Chicago Mayor Transfers Defense Of City’s Workers’ Compensation Claims To Private Company

Multiple news outlets, including Crain’s Chicago, reported last week that new Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has pulled the claims handling of the city’s workers compensation claims away from Alderman Edward Burke and transferred the files to private company Gallagher Basset. Gallagher Basset is often referred to as a Third Party Administrator (“TPA”) that provides claims handling for self-insureds and often larger insurance companies.

Lightfoot’s decision comes after an audit performed by Grant Thorton, concluded “the $100 million-a-year program failed to follow proper industry standards and suffered from “significant control deficiencies and weaknesses that would create an environment” where fraud, waste and abuse could exist. ” It is important to point out that the audit did not specify any specific instances of fraud, but rather the system was open to this type of activity and needed to be operated more efficiently.

This is an interesting turn of events as Alderman Burke was recently indicted by the federal government on charges of attempted extortion of local property developers.

Mayor Lightfoot had the following to say about the audit and transfer of claims to the outside firm: ” Government systems of this magnitude have “no business being operated by a single individual (Burke), with no oversight,” she added. “There’s no point at which Grant Thornton believes this plan was acting anywhere near best industry practices.”

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a Chicago work accident or has a Chicago workers’ compensation claim, then call Chicago workers’ comp attorney, Aaron J. Bryant, for a free legal consultation at 312-614-1076.