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Showing posts with label Clean Air Act (United States). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clean Air Act (United States). Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

Groundbreaking Measure Gives Female First Responders Equal Protection

 The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), whose members represent Californians hurt at work, and the California Nurses Association’s (C.N.A.) measure to eliminate gender bias against female first responders in California workers’ compensation insurance passed the Assembly today by a vote of 46 - 23. AB 2616 goes now to the governor for action. AB 2616 (Skinner) is the first measure passed by the Legislature to extend any of the fifteen existing presumptions that male first responders enjoy to first responder occupations dominated by women. “California recognizes that some jobs are so inherently dangerous that those workers should not have to prove that certain injuries were job related,” said CAAA Women’s Caucus Co-Chair Christel Schoenfelder. “First responders like firefighters and police officers who are required to protect the public are presumed to be injured on the job when they get cancer or an infectious disease. There is one group of first responders who do not receive this protection from dangerous conditions. These are hospital employees, 80% of whom are female. Like police officers and firefighters, they are routinely exposed to conditions that can lead to major health problems.” AB 2616 intends to correct this gender imbalance by extending a presumption covering MRSA skin infections to hospital employees who provide direct patient care. MRSA infections are a major health problem in hospitals around the world.
“Nurses and other hospital employees are required to assume great risk, but unlike public safety officers we are not given the same legal protections when we get sick on the job,” said Redding Registered Nurse Kathryn Donahue in a statement urging the governor to sign AB 2616. “MRSA is a virulent antibiotic-resistant staph infection. It’s a job hazard for nurses providing direct patient care in acute care hospitals. MRSA can kill you. Just like police officers and firefighters, nurses put our lives on the line everyday. We don’t know if the patient we are treating has HIV, or MRSA, that we could be exposed to. We just do our job.”

“Assembly member Skinner deserves credit for doggedly pursuing this bill year after year and finally succeeding in her final year,” said Schoenfelder. “Thanks must also go to C.N.A. for making this a priority.”
One out of every six deaths in the US can be attributed to an infection acquired in a hospital. A first responder has an obligation to perform their duties in an emergency. Female workers are often forced to testify to personal details of their lives in an effort by insurance companies to deny claims. As female workers experience this, it has a chilling effect on the willingness of other female workers to come forth with their claims.
“If nurses or other hospital workers who provide direct patient care get MRSA, we have to prove that it didn’t come from any place but our work,” said Donahue. “That’s an almost impossible burden to meet. It exposes nurses to invasive questioning about our personal lives – even our sexual lives – by insurers’ defense attorneys trying to defeat our claims for medical care and disability compensation.”
Schoenfelder said, “The lack of equal protection for health care workers is, in part, due to gender inequity. Public safety first responders are a predominantly male workforce, but hospital employees providing patient care are a predominantly female workforce. The Labor Code currently provides 15 categories of presumptions for various first responders, and all of them are for male dominated workforces. There is not one presumption for first responders like nurses, which is primarily a female workforce. AB 2616 intends to address this gender imbalance by extending equal protection to female-dominated hospital first responder jobs.”
For more information on AB 2616 Support including a video from a Registered Nurse and an applicant’s attorney perspectives can be viewed here.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

ROTTEN IN DENMARK

Today's post was shared by Julius Young and comes from www.workerscompzone.com

July 29 2014
You might have thought that news of bad behavior in California’s workers’ comp system was hitting bottom.
After all, could it get worse? Allegations of legislators taking money to help charlatans who profited off of the backs of injured workers (literally). Scads of doctors alleged to have taken kickbacks for prescribing questionable compound medicines one of which allegedly killed a baby.
It appears that law enforcement authorities are now focusing on relationships between some applicant attorney firms and medical groups.
In Southern California the Riverside County DA has executed a search warrant against a workers’ comp firm, California Injury Lawyers (CIL). Apparently this is a result of a long investigation into suspected workers’ comp fraud,  targeting operations allegedly connected to an individual named Peyman Heidary who is said to have a financial interest in as many as nine medical clinics in the Los Angeles area.
The details of the alleged bad behavior or fraud is unclear, and it must be noted that any allegations are currently just that, allegations.
But this case has the potential to involve a number of  Southern California health care providers as well as some lawyers.
Meanwhile, last year’s workers’ comp bill AB 1309 seems to be the focus of new allegations in the federal case against State Senator Leland Yee. A grand jury indictment contains allegations that Yee suggested that in...
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Friday, July 18, 2014

TOP 10 EVENTS IN CALIFORNIA WORKERS’ COMP 1ST HALF 2014

Today's post was shared by Julius Young and comes from www.workerscompzone.com

2014 is half done. What were the most significant events/themes in California workers’ comp in the first half of 2014?
Here, in no particular order, are my top picks:

1. CONTROVERSY OVER UTILIZATION REVIEW AND INDEPENDENT MEDICAL REVIEW CONTINUES

Utilization review and independent medical review continued to generate controversy during the first half of 2014. California injured workers, doctors, and applicant attorneys complained that it was increasingly hard to get consistent treatment for work injuries, as many adjusters used utilization review to deny treatments. Prominent attorney advocates called for reform of utilization review statutes and regulations.

However, there were disputes about the raw numbers. A January 2014 study by CWCI (the California Workers’ Comp Institute) (http://cwci.org/research.html) claimed that only about 4.7% of treatment requests are ultimately denied or modified.

According to the CWCI around 75% of treatment requests were approved without being sent to UR (“elevated review”). These numbers were in line with a 2011 study done by RAND. In response, a January 2014 analysis )of 2013 sample UR audit data prepared by CAAA consultant Mark Gerlach documented that some insurers were denying as much as two of every three treatment requests. Reviewing audit data, Gerlach noted that there was a wide range in approval rates of different claims administrators.

Overall,...


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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Parker Pathways Show to be Dedicated to Marvin Shapiro

This Sunday, November 10, 2013, Dr. Winn Parker will dedicate his program Parker's Pathway Program to the late Marvin Shapiro, a past President of the California Applicants Attorneys Association (CAAA). Marvin, who was a California Workers' Compensation attorney past away last week.

Dr. Parker said, "I am going to do a dedication to Marvin Shapiro (1936-2013) on my Internet-Radio Program Parker Pathways on RBN Sunday's 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. CST. For some time I have presented Workman's Compensation issues of importance to my Global audience. I will continue to do so. Inspiration for me came upon me from Marvin from a long time ago."

Parker’s Pathways Program presentations cover as many as five separate disciplines that vary from each program tied together in knowledge and information that can be translated into survival knowledge and for making decisions for clinical laboratory medicine to following trends that have been invested by markets. Futurist implications are given from peer-reviewed science, medicine and law inclusive of water law, health law, genetic engineering and research, testing and development and evaluations (RDT and E) made for projects that are changing our lives and environments. Advanced work is discussed concerning the Brain Project and the future world war for water. Decisions from Government Agencies are given which can have revelations that are of great value for building new working knowledge for future jobs in the new world that include United Nations sustainability paradigms.

Here is the website http://republicbroadcasting.org/parkers-pathways-with-dr-winn-parker/


Thursday, October 24, 2013

California: Medical Delay and Denial Protested

Sedgwick vs. The People
Round 4: Sedgwick v. Debbye Mazzucca

Operating Room Nurse’s Injury no Emergency to Kaiser, Insurer: Defy Judge’s Order, Refuse to Provide Urgent Medical Care Injured Workers’ Advocates to Seek Penalties, Investigation

Injured Kaiser OR nurse Debbye Mazzucca tells how Sedgwick defied a judge's order to provide careThe California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), whose members represent Californians injured on the job, today held a news conference outside Kaiser Foundation Hospital with Debbye Mazzucca, a former operating room nurse who was injured while working there. They called for sanctions against Sedgwick Claims Services, Kaiser’s workers’ compensation insurer, for defying a judge’s order to provide Ms. Mazzucca urgently needed medical care, causing her to lose her teeth. On February 11, 2013, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) ordered that Sedgwick “shall” provide dental treatment to Ms. Mazzucca. After eight months, Sedgwick and Kaiser have still refused to do so. Sedgwick faces a relatively small monetary penalty for ignoring the court order, which means little to a huge corporation.

Operating Room Nurse Debbye Mazzucca, of La Mesa, has thirty-five years’ experience, and worked for Kaiser for 12 years. She was injured in 1998, when she tripped and fell over a parking lot barrier while at work. Kaiser treated her injured knee, but ignored multiple doctors’ reports that she had also injured her neck and back. In spite of four doctors reports confirming that fact, Kaiser denied that those injuries were from the fall. Now, due to complications from medications, and delays in approving medical care, Ms. Mazzucca has lost her teeth.

CAAA President Jim Butler said, “Insurers’ Utilization Review (UR) routinely delays and denies doctors’ legitimate requests for appropriate medical treatment. This is unnecessary and expensive, and has got to change. We’ve seen the evidence of out-of-control delay and denial in the 15,000 denials of recommended medical care in just the month of August. It’s time to bring UR to heel, and stop insurance carriers from using it as a routine roadblock.”

“A doctor, agreed to by the company and their insurer, determined this Kaiser operating room nurse’s injury was a result of her work accidents. The insurer still refused to provide urgent medical care. A judge ordered the insurer to provide urgently needed medical care. But Sedgwick continues to refuse medical care and Debbye lost all her teeth during the months of delay,” said Alicia Hawthorne, the president of CAAA’s San Diego chapter, and Ms. Mazzucca’s attorney. “This nurse has been in pain, and in need of medical treatment. Yet, the insurance company defied a judge’s order to provide care. Kaiser and its insurer have spent years fighting their responsibility to treat these injuries. Why does the State of California allow workers’ compensation insurance companies to further damage patients through delaying and denying medical care and disability compensation?”

 “Kaiser has failed to provide the care needed to heal my injuries,” Mazzucca told a news conference outside Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Diego. “For years, all they would approve were painkilling drugs. These drugs’ side effects have caused more medical problems, including ‘dry mouth syndrome,’ which is insidious and dangerous. The drugs prevent your saliva glands from working properly, causing your teeth and gums to deteriorate.  Mine became infected, abscessed and threatened my health and my life. In 2010, my teeth started cracking and breaking off at the roots. I lost seven of my teeth this way.”

Sedgwick denied the dental treatment I needed, so Ms. Mazzucca took them to court.  In February 2013, the judge ordered Sedgwick to provide this urgent medical treatment. To this day, they have refused to do so. “It has been more than a year and a half since the medical expert the insurer agreed upon said I urgently needed dental care. The pain and infection became so unbearable in July that my doctor sent me to the emergency room, and 25 of my teeth were removed. I then spent the entire month of July in the hospital, in agony, and on painkillers. Kaiser and their insurance company are defying a judge’s order to provide urgently needed medical care,” said Mazzucca.

Today’s release is the fourth in CAAA’s series of cases spotlighting the abuse of Utilization Review (UR) and other methods for delaying and denying legitimate medical care and disability compensation in the workers’ compensation claims handling practices of insurers like Sedgwick Claims Management Services.



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Jerry Brown vetoes public safety death benefits bill

An effort to expand benefits for survivors' of the high risk job of public safety officer met defeat in California with the veto of Governor Brown. Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from blogs.sacbee.com


Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Sunday that would have extended the statute of limitations for survivors of public safety officers to file a workers' compensation claim for death benefits.
Assembly Bill 1373, by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, would have extended the time limits for survivors' claims for injuries while on duty to 480 weeks from 240 weeks in cases involving cancer, tuberculosis or blood-borne infections diseases.
Brown vetoed a broader version of the bill last year, and in vetoing an unrelated bill Saturday regarding the timeliness of sex abuse victims' claims, the Democratic governor delivered a virtual treatise on the significance of statutes of limitation.
In his veto message, Brown said the measure is "identical to the one I vetoed last year."
"At that time, I outlined the information needed to properly evaluate the implications of this bill," he wrote. "I have not yet received that information."
In his veto a year ago of Assembly Bill 2451, Brown said there was "little more than anecdotal evidence" available to determine how to balance "serious fiscal constraints faced at all levels of government against our shared priority to adequately and fairly compensate the families of those public safety heroes who succumb to work-related injuries and disease."
This year's bill was backed by labor unions representing firefighters and law enforcement officers, who argued existing law fails to provide for the families of...
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2nd worker dies at 49ers stadium construction site

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


 Construction is slated to restart Tuesday at the new $1.2 billion San Francisco 49ers showcase stadium after police and fire investigators determined a truck driver's death was a workplace accident and not a crime.

The delivery truck driver was crushed early Monday by a bundle of rebar being unloaded from his truck, officials at the scene said. It's the second worker death at the construction project.

An ambulance rushed the severely injured worker to a local hospital, where he died, according to a spokesman for Turner/Devcon, the construction company building Levi's Stadium.

"We are deeply saddened to confirm that the driver has passed away as a result of his injuries," spokesman Jonathan Harvey said.

Harvey said state workplace safety officials told them Monday that while their investigation is ongoing and could take months, "the jobsite has been deemed safe and is permitted to reopen."

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office identified the man as Edward Erving Lake II, 60, of Vacaville. He was an employee of Gerdau Ameristeel's Napa Reinforcing Steel facility, a subcontractor working on the stadium, Gerdau's spokeswoman Kimberly M. Selph said.

In a statement, the 49ers said their "sincerest thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and co-workers affected by this tragedy." The team also said there were plans to have support on-site Tuesday to help workers with their emotions...
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Friday, September 27, 2013

Some players may be out of NFL deal

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


NFL Concussion Settlement Details
New details from the NFL's $765 million proposed concussion settlement reveal that the first players diagnosed with football-related brain damage would be shut out of the deal. And with the number of confirmed brain damage cases growing, some players and attorneys told "Outside the Lines" they fear there isn't enough money to cover all eligible players diagnosed with such injuries.

Former players report widespread confusion over who will qualify for compensation and how the money will be distributed. Details described to "Outside the Lines" by sources familiar with the settlement -- along with new statistics on the incidence of football-related brain damage -- underscore the concerns voiced by some players and lawyers:

• The proposed settlement disqualifies most players who died before 2006, even if they were diagnosed with football-related brain damage. That would shut out the relatives of players like Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who died in 2002 and was later diagnosed with the first case of football-related brain damage. Webster's protracted battle with the NFL raised public awareness and helped ignite the NFL's concussion crisis.

A source familiar with the negotiations said the NFL sought to include only death claims that fell within the statute of limitations -- two years in most states. That would have cut out many players who died before 2009 and 2010. As part of the negotiations, representatives of the...
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