Texas Extends Workers’ Comp Insurer COVID-19 Data Call to June January 19, 2021
The data call was originally issued on June 2, 2020.
To ensure that DWC has sufficient information to determine the impact of COVID-19 injuries on the Texas workers’ compensation system, DWC has extended the data call through June 2021.
As a reminder:
Only selected insurance carriers/groups are required to comply with the data call. Selected insurance carriers must provide summary data using the COVID-19 data call reporting forms and instructions. Each selected insurance carrier or group is required to provide
one data submission per insurance carrier or group.
Insurance carriers/groups must submit the requested data to DWC through the insurance carrier Austin representative’s secure file transfer protocol box no later than 5 p.m., Central time to be considered timely. See the schedule attached to this bulletin for a complete list of data call submission d
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The personal injury legal system is dependent upon medicine. People obviously require care and treatment for injuries; the dependence runs deeper however. When determining damages, the law needs a methodology for predicting future medical costs, for assessing overall function loss, and in general calculating appropriate damages. Despite the law s need for this, lawyers are not postured to deliver with any sense of objectivity. Thus, the legal system turns to other professions to deliver opinions upon which the legal system may rely.
Opinions are diverse. Anyone s opinion on a topic may be influenced by education, experience, culture, and more. An old expression reminds “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” with beauty an opinion. There is a subjectivity to the human experience, and we may each hold opinions that are based wholly upon fact, wholly upon emotion, or that are somewhere on the spectrum between.
Texas Workers’ Compensation System’s Path to Wellness December 16, 2020
Since 2003, insurance rates in the Texas workers’ compensation system have dropped by nearly 72 percent, according to a new study released by a research group within the state’s insurance department.
In 2003, the Texas workers’ compensation system was in dire straits. Medical costs per claim were high, return-to-work rates were dismal, and satisfaction with care was low. Workers’ comp insurance was expensive and hard to find.
Legislation approved that year, as well as in 2001, ushered in some reforms, but House Bill 7, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2005 has had a greater impact, transforming the state’s workers’ comp system from one of the least weakest in the U.S. to one of the healthiest.