Greetings, Well what seemed liked a minor change to the Q-rules of Workers’ Comp Procedure back in February 2022 is now leading to some issues on paying settlements. The rule change simply stated that a JCC did not have to approve the costs a claimant was paying their attorney, only the amount of the attorney […]
Greetings, I hope all of you that were in the path of hurricane Ian escaped with minimal issues and are doing well. A few of you have asked for an update on medical marijuana in Florida’s WC system. There really are two aspects, do we have to pay for it under FL WC and is […]
Greetings, “Lately” I have had few cases dealing with the untimely reporting of claims. With a few exceptions (see the statute below), a claimant has 30 days to report the accident to the employer or be barred from filing a claim. A few things that have come up recently: Reporting the accident but refusing initial […]
Greetings, idiopathic claims remain some of the most difficult claims to navigate. Lately I have had a few questions on what and when we are responsible in an idiopathic claim in FL. The 1st DCA did issue a good case back in February, Silberberg, and my Tip on that is below. To summarize where we […]
Greetings, earlier this week we did a live CEU for a client (boy is it good to get out and see everyone again), and I thought it would be a good refresher to cover how to handle Hospital bills listed on a PFB. One of the problems we often face is the hospital bill may […]
Greetings, Lately I have had a few cases where the claimant sought treatment on their own outside of the WC system, so I thought it would be a good reminder of how that is handled in the Florida WC system. If a claimant has surgery on their own or treats with a psychiatrist outside of […]
Greetings, my Tip of the Week last week touched on the 120-day rule and I got some good follow up questions, and requests for more detail about the 14 days, 120 days and Major Contributing Cause. So I will attempt to lay it out without getting too far down any rabbit holes: (The FL WC […]
Greetings, I just presented a Florida CEU this morning and thought this would be a good refresher for everyone. Not responding to a PFB is the same as denying the requested benefits EXCEPT in two key circumstances: The Statute of Limitation has expired. In this case you must respond to the PFB and state the […]
Greetings, The news these days seems filled with doom and gloom about inflation leading to a looming recession. The question then is what will be the impact on WC claims. Looking back at the last major recession, which was officially from December 2007 to June 2009, does give us some idea what the future may […]
Greetings, A client asked me to do some research on WC stats in Florida, and thought I’d share some interesting bits. According to the FLDFS (Fla Dept of Financial Services) website, there were 68,916 lost time cases in Florida in 2021. That includes all lost time, but also death claims, settlements, impairment benefits, basically everything […]