford and Burlington to another work site when they observed the employees working in an unprotected excavation. Immediately, an inspection was opened and the trench was found to lack cave-in protection, as well as a way for workers to exit the trench safely and swiftly in the event of an emergency.

OSHA issued Newport Construction $28,000 in fines for two repeat violations. A repeat violation exists when an employer has previously been cited for the same or similar violation at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. Newport was previously cited in October of 2008 for similar violations.

StoneRiver Pharmacy Solutions Inc. is a billing form that charges cities and towns for prescription drugs on behalf of pharmacy retail stores. StoneRiver will pay close to $500,000 to governmental subdivisions to repay them for overcharges and violations of the False Claims Act.

Attorney General Coakley said, “Overcharging for prescription drugs harms cities and towns at a time when they are facing great financial pressure to provide much needed services to people. This case will provide restitution to those communities, and we are determined to prevent overcharges like these from happening in the future.”

The Workers Compensation Research Instituteconcluded that approximately one in twelve injured workers who are prescribed narcotics are still using them three to six months later. The study found that workers prescribed these medications seldom receive recommended drug test monitoring and psychological evaluation, which can help to prevent future addiction.

The study comes amid a rising sea of painkiller addiction in the United States; there has been a 300% rise in the sale of these strong painkillers since 1999. The Workers Compensation Research Institute analyzed nearly 300,000 workers’ compensation claims between 2006 and 2009 from twenty-one states, including Massachusetts, and followed the prescriptions associated with them.

Also, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is trying to keep families better informed throughout their investigations of the fatal workplace accident. OSHA recently taught their representative how to facilitate successful communication with families following workers’ fatal accidents.

OSHA representatives are encouraged to contact families early and provide them with contact information throughout the investigation. The representatives keep the families informed throughout the investigation, provide them with copies of citations issued against the employers, and provide support during settlement.

A witness, who was on the roof at the time of the collapse, said the accident happened soon after the foreman on the street tried unsuccessfully to stop cinder blocks from being stacked on top of the proposed four-story building. He said that the part of the roof that he was standing on did not crumble, but that his two co-workers were not as fortunate.

He stated, “It’s a sad situation, seeing two of your co-workers go down. There’s a lot of risk in construction.” The city’s building commissioner stated that the cinder blocks seemed to be the cause of the collapse.

After a five month hearing process, the rates will remain unchanged, and businesses will not be forced to pay an estimated $200 million on projected premium increases. The Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau were behind the proposed rate increase, and said it was necessary since rates aven’t risen since 2001.

The Insurance Commissioner stated, “After analyzing the wealth of data and information presented during the case, we found insufficient support for such a significant increase.”