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Friday, November 21, 2014

Distracted Drivers and Rising Workers’ Comp Claims

Today's post was shared by Trucker Lawyers and comes from www.sadlerco.com



Distracted driving
Distracted driving

Such accidents are among the leading causes of high-severity Workers’ Compensation injuries.  According to the National Safety Council, the average work-related motor vehicle injury claim costs an average of $69,206. That’s double the cost of other work-related injuries. The lack of training in safe driving techniques is a primary factor of work-related driving accidents. But you can’t have this discussion without putting particular focus on distracted drivers.
A distracted driver is one who is engaged in any activity that diverts his or her attention from the primary task of driving. All distractions put drivers, passengers, and bystanders at risk. Common activities that cause driver distractions are, in no particular order:
  • Text messaging
  • Use of a cell phone
  • Eating or drinking
  • Talking to passengers
  • Grooming
  • Reading
  • Use of a navigation system
  • Adjusting  radio, CD player, or MP3 player
Who are these distracted drivers?
It’s been proven that the visual, manual, and cognitive attention required for text messaging makes it the most dangerous driving distraction. How likely is it that you or your employees could be included in the following statistics and facts below?
  • Drivers in their 20s make up 27 percent of the distracted drivers in...
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Seniors’ Obesity-Counseling Benefit Goes Largely Unused

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

Three years ago, the Obama administration offered hope to millions of overweight seniors when it announced Medicare would offer free weight-loss counseling.
Officials estimated that about 30 percent of seniors are obese and therefore eligible for counseling services, which studies have shown improve the odds of significant weight loss.
But less than 1 percent of Medicare’s 50 million beneficiaries have used the benefit so far. Experts blame the government’s failure to promote the program, rules that limit where and when patients can go for counseling as well as the low fees for providers.
Since November 2011, about 120,000 seniors have participated, including about 50,000 last year, according to federal data.
“It’s very disappointing,” said Dr. Scott Kahan, an obesity medicine specialist at George Washington University.

Medicare measuring tape 570
Medicare measuring tape 570

“It’s a huge lost opportunity,” said Bonnie Modugno, a registered dietician in Santa Monica, Calif., who advises doctors how to provide weight loss counseling.
By  comparison, about 250,000 seniors last year used Medicare’s tobacco cessation counseling benefit, which started in 2005 and offers greater flexibility about how providers can offer it. Nationally, 9 percent of seniors smoke, while 30 percent are obese.
Obesity and smoking are the two leading causes of preventable death in the United States. Obesity, which is defined as being 35 pounds or more overweight or having a...
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Big Changes For 2015 Workplace Plans: Watch Out For These Six Possible Pitfalls

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

You don’t get a pass this year on big health insurance decisions because you’re not shopping in an Affordable Care Act marketplace. Employer medical plans — where most working-age folks get coverage — are changing too.
Rising costs, a looming tax on rich benefit packages and the idea that people should buy medical treatment the way they shop for cell phones have increased odds that workplace plans will be very different in 2015.
“If there’s any year employees should pay attention to their annual enrollment material, this is probably the year,” said Brian Marcotte, CEO of the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers.
In other words, don’t blow off the human resources seminars. Ask these questions.

Illustration by Andrew Villegas/KHN
Illustration by Andrew Villegas/KHN

1. Is my doctor still in the network?
Some employers are shifting to plans that look like the HMOs of the 1990s, with limited networks of physicians and hospitals. Provider affiliations change even when companies don’t adopt a “narrow network.”
Insurers publish directories, but the surest way to see if docs or hospitals take your plan is to call and ask.
“People tend to find out the hard way how their health plan works,” said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Don’t take for granted that everything will be the same as last year.” (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the...
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House GOP Hires Jonathan Turley To Sue Obama

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

The choice of Turley, who says he voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, comes after two law firms backed out of earlier commitments to represent the Republicans.
CNN: Boehner Hires Third Lawyer To Sue Obama
House Republicans are hoping the third time is a charm in their effort to sue President Barack Obama over his signature health care law. After two Washington law firms backed out of earlier commitments to represent House Republicans in their legal challenge, House Speaker John Boehner hired Jonathan Turley on Tuesday. Turley is a George Washington professor who is an expert on constitutional law and well known to cable TV viewers as a legal analyst. (Walsh, 11/18)
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: House Republicans Hire Jonathan Turley To Pursue Obama Lawsuit
GOP leaders have said the lawsuit is expected to focus on the White House’s decision last year to give employers a one-year reprieve on enforcing a requirement under the Affordable Care Act that they offer health coverage or pay a penalty. That requirement was originally delayed until 2015 and then subsequently revised to say that employers with between 50 and 99 full-time workers wouldn’t have to comply or pay a fee until 2016. Some rank-and-file lawmakers have suggested the lawsuit should be expanded to include any executive actions taken by Mr. Obama on immigration, something GOP leaders have previously contemplated. Mr. Boehner’s spokesman said there is no current plan to...
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Immigrants, Others, Still Struggle With Healthcare.gov

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

Despite a smoother start to this year's open enrollment, immigrants report there is no clear way to upload copies of their green cards to show they are legal residents, while others have trouble with sign-ins and passwords.
The Associated Press: Immigrants Baffled By HealthCare.gov Lapse
Like other HealthCare.gov customers, immigrants are relieved that the government's health insurance website is working fairly well this year. They're baffled, though, by what looks like an obvious lapse: There is no clear way to upload a copy of their green card, the government identification document that shows they are legal U.S. residents and therefore entitled to benefits under President Barack Obama's health care law. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/19)
USA Today: Smoother Start, But Some Struggle With HealthCare.gov
Sign-ups have generally gone more smoothly than last year for HealthCare.gov, although some consumers and insurance agents are having problems with the site that are reminiscent of last fall's open enrollment experiences. Numerous log-in and password failures were reported Monday, but federal officials call these cases the exception. (O'Donnell and Ungar, 11/18)
Meanwhile, Humana makes paying monthly premiums easier -
Modern Healthcare: CVS Accepting Exchange Insurance Payments
National health insurer Humana said Tuesday that policyholders who have bought its health plans on a federal or state insurance exchange or through its website can now pay their monthly premiums at any...
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Thursday, November 20, 2014

What’s the Matter with West Virginia?

Today's post is shared fromnewyorker.com/

Don Blankenship testifies before the Senate Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing on mine safety in 2010.
Don Blankenship testifies before the Senate Health and Human Services subcommittee hearing on mine safety in 2010.
Credit Photograph by Carolyn Kaster/AP

Cartoon corporate villains don’t come more cartoonish than Don Blankenship, a former coal baron of West Virginia. Last week, Blankenship, the former chief executive officer of Massey Energy, was charged in a federal indictment for a variety of crimes in connection with a disaster at the Upper Big Branch mine in April, 2010, in which twenty-nine coal workers were killed. According to the forty-three-page indictment, Blankenship engaged in a lengthy pattern of deception in dealings with federal mine regulators, in an effort to cut costs, and, consequently, exposed his employees to appalling risks. (His lawyer, William Taylor III, told reporters that Blankenship was innocent and would fight the charges.)
The indictment came just a few days after the 2014 midterm elections, which the Democratic Party in West Virginia lost in a rout: Republicans won all three of the state’s seats in the House of Representatives, including a twelve-point Republican win over Nick Rahall, who had served in Congress for thirty-eight years. In the race to succeed Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat who had served for five terms, Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican congresswoman, won sixty-three per cent of the vote. Capito’s big issue in the race was coal. As her campaign Web site boasts, Capito “has been fighting in...
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Honda to Replace Airbags Throughout U.S.




Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/
Honda will replace potentially defective airbag inflaters in cars nationwide, according to statements the automaker gave federal safety regulators earlier this month. In doing so, it bows to pressure from lawmakers and auto safety experts who had questioned automakers’ limiting of the latest airbag recalls to high-humidity regions.
Honda will also offer loaner cars “as appropriate,” the automaker said in a Nov. 6 response to regulators’ questions on the recalled airbags, which are made by the Takata Corporation. The Japanese automaker previously said that it was limiting certain recalls to cars sold or ever registered in areas of “high absolute humidity,” because moisture is thought to play a role in the defect.
Defective airbags can explode violently when they deploy in an accident, sending shrapnel into the car’s cabin toward the driver and passengers. Five deaths and dozens of injuries have been linked to the defect in airbags manufactured at Takata’s plants in the United States and Mexico, which have affected cars from 11 automakers.
Honda and Takata, together with other automakers and safety regulators, have been called to testify at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Thursday.
Scheduled to attend are executives from Honda and Chrysler, as well as David J. Friedman, the deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Takata said Tuesday that Hiroshi...
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