Workers' Compensation: United States

Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Friday, July 18, 2014

Healthcare workers killed by Ebola’s worst outbreak ever

The global trade union federation Public Services International condemns the preventable deaths of dozens of healthcare workers, killed on the job by Ebola because they did not have the necessary tools and equipment.
The current Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the worst ever and the first to spill widely across several countries. Ebola has no cure, but can be diagnosed and treated. Treatment requires intensive care and close contact between the patient and the healthcare worker.
Treatment can save lives, but should not kill healthcare workers!
It is a tragic reminder to national and international authorities that basic public health requires adequate investment both in healthcare workers and in health infrastructure to fight disease outbreaks of this kind.
Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary, warned: “We cannot accept pitiful excuses, whether from health ministers or donor agencies. Health workers must have the tools to do their jobs. All whose work brings them in contact with Ebola victims must have the protective gear. Our members are dying because of unsafe working conditions, this is criminal neglect.”
The chair of PSI’s West African Health Sector Unions’ Network (WAHSUN), Dr Ayuba Wabba said: “We demand that Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization and the West African Health Organization:

Implement best practice guidelines for Ebola for all health facilities, including full...

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FedEx indicted for drug dealing. Not a delivery guy — the whole company.

There might be something more interesting than a tennis ball in that FedEx package.File that illicit drug revenue under “miscellaneous.”
That’s more or less the policy the shipping giant FedEx followed starting in the mid-aughts, according to a 15-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in California on Thursday. According to prosecutors, the company knew the shipping services it provided to two Internet pharmacies ran afoul of the law.
“FedEx knew that it was delivering drugs to dealers and addicts,” said a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of California.

OAKLAND, CA - DECEMBER 13: FedEx workers sort through a pile of boxes at the FedEx sort facility at the Oakland International Airport on December 13, 2010 in Oakland, California. FedEx Corp. is predicting that Monday will be the busiest day in company history for delivering packages worldwide with an expected 16 million shipments, up close to 13% from last year's biggest shipping day. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

FedEx workers sort through a pile of boxes at aFedEx sort facility in 2010. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The company didn’t just deny the charges — it said that monitoring packages for illegal substances isn’t its job.
In another words: Don’t prosecute the messenger.
“We are a transportation company — we are not law enforcement,” said Patrick Fitzgerald, senior vice president...

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Jose Antonio Vargas, Immigrant Activist, Is Released by Border Patrol in Texas

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

McALLEN, Tex. — Jose Antonio Vargas, who has chronicled in minute detail the twists and turns of his life as a Filipino living illegally for years in the United States, was detained by the Border Patrol for most of the day on Tuesday and then released with a notice to appear before an immigration judge.
The detention of Mr. Vargas, probably the most high-profile leader of the immigrant rights movement, posed an awkward dilemma for the Obama administration. The surge of Central Americans, including many children, crossing the border illegally — saying they are fleeing criminal violence at home — has made all decisions about immigration politically fraught, and administration officials were keenly aware that the backdrop to their decision to release Mr. Vargas was a border where thousands of migrants are being held.
Mr. Vargas was detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint in the airport of this city in the Rio Grande Valley before he was to board a flight to Houston, on his way to Los Angeles. In a terse statement, Department of Homeland Security officials said they had released Mr. Vargas because he had no prior immigration or criminal record. They said their focus was on deporting immigrants who posed security threats.
It was the first time Mr. Vargas, who has been living without papers in the United States since 1993, had been arrested by immigration authorities. Lawyers assisting him said that they would seek to have the action against him suspended, and...

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Obamacare Fails to Fail

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

How many Americans know how health reform is going? For that matter, how many people in the news media are following the positive developments?

I suspect that the answer to the first question is “Not many,” while the answer to the second is “Possibly even fewer,” for reasons I’ll get to later. And if I’m right, it’s a remarkable thing — an immense policy success is improving the lives of millions of Americans, but it’s largely slipping under the radar.

How is that possible? Think relentless negativity without accountability. The Affordable Care Act has faced nonstop attacks from partisans and right-wing media, with mainstream news also tending to harp on the act’s troubles. Many of the attacks have involved predictions of disaster, none of which have come true. But absence of disaster doesn’t make a compelling headline, and the people who falsely predicted doom just keep coming back with dire new warnings.

Consider, in particular, the impact of Obamacare on the number of Americans without health insurance. The initial debacle of the federal website produced much glee on the right and many negative reports from the mainstream press as well; at the beginning of 2014, many reports confidently asserted that first-year enrollments would fall far short of White House projections.

Then came the remarkable late surge in enrollment. Did the pessimists face tough questions about why they got it so wrong? Of...

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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Welcome to OSHA's Campaign to Prevent Heat Illness in Outdoor Workers

Today's post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

sun

Water. Rest. Shade. The work can't get done without them.

A slideshow with photos depicting various workers being proactive about heat illness prevention.

Photos by: CAL-OSHA
HEAT ILLNESS CAN BE DEADLY. Every year, thousands of workers become sick from exposure to heat, and some even die. These illnesses and deaths are preventable.
OSHA's nationwide Heat Illness Prevention Campaign aims to raise awareness and teach workers and employers about the dangers of working in hot weather and provide valuable resources to address these concerns. Begun in 2011, the Heat Illness Prevention Campaign has reached more than 7 million people and distributed close to half a million fact sheets, posters, quick cards, training guides and wallet cards. OSHA is again joining with other federal and state agencies and non-governmental organizations to spread the word about preventing heat illness. For example, OSHA is continuing its partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service to include worker safety precautions in their Excessive Heat Watch, Warning, and Advisory Products.
Available on this web page are numerous resources that can be used to prevent heat illnesses:

The Educational Resources section links to information about heat illnesses and how to prevent them. Many of these resources target vulnerable workers with limited English proficiency and/or low literacy.
The Using the Heat Index section provides guidance to employers to develop a heat illness prevention plan.
The Training section includes a guide/lesson plan for employers and others to use in instructing workers on heat...

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National Prevention Council Annual Status Reports

Today's post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from www.surgeongeneral.gov

Every year, the Council submits a report describing national progress in meeting specific prevention, health promotion, and public health goals defined in the National Prevention Strategy to the President and the relevant committees of Congress.

National Prevention Council’s 2014 Annual Status Report

The National Prevention Council’s 2014 Annual Status Report illustrates how Council departments are working across the federal government to incorporate health in diverse sectors like housing, transportation, and education to advance the Strategy and influence the health of individuals, families, and communities. In addition, the report highlights how partners across the country are advancing the National Prevention Strategy in organizations ranging from health care systems to workforce agencies and national foundations to local non-profits.
Read the National Prevention Council 2014 Annual Status Report (PDF - 4.8 MB)
The above file is currently undergoing remediation for compliance with Section 508. The remediation will be complete by July 31, 2014. In the interim, should you need accessibility assistance with the file, please contact the Office of the Surgeon General at Surgeon.General@hhs.gov.

Learn how organizations from around the country are implementing the National Prevention Strategy

Previous Annual Status Reports

Read the National Prevention Council 2012 Annual Status Report (PDF - 490 KB)
Read the National Prevention Council 2011 Annual...

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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Why Improving Access to Health Care Does Not Save Money

Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

One of the oft-repeated arguments in favor of the Affordable Care Act is that it will reduce people’s need for more intensive care by increasing their access to preventive care. For example, people will use the emergency room less often because they will be able to see primary care physicians. Or, they will not develop as many chronic illnesses because they will be properly screened and treated early on. And they will not require significant and invasive care down the line because they will be better managed ahead of time.
Moreover, it is often asserted that these developments will lead to reductions in health care spending. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence makes the case that this may not be true.
One of the most important facts about health care overhaul, and one that is often overlooked, is that all changes to the health care system involve trade-offs among access, quality and cost. You can improve one of these – maybe two – but it will almost always result in some other aspect getting worse.

You can make the health care system achieve better outcomes. But that will usually cost more or require some change in access. You can make it cheaper, but access or quality may take a hit. And you can expand access, but that will increase cost or result in some change in quality.
The A.C.A. was primarily about access: making it easier for people to get insurance and the care it allows. The law also tries to make changes that may bend the curve of spending...

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Monday, July 14, 2014

OSHA Chief: Inequality in America Is About Workplace Hazards, Too

Image: Assistant Labor Secretary David Michaels of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration attends a full committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 23 in Washington, DC.

Inequality and poverty have taken center stage in American politics in the years since the recession. Fast food workers have raised the profile of low-wage work, cities and states around the country are raising the minimum wage, and elected officials in both parties have made the struggles of poor Americans core political issues.

But David Michaels, Ph.D., M.P.H., who leads the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Obama administration, says that workplace inequality is more than just wages. In an interview, Michaels, who is responsible for enforcing federal laws to project workers from illness and injury, says the regulatory structures he oversees aren’t sufficient to protect vulnerable workers from harm.

NBC: The political conversation about inequality in recent years has focused on wages. You've made the point that when addressing inequality, we should focus more on workplace health and safety issues. Why?

Michaels: Wages are clearly a core component of the discussion of inequality and the ability to get into and stay in middle class. But workplace health and safety issues also have an enormous impact. Workplace injury and illness can push workers out of middle-class jobs and make it hard to enter into the middle class in the first place.
Studies show that workplace injury...

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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers

The meaning of confidentiality appears to be strained daily by reports in the media that digital information is either made public by hacking and/or government access. Workers' Compensation by law in most jurisdiction has been built on a theoretical foundation of privacy and confidentiality. The ramification of disclosure of this information will bring discrimination to a level level of development that may may inhibit the filing of claims altogether. Today's post is share from the NYTimes.com and reflects a concern over the extent of data disclosure about US Workers.

Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials. They appeared to be targeting the files on tens of thousands of employees who have applied for top-secret security clearances.

The hackers gained access to some of the databases of the Office of Personnel Management before the federal authorities detected the threat and blocked them from the network, according to the officials. It is not yet clear how far the hackers penetrated the agency’s systems, in which applicants for security clearances list their foreign contacts, previous jobs and personal information like past drug use.

In response to questions about the matter, a senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that the attack had occurred but said that “at this time,”...

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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Merck to pay $100 million in NuvaRing contraceptive settlement

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.reuters.com

Merck & Co said on Friday it will pay $100 million to resolve all U.S. product liability lawsuits alleging it downplayed serious health risks involving its NuvaRing intrauterine contraceptive device.
The product, which contains the hormones estrogen and progestin commonly found in birth control bills, is associated with an increased risk of developing blood clots that can cause heart attacks, strokes or sudden deaths. Available to women in the United States since 2001, NuvaRing is one of several contraceptive products linked to this higher risk.
Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, denied any fault under the agreement, which must be accepted by 95 percent of about 3,800 eligible patients involved in lawsuits pending in federal and state courts.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Roger Denton of Schlichter, Bogard and Denton, said the settlement, reached after nearly a year of negotiations, is "an outstanding result and in the best interests of all the women who have suffered an injury associated with the use of Nuvaring."
Under the settlement, Merck would pay a fraction of what at least one company has paid in a similar settlement.
German drugmaker Bayer AG said last year it had paid nearly $1.6 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits involving accusations that its Yaz and Yazmin birth control pills caused blood clots that led to strokes and heart attacks.
Merck shares were up 1 percent at $54.32 on the New York Stock Exchange, in line with a 1.2-percent...

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California's Drought Could Be the Worst in 500 Years

California's workers' compensation system is about to be afflicted with yet another issue....drought and its economic consequences upon the workers' compensation system. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

The remains of Cachuma Lake, the main water source for 200,000 people in southern Santa Barbara County. Ruaridh Stewart/ZUMA

The Golden State is in the midst of a three-year drought—and scientists believe that this year may end up being the driest in the last half millennium, according to University of California-Berkeley professor B. Lynn Ingram. Californians are scared, with good reason: Fire danger in the state is high, and drinking-water supplies are low.
But the drought will have repercussions outside the state's borders, as well. California produces a good chunk of the nation's food: half of all our fruits and vegetables, along with a significant amount of dairy and wine.
So how will this historically dry period affect Californians—and the rest of us? Here are a few important facts to keep in mind:

How bad is it? According to the United States Drought Monitor, most of the state is experiencing "extreme drought," the second highest of six rankings. About 10 percent of the state is experiencing "exceptional drought," the highest possible level. As of this week, 17 communities are in danger of running out of water, forcing some to buy it or run pipes from other districts.

CA drought map

CA drought map key

What do scientists say about the drought? Scientists can't predict how wet or dry a specific season is going to be, but they can forecast drought trends over time, and they've been warning us for decades that the droughts will become...

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Apprehensive, Many Doctors Shift to Jobs With Salaries

Workers' Compensation will soon be impacted by the full economic force and effect of The Affordable Care Act. The economics of the costs of the delivery of medical care will soon be the issue that determines whether workers' compensation continues as a viable program. Today's post that is hared from the NYTimes.com highlights the issue.

Dr. Suzanne Salamon, with a patient at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said she has had trouble filling a prestigious fellowship because of relatively low salaries. Katherine Taylor for The New York Times

American physicians, worried about changes in the health care market, are streaming into salaried jobs with hospitals. Though the shift from private practice has been most pronounced in primary care, specialists are following.

Last year, 64 percent of job offers filled through Merritt Hawkins, one of the nation’s leading physician placement firms, involved hospital employment, compared with only 11 percent in 2004. The firm anticipates a rise to 75 percent in the next two years.

Today, about 60 percent of family doctors and pediatricians, 50 percent of surgeons and 25 percent of surgical subspecialists — such as ophthalmologists and ear, nose and throat surgeons — are employees rather than independent, according to the American Medical Association. “We’re seeing it changing fast,” said Mark E. Smith, president of Merritt Hawkins.

Health economists are nearly unanimous that the...

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Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

NEW DELHI — India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the United States, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses, falsified drug test results and selling fake medicines.

Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, arrived in India this week to express her growing unease with the safety of Indian medicines because of “recent lapses in quality at a handful of pharmaceutical firms.”

India’s pharmaceutical industry supplies 40 percent of over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs consumed in the United States, so the increased scrutiny could have profound implications for American consumers.

F.D.A. investigators are blitzing Indian drug plants, financing the inspections with some of the roughly $300 million in annual fees from generic drug makers collected as part of a 2012 law requiring increased scrutiny of overseas plants. The agency inspected 160 Indian drug plants last year, three times as many as in 2009. The increased scrutiny has led to a flood of new penalties, including half of the warning letters the agency issued last year to drug makers.

Dr. Hamburg was met by Indian officials and executives who, shocked by recent F.D.A. export bans of generic versions of popular medicines — such as the acne drug Accutane,...

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Related articles
India to flag market access of drugs and spices with US (vancouverdesi.com)
Indian Regulators to Shadow U.S. FDA on Plant Inspections (bloomberg.com)
A California Lesson: How to Kill Workers' Compensation Pill By Pill (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Prescription-Drug Coupons - No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Missouri Further Defines Permanent Total Disability

"The PTD test is whether the worker can compete in the open labor market.
Schussler, 393 S.W.3d at 96. A worker who cannot return to any normal or
reasonable employment is totally disabled; she need not be inert or completely
inactive. Id. “The key question is whether any employer in the ordinary course of
business would reasonably be expected to hire the worker in his or her current
physical condition.” Id. "

MARLENE STEWART, Respondent vs. CLINT ZWIEFEL, TREASURER OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI AS CUSTODIAN OF THE SECOND INJURY FUND, Appellant
No. SD32827 ) FILED: February 10, 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

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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The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

The political posturing over raising the minimum wage sometimes obscures the huge and growing number of low-wage workers it would affect. An estimated 27.8 million people would earn more money under the Democratic proposal to lift the hourly minimum from $7.25 today to $10.10 by 2016. And most of them do not fit the low-wage stereotype of a teenager with a summer job. Their average age is 35; most work full time; more than one-fourth are parents; and, on average, they earn half of their families’ total income.

None of that, however, has softened the hearts of opponents, including congressional Republicans and low-wage employers, notably restaurant owners and executives.

This is not a new debate. The minimum wage is a battlefield in a larger political fight between Democrats and Republicans — dating back to the New Deal legislation that instituted the first minimum wage in 1938 — over government’s role in the economy, over raw versus regulated capitalism, over corporate power versus public needs.

Interactive Feature
More than 4.8 million workers now earn the lowest legal pay. This calculator shows the hard choices that have to be made living on the smallest paychecks.

But the results of the wage debate are clear. Decades of research, facts and evidence show that increasing the minimum wage is vital to the economic security of tens of millions of Americans, and would be good for the weak economy. As Congress begins its own debate, here...

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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Payroll Data Shows a Lag in Wages, Not Just Hiring

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

For the more than 10 million Americans who are out of work, finding a job is hard. For the 145 million or so who are employed, getting a raise is even harder.

The government said on Friday that employers added 113,000 jobs in January, the second straight month of anemic growth, despite some signs of strength in the broader economy. The unemployment rate inched down in January to 6.6 percent, the lowest level since October 2008, from 6.7 percent in December.

But the report also made plain what many Americans feel in their bones: Wages are stuck, and barely rose at all in 2013. They were up 1.9 percent last year, or a mere 0.4 percent after accounting for inflation. Not only was that increase even smaller than the one recorded in 2012, it was half the normal rate of wage gains in the two decades before the last recession.

The stagnation helps explain why many people feel apprehensive even though the economy grew at a robust pace in the second half of 2013, corporate profits rose, the stock market boomed and the housing market continued to gain ground. The issue cuts across the American work force. In fact, white-collar workers did a bit worse than blue-collar workers last year in terms of wage growth.

Austin Moore, 18, pictured at a career fair in Dallas, is one of many young job seekers. LM Otero/Associated Press

“People are running in place in terms of their living standards,” said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill...

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Copyright

Friday, July 18, 2014

Healthcare workers killed by Ebola’s worst outbreak ever

FedEx indicted for drug dealing. Not a delivery guy — the whole company.

Jose Antonio Vargas, Immigrant Activist, Is Released by Border Patrol in Texas

Obamacare Fails to Fail

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Welcome to OSHA's Campaign to Prevent Heat Illness in Outdoor Workers

National Prevention Council Annual Status Reports

National Prevention Council’s 2014 Annual Status Report

Previous Annual Status Reports

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Why Improving Access to Health Care Does Not Save Money

Monday, July 14, 2014

OSHA Chief: Inequality in America Is About Workplace Hazards, Too

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Merck to pay $100 million in NuvaRing contraceptive settlement

California's Drought Could Be the Worst in 500 Years

Apprehensive, Many Doctors Shift to Jobs With Salaries

Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Missouri Further Defines Permanent Total Disability

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Being Professional

The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage

Interactive Feature

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Payroll Data Shows a Lag in Wages, Not Just Hiring

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