Workers’ compensation is a critical aspect of employment that safeguards workers and their families in the event of work-related injuries or death. It is an accident insurance program funded by employers. Workers’ compensation offers key benefits like medical care, rehabilitation, and income support to employees injured on the job. These provisions aim to assist employees in returning to work as quickly and safely as possible. Eligibility for benefits Many workers wonder how long they must work at a job to qualify for coverage under workers’ compensation. In Georgia, you are eligible for worke ..read more

Managed care organizations coordinate and manage healthcare services for injured workers. They help to create a streamlined and efficient approach to accessing necessary medical care. Georgia’s workers’ compensation system allows employers to choose to use an MCO over the traditional physician panel. This approach can provide benefits to employers and employees. Less time-consuming A managed care organization stands out for its ability to connect injured workers with a network of pre-approved medical professionals. Access to the network ensures that workers receive timely and high-quality heal ..read more

Workers’ compensation is a safety net for employees who sustain injuries while on the job. Every state has a set of laws governing these types of injuries. In the state of Georgia, the question arises: are injuries resulting from haste or inattention covered by workers’ compensation? Understanding workers’ compensation in Georgia According to the NSC, employers reported 2.8 million work-related injuries in the U.S. in 2022. Georgia law aims to protect workers and provides a comprehensive workers’ compensation system. The state designed the laws to cover injuries in the workplace. The laws ensu ..read more

The Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation reported in its 2023 Annual Report that medical-only claims for 2022 numbered 81,021. Each of these people had to navigate this complex system, including choosing a physician. Georgia Workers’ Compensation Law provides injured workers with options for selecting a physician, including three physician panel options. Conventional panel of physicians The conventional panel of physicians is a common choice for injured workers. Employers must maintain a list of at least six approved healthcare providers. When an injury occurs, the employer must provid ..read more

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) regulates everything from chemicals in the workplace to equipment to the safety of employees. They have the difficult job of ensuring your workplace is safe and secure. To accomplish this, they conduct regular inspections and investigate reports of workplace violations. When they find a violation, they often impose a fine and allow the workplace to correct it. Top OSHA violations Some OSHA violations occur more frequently than others. These are: Improper fall protection, including slips and falls and falls from heights Failing to provide ..read more

Large warehouses offer jobs to thousands of employees across multiple shifts. The high demand for low-priced products delivered within minimal time keeps these facilities busy. Unfortunately, not all warehouses put safety as the top priority, leading to a higher number of injuries among employees. Despite some companies’ efforts to reduce injuries, several factors continue to contribute to the elevated occurrences. High-speed expectations Large warehouses utilize robotic machinery to speed up production. However, these increased speeds force employees to work faster, too. Combining high produc ..read more

Workers’ compensation is a failsafe for both employers and employees in case of a workplace-related injury or illness. The government-mandated insurance protects the former from lawsuits and the latter from excessive loss from medical bills and missed wages. However, not everyone who works qualifies for workers’ compensation. The trucking industry is an interesting example, because some truck drivers are self-employed and work as independent contractors. They are not technically employees of the trucking company that they do work for, so they may not qualify for workers’ compensation. Which Tr ..read more

In recent years, the rate of nonfatal injuries in the retail industry began to increase. It now surpasses injuries in the manufacturing industry and continues to rise. The number of workers’ compensation claims and personal injury cases increases as well. Common ways that retail workers get hurt on the job The most common ways that retail workers suffer injuries on the job include: Slip and fall accidents. Potentially dangerous conditions arise often because of the volume of inventory and foot traffic. Retail workers do a large amount of heavy lifting, sometimes leading to debilitating re ..read more

Delivery workers, including those who work for UPS, Fedex and Amazon, face risks on a daily basis that people on other career paths may not have to deal with. Here are five of the most common threats to delivery drivers: 1. Repetitive strain injuries Repetitive motions can cause stress on the muscles and joints of a worker’s body. By doing the same activities repeatedly, workers can overuse specific muscles. Commonly, this happens in the fingers, arms, hips, knees, lower back and other joints. Delivery drivers have physically demanding jobs that require them to lift, move and carry boxes, whic ..read more

These days, more attention and understanding have fallen on mental health issues. As awareness grows, more and more people come to recognize that mental health can have just as much of an impact on an individual as physical health. To that end, compensation benefits continue changing to apply to different and varying situations. Should this also extend to issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Failure of a proposed bill Alive discusses the failure of a recent bill aiming to allow workers’ compensation to cover PTSD for first responders. The outline of the proposal essentially state ..read more