Largest Study to Date Finds State Smoke-Free Laws Would Not Hurt Restaurant and Bar Business

Smoking is a major cause of disease and workers' compensation claims. Tobacco usage in restaurants and bars is a danger to both the employees and the guests. Banned in some jurisdictions, this study confirms that prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars is not an economic detriment to businesses. Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.cdcfoundation.org

A study conducted by RTI International in nine states concludes that statewide smoke-free laws would not be expected to have an adverse economic impact on restaurants and bars in these states. The study, which was supported by the CDC Foundation, was released today in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

The findings of the new analysis are consistent with the results of previous peer-reviewed studies. However, this study (www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2013/12_0327.htm) is unique in that it is the largest of its kind, aggregating all the available data from local jurisdictions in the studied states.

Occupations with the largest job growth

Today's jobs report shows once again that there is no growth in the manufacturing sector. The trend in job creation over the next decade is aimed totally at the aging population: Registered Nurses, Home Health Aides and Personal Care Aides. The traditional injuries over the past century brought before workers' compensation program will be changing from manufacturing to health care services. The high union wages/rates will be changed and adapted to lower paying positions with lower wages/rates of compensation being paid. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.bls.gov

This table also can be found in the article, "Occupational Employment Projections to 2020," published in the January 2012 MonthlyLabor Review.

Other available formats: [XLS]Table 1.4: Occupations with the most job growth, 2010 and projected 2020

(Numbers in thousands)

00-0000	Total, All Occupations	143,068.2	163,537.1	20,468.9	14.3	$33,840
29-1111	Registered Nurses	2,737.4	3,449.3	711.9	26.0	64,690
41-2031	Retail Salespersons	4,261.6	4,968.4	706.8	16.6	20,670
31-1011	Home Health Aides	1,017.7	1,723.9	706.3	69.4	20,560
39-9021	Personal Care Aides	861.0	1,468.0	607.0	70.5	19,640
43-9061	Office Clerks, General	2,950.7	3,440.2	489.5	16.6	26,610
35-3021	Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food	2,682.1	3,080.1	398.0	14.8	17,950
43-4051	Customer Service Representatives	2,187.3	2,525.6	338.4	15.5	30,460
53-3032	Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers	1,604.8	1,934.9	330.1	20.6	37,770
53-7062	Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand	2,068.2	2,387.3	319.1	15.4	23,460
25-1000	Postsecondary Teachers	1,756.0	2,061.7	305.7	17.4	45,690
31-1012	Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants	1,505.3	1,807.2	302.0	20.1	24,010
39-9011	Childcare Workers	1,282.3	1,544.3	262.0	20.4	19,300
43-3031	Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks	1,898.3	2,157.4	259.0	13.6	34,030
41-2011	Cashiers	3,362.6	3,612.8	250.2	7.4	18,500
25-2021	Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education	1,476.5	1,725.3	248.8	16.8	51,660
43-4171	Receptionists and Information Clerks	1,048.5	1,297.0	248.5	23.7	25,240
37-2011	Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners	2,310.4	2,556.8	246.4	...

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Asbestos Bankruptcy: Judge denies motion to keep Garlock trial open

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Legal Newsline’s efforts to keep a North Carolina bankruptcy trial open to the public have failed.

Attorneys for Legal Newsline filed a motion Tuesday to keep the entire trial open to the public.

On Wednesday, Hodges denied Legal Newsline’s motion, saying none of the seven orders previously entered in the case relating to confidentiality of documents had been challenged by Legal Newsline or anyone else. Nor did Legal Newsline appear with respect to a motion by Garlock, which Hodges denied, to remove the confidentiality designation from certain documents.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George R. Hodges had closed the courtroom to the news media and the public during a portion of a law professor’s testimony last week in the asbestos bankruptcy case filed by Garlock Sealing Technologies.

Your Big Mac Would Only Cost $.68 More If McDonalds Doubled Its Pay

Sweeping the nation is a wave of protests by fast food workers for higher wages. High wages result in higher workers' compensation rates/benefits. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from thinkprogress.org

(Credit: AP)

If McDonalds were to double the salaries and benefits of all of its employees, from the CEO down to the minimum wage cashiers, it would still only cost an extra 68 cents for a Big Mac, according to a new report.

As fast food workers across the country are going on strike to demand a livable wage, University of Kansas research assistant Arnobio Morelix tells the Huffington Post that it would cost the average consumer mere cents to give them just that.

Currently, a minimum wage McDonalds employee makes $7.25 per hour. The CEO makes $8.75 million. But if the former were raised to $15 and the latter to $17.5 million, the dollar menu would only have to become the $1.17 menu and the Big Mac would go from $3.99 to $4.67, Morelix found.
These numbers underscore what low-wage workers already know: It would take very little for McDonalds to vastly improve the lives of those who make the company run. In fact, minimum wage raises have proven beneficial to a company’s bottom line.

Current wages for the lowest paid McDonalds workers are unworkable, and even the company knows that; a recent budget released by McDonalds told employees to get by through getting a second job and spending $0 on heating. Still, the company’s leadership has tried to frame itself as a charitable “above minimum wage” employer.

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CMS Comments: "No Comment" on The Forthcoming Smart Act Regulations

CMS is withholding comment about The Smart Act regulations for now. See the transcript below:

"CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES
Moderator: John Albert
07-25-13/1:00 p.m. ET
Confirmation # 11907630
Page 14

That’s all I have on that right now. Some of the areas sort of more high 
arching as oppose to just a single question. As we received a number of 
questions about the SMART Act and how it affects this process and what 
regulations are out there.

In terms of regulations, when CMS is doing an advance notice of proposed 
rulemaking, an ANPRM or NNPRM or final rules or even a federal registered 
notice, we’re not allowed to comment whether we are or are not doing that 
notice or the content of that until there is at least something on the unified 
regulatory agenda at which point we still can’t tell you specifics but we can 
tell you that document is in progress. The site you need to go to for that 
generally is – if I can find the right thing – is www.reginfo.gov. And what 
that – you can also find it simply by Googling the Unified Regulatory Agenda 
and then the term CMS. But what it lives on that, it won’t – and want – those 
are ones that are in our process – officially in the process.

And right now, the requirement in the SMART Act that an ANPRM be done 
with respect to civil money penalties under Section 111 is on that Regulatory 
Agenda. I believe there are at least two other MSP related regulations either –
whether it’s under something in the final rule, a pre rule or proposed rule. But 
you can check that out and that’s a site that you may want to monitor every so 
often if you have a question about whether or not we’re doing a particular 
regulation.

Similar to that, because I mentioned the SMART Act before, is a lot of the 
questions were asking specific facts about our specific actions we planned to 
take with respect to what’s in the SMART Act. As we make any changes or 
do anything related to the SMART Act, we – anytime instructions are going to 
change, we will give appropriate notice. At this point, there’s nothing that we 
have changed in our instructions that affects you at this time. So, we won’t be 
addressing any specific SMART Act questions.

Last but not least, as we have said in most of these calls, the extent we 
received questions that are related to MSP recoveries in the mailbox, those are 
outside the scope of this call. And we won’t be addressing those.

Read more about The Smart Act

Workers' Compensation: The SMART Act and Workers' Compensation

May 09, 2013

The SMART Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on January 10, 2013, amends and reforms the Medicare Secondary Payer Act to improve the reimbursement process. It is located in Title II of H.R. 1845 and ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

It's Not "If", It's "When" - California - Workers' Compensation

Feb 01, 2013

Enactment of The SMART Act, the reality of which is that the regulations will eat up the statute, and also their lunch. I plan to write more on The SMART Act in the coming weeks. Maybe that wasn't so smart after all for the ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Workers' Compensation: Medicare Conditional Repayment ...

Jan 14, 2013

In additional to commenting on the new Strengthening Medicare And Repaying Taxpayers (SMART) Act, Judge Hickey will be discussing how the interaction of the workers' compensation claims process integrates with this ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

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High Disability Rates Persist in Old Age

Aging and "late life disability" is an an increasing trend. Injured workers' are surviving longer making total disability claims and Medicare involvement an increasing factor in adjudication and settlement of workers' compensation claims. Today's post was shared by The New Old Age and comes from newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com

Weird berries. Capsules of unpronounceable supplements. Yoga or tai chi. Crossword puzzles. Such amulets, we’re told, may ward off disability — which is the real fear that accompanies aging, isn’t it? Not the sheer number of years that will have passed, but the things we’ll no longer be able to do.

But our efforts to dodge disability appear to be falling short. Gerontologists once hoped for a “compression of morbidity”; the idea was that we could remain healthy and active until our bodies fail at advanced ages, and we swiftly died. But new research shows that this has not materialized for most of the elderly. The price we’re paying for extended life spans is a high rate of late-life disability.

Fast food workers strike to double current wages

Wages are a critical component of workers' compensation systems. Wages are utilized to determine rates of compensation benefits. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nydailynews.com

They're not lovin' it.

Hundreds of New York City fast food workers from the likes of McDonald’s, Wendy’s and KFC went on strike Monday, chanting “Hold the burgers hold the fries, make our wages super-sized!"
They shouted that they deserve the right to unionize and make $15 hourly wages instead of the minimum wage they currently earn.

"I want for us to be respected. $7.25 is not enough!" said Lisette Ortiz, 27, of Rockaway, who works at a McDonald's in downtown Brooklyn.

"I live with my dad. I would like to get my own apartment. You can't! It's impossible!"
Her comments echoed scores of mostly part-time burger flippers, pizza deliverymen and fry cooks who gathered at fast food joints in the Bronx, midtown Manhattan, and downtown Brooklyn before a rally of around 300 protesters in Union Square. They said their paychecks simply cannot sustain life in the city.

"I live with my grandma, my aunt, and cousin. I can't even afford privacy!" said Naquasia LeGrand, 22, of Canarsie, Brooklyn.
"I'm a cashier, I cook, prep, clean — I do it all. It's just not enough, $7.25, not when milk and eggs are going up!”

She said she relies on $113 a month in welfare, in addition to the $225 she makes from working 38 hours a week at two KFCs.

Councilman Jumaane Williams led a rowdy crowd of 60 that barged into the rear entrance of a Wendy's in downtown Brooklyn. Protesters chanted to the workers inside, "We can't survive on $7.25!" and "Come on out, we got your...

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