NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
There has been a 97% decrease in the number of comp claims where the injured worker was receiving high levels of N-drug opioids between 2009 and 2015... the closed formulary went into effect in 2011. As a further bonus, the average return-to-work rate for both network and non-network claims increased after the closed formulary went into effect. Texas is becoming a standard bearer across the nation on this issue, and when we attended the National Workers’ Compensation Defense Conference last month in Chicago, we were frequently approached by national insurers and risk managers wanting more information about Texas’ success. We, of course, are not surprised that Texas leads the nation in, well, everything good! And some of you may remember when Jane Stone from the firm and Suzanne Novak, M.D. Ph.D. first raised the alarm when presenting at ICT and the State Bar about the opioid crisis in Texas comp. The lesson? It pays to bring things to light, even if it takes time for regulations to be implemented to address the problem. https://www.tdi.texas.gov/wc/regulation/roc/formulary2019.html.
As a side note, William Rabb reports that medical disputes in Texas comp have “dropped like a rock.” Very true, and good news for the system because the reason for the drop in disputes is effective, targeted regulation.
- Copyright 2019, Jane Lipscomb Stone, Stone Loughlin & Swanson, LLP