North Carolina Workers' Compensation Analysts Review NY’s $120 Million Settlement

January 9, 2011, by Michael A. DeMayo

Before leaving his post as Attorney General and ascending to the governorship of New York state, Andrew Cuomo finalized an 11th hour $120 million workers’ comp settlement. The arrangement is fraught with complications and has many North Carolina workers’ compensation experts scratching their heads.

The gist of the settlement

Four insurance companies — Zurich Financial Services of Switzerland, ACE Group of New York, CNA Insurance of Chicago and Pennsylvania Manufacturers — worked out a long-brewing dispute with the state of New York. In 2000, NY lawmakers created two different rules to govern how surcharges would be assessed and collected. These rules in some ways contradicted each other. This led some insurance companies to collect too much and some insurers to collect not enough surcharges from customers. In 2009 and 2010, New York’s Workers’ Comp Law got amended to stop this overcharging process. But this left NY officials with the onerous task of then figuring out how much money to collect from overcharging insurance companies and how precisely to get that money.

Now that the insurers have agreed to divulge their excess funds, this story should die down. Cuomo admitted as much last Friday: “these four groups of insurance companies have done the responsible thing by agreeing to resolve their disputes with the state.”

Obviously, North Carolina workers’ compensation disputes can also get quite complicated – and the byzantine rules and regulations that insurance companies and other policy analysts must comb through can give even the most experienced experts serious headaches.

But a complicated, multi-million dollar brouhaha over insurance minutiae may not exactly be relevant to you if you suffer from a chronic lower back problem or occupational disease you got at a Raleigh factory job or Research Triangle bank job.

If you’ve suffered an injury or a sickness at work, and you are confused about your rights or about how to collect money from an employer from an insurance company, discuss your needs, priorities, and concerns with a qualified North Carolina workers’ compensation law firm. Informed with good information and strategic guidance, you can heal more quickly from your injuries and get back to the business of bringing in money and supporting your family.

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NY’s $120 million workers’ comp settlement