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Thursday, January 29, 2015

New Clues on Google’s Plans for Insurance




The Google Compare auto insurance shopping site has been up and running in the United Kingdom for two years.
The Google Compare auto insurance shopping site has been up and running in the United Kingdom for two years.

The insurance industry takes it for granted that Google will soon introduce its Google Compare auto insurance shopping site, which has been in Britain for two years, in the United States. Yet, despite a whole lot of spadework, the effort has continuously been delayed.
But in a note on Thursday, Ellen Carney, an analyst with Forrester Research, produced a summary of where the operation stands. Ms. Carney used the fact that a Google employee recently became a licensed insurance agent on behalf of a presumed Google competitor to speculate that the effort might be delayed because Google was about to buy (or has already bought) a San Francisco insurance agency as a means of entering the California market.
“As late as last month the site was expected to launch in California, to be followed in Q1 2015 with likely launches in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Last I heard was that California pilot wouldn’t begin until sometime in Q1,” Ms. Carney wrote, speaking about Google Compare’s presumed introduction in the United States.
According to Ms. Carney, Google has spent more than two years pitching insurance companies on Google Compare, a site that aims to let people do an easy comparison of auto insurance rates. In Britain, the site has shoppers enter their license and registration number, after which Google presents a list of insurance...
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Looking Back: Nellie Kershaw-The First Reported Asbestos Victim


Nellie Kershaw.jpg
Nellie Kershaw (c. 1891 – 14 March 1924) 
Today's post is shared from wikipedia.org/
Nellie Kershaw  was an English textile worker from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Her death due to pulmonary asbestosis was the first such case to be described in medical literature, and the first published account of disease attributed to occupational asbestos exposure.[1][2] Before his publication of the case in the British Medical Journal, Dr William Edmund Cooke had already testified at Kershaw's inquest that "mineral particles in the lungs originated from asbestos and were, beyond reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death".[3] Her employers, Turner Brothers Asbestos, accepted no liability for her injuries, paid no compensation to her bereaved family and refused to contribute towards funeral expenses as it "would create a precedent and admit responsibility".[4] She was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.[5] The subsequent inquiries into her death led to the publication of the first Asbestos Industry Regulations in 1931.
Nellie Kershaw was born to Elizabeth and Arthur Kershaw in Rochdale in 1891. In 1903 she left school, aged 12, to take up employment in a cotton mill and 5 months later began working at Garsides asbestos mill.[1][2] She transferred to Turner Brothers Asbestos on 31 December 1917, where she was employed as a rover, spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn.[2][6] She was married to Frank Kershaw, a...
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Death held "Good Cause" NJ App Div Reverses Trial Court of Compensation & Reinstates claim - Unreport Dec http://buff.ly/1z1KqXg  #WorkComp

Comp CT Dismissal bec lack of proof RMT “caused or contributed” to OD affd by NJ App Div in unreported dec http://buff.ly/1LgwgXin  #WorkComp

New talk about Tenn WC Opt-Out plan - @WorkCompCentral #WorkComp http://buff.ly/1wA08Dl  | Is the bargain of 1911 finally over?

Monday, January 26, 2015

US Supreme Court Rules Health Care Benefits Are Subject to Strict Contractual Interpretation

The Supreme Court reviewed the contractual limitations of health care benefits for retired workers and ruled that benefits may not continue until the death of the employee. It did not accept that a presumption of coverage exists. 
Health care coverage has become a more costly benefit because of expensive treatment and pharmaceutical protocols, as well as increased longevity. This decision will influence lifetime medical coverage and will ancillary impact settlement negotiations involving workers' compensation insurance medical benefits.

Today's post is shared from scotusblog.com/


"Monday’s decision in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett resolves a dispute about the vesting of health-care benefits under a collective bargaining agreement. Neither the Employee Retirement Income Security Act nor the National Labor Relations Act obligates employers to provide health-care benefits, but of course employers often do, and their commitments to provide those benefits often appear in collective-bargaining agreements. As so many companies struggle to deal with the overhang of providing employee benefits to long-retired employees, it should be no surprise that employers are pressing harder and harder to limit those obligations. Hence the litigation at hand.

Continue reading »

When Home And Health Are Just Out Of Reach

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Donna Giron is frail. She has Crohn’s disease and uses a wheelchair to get around because walking exhausts her.
But she doesn’t want to be in the nursing home where she has lived since May.
Giron, 65, is looking to rent a small house in the industrial town in the Cleveland suburbs where she grew up. Using federal funds from a special project, thousands of elderly and disabled nursing home residents have been able to move into their own homes in recent years. The experimental project has reached people in 44 states, including more than 5,400 in Ohio. It connects people to the medical and living support they need to move into private homes, so that they can live independently.
But often the housing is the sticking point. Giron doesn’t have family members who could take her in, so she’s house-hunting. As she tours one likely prospect, she manages to get out of her wheelchair to maneuver down some stairs; at the bottom, Giron looks out a window at the front porch and says she can picture herself sitting outside watching the neighborhood.

Donna Giron wheels through the halls of the nursing home she's lived in since May. Finding an affordable home of her own has been difficult. (Photo by Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN)
Donna Giron wheels through the halls of the nursing home she’s lived in since May.
Finding an affordable home of her own has been difficult.

(Photo by Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN)


Then, she sees the kitchen.
“Oh, we even got a dishwasher! Oh, my goodness gracious. Yeah, I want this one. I want this one,” she says, laughing.
Despite her health problems, Giron feels out of place in the nursing home, where many...
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Sunday, January 25, 2015

Safety Alert: Major US Winter Storm Headed to East Coast-Blizzard Conditions Predicted


NJ: State of Emergency Declared-State Offices Closed - Click here to read the announcement (1-26-15)

With an impending major winter storm headed for the northeast, workers and employers should review the precautions issued by the US Center for Disease.

A clipper system will evolve into a coastal storm bringing snow from the Ohio Valley to the northeastern states.

The amplified pattern across the nation will continue which features a broad upper trough extending over the eastern half of the U.S. Meanwhile, a rex block is expected across the West which indicates a ridge is bounded to the south by a closed upper low. The deep upper trough stretching from the Great Plains eastward to the Eastern Seaboard will allow a series of disturbances to dig through the Ohio/Tennessee Valleys and eventually into the Mid-Atlantic. The initial system which spread wintry precipitation to sections of the Northeast is departing into the Canadian Maritimes. While snow has ended across New England, gusty winds continue given the strength of the surface cyclone. In its wake, a very brief lull in the pattern is noted with the next system currently advancing through the Middle Mississippi Valley. This clipper system will initially be rather moisture deprived which is the typical nature of these systems. 

This should spread an area of 2 to 6 inches of snow to the Ohio Valley. As the upper trough amplifies across the lower Tennessee Valley on Sunday evening, a coastal low is forecast to develop which will significantly increase the moisture available to the storm. This will ultimately raise the snowfall totals across the Mid-Atlantic along with the southern half of New England. Currently, the WPC winter weather desk is expecting 4 to 8 inches over the Maryland Panhandle into southern Pennsylvania while a swath of 6 to 12 inches will be possible from New Jersey up to eastern Massachusetts. 

All amounts are through Tuesday morning with snow continuing to fall across the Upper Mid-Atlantic and New England afterward. In addition to the heavy snow prospects, a tightening pressure gradient will lead to gusty winds which may bring blizzard conditions to sections of the affected area. Over the Central U.S., expect well above normal temperatures to prevail across Northern Rockies along with the Great Plains region. This is in response to a persistent downslope flow which will significant warm the surface temperatures east of the higher terrain. 

The current forecast anomalies suggest readings of 20 to 30 degrees above normal which would translate to highs nearing 70 across the Central High Plains on Monday. Elsewhere in the nation, a secondary clipper system is expected to cross the Upper Great Lakes spreading light snowfall accumulations on Monday. 

Looking to the southwestern states, the earlier mentioned closed low will lift northward from the subtropical East Pacific. Enhanced moisture combined with strong vertical lift will spread a hefty batch of rainfall to the Desert Southwest on Monday and Tuesday. Widespread rainfall amounts of 0.25 to 0.50 inches are likely with heavier amounts in the local terrain.

Insurance Fraud: California insurance broker ordered to repay victim

Today's post is shared from montereyherald.com
A Marina man was placed on felony probation and ordered to pay victim restitution after pleading to two counts of theft of funds by a broker/agent and one misdemeanor count of identity theft, District Attorney Dean Flippo announced.
Ernie Morris, 45, was ordered to repay $33,444, Flippo said, after investigators determined that he was conducting insurance business without a license.
The investigation began after a complaint by the FirstComp Insurance Agency to the California Department of Insurance (CDI).
The investigation revealed that the defendant fraudulently obtained workers’ compensation insurance and auto insurance premiums from multiple clients and failed to remit the money to the insurance companies.
Flippo said the defendant claimed to have a license to sell insurance and then became partners with another individual who obtained a license. The defendant used his partner’s license in order to sell workers’ compensation and auto insurance policies to clients.
The defendant then deposited the victim’s money into his own personal and single business account without obtaining the policies and diverting the money for his own personal use.
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Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Cold Winds of Workers' Comp Reform Are Blowing in Wisconsin

Today's post is shared brom Bob Wilson at workerscompenstion.com

I have it on excellent authority that major changes to the Wisconsin workers’ compensation system will be proposed with the release of the state’s budget bill on February 3, 2015. The rumored changes are said to be significant, with some viewing it as a complete dismantling of the current workers’ comp system there. In the absence of the release of the actual budget and proposals, it still sounds like the most dramatic reforms to hit a state since Tennessee and Oklahoma conducted complete overhauls of their WC systems.

Currently in Wisconsin, the Workers’ Compensation Division is part of the larger Department of Workforce Development (DWD). On January 12, 2015, WC Division managers apparently learned of this proposal from the DWD Secretary’s office. It is believed that the person behind this effort is DWD Secretary, Reggie Newsom. Under Newsom’s proposal, the Worker’s Compensation Division would be entirely removed from the auspices of DWD. Other agencies would absorb some of the functions, while some current practices and procedures would cease to exist.

One group that appears to be subject to the greatest changes would be Wisconsin’s current Administrative Law Judges. Under the proposed changes, they would only be responsible for trying cases.  They would not manage claims functions or act in any advisory role for industry stakeholders. They would...

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A Video Interview Of Benjamin Marcus: The History of Workers' Compensation


Attorney Benjamin Marcus, the 1946 founding president of NACCA (The National Association of Compensation Claimants Attorneys), was interviewed by attorneys: N. Michael Rucka, Karen Spencer, Timothy Bott and Roy Portenga. The interview took place on January 1, 1997 in Michigan.

The video project was inspired by N. Michael Rucka under his leadership of WILG (Workplace Injury Litigation Group).  WILG was originally created as a litigation group of ATLA (The Association of Trial Lawyers of America). Subsequently, WILG established itself as an independent organization.

NACCA eventual expanded by became ATLA (The Association of Trial Lawyers of America) and is now known as AAJ (The American Association for Justice).


Big Whistleblower Predictions for 2015

Today's ost is shaed from blogs.wsj.com/

About a year ago, we ran a post positing that 2014 would be huge for corporate whistleblowers on a number of fronts. The experts with whom we spoke then hit the nail on the head: every prediction came true.

They were right about more Securities and Exchange Commission whistleblower awards arriving (including one for a record $30 million-plus), False Claims Act cases hitting a new record and courts further defining who counts as a whistleblower.

Here what some whistleblower experts think may happen in the year ahead:

More focus on employment contracts. The SEC has said it is scrutinizing companies’ use of contracts that forbid employees from reporting suspected wrongdoing to the government. “That’s of very big interest to them,” said Rebecca Katz, a member at law-firm Motley Rice LLC and head of its SEC whistleblower practice.

That could mean the agency could take action against a company that has used these contracts, Ms. Katz said.

The SEC will likely continue to focus on whistleblower retaliation, said Jordan Thomas, partner and head of the whistleblower representation practice at law-firm Labaton Sucharow LLP. “It’s becoming a standard area of inquiry with cases involving whistleblowers,” he said.

Last year, the agency brought its first-ever whistleblower retaliation case against a hedge-fund advisory firm.

Companies may...


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Survey Shows Americans Support Social Security Changes; Republicans and Democrats Agree

Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents receiving Social Security benefits can take comfort in the fact that support for the program remains strong across the country. Americans report strong support for Social Security and are willing to pay more in taxes to stabilize the system’s finances and improve benefits, according to a recent survey by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance.

“At a time when the nation seems deeply divided about the proper size and role of government, Americans show remarkably widespread agreement on Social Security,” said Virginia Reno, the Academy’s Vice President for Income Security Policy and co-author of the new study, Americans Make Hard Choices on Social Security: A Survey with Trade-Off Analysis[PDF], which was supported by the Ford Foundation and the Tufts Health Plan Foundation.

In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, a total of 1.4 million people (or about 18% of the population) receive Social Security benefits, according to December 2013 figures. Their average benefit amount is $1,204 a month, or just under $14,500 a year. On an annual basis, that brought $20.5 billion in income to the area – 4.7% of all personal income in the two states combined, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Americans of all ages value Social Security’s protections, and for seniors in particular – who make up one million of the area’s beneficiaries – its dependable income is vital for healthy aging. As documented in the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report, approximately 28% of the population age 65 and older have incomes less than $20,000 per year. As such, for this population Social Security is the primary source of income.

Large majorities of survey participants, both Republicans and Democrats, agree on ways to strengthen Social Security – without reducing benefits. Fully 69% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats agree “it is critical to preserve Social Security benefits for future generations even if it means increasing the Social Security taxes paid by working Americans.”

When asked the same question about top earners, 71% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats agree that they could pay more. Social Security taxes are paid by workers and their employers on earnings, but only up to a cap ($118,500 in 2015). About 6% of workers earn more than the cap.

Majorities oppose measures to balance Social Security’s future finances by reducing benefits. Fully 75% of respondents oppose increasing the retirement age to 70; and 76% oppose reducing the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that retirees receive.

To gauge Americans’ policy preferences, the survey used trade-off analysis — a technique that is widely used in market research to learn which product features consumers want and are willing to pay for. The trade-off exercise allowed survey participants to choose among different packages of Social Security changes. As lawmakers would do, they weighed how each policy change would affect workers, retirees, and the program’s future financing gap, and then chose among different packages of reforms. Seven out of 10 participants prefer a package that would eliminate Social Security’s long-term financing gap without cutting benefits. The preferred package would:

Gradually, over 10 years, eliminate the cap on earnings taxed for Social Security. With this change, the 6% of workers who earn more than the cap would pay into Social Security all year, as other workers do. In return, they would get somewhat higher benefits.
​Gradually, over 20 years, raise the Social Security tax rate that workers and employers each pay from 6.2% of earnings to 7.2%. A worker earning $50,000 a year would pay about 50 cents a week more each year, matched by the employer.
Increase Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment to reflect the inflation experienced by seniors.
​Raise Social Security’s minimum benefit so that a worker who pays into Social Security for 30 years or more can retire at 62 or later and have benefits above the federal poverty line.


Without any changes, Social Security would be able to pay only about three-quarters of scheduled benefits after 2033. This package would turn the projected financing gap into a small surplus, providing a margin of safety.

The package was preferred by large majorities across political parties and income levels. Fully 68% of Republicans, 74% of Democrats, and 73% of independents favor the package, as do 71% of study participants with incomes above $75,000 and 68% of those with incomes under $35,000.

“This study deserves close attention by lawmakers,” said James Roosevelt Jr., CEO of Tufts Health Plan and grandson of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who signed the original Social Security law in 1935. “To get to stronger reforms in our system, we need to negotiate with a better understanding of what people need and are willing to ‘trade-off.’ This survey gets us closer to that.”

About the survey: The survey was conducted online to facilitate use of the deliberative trade-off exercise. Greenwald & Associates partnered with the Academy to survey 2,013 Americans ages 21 and older between June 12 and 23, 2014. Participants were randomly selected from the Research Now consumer panel of nearly 2.2 million individuals. Results are weighted to reflect the U.S. adult population in the March 2013 Current Population Survey. The survey was released nationally in October 2014. The findings of this 2014 survey are consistent with a similar survey by the Academy in 2012, an indication of stability in Americans’ views on Social Security and how they want to remedy its future financing gap.


The National Academy of Social Insurance is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance. Its mission is to advance solutions to challenges facing the nation by increasing public understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security.

Friday, January 23, 2015

1,700 Hospitals Win Quality Bonuses From Medicare, But Most Will Never Collect

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Medicare is giving bonuses to a majority of hospitals that it graded on quality, but many of those rewards will be wiped out by penalties the government has issued for other shortcomings, federal data show.

As required by the 2010 health law, the government is taking performance into account when paying hospitals, one of the biggest changes in Medicare’s 50-year-history. This year 1,700 hospitals – 55 percent of those graded – earned higher payments for providing comparatively good care in the federal government’s most comprehensive review of quality. The government measured criteria such as patient satisfaction, lower death rates and how much patients cost Medicare. This incentive program, known as value-based purchasing, led to penalties for 1,360 hospitals.

However, fewer than 800 of the 1,700 hospitals that earned bonuses from this one program will actually receive extra money, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. That’s because the others are being penalized through two other Medicare quality programs: one punishes hospitals for having too many patients readmitted for follow-up care and the other lowers payments to hospitals where too many patients developed infections during their stays or got hurt in other ways.

When all these incentive programs are combined, the average bonus for large hospitals — those with more than 400 beds — will be nearly $213,000, while the average penalty will be about $1.2 million, according to...

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New Jersey: Toxic legacy remains

Today's post is shared from northjersey.com/


One of government's most basic responsibilities is protecting public health. That's not happening in Ringwood with a notorious old dump that is now a Superfund site.

Rather than remove more than 100,000 tons of toxic waste dumped about 40 years ago by the Ford Motor Co., the borough wants to build a recycling center on top of it. That's bad enough.

What's even worse is that the state Department of Environmental Protection is going along with the plan, according to a letter the agency sent recently to an attorney representing the borough. Nearby residents should be outraged that borough and state officials are seemingly so unconcerned about a real risk to public health.

The dumping site, which is off Peters Mine Road and near where many members of the Ramapough Lenape Nation live, has had a particularly sordid history.

Ford, which once had a plant in nearby Mahwah, began disposing paint sludge in the wooded terrain in the late 1960s, when such dumping was not uncommon. The federal Environmental Protection Agency oversaw a cleanup of the site in the early 1990s and, in 1994, proclaimed the area free of contaminants. That was not true. After a series by The Record in 2005 found that huge amounts of waste were still in the ground, properly cleaning up the area was again an issue.

The borough's plan is to cover the contaminated area with a 2-foot layer of soil and synthetic material. A recycling center would then be constructed on top. It is not unusual for old dumps, or...


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Thursday, January 22, 2015

More Cops Getting Killed on the Job, With 56% Rise in Gun Fatalities, Advocacy Group Says

Today's post is shared from bloomberg.com/

U.S. law-enforcement deaths rose to the highest in three years, led by a 56 percent increase in the number killed by gunfire, a pro-police group said, leaving officers on edge across the nation after the ambush of two New York City cops and shots near a squad car in Los Angeles.

This year, 126 federal, state and local officers have died in the line of duty, according to data compiled and released today by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. That’s up from 102 last year. Fifty were shot, compared with 32 in 2013.

Police have been on heightened alert as protests rocked the nation over the killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in Missouri and New York. Grand juries refused to indict officers in either case. Demonstrations flared into violence in some places, confronted by authorities including police in riot gear.

“I’m deeply concerned that a growing anti-government sentiment in America is influencing weak-minded individuals to launch violent assaults against the men and women working to enforce our laws and keep our nation safe,” Craig Floyd, the memorial fund’s chairman, said in a telephone interview. “Enough is enough. We need to tone down the rhetoric and rally in support of law enforcement and against lawlessness.”

This year, 49 of the 126 deaths, or more than one-third, came in traffic accidents. Twenty-four more were from job-related illnesses such...

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Monday, January 19, 2015

The 9 Most Important Victories for Workers in 2014

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from inthesetimes.com



These are tough times for American workers. But the news in 2014 wasn't all bad. (Steve Rhodes / Flickr)
The mainstream press often files workers’ stories between corporate gossip in the “business” or “money” sections. But the efforts of working people to organize for their common interests—as well as the efforts of the 1 percent to keep a lid on things—frequently made front-page news this year.
Much has been made of the incredibly hostile climate for labor over the past few decades. Yet this past year, workers still organized on shop floors, went out on strike, marched in the street and shuffled into courthouses to hold their employers accountable, and campaigned hard for those who earned (or, often enough, didn’t earn) their vote. Legislators, meanwhile, tarried on with their anti-worker “right-to-work” laws, and union busters busted up unions. But if state legislatures and the U.S. Supreme Court were harsh on workers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was refreshingly helpful, passing down several rulings that made organizing easier and wage-theft harder.
Whether it was fast-food and retail workers demanding respect and better pay in record numbers, cities across the country raising their minimum wage under public pressure, or student athletes gaining recognition as employees of their universities, the labor movement has seen some important—and, at times, unexpected—victories this past...
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Tavenner To Leave CMS; Burwell Lays Out ‘To Do’ List With GOP Lawmakers

Workers' compensation is now significantly impacted by the enforcement of the recovery of benefits by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The resignation of the Administrator of CMS may signal a change in policy.Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org/

Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, announced that she will resign at the end of February. Meanwhile, despite disagreements over the health law, HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell lists possible areas of cooperation with the GOP, such as on opioid abuse, Ebola and medical research and innovation.
Huffington Post: Key Obamacare Official Stepping Down
Marilyn Tavenner will resign as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, effective at the end of February, officials in President Barack Obama’s administration told The Huffington Post. Andrew Slavitt, the agency’s second-ranking official, will take over in an acting capacity. An announcement is planned for Friday. Tavenner is the latest high-profile resignation after the botched early implementation of the Affordable Care Act. (Cohn and Young, 1/16)
Bloomberg: Medicare’s Tavenner To Depart After Obamacare Error Revealed
Marilyn Tavenner, head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, plans to step down at the end of February, she told her staff in an e-mail. ...In November, Tavenner acknowledged that her agency had made a mistake in its calculation of the number of people enrolled under Obamacare. About 393,000 individuals with both health and dental coverage were “inadvertently counted twice,” she said in a letter to Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican whose committee discovered the error....
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Sunday, January 18, 2015

The workplace has grown meaner. Democrats want to do something about that.

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.washingtonpost.com

Today, President Obama is proposing that Congress pass the Healthy Families Act, a bill that has been introduced in prior Congresses which mandates that employers give workers paid sick leave. He’ll also sign an order giving federal workers paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child.
Republicans will object, perhaps quite vociferously. As Democrats roll out an agenda to address inequality and win support from middle-class voters, this is an issue that highlights a fundamental philosophical difference between the parties, one that Democrats are hoping they can turn to their political advantage.
First, some basic facts. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 39 percent of private sector workers get no paid sick leave, and the lower you go down the income scale, the less likely you are to get it. If you’re an executive you’ll get paid if you stay home with the flu, but if you’re an hourly fast-food worker you almost certainly won’t. That imposes all kinds of costs on both workers and companies, from spreading disease when people are forced to work when sick, to increasing turnover as people lose their jobs because of illness.
This is yet another area where the United States stands alone among highly developed countries. Every one of our peer countries mandates that employers provide paid sick leave; in some cases the employer just has to pay for it, and in some cases taxes create a fund that pays people when they’re too sick to...
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Saturday, January 17, 2015

California: WCIRB Report Shows Continued Increase in Claim Frequency

The WCIRB has released an update to its Analysis of Changes in Indemnity Claim Frequency report which was originally published in 2012 and last updated in December 2013. In prior reports, WCIRB researchers explored potential causes for the increases in claim frequency in California that have persisted since 2010 and that differ from the claim frequency experience of other states.

Prior frequency reports have identified a number of factors influencing claim frequency including increases in cumulative injury claims, increases in smaller non-cumulative injury claims that may have been reported as medical-only in the past, increases in the proportion of indemnity claims relative to total claims, and increases in late-reported indemnity claims and the proportion of medical-only claims that later transition to indemnity.

In this latest update, WCIRB researchers studied the influencing factors driving recent claim frequency based on the most up-to-date data available. The WCIRB’s principal findings include:

  • Unlike in most other states over the last several years, California indemnity claim frequency has continued to increase as WCIRB data currently indicates increases of 3.2%, 3.9% and 0.9% in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. 
  • The number of late reported indemnity claims continues to increase, whereas the percentage of medical only claims reported after 18 months has generally remained stable since 2007. 
  • The level of cumulative injury claims has continued to increase. Approximately 13% of indemnity claims are estimated to involve a cumulative injury in 2013 compared to approximately 8% in the 2005 to 2007 period. 
  • The growth in cumulative injury claims beginning in 2009 has been concentrated in claims involving more serious injuries and multiple injured body parts. Both the proportion of cumulative injury claims involving indemnity benefits and the proportion involving injuries to multiple body parts have increased significantly since 2010. 
Based on WCIRB surveys of cumulative injury claims, both the proportion of cumulative injury claims involving multiple insurers and the proportion involving attorney representation has increased in recent years. In addition, approximately two-thirds of surveyed claims were initially denied in part or in whole by the insurer and approximately 40% of claims, despite long-standing statutory limitation on the compensability of post-termination claims, were reported post-termination.

Shifts to a less hazardous composition of industries in California (“industrial mix”) have historically driven claim frequency downward. The recent economic recovery in higher hazard industries such as construction and manufacturing has had the opposite impact. In 2013, rather than dampening claim frequency, shifting industrial mix is increasing claim frequency by approximately 1%.

The 2010 increase in frequency was greatest in industries that were most impacted by the recession (e.g. construction and real estate). Since 2010, relativities for higher-frequency industries such as agriculture, construction, and entertainment have increased while those for the lower-frequency industries such as real estate, professional services, and finance have declined.

The 2010 indemnity claim frequency increase was generally experienced across all California regions. Since that time, the increases have been concentrated in the Los Angeles area. Indemnity claim frequency increased an estimated 9% in the Los Angeles Basin region from 2010 to 2013 while, similar to the pattern shown in many other states, other California regions showed modest declines. By comparison, indemnity claim frequency in the Bay Area declined by 7% over the same period. The Los Angeles area also has experienced significantly higher numbers of cumulative injury claims and claims involving multiple body parts than other regions of California.

As the economy recovers, newer workers enter the system and are often more likely to be injured on the job than more experienced workers. The proportion of injured workers with less than 2 years of experience at their current job has grown by 8% from 2010 to 2014, suggesting the economic recovery is a significant driver of recent claim frequency increases.

The full Analysis of Changes in Indemnity Claim Frequency—January 2015 Update Report is available in the Research and Analysis section of the WCIRB website.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Breast Cancer and Occupational Hazards: A Time For Action

Breast cancer is a major disease that impacts for females and males. Historically research into the causal relationship of workplace hazards have been lacking and the disease continues to result in illness and death to workers and their families. Prevention and treatment have largely been ignored as the pharmaceutical industry continues to offer palliative care. Today's post discusses the immediate need to expand research into the association of occupational hazards with disease. Today's post is shared from tuc.org.uk and apha.org.

"Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women in the United States and other countries, making it a major public health concern. Despite significant scientific evidence about its known or suspected causes, research and prevention measures to identify and eliminate occupational and other environmental hazards and risk factors for breast cancer remain largely overlooked. As a result, hazards continue unabated for women generally, especially those who work outside the home. The science linking breast cancer and occupation in particular is growing. Researchers have identified commonly used chemicals that induce breast tumors in test animals. Animal studies link chemicals that mimic reproductive hormones to elevated breast cancer rates. Other animal and human studies link chemical exposures to increased breast cancer rates, including two recent investigations focused on occupational hazards. But the latter are the exception. Studies that attempt to identify and characterize workplace agents linked to breast cancer, as well as intervention studies focusing on the use of less toxic processes and substances, are limited. In what might be construed as a case of gender and social class bias, many research and funding agencies have ignored or downplayed the role of occupational studies despite their relevance to prevention efforts. Action required starts with making a national priority of promoting and supporting research on occupational and other environmental causes of breast cancer. Other public health actions include hazard surveillance and primary prevention activities such as reductions in the use of toxic materials, informed substitution, and green chemistry efforts."




Click here to read the complete article.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Scott Walker and Right to Work

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.wsj.com


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Associated Press

Today's post is shared from wsj.com/ One can only wonder what a Conservative anti-labor Governor would do to change the national patchwork of workers' compensation programs, especially if supported by a conservative majority in both house of Congress and a modification of the filibuster rule.

Scott Walker is heading to Iowa this month as part of his consideration of a run for the White House, but in the meantime he’s starting a second term as Governor in which he presumably wants to accomplish something. So it’s unfortunate that he’s ducking a chance to make Wisconsin the country’s 25th right-to-work state.
At his second inauguration last week, Mr. Walker told voters that prosperity comes “from empowering people to control their own lives and their own destinies through the dignity born from work.” In the Badger State, he added, “we understand people create jobs, not the government.”
He’s right, which makes it that much stranger to watch Mr. Walker dodging the right-to-work challenge. In December, after Wisconsin Senate majority leader Scott Fitzgerald said he was interested in taking up a right-to-work bill, the Governor called it a “distraction.” Then he told WKOW-TV “Capitol City Sunday” that despite the chatter about right-to-work momentum, “there’s a lot of things that are going to keep the legislature preoccupied for a while,” like taxes and education.
That may be, but Wisconsin needs an economic lift and right to work can help. Big Labor spins right to work as radical, but it merely gives workers a choice to join a union. Many workers decide to drop their union affiliation once government coercion is repealed,...
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Read more about "Scott Walker":
Scott Walker: I Don't Think Minimum Wage 'Serves A Purpose'
Oct 16, 2014
"Well I'm not going to repeal it but I don't think it serves a purpose because we're debating then about what the lowest levels are at," Walker said during a televised interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I want people .../

Workers' Compensation: Scott Walker targeted in fall union ...
Sep 14, 2014
“We have a score to settle with Scott Walker,” Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in his first interview about the union's midterm strategy. “He took collective ...


Aetna Sets Wage Floor: $16 an Hour

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.wsj.com



Amid signs of a tightening labor market, Aetna Inc. plans to boost the incomes of its lowest-paid workers by as much as a third in a bid to draw top prospects and reduce turnover.

The move by the big health insurer highlights larger debates over the pace of the economic recovery and the compensation of people toward the bottom of the wage scale. Around 12% of Aetna’s domestic work force will see a raise to a floor of $16 an hour, primarily employees in customer service and billing-related jobs. Aetna, which also said it will cut health-care costs for many of the same employees next year, follows Gap Inc., Starbucks Corp. and others in raising the lower limit on workers’ wages.

Aetna Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini said the company’s shift reflects changes in the insurance industry, which is increasingly selling coverage to individuals. “We’re preparing our company for a future where we’re going to have a much more consumer-oriented business,” he said, and Aetna wants “a better and more informed work force.”

Economists and policy makers have been on the lookout for signs of growth in workers’ pay, which has lagged behind other markers of improved economic activity, including rising employment and economic output. While many economists say wage inflation remains a remote...


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Budgets and Flying IMC

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

Sunday was a great flight to go see Mom.
The second of two troughs of low pressure was making its way through Southern California bringing steady rain, low overcast, mist, low visibility, no icing threat below 9,000 feet, no forecast turbulence - all the makings for a great Instrument Meteorological Conditions instrument flight.
In Southern California, IMC flight is a rarity, so I relish every chance I can get to go do "actual" instrument flight. Not the fake stuff where you have a safety pilot or an instructor, but the real deal where you really can't see, and really must pay attention, and really must be "on your game" because the consequences of failure are catastrophic.
In congested air space, such as Southern California with a couple of Class Bravo sectors, numerous Class Charlie zones and untold Class Delta spaces, the Federal Aviation Administration has established Terminal En-route Clearances. These are basically pre-approved instrument flight plans. All a pilot need do is call up Air Traffic Control on the ground to get a clearance - no filing of plans an hour before take off - and the route is well established and published.
The TEC system is custom made for missions such as mine: getting down south to see Mom on a day when the weather keeps most pilots on the ground.
And so off I went, into the wild grey yonder!
It was an impeccably precise flight. Everything was perfect: my on course tracking, altitude assignments, standard rate turns, engine...
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Supreme Court Battle Brewing Over Medicaid Fees

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Rita Gorenflo’s 7-year-old son Nathaniel was in severe pain from a sinus infection.

But since the boy was covered by Medicaid, she couldn’t immediately find a specialist willing to see him. After days of calling, she was finally able to get Nathaniel an appointment nearly a week later near their South Florida home. That was in 2005.

Last month, ruling in a lawsuit brought by the state’s pediatricians and patient advocacy groups, a federal district judge in Miami determined Nathaniel’s wait was “unreasonable” and that Florida’s Medicaid program was failing him and nearly 2 million other children by not paying enough money to doctors and dentists to ensure the kids have adequate access to care.

The Florida case is the latest effort to get federal judges to force states to increase Medicaid provider payment rates for the state and federal program that covers about 70 million low-income Americans. In the past two decades, similar cases have been filed in numerous states, including California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Texas and the District of Columbia– with many resulting in higher pay.





But while providers and patient advocates nationwide hailed the Florida decision, they are deeply worried about a U.S. Supreme Court case that they say could restrict their ability across the country to seek judicial relief from low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

The high court on Jan. 20 will hear...


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