NJ Will Not Adopt the IAIABC Model Rule on Electronic Billing

The NJ Department of Labor and Workplace Development [DLWD] has adopted Rules regarding electronic medical billing in workers' compensation matter that do not follow the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commission's [IAIABC] Model Rule. The NJ DLWD has decided to accept the ASC X12 837 [ASC] standard only.

Total Disability and an Aging Workforce

Workers' Compensation is synonymous with disability and a recent report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights how prevalent disabilities are for adults. It is no wonder why so many injured workers suffered who suffer a minor work-related injury become totally disabled. Comorbidity is now a major issue, especially in an ever-expanding aging workforce.

US EPA Still Not Banning Asbestos

The US EPA is about to approve 15 uses for asbestos, a known carcinogen. This action is consistent with the Trump Administration's effort ease regulations. This action is contrary to the efforts of the Obama Administration to entirely ban the use of asbestos in the US.

NJ Labor Department, USDOL Ink Agreement to Work Together to Protect Businesses and End Exploitation of Workers through Misclassification

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the U.S Department of Labor pledged a historic new level of cooperation to protect New Jersey’s economy by signing an agreement on August 10, 2018 to work together to end illegal employee misclassification.

Reading Work e-mail After Hours Causally Linked to Employee Stress

A workers’ health is adversely impacted by the employer’s expectation that and the employee will read work-related e-mail after hours. A new study finds that an employee’s mental stress is adversely affected by such expectations.

The recent study by Virginia Tech found that “employer expectations of working email monitoring during non-work hours are detrimental to the health and well-being of not only the employees but their family members as well.”

The demands created by having work and non-work lives presents of a dilemma for employees and triggers a feeling of anxiety that adversely affects health.

“William Becker, a Virginia Tech associate professor of management in the Pamplin College of Business, co-authored a new study, "Killing me softly: electronic communications monitoring and employee and significant-other well-being," showing that such expectations result in anxiety, which adversely affects the health of employees and their families.

"The competing demands of work and nonwork lives present a dilemma for employees,’ Becker said, ‘which triggers feelings of anxiety and endangers work and personal lives.’”

“Other studies have shown that the stress of increased job demands leads to strain and conflict in family relationships when the employee is unable to fulfill nonwork roles at home -- ‘such as when someone brings work home to finish up.’”

“Their new study, he said, demonstrates that employees do not need to spend actual time on work in their off-hours to experience the harmful effects. The mere expectations of availability increase strain for employees and their significant others -- even when employees do not engage in actual work during nonwork time.”

Click here to read more, Mere expectation of checking work email after hours harms health of workers and families.

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters).

A Deviation Off-Premises Bars Claim

The “Coming and Going Rule” has always been a grey area in determining compensability in the workers’ compensation arena. A bucket full of cases and statutory modifications have tried to establish clarity.

NJ Workers' Compensation Rates to Increase in 2019

The NJ Division of Workers' Compensation has announced that the rates for workers' compensation benefits will increase to a maximum of $921.00 per week for temporary and permanent disability and to a minimum of $245.00.