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MEDICAL COSTS PRESSURE CALIF. WORK COMP
RATES
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Rating bureau wants 23.7% rate increase; state
wants answers
SACRAMENTO, Calif.-While
California's insurance commissioner contemplates by how
much to raise workers compensation rates, insured and
self-insured employers in the state face rising claims
costs.
Medical cost increases, particularly for a
surge in the number of outpatient treatments per claim,
and two controversial Workers Compensation Appeals Board
en banc decisions are separate factors pushing claims
costs upward, several sources agree.
Read
on...
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LAYOFFS MAY SPARK DEFAMATION
SUITS
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Liabilities may arise from job references, online
comments
Laid-off workers seeking
financial relief are likely to increase the number of
defamation claims filed against employers, employment
law attorneys say.
Attorneys say defamation
claims, among other employment-related claims, will rise
as unemployment increases. The litigators say defamation
claims often are associated with negative job
references.
Other factors that could increase
these claims are e-mail, online social networking sites
such as Facebook and Twitter, and other media through
which defamatory information could be sent out without
the required forethought, observers say.
Read
on...
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GOVERNOR PROPOSES NEW CUTS
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 This past week the Governor
proposed $5.6 billion in additional spending reductions
to narrow the state budget deficit in lieu of floating
additional short-term loans, including elimination of
the state's welfare-to-work program known as CalWORKS.
Eliminating CalWORKS would save an estimated $1.3
billion next year and is the largest single piece of a
25-item list of additional spending cuts given to a
two-house committee working on the budget deficit.
The deficit has been pegged at $24.3 billion by
the Legislature's budget analyst and Governor
Schwarzenegger had wanted to cover part of it with some
loans known as "revenue anticipation warrants" or RAWs,
but abandoned that strategy last week after learning
that the federal government wouldn't back the loans.
Without those guarantees, obtaining financing from
private lenders was uncertain.
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UNION OKs BENEFITS REDUCTION FOR GM RETIREES
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DETROIT-Members of the United Auto Workers have ratified
an agreement that will allow financially troubled
General Motors Corp. to shave billions of dollars in
contributions to a retiree health care trust and cut
certain retiree benefits, union officials announced
Friday.
The agreement, approved by nearly 75% of
UAW members, also requires GM to continue its defined
benefit pension plan offered to UAW members.
The agreement on the eve of GM's expected
bankruptcy filing next week modifies a 2007 accord
between GM and the UAW that would have capped GM's
burgeoning retiree health care liabilities. That
agreement called for GM to transfer assets-currently
valued at $10 billion-from an existing voluntary
employees' beneficiary association to a new VEBA
controlled by the UAW. For about $20 billion in cash and
other contributions to the trust, GM no longer would
have been responsible for retiree health care benefits
as of Jan. 1, 2010. The accumulated value of those
assets was estimated at roughly $50 billion last
year. Read
on... |
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Sincerely,
Santa Maria &
Company
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PLEASE
NOTE
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WE
HAVE MOVED
our
office effective
March
16, 2009
The new address will
be:
1550 Parkside Drive,
Suite 200
Walnut Creek, CA
94596
We have new phone numbers:
Phone:
925-956-7600
Fax:
925-956-7601
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