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Misconceptions about functional capacity evaluations may be costing you big bucks and an opportunity to help injured workers return to work safer and sooner.

If you are considering newer technology for your claims processing, do your homework first. The advice from a technology product director is based on two decades of experience in insurance and seeing many companies get sucked into technological solutions that are inappropriate.

For the first time, medical benefits accounted for more than half of all benefits paid in workers' compensation, according to a new study. The report points to the need to rethink the way claims are treated, according to a veteran workers' comp attorney.

As one of the major cost drivers in workers' comp claims, obesity is also one of the most complex challenges facing the industry. However, savvy employers can take steps before, during and after these claims to help their employees as well as their bottom lines.

The health care industry will be one of the most important sources of exposure growth for workers' comp insurers in the next decade, according to Robert Hartwig, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Insurance Information Institute.

The National Institutes of Health will look at the potential effects -- respiratory, neurobehavioral, carcinogenic and immunological -- from exposure to oil and dispersant products while cleaning up the Gulf spill.

The national average cost per indemnity claim in 2009 was $47,200, according to National Council on Compensation Insurance. At Select Staffing it was $12,900.

OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels has vowed to continue the agency's support of its Voluntary Protection Program despite recent financial concerns. His comments came during the annual conference of the Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association in Orlando, Fla.

With the health care industry second only to manufacturing as the industry with the most nonfatal injuries, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2007, employers in this field are hard-pressed to reduce their costs. Yet, one of Oklahoma's largest health care organizations cut its total direct losses by $14 million over a 10-year period.

If you're doing too good a job keeping your injury and illnesses rates low, don't be surprised if you get a visit from the feds. That's the message from an industry expert.

While most employees feel generally safe in their own work environments, they rank workplace safety higher than any other labor concern. Information from a new analysis also indicates workers continue to be stressed on the job.

The knees may be the latest challenge facing aging workers and their employers. People in their 50s, 60s and older are staying in the workforce and are finding their knees bearing the brunt.

The economy, combined with better safety training and drug testing, resulted in fewer workplace fatalities in 2009, according to experts.

Distracted driving contributes to more than 300,000 crashes each year, but employers can minimize the likelihood that employees will spend their driving time texting and talking on cell phones.

A new study found that employees who spend too much time in their seats might not only be adding to their bodily aches and pains they may also be placing their lives in danger.

Digital device eye strain is the number one computer-related complaint in the workplace, according to a study, ahead of common conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, neck and back pain.