Michael Lewis’s new book, The Premonition, is about three characters and their struggle to alert the Nation about the COVID-19 pandemic. The book offers a shocking insight into the mismanagement of the public health care system. The workers’ compensation industry lacked adequate information to prepare for the epidemic properly. It must address this deficiency in the future.
Showing posts with label prevention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prevention. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Is Workers’ Compensation Prepared for Domestic Terrorism?
The nation’s workers’ compensation system may be facing a new challenge, domestic terrorism. The National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) issued a bulletin effective January 27, 2021, alerting the nation to a high threat environment. The Department of Homeland Security alert extends through April 30, 2021.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Halting Workplace COVID-19 Transmission: An Urgent Proposal to Protect American Workers
A report authored by David Michaels and Gregory R Wagner and published by The Century Foundation highlights the actions needed to strengthen The Occupational Safety and Health Administration {OSHA] in order to make workplaces safer. Today’s post is shared from tif.og
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Fall Death Rates Increase in US Increased 30%
Today's post is shared from the cdc.gov
Each year, millions of older people—those 65 and older—fall. In fact, more than one out of four older people falls each year, 1 but less than half tell their doctor. Falling once doubles your chances of falling again.
Each year, millions of older people—those 65 and older—fall. In fact, more than one out of four older people falls each year, 1 but less than half tell their doctor. Falling once doubles your chances of falling again.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Increased Suicide Rates: Compensability and Prevention
Suicide rates in the United States have risen nearly 30% since 1999, and mental health conditions are one of several factors contributing to suicide, a compensable workers' compensation condition. Examining state-level trends in suicide and the multiple circumstances contributing to it can inform comprehensive state suicide prevention planning.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Zika: The Next Compensable Infectious Disease - Benefit Challenges Begin
Workers' Compensation insures for the consequences of infectious diseases arising out of and in the course of employment. Is the system ready for a potential onslaught of Zika claims?
The line in the sand has been drawn in the State of Florida, where an infected Miami Beach police officer has been denied benefits. The union has actively supporting the municipal employee in an effort to rule the claim compensable.
The NJ Supreme Court in establishing compensability in an occupational disease cited Justice Learned Hand, “Few adults are not diseased … an infection mastered, though latent, is no longer a disease, industrially speaking, until the individual's resistance is again so far lowered that he succumbs.” Bober v. Independent Plating Corp., 28 N.J. 160, 145 A.2d 463 (1958).
Sunday, March 31, 2013
OSHA Needs To Be Strengthened
If workplaces were safer then there would be no reason to have a workers' compensation program at all. OSHA, The Occupational Safety and Head Health Administration (OSHA), does just that, but its enforcement powers are lacking.
"OSHA devotes most of its budget and attention to responding to here-and-now dangers rather than preventing the silent, slow killers that, in the end, take far more lives. Over the past four decades, the agency has written new standards with exposure limits for 16 of the most deadly workplace hazards, including lead, asbestos and arsenic. But for the tens of thousands of other dangerous substances American workers handle each day, employers are largely left to decide what exposure level is safe.
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“"I’m the first to admit this [OSHA] is broken,' said David Michaels, the OSHA director, referring to the agency’s record on dealing with workplace health threats. 'Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people end up on the gurney.'"
OSHA was created legislatively by Congress in 1970. In the years following The National
Commission on Workmen's Compensation Laws in 1972 reported that safety should be encouraged, and that, "....Economic incentives in the program should reduce the number of work-related· injuries
and diseases."
Today, The New York Times reports that "Occupational illness and injuries ....cost the American economy $250 Billion per year due to medical expenses and lost productivity."
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| English: A picture of David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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“"I’m the first to admit this [OSHA] is broken,' said David Michaels, the OSHA director, referring to the agency’s record on dealing with workplace health threats. 'Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people end up on the gurney.'"
Click here to read the complete article, As OSHA Emphasizes Safety, Long-Term Health Risks Fester
Friday, March 15, 2013
Workers' Compensation is Riding on the Road to Wellville with Obama Care
As Obama Care [The Affordable Care Act] launches, workers' compensation programs will start to undergo subtle changes The innovation of wellness programs and new treatment protocols will eventually cause major shifts to the delivery of workplace medicine.
Workers' compensation's future, ironically, has actually been viewed primarily in a rearview mirror. The shift to break with old habits has been a major struggle. The inertia will give way to a creative future based on new technologies and socio-economic challenges.
In a recent article by The Honorable David B. Torrey, Judge of Workers' Compensation ["The Affordable Care Act and Effects on the Workers' Compensation System, (7 PAWCSNL 114 at 30, March 2013)], the significance of Obama Care is reported. Judge Torrey recognizes that even those with major pecuniary interests in the compensation business have been unable to halt the momentum of change.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
The Obama Agenda: The Road to Workplace Wellness
Immediately following the presidential elction last November, the Department of Labor, Internatl Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services proposed regulations to enforce workplace wellness programs under thre Affordable Care Act. The proposed regulations will stimulated employer programs to invite healthier workers and may go as far as penalizing those who maintian poor diets and inadequate exercise regiems.
"... regulations would increase the maximum permissible reward under aOne analysis of the proposal concludes......
health-contingent wellness program offered in connection with a group
health plan (and any related health insurance coverage) from 20 percent
to 30 percent of the cost of coverage. The proposed regulations would
further increase the maximum permissible reward to 50 percent for
wellness programs designed to prevent or reduce tobacco use. These
regulations also include other proposed clarifications regarding the
reasonable design of health-contingent wellness programs and the
reasonable alternatives they must offer in order to avoid prohibited
discrimination."
"We are cautiously optimistic about the potential of workplace-wellness programs to help contain healthcare costs and to improve the health and well-being of millions of California’s workers. Preventing illness and injury through workplace-based strategies potentially benefits employees and their families, employers, and public and private insurance providers. There is emerging evidence about the effectiveness of WWPs in improving chronic disease outcomes, and a long history of occupational health and safety practices reducing workplace injury and death. Incentives in the ACA have the potential to serve as a catalyst for expanding WWP’s broadly in California. However, policy solutions need to respond to potential unintended consequences and account for the state’s incredibly diverse communities and businesses in order to make wellness programs work for all Californians."
Read The Greenlining Institute's report "Helth, Equity and the Bottom line: Workplace Wellness and California Business
Comments are due on or before January 25, 2013.
Read more about health care and workplace injuries and illnesses.
Jan 10, 2013
Curing the Profit Motive in Health Care. Soaring medical costs have afflicted the workers' compensation industry with economic distress and have severely impacted the efficient and effective delivery of medical care to injured ...
Nov 20, 2012
The National Institute For Occupational Safety And Health (NIOSH) has revised and republished informational material concerning the health hazards to healthcare workers were exposed to hazardous drugs. The publication ...
Nov 05, 2012
Access to health insurance is under attack. President's Obama's comprehensive health care reform law, intended to increase health care coverage for millions of Americans, faced extreme scrutiny by the U.S. Supreme Court ...
Sep 12, 2012
Throughout the nation Workers' Compensation systems have been impacted by health care costs that now take a large piece of the premium dollar. Traditional health care offered by employers mirrors the same problem of ...
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Obesity Is Weighing Down The Workers' Compensation System
 |
| The "fat" gene |
Medical delivery now needs to deal with: weight reduction, delay of medical care and complex treatment protocols , due obesity issues. The resulting consequences of this pre-existing / coexisting issues, are increasing the economic burden on the entire program.
Recent discoveries in human genome project reflect that obesity may actually be controlled by genetic propensities. In other words, the so-called "fat gene" programs whether the human body will gain weight.
"Obesity is a chronic metabolic disorder affecting half a billion people worldwide. Major difficulties in managing obesity are the cessation of continued weight loss in patients after an initial period of responsiveness and rebound to pretreatment weight. It is conceivable that chronic weight gain unrelated to physiological needs induces an allostatic regulatory state that defends a supranormal adipose mass despite its maladaptive consequences. To challenge this hypothesis, we generated a reversible genetic mouse model of early-onset hyperphagia and severe obesity by selectively blocking the expression of the proopiomelanocortin gene (Pomc) in hypothalamic neurons. Eutopic reactivation of central POMC transmission at different stages of overweight progression normalized or greatly reduced food intake in these obesity-programmed mice. Hypothalamic Pomc rescue also attenuated comorbidities such as hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and hepatic steatosis and normalized locomotor activity. However, effectiveness of treatment to normalize body weight and adiposity declined progressively as the level of obesity at the time of Pomcinduction increased. Thus, our study using a novel reversible monogenic obesity model reveals the critical importance of early intervention for the prevention of subsequent allostatic overload that auto-perpetuates obesity."
Workers' Compensation needs to address obesity as a medical condition requiring, not only with co-existence medical attention, but also extend preventive medical treatment and medical monitoring to that the conditio Then obesity will not become a major factor in an employee's lifetime. Identification of this genetic abnormality early on appears critical to addressing weight control and behavior leading to its elimination.
This is yet another reason why the incorporation of the workers' compensation program into a universal medical system is so very important to the health of workers, and the solvency of workers compensation going forward.
....
Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ, helping injured workers and their families for over 4 decades, is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson).
Read more about obesity and workers' compensation
Jun 21, 2012
"The statistical analysis shows that claimants with a comorbidity indicator pointing to obesity have an indemnity benefit duration that is more than five times the value of claimants who do not have this comorbidity indicator but ...
Sep 23, 2011
We thought it was a fitting topic for our workers' law blog because NFL linemen must embrace this condition in order to stay in peak performance. It's called chronic obesity. These days, to be an NFL lineman, you not only have ...
Nov 15, 2012
In 2010, an NCCI study found that claims with an obesity comorbidity diagnosis incurred significantly higher medical costs than comparable claims without such a comorbidity diagnosis. Relative to that study, this study ...
Mar 20, 2010
His morbid obesity has contributed to his knee and back problems and, in an effort to combat those problems and counter a broader threat to his survival, claimant sought authorization to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
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