Post-Disaster Impact on Workers’ Comp a Mixed Bag

In their efforts to clean up Houston after Hurricane Harvey, workers were exposed to serious health and safety hazards, leading to an influx of worker's comp claims. In the article, "Post-Disaster Impact on Workers’ Comp a Mixed Bag," featured in Risk & Insurance, Travis Vance provides insight on the cause of this uptick in claims and his predictions for Texas and Florida's claims following Harvey and Irma.

Vance said it’s not unusual to have a spike in workers’ comp claims and costs after a disaster because employers use their own workers for cleanup instead of hiring a remediation company — a mistake that he has seen lead to insurance payouts in the millions of dollars.

He predicts the scale of the disaster left by Harvey and Irma will cause workers’ comp claims in Texas and Florida to jump by 15 to 20 percent in the next year.

To read the full article, please visit Risk & Insurance.