The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule that makes two main changes to its injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting rule.  In essence, the new rule updates the list of industries that are exempt from routine OSHA recordkeeping requirements, and expands the types of work-related injuries that must be reported to the agency.  Under the terms of the new rule, covered employers must now report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and loss of an eye within 24 hours. The existing requirement to report all work-related fatalities within eight hours still holds.  Moreover, employers with 10 or fewer employees are still exempt from the routine recordkeeping requirements.  All employers, however, must comply with the severe injury reporting requirements.  

The new recordkeeping and reporting obligations take effect as of January 1, 2015 for employers subject to federal OSHA jurisdiction.  OSHA advises employers operating in states with their own safety and health plans to check with the state agencies operating these programs to determine the reporting implementation date(s) for those states.  

According to an OSHA press release, the agency is "developing a Web portal for employers to report incidents electronically, in addition to the phone reporting options." 

More information on the rule can be found here.