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Monday, September 15, 2014

Sweeping Lawsuit Targets Soccer Concussions

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com
Soccer joined the growing legal debate over head injuries Wednesday after FIFA and some of the sport's governing bodies in the United States were made the target of a lawsuit seeking new safety rules.
A group of soccer parents and players filed the lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco. Lawyers representing the parents and players are asking a judge to grant the lawsuit class-action status on behalf of thousands of current and former soccer players who competed for teams governed by FIFA and several U.S.-based soccer organizations.
The NFL, NHL and NCAA have all faced similar lawsuits.
In a proposed legal settlement in another case, the NCAA last month said it will toughen return-to-play rules for players who receive head blows. It also agreed to create a $70 million fund to pay for thousands of current and former athletes to undergo testing to determine whether they suffered brain trauma.
Seattle-based lawyer Steve Berman helped negotiate the NCAA settlement and also represents the soccer parents and players who filed the lawsuit Wednesday. The soccer lawsuit doesn't demand monetary damages, but it is demanding that the soccer governing bodies alter safety rules including limiting headers for players 17 years old and younger.
"We believe it is imperative we force these organizations to put a stop to hazardous practices that put players at unnecessary risk," Berman said.
The lawsuit also wants FIFA to allow for temporary medical substitutions...
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Flaw In Federal Software Lets Employers Offer Plans Without Hospital Benefits, Consultants Say

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

A flaw in the federal calculator for certifying that insurance meets the health law’s toughest standard is leading dozens of large employers to offer plans that lack basic benefits such as hospitalization coverage, according to brokers and consultants.
The calculator appears to allow companies enrolling workers for 2015 to offer inexpensive, substandard medical insurance while avoiding the Affordable Care Act’s penalties, consumer advocates say.
Insurance pros are also surprised such plans are permitted.
Employer insurance without hospital coverage “flies in the face of Obamacare,” said Liz Smith, president of employee benefits for Assurance, an Illinois-based insurance brokerage.
At the same time, a kind of catch-22 bars workers at these companies from subsidies to buy more comprehensive coverage on their own through online marketplaces. No federal tax credits for health coverage are available to people with workplace plans approved by the calculator.
The calculator is used by self-insured employers, which include most large firms.
Like insurance companies, self-insured employers must certify that their plans pass health-law standards for consumer value.
One official way to do that is to get a passing score on the Department of Health and Human Services’ “minimum-value” calculator, an online tool.
An employer checks boxes on the screen indicating what...
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….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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With asbestos found in second Mount Manresa building, DEP to investigate engineer who said structures were free of the material

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.silive.com

manresa.jpg
Mount Manresa’s Bruno Hall administration building sits partially demolished, as seen from Narrows Road North. (Advance file photo)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - With asbestos problems spreading at the Mount Manresa site, the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday said it will investigate the Staten Island engineer who only months ago signed off on paperwork saying that six historic buildings slated for demolition at the site were free of asbestos.
It's not the first time that the engineer, Gaspare Santoro, has run afoul of a regulatory agency. He was placed on two years' probation in a 2004 disciplinary action, according to records.
The Buildings Department on Thursday said that DEP inspectors had found asbestos in two of the buildings at Mount Manresa so far. The presence of airborne asbestos in the first of those buildings was reported over the weekend.
A stop-work order has been issued for the whole site, and DEP inspectors are now testing all the structures for asbestos. DEP has said that that the air was safe.
It is not clear which buildings were found to contain asbestos, or when results from the asbestos tests would be complete.
The DEP said Santoro filed paperwork in April saying that each of six buildings on the Manresa site, which are slated for demolition to make way for a townhouse development by Savo Brothers, were "free of asbestos containing material."
The DEP told the Advance that it's possible that Santoro, hired by the...
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….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

What Happens When Preventable Medical Errors Go Unreported?

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.takejusticeback.com

How many preventable medical errors occur in your local hospital?


Research shows 440,000 patients die each year from preventable medical errors. But finding out how safe your local hospital is can be a difficult task. Write to Congress TODAY to fix this problem.
Recently, an arm of the federal government called the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it was going to stop tracking and publicly reporting eight egregious medicals errors that included when foreign objects are left in patient’s bodies after surgery and when a patient receives the wrong blood type in a hospital!
The good news is that after the USA Today exposed this policy decision and after many patient safety groups weighed-in, the federal government reversed its decision and will now resume reporting these errors.
But here’s the deal – there is still a significant lack of transparency when it comes to hospital safety. Currently, there is no simple way for patients to find out the safety record of a hospital. If you agree that we should know how safe our hospitals are, send a message to Congress TODAY!
Tell your representatives about the preventable medical error epidemic plaguing this country and urge them to prioritize patient safety and transparency! 
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Uber sued for allegedly refusing rides to the blind and putting a dog in the trunk

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.washingtonpost.com



The Uber app is shown in this Feb. 14, 2013, file photo in Washington, D.C. (AFP)
An advocacy group for the blind is suing the app-based ride-sharing service Uber, alleging the company discriminates against passengers with service dogs.
The federal civil rights suit filed Tuesday by the California chapter of the National Federation of the Blind cites instances in California and elsewhere when blind Uber customers summoned a car only to be refused a ride once the driver saw them with a service dog. In some cases, drivers allegedly abandoned blind travelers in extreme weather and charged cancellation fees after denying them rides, the complaint said.
The complaint filed in a Northern California District Court cites one instance where a California UberX driver put a service dog in the trunk and refused to pull over when the blind passenger realized where the animal was.
On another occasion a passenger was trying to explain that his dog was not a pet but a service animal when the driver allegedly cursed at him and accelerated abruptly, nearly injuring the dog and striking the passenger’s friend, who is also blind, with an open car door.
The group said it’s aware of more than 30 times blind customers were denied rides in violation of the American with Disabilities Act and California state law.
As a result, blind passengers are confronting unexpected delays and “face the degrading experience of being denied a basic service that is available to all other...
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With asbestos found in second Mount Manresa building, DEP to investigate engineer who said structures were free of the material

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.silive.com

manresa.jpg

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - With asbestos problems spreading at the Mount Manresa site, the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Thursday said it will investigate the Staten Island engineer who only months ago signed off on paperwork saying that six historic buildings slated for demolition at the site were free of asbestos.
It's not the first time that the engineer, Gaspare Santoro, has run afoul of a regulatory agency. He was placed on two years' probation in a 2004 disciplinary action, according to records.
The Buildings Department on Thursday said that DEP inspectors had found asbestos in two of the buildings at Mount Manresa so far. The presence of airborne asbestos in the first of those buildings was reported over the weekend.
A stop-work order has been issued for the whole site, and DEP inspectors are now testing all the structures for asbestos. DEP has said that that the air was safe.
It is not clear which buildings were found to contain asbestos, or when results from the asbestos tests would be complete.
The DEP said Santoro filed paperwork in April saying that each of six buildings on the Manresa site, which are slated for demolition to make way for a townhouse development by Savo Brothers, were "free of asbestos containing material."
The DEP told the Advance that it's possible that Santoro, hired by the...
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NFL estimates nearly three in 10 former players will have cognitive problems

Today's post is shared from .nbcsports.com
When it comes to concussions, the NFL has come a long way from the days of lies and half-truths regarding concussions.  (Maybe the NFL eventually will make that same progress when it comes to botched investigations of player misconduct.)
After years of downplaying and denying the long-term risks of concussion, the NFL is fully awake.  The process began five years ago next month, but it’s taken some time for the league to embrace completely the idea that it’s not good for the brain when the skull repeatedly hits other things hard.  Via the Associated Press, the league has acknowledged in connection with the settlement of the concussion litigation that nearly three in 10 former players eventually will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or moderate dementia.
The disclosures made by the NFL came as part of the formal settlement approval process.  The NFL acknowledged that the rates of Alzheimer’s disease and moderate cognitive impairment are “materially higher than those expected in the general population” and would arise at “notably younger ages.”
The league also pointed out that the estimates are “reasonable and conservative,” with a deliberate effort to “overstat[e]the number of players who will develop [illnesses],” so that the fund available for retired players with qualifying illnesses will have enough money to cover them all.  Even so, the numbers are attracting plenty...
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