David DePaolo A devote fan of life

Lunch with (R) David DePaola
Malibu Seafood, May 2016

Many years ago I met a wonderful and passionate fellow on the Internet, David DePaolo. He just popped up in an e-mail one morning and he wrote that we should meet in Florida of all places. Neither of us was ever in the same place at the same time for a couple of years and we finally caught up at his favorite California eatery, Malibu Seafood. A 5-star seafood shack overlooking  the stunning Malibu beach. The common denominator of writing and workers’ compensation made us instant friends. 

Six weeks ago, I called up David and said: "its time to have lunch and just catch up." We met of course, at Malibu Seafood. He had been eating there regularly since his law school days at Pepperdine. The place is literally just down the road from the law school, and he said the menu hasn’t changed since.

David was a delightful fellow with all the best attributes: smart, witty, insightful, a wonderful spouse and parent, cutting edge, and courageous. He arrived wearing his beautiful multi-color shoes created by a disabled worker whose business he was promoting. We just talked and talked for hours about “life in general.” Neither of us realizing how much time was just flying by. We discussed some ideas on how to give more back to the workers’ compensation system and hopefully inspire a new generation of lawyers. Before we left we promised to meet again on the East coast in September and just chat some more.

He was my inspiration for my continued bicycling in all types of weather and terrain. Although I never came close to his “operational” abilities. He was an inspiration.

David was able to launch a much needed national workers’ compensation news service, i.e. the stellar, WorkCompCentral. His daily insightful blogs constantly sparked my interest, and those of national thought leaders.

David’s heart was in the right place. He advocated for needed change in the workers’ compensation arena. He passionately pursued charitable causes and advanced educational goals, to make the world a better place.

The universe will be a sadder place without David, but I hope that his spirit and inspiration will live on in all of us to continue his passion for making the world a better place.

Good Things: No Chief's Disease Here

Today's post is shared from guest author David DePaolo and is shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com/

The California Highway Patrol, criticized in the past for exploitative "Chief's Disease," has a program in place that demonstrates that workers' compensation can accomplish amazing things when all of the right motivations are in all of the right places and everyone does their job.

Last week, CBS Sacramento ran a story about CHP officer Mike Mitchell and the CHP's program.

Mitchell lost his leg in 2011 in an automobile crash when he was responding to a call in Amador County. His car hit a tree so violently that he doesn't remember the crash at all, and his injuries were so severe his right leg had to be amputated.

His employer offered him a chance to return to the force, but he had to prove himself physically (and mentally) capable by going through the academy again, this time with a computerized prosthetic that is the stuff of imagination 40 years ago (think "Six Million Dollar Man" with actor Lee Majors as the star).

The prosthetic didn't cost millions - the article says it cost about $100,000.

“I have kids at home and I can’t let them see me quit,” he tells his interviewer.

“Officer-safety wise I still have to able to be able to fight, I still have to be able to shoot and drive. Do everything I’m suppose to do,” he goes on.

After going through retraining and passing the physical assessment tests he regained his uniform and is back on the job patrolling in a CHP cruiser.

“I love doing it,” he said, reflecting the attitude that is necessary for an injured worker to overcome huge obstacles. “I love being out in the public.”

According to the story, there are four other full time officers who are amputees.

I'm sure there are also many failure stories where benefits were not provided timely, or there is a dispute about treatment or indemnity, or where an officer attempts to take advantage of the generous disability compensation system in place for California peace officers.

Those negative situations get a lot of attention. It's easy to focus on the bad, to criticize, and blame.

It's much harder to be successful, to overcome huge obstacles, to achieve cooperation between the many people that need to contribute for a successful outcome - that requires communication, vision, and a huge helping of positive attitude.

The CHP says on its website that, "When injuries occur, our obligation is to ensure all appropriate benefits are accessed and received by those injured employees."

I have to believe that statement when I see a story such as Mitchell's.

We at WorkCompCentral believe that success should be celebrated. So much of workers' compensation is draped in negativity - after all, going through a life altering event such as a work injury is steeped in uncertainty, stress and disappointment.

But there are success stories, many of them. We don't hear about those, and some people have been critical of the Comp Laude Awards for injured workers stating that we are making a mockery of the system.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and the fact is that we have had many, many injured workers nominated, and many other injured workers praising our efforts to recognize people who have overcome the odds.

And this happens with the help of the teams of people, the employers, claims adjusters, doctors, attorneys, doing their jobs the best they can.

Stay in this industry long enough and cynicism can dominate your thoughts.

Workers' compensation does good things. We just don't hear about them very often.

When you go to work this morning, do good things - make a case work properly, get an injured worker back on the job, celebrate positive outcomes!

And join us Saturday, December 6, to recognize people and companies that make a difference.

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The Alzheimer's Risk

Today's post is shared from David DePaolo at daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

As you likely are aware, Mom is in a memory care facility, so the California Supreme Court's ruling on whether a patient (or the family of a patient) may be liable for injuries to an Alzheimer's care worker caught my attention. Mom is in a top quality memory care facility and I am fortunate enough to be able to visit her on average of twice a week, so I have become quite familiar with (and friends with) many of the residents and their families at the facility. Dementia and Alzheimer's (a subset of dementia) are odd afflictions - some folks, like my mom, just don't remember much of anything, but they're pleasant. They smile, joke and are overall convivial. Others though get the worst of the disease and can be aggressive, combative and sometimes a bit scary. These folks may be old, but can be very strong - mind over matter is not just a saying! I've seen workers hit by patients, and I, myself have been the subject of aggressive behavior by an Alzheimer's patient. Work injuries are a very real part of the Alzheimer's care worker's occupation. And the Supreme Court has said that work comp the only remedy for such care workers. The majority opinion in Gregory v. Cott expressly declared that because agitation and physical aggression are common late-stage symptoms of Alzheimer's, injuries to caregivers are not unusual. As I noted, my experience would support this observation. Mom doesn't bite. The...

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What I Learned About The ACA

Today’s post is authored by David Depaolo and appears on his blog daviddepaolo.com. As usual David hits “the nail on the head” with his objective analysis of the potential impact that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will have upon the entire workers’ compensation system. There are certain trends that Dr. Gruber has identified, that in synergy with the ACA, have the potential of causing a dynamic shift in workers’ compensation insurance. As political and social adjustments are made to the ACA those uncertainties will certainly resolve. One of the big draws for me at the Workers' Compensation Research Institute's annual meeting this year was to hear from one of the architects and authors of the Affordable Care Act, Dr. who is a professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I just needed to learn. The ACA is so complex, so huge, so broad in its scope, that anyone who is not completely versed in the health care system (the vast majority of us) would have absolutely no understanding of the law, how it plays out, who it really affects, what is to come of various provisions, etc. In fact, I am willing to bet that virtually all lawmakers, including our president himself, have little to no true understanding of the law. Dr. Gruber is a health economics expert - meaning he has spent virtually all of his professional life studying health care systems and the economic underpinnings of health care. It is...

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Being Professional

Today's guest post is shared from David DePaolo from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com The practice of workers' compensation law is relatively relaxed, at least in California, but I suspect the same in most of the rest of the country where it is an administrative system. That's what attracted me to the practice in the first place nearly 30 years ago. Collegiality, informality - the emphasis was on substance over form, and the primary mission of the practice - delivering benefits to those entitled and discriminating against those not so entitled - took the forefront over everything else. But relaxed doesn't mean sloppy, and does requires a higher level of self-discipline. Unfortunately, too many people don't have the discipline to be let loose in an informal, relaxed legal system. Too many need more concrete barriers, more defined lines; perhaps because these folks lack the integrity or control to handle the responsibility that comes with such an insouciant practice. Or perhaps these folks are, themselves, just sloppy and inconsiderate of the rules. Rules - these are in place to make sure that everyone is playing on the same field, to keep anyone from having an unfair procedural advantage, and also to put checks and balances on the costs associated with litigation from the institutional perspective. The California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board collected almost $300,000 in sanctions last year − three times the amount collected in 2012. The WCAB had been warning...

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DePaolo's Work Comp World: Trucks, WBV and Cancer

The National Cancer Institute (NC!) reports that over 230,000 males in the US will diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013 and that 29,790 deaths will result. David DePaolo, published of WorkCompCentral®, writes today of the potential new wave of workers' compensation claims arising from the association of whole-body vibration syndrome (WBV) experienced by truck drivers and its relationship to prostate cancer. He links source material to support the argument. This post is shared from http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com . You just never know what the next big risk category is going to be in workers' compensation. I had been persuaded by an argument offered by Charlie Kingdollar, Vice President emerging issues unit for General Re Corp., that nanomaterials would be the next asbestos. OSHA has been particularly concerned with silica in the past couple of years.