Risk roundup – The second issue of Cavalcade of Risk is posted over at It’s Just Money. LA Money Guy is the host, and he’s assembled an eclectic array of posts ranging from drug caps to hurricane insurance. Check it out!
Comments – Our apologies if you’ve ever left a comment that didn’t get published here. When emptying several thousand spams from our spam trap this past weekend, we were dismayed to find about a dozen legitimate comments from you, our readers, that had been automatically routed to the spam file. Part of the reason we re-designed the site a few months ago was to incorporate a better comment filter – we get hundreds of trash comments each week, some quite vile. We thought things were working out quite nicely, but realize now that it’s been a little more aggressive than we intended. Our sincere apologies – we look forward to and appreciate your comments! We rescued about a dozen comments and rightfully restored them to the posts where they belong. We made further adjustments to the filter and hope that will do it, but we’ll be checking more carefully going forward so that we don’t lose any of your comments.
Lunch breaks – Are your employees covered by workers compensation when they are out of the office on a lunch break? Yes, according to a new ruling by the Maine Supreme Court as reported by Mark Hoffman in Business Insurance. In this case, the employee slipped on icy steps as she entered the building. The insurer contested the case on the basis of the going and coming rule, which holds that employees aren’t usually covered on their routes to and from work. However, courts often award compensation to workers who are injured in company parking lots or other areas in or around the workplace. (See our prior post on Exception to the “going and coming” rule: operating premises.) In this case, there was an additional twist: the employer was renting the office, and part of the rental contract stipulated that the landlord would keep the walkways clear of ice. Regardless, the employee’s injury would still be compensable. If the employer or insurer would like to try to recoup the costs from the third party through subrogation, that’s another matter. (Read the full court decision: Robyn D. Fournier v. Aetna, Inc., et al.)
Meatpacking hell –
Medical blogs – If you enjoy learning about emerging medical technologies, then Medgadget is the blog for you. There’s always some fascinating matter to be found. And for another interesting blog by a medical professional, check out the always fresh Emergiblog, a blog we found when Kim, a nurse who runs the blog, left a comment in one of our posts. Today, she kicks off the first edition of Change of Shift, a nursing blog carnival.
Quick takes
- George’s Employment Blawg talks about when bullying becomes a case of sexual harassment.
- Thoughts From a Management Lawyer offers some advice on minimzing the risk of employee lawsuits.
- RiskProf features an interesting discussion on the impact of regulation on insurance price.
- rawblogXport points us to an article from ASSE on reducing slips and falls.
- Managed Care Matters reports on the hardening of the reinsurance market.
- Insurance Recovery Group’s article in The Subrogator: Found Money, the Benefits of an Aggressive Approach to Second Injury Fund recovery (pdf)
Tags: bullying, case law, food processing, going and coming, Maine, North Carolina, operating premises, second injury fund
