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Failure to Quit Smoking Defense: Disability Benefits and 3rd Surgery Awarded
6-14-09Smoking alert. In a recent case, a smoker was denied disability benefits and denied a new surgery by his employer because he could not quit smoking following his low back surgery. While the...
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Settlements: Medicare Set Aside Future Drug Costs and Uniform Pricing
6-20-09Employers may soon see a spike in future drug costs for settlements going through the MSA approval process after June 1, 2009. Medicare will begin independent pricing of future drug costs in...
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Good Samaritan: Hip Check to Vending Machine Awarded
6-22-09In an unusual claim for benefits, an employee fractured his hip when he hip checked a vending machine to help a female coworker get a bag of potato chips. The vending machine hip check case even...
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IL Workers Comp Medical Fee Schedule Changes
7-05-09The Illinois Workers Compensation Medical Fee Schedule adopted new Medicare Medical Severity codes for hospital inpatient services. The new MS-DRG codes are now part of the Illinois Medical Fee...
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2008 Annual Report Illinois Workers Compensation Commission
7-06-09On June 30, 2009, the Commission released its Annual Report of Operations for 2008. Highlights indicate that total claims of 57,515 were up slightly 1.5% from previous year totals of 56,685...
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Illinois Truckers as Independent Contractors or Employees; Nature of the...
8-10-09Illinois adopted a stricter test in 2007 that favors classifying workers as an employee rather than as an independent contractor. No single factor determines whether a worker will be classified...
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Illinois Workers Compensation Medical 2 Doctor Rule
8-11-09Illinois workers compensation allows injured workers to have a choice of picking two doctors for treatment. Hospital emergency care does not count as a choice of doctor but after that, if you...
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Mandatory Insurer Reporting User Manual Released 8-04-09
8-18-09We often report on important developments involving Medicare coordination with Illinois workers compensation claims. For those following the Mandatory Insurer Reporting requirements (MIR), the...
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Illinois Workers Compensation Medical Fee Schedule Seminars
8-21-09 The Workers Compensation Commission will hold public seminars for payers and providers to review the new Illinois Workers Comp Medical Fee Schedule for injury related medical care on or after...
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Illinois Construction Workers Presumed to be Employees
9-05-09 New laws apply to employers and contractors in the construction industry eff., January 1, 2008. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is now prosecuting non-compliant employers under the new...
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Illinois Temporary Disability Awarded After Termination for Cause
2-03-2010The Illinois Supreme Court recently upset many Illinois defense attorneys and insurance claims professionals in a hotly contested decision ruling that the employer owes temporary disability...
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Back Due Child Support Ordered Paid out of Workers Comp Settlement
2-07-2010Section 21 of the Illinois Workers Compensation Act (820 ILCS 305/21 (West 2008)) prohibits all liens on Illinois workers compensation arbitration awards or settlements. This section...
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Mandatory Claim Reporting Date extended to Jan 1, 2011
2-19-10CMS MIR update alert advises workers' comp and liability RREs that the compliance date for claim reporting is now extended from 4-1-10 until 1-1-11, effective immediately. All RREs should now be...
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Illinois Medical Fee Schedule FAQ and Guidelines 2010
3-3-10The Illinois Workers Compensation Medical Fee Schedule has been supplemented with answers to FAQs generated from recent fee schedule seminars around the state. As a result of common questions...
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Medicare Mandatory Reporting Timelines Revised and Quick Reference Guide
3-31-10 March 29, 2010 CMS issued a Revised Quick Reference Guide for MMSEA Section 111 Registration For Responsible Reporting Entities. But note that CMS cautions everyone that you must read the full...
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Review: Complete Guide to Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance & liability claims
11-1-10The Complete Guide to Medicare Secondary Payer Compliance, by Jennifer C. Jordan, Editor-in-Chief (Published by LexisNexis®)To order by phone, call 1-800-223-1940To order online, click hereBrand...
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2011 Illinois Workers Comp Reform Employer PPO Plans
6-04-11 The Illinois Workers Comp Reforms of 2011 offer major changes which are too many to list in a single post but I will try to cover the summary of major changes in future posts. The two biggest...
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Illinois Workers Comp Reform: 2011 Major Workers Comp Reform Summary
6-08-11 With the on again, off again, drama of Illinois workers comp reform, many wanted to know what the reforms were about, what they actually meant, questioned the future impact of the reforms...
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Keep the Arbitrators and Return Injured Workers to Work
7-11-11 Keep our Arbitrators. On behalf of my clients, I emphatically request not getting rid of our highly trained and experienced arbitrators in favor of new appointees. Commissioners are known...
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2011 Illinois workers comp reform: Medical Causation
7-17-11 Has the test for causation changed with the new 2011 workers comp reforms ?? A change may have taken place in the "causative factor test" to now require proof of medical causation by a...
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Attorneys Fees on MSA Funds Confirmed in N.J.
8-18-11The New Jersey Superior Court recently considered whether Medicare regulations and CMS allowed an attorney to recover attorneys fees for creating a settlement obtained on behalf of a client in a...
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IL Workers Comp Reform: Aggravated DUI will be denied
8-22-11 On August 8, 2011, Governor Quinn signed Senate Bill1147 into law to prevent workers convicted of serious crimes from claiming workers compensation benefits. Senate Bill 1147 denies workers...
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New 2012 Illinois Downstate Arbitration Hearing Locations
9-05-11 As part of the new Illinois workers compensation reform package, downstate hearing locations will be consolidated into the 6 regions listed below to take effect on January 1, 2012. The...
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Illinois workers comp reform: Notice of Preferred Medical Provider
10-26-11 The Illinois Workers Compensation Commission has approved the official language to be used to notify injured employees of employer selected "Preferred Provider Programs" (PPP) that is,...
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Illinois Workers Comp Medical Costs below neighboring states Wisconsin, Iowa...
CRAIN'S Chicago Business, Senior Reporter, Thomas Corfman ( http://bit.ly/1MtlVdW ) recently reported that under the 2011 IL workers comp reforms, medical costs per claim have now dropped by 15%....
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