Welcome to Drive Safely Work Week (DSWW) 2013— Gear Up For Safe Driving: Mind • Body • Vehicle. This year's campaign takes a holistic approach to safe driving that highlights how being at your physical and mental best—along with the "health" of your vehicle—are all connected in making us safer drivers. Among other things, the campaign materials cover:
In the U.S. alone, employers have the opportunity to directly reach more than half of the driving population—even more when information is extended to employee family and community members. Working together, we can significantly reduce the number of traffic crashes and injuries that impact our workforce, members of our families and communities worldwide. Thank you for downloading the 2013 DSWW campaign. We appreciate your partnership with us to help make a difference in the lives of people around the world. Safe travels, Sandra Lee NETS Chair Director, Worldwide Fleet Safety Johnson & Johnson |
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(c) 2010-2026 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Drive Safely Work Week
Thursday, September 12, 2013
EPA Orders Public Water System on Indian Reservation in Riverside County to Address Arsenic in Drinking Water
Today's post was shared by US EPA News and comes from yosemite.epa.gov
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week ordered D&D Mobile Home Park to address violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. D&D, located on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation in Riverside County, was found to have high levels of arsenic in its public system that provides drinking water to its 300 mobile park residents.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week ordered D&D Mobile Home Park to address violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. D&D, located on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation in Riverside County, was found to have high levels of arsenic in its public system that provides drinking water to its 300 mobile park residents.
The order requires D&D to come into compliance with the arsenic drinking water standard as well as conduct more consistent arsenic monitoring.Sampling data showed arsenic at concentrations as high as 0.059 milligrams per liter—almost six times the EPA’s maximum contamination levels for arsenic. Sampling data also showed the presence of coliform bacteria. D&D is a privately owned and operated system on the Indian Reservation.
The order requires D&D to submit, within 90 days, a written plan for EPA review that will demonstrate the mobile park’s strategy to bring the water system into compliance with the federal arsenic standard by December 31, 2014. Quarterly arsenic water sampling is also required.
The penalty for not complying with the terms of the order can be up to $37,500 per day based on federal statutory law.
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[Click here to see the rest of this post]
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
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Getting While the Getting Is Good
“Don’t wait for a crisis,” I told another friend, his mother recently widowed, lonely and overwhelmed, rattling around in a family house that was now her solo responsibility. “Don’t wait for a crisis,” I told a third friend, whose widowed father-in-law dropped his daily insulin regimen after his live-in girlfriend left him. “Don’t wait for a crisis,” I’ve told readers of “The New Old Age,” no doubt ad nauseam. As just about everyone who has cared for an aging parent knows, getting old is both an inexorable and maddeningly unpredictable forward march. Everything is OK. Then it’s not. Then it is again. What felt early on like a roller coaster becomes the new normal. In between swerves and plummets, it is almost possible to doze off. And planning for all possible eventualities is useless — after the essential documents are in place, the family has talked openly and often about end-of-life wishes, they understand the difference between Medicare and Medicaid, they know how much money is available and that it is probably not going to be enough. Caregivers and their elderly charges both know, in a spoken or unspoken way, that on the horizon is The Crisis. That’s the one that demarcates “before” and “after.” Your parents... |
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Deadline for Filing 9-11 Claims Approaches - Cancer Claims Soar
As the October 3, 2013 deadline for filing 9-11 World Trade Center claims for benefits approaches, an increase in the number of claims flowing from cancer continue to soar. Over 1,100 cancer claims have been filed to date.
"More than 1,100 people who worked or lived near the World Trade Center on 9/11 have been diagnosed with cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Click here to read the compete article from CNN.
Click here for more information about filing a claim.
"More than 1,100 people who worked or lived near the World Trade Center on 9/11 have been diagnosed with cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Click here to read the compete article from CNN.
Click here for more information about filing a claim.
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
After West disaster, News study finds U.S. chemical safety data wrong about 90 percent
Even the best national data on chemical accidents is wrong nine times out of 10.
A Dallas Morning News analysis of more than 750,000 federal records found pervasive inaccuracies and holes in data on chemical accidents, such as the one in West that killed 15 people and injured more than 300.
In fact, no one at any level of government knows how often serious chemical accidents occur each year in the United States. And there is no plan in place for federal agencies to gather more accurate information.
As a result, the kind of data sharing ordered by President Barack Obama in response to West is unlikely to improve the government’s ability to answer even the most basic questions about chemical safety.
“We can track Gross National Product to the second and third decimal, but there is no reliable way of tracking even simple things like how many [chemical] accidents happen,” said Sam Mannan, a nationally recognized expert on chemical safety who recently testified before a congressional hearing on West.
“This is just scandalous.”
After the West explosion in April, The News asked a simple question: How often do serious or potentially serious industrial chemical accidents occur in Texas and nationwide? After scouring the four federal databases with the most comprehensive information available on chemical safety, The News concluded that there was no way to know.
For a recent four-year period, the paper managed to confirm at least...
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In fact, no one at any level of government knows how often serious chemical accidents occur each year in the United States. And there is no plan in place for federal agencies to gather more accurate information.
As a result, the kind of data sharing ordered by President Barack Obama in response to West is unlikely to improve the government’s ability to answer even the most basic questions about chemical safety.
“We can track Gross National Product to the second and third decimal, but there is no reliable way of tracking even simple things like how many [chemical] accidents happen,” said Sam Mannan, a nationally recognized expert on chemical safety who recently testified before a congressional hearing on West.
“This is just scandalous.”
After the West explosion in April, The News asked a simple question: How often do serious or potentially serious industrial chemical accidents occur in Texas and nationwide? After scouring the four federal databases with the most comprehensive information available on chemical safety, The News concluded that there was no way to know.
For a recent four-year period, the paper managed to confirm at least...
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- Drivers Over Age 55 Far More Likely to Die in Job Accidents Than Younger (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
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Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Law Will Shift Demographics For Medicaid Toward Healthier Group, Study Finds
| The health law is expected to change the face of Medicaid – literally. Using statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the authors found that the group of newly eligible individuals is:
“It’s really a game changer,” said Dr. Tammy Chang, a lead author of the report. “A lot of providers think of Medicaid... |
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Nurse Practitioners Try New Tack To Expand Foothold In Primary Care
Nurse practitioners say efforts to expand primary care to millions of Americans under the health law are hampered by insurance industry practices that limit or exclude their participation.
Despite laws in 17 states and the District of Columbia allowing them to practice independently, nurses with advanced degrees say some insurers still don’t accept them into their credentialed networks as primary care providers, while others restrict them mainly to rural areas. Millions of newly insured consumers will need access to primary care, but "this will not happen if private insurers continue to exclude or restrict advanced practice registered nurses from their provider networks," said Karen Daley, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), in a prepared statement. Nurse advocates want to be able to bill insurers directly for services, which would require them to be credentialed in insurers’ networks. But insurers say a mix of state laws governing nurses’ ability to practice independently complicates such efforts. They say they have taken other steps to expand primary care services, often using nurse practitioners in "medical homes," where doctors, nurses and other... |
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New Concerns on Robotic Surgeries
In early March 2009, Erin Izumi, a woman in her 30s from Tacoma, Wash., underwent robotically assisted surgery to treat endometriosis. The operation at St. Joseph Medical Center dragged on for nearly 11 hours. Ten days later, Ms. Izumi was rushed to an emergency room, where doctors discovered that her colon and rectum had been torn during the operation. She was hospitalized for five weeks, undergoing a series of procedures to repair the damage, including a temporary colostomy, according to her attorney Chris Otorowski. But even though medical device manufacturers and hospitals are required to report every device-related death and serious injury to a database maintained by the Food and Drug Administration within 30 days of learning about an incident, no report about the case was made in 2009. Hospital officials declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for the manufacturer said it became aware of the incident only when Ms. Izumi filed a lawsuit. It disputed the claim and settled the case in May 2012. That was not the only lapse in reporting problems with robotic surgical equipment, a new study has found. The equipment, called the da Vinci system, is made by Intuitive Surgical Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. It has been on the... |
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Looking for Furloughs in the Jobs Data
The number of workers on federal government payrolls has fallen only 55,000 since January, which might lead you to conclude that the sequester has not had much impact on federal employment. But the number of federal employees who report working part time because they cannot get full-time hours — a sign they might be on furlough — remains high.
The number of these “involuntary part-timers” was 144,000 in August. That is more than twice the number of involuntary part-timers in the federal government in 2012 and in 2011. (The numbers are not seasonally adjusted, so it’s best to use year-over-year comparisons rather than the change from one month to the next.) How furloughs are executed varies by government agency and department; in some cases workers must take one unpaid leave day each week, and in others they might be able to take their furlough days consecutively (in which case affected workers would report they didn’t work at all, not that they worked short hours). As a result, the numbers above might understate how many federal workers were furloughed in August. For comparison, the number of involuntary part-time workers was actually down year-over-year in the private sector, as Jason Furman, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, noted in a blog post: |
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Christie Vetoes Bill That Would Have Prevented Some Truck Drivers From Being Treated As Independent Contractors
Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have protected some truck drivers from being inappropriately classified as “independent contractors,” drawing criticism from one of the bill’s sponsors. “Because of the Governor’s veto, unethical companies will continue to skirt the law by gaming the system to avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” said Assembly Deputy Speaker John S. Wisniewski. “In doing so, they will also continue to deprive their drivers of Social Security, Medicare, Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment benefits.” This “is just the latest example of the Governor siding against hard working New Jerseyans. His veto keeps in place a system that is unfair to workers and unfair to those companies that play by the rules,” Wisniewski said. The bill passed by a 43-30-5 vote in the Assembly and a 21-17 vote in the state Senate, so lawmakers are unlikely to override the governor’s veto. Under the bill, “drayage,” or short-distance truckers, and parcel delivery drivers could not be classified as “independent contractors” unless the employers can show that the workers are truly independent. The businesses would have to demonstrate to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development that the workers are free from their day-to-day control, that the service is outside the usual course or place of business and that the employee is customarily... |
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Canada court allows disabled veteran class action to continue
A judge for the Supreme Court of British Columbia [official website] on Friday declined to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by disabled members of the Canadian military seeking to invalidate a veteran compensation law that limits payments to disabled veterans.
Last year disabled veterans joined together to challenge the constitutionality of the 2005 New Veterans Charter (NVC) [government backgrounder], which gave disabled soldiers capped one-time payments in lieu of lifetime monthly payments.
The veterans assert that the NVC's lump-sum payment system fails to adequately provide for disabled veterans returning from the war in Afghanistan.
The Attorney General of Canada [official website] filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to make out a winnable claim. Justice Gordon Weatherill, however, denied the motion, emphasizing that the case raises important issues [Canadian Press report] regarding the government's promises to compensate injured service members.
The court ordered the government to file a response to the plaintiffs' complaint.
Veterans' rights remain a controversial issue around the globe, especially in the US. Earlier this month the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced [JURIST report] that it will no longer enforce a federal law that denies same-sex spouses veterans...
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Veterans' rights remain a controversial issue around the globe, especially in the US. Earlier this month the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced [JURIST report] that it will no longer enforce a federal law that denies same-sex spouses veterans...
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EpiPens for All
AMARRIA JOHNSON, who attended first grade at Hopkins Elementary School in Richmond, Va., was an outgoing and energetic girl who loved animals, singing and telling jokes. She won reading and citizenship awards and planned to become a teacher. She also was allergic to peanuts.
On Jan. 2, 2012, a classmate gave Amarria a peanut on the playground. Despite her allergy, Amarria ate the nut and soon had trouble breathing. She sought out a teacher, but at the school health clinic, there was no epinephrine auto-injector prescribed for Amarria. Epinephrine auto-injectors, the most well known of which are EpiPens, contain adrenaline and are the first line of emergency treatment for anaphylaxis, an extremely severe allergic reaction that can become fatal within minutes.
At the time, employees in Amarria’s public school were not allowed to use epinephrine prescribed for one student on a different child; instead, the school called an ambulance, which transported Amarria to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead of anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
I’m the mother of a child with food allergies, and stories like Amarria’s are my worst nightmare. In describing her tragedy, I question the fairness of reducing a 7-year-old girl to a symbol. Nevertheless I repeat the circumstances of Amarria’s death because it appears they directly affected legislation in her state.
Just a few months after she died, “Amarria’s Law” was in place; the law requires...
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State Senate passes bill limiting pro teams' workers' comp liability
An effort by the National Football League and owners of other professional sports teams to limit workers' compensation claims by out-of-state athletes is close to final passage in the California Legislature.
The measure cleared the state Senate on Friday on a 34-2 vote. In May, it passed the Assembly, 61-4.
The latest version of the bill is expected to win final passage next week in the Assembly and be on the governor's desk shortly after the scheduled Sept. 13 legislative recess.
Because of its liberally interpreted workplace-injury laws, California has become the de facto forum of last resort for so-called cumulative trauma claims, including head injuries, by retired players. Many of them may have participated in just a handful of games in California over the course of their careers.
The crackdown on a workers' compensation claims by athletes has been the focus of a major lobbying campaign by the National Football League and other pro-sports franchises. Former athletes have filed more than 4,400 claims involving head and brain injuries since 2006.
Claims by athletes represent an estimated potential $1-billion liability for the NFL alone, though they represent only a tiny percentage of all California workers' compensation cases
The bill, AB 1309 by Assemblyman Henry T. Perea (D-Fresno), does not affect players who spent their careers with California-based football, baseball, basketball, hockey or soccer teams.
However, it bans claims from athletes who...
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Monday, September 9, 2013
In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst
On wind-whipped days when rain pounds this part of South Florida, people are quickly reminded that Lake Okeechobee, with its vulnerable dike and polluted waters, has become a giant environmental problem far beyond its banks.
Beginning in May, huge downpours ushered in the most significant threat in almost a decade to the bulging lake and its 80-year-old earthen dike, a turn of events with far-reaching consequences. The summer rains set off a chain reaction that devastated three major estuaries far to the east and west, distressing residents, alarming state and federal officials and prompting calls for remedial action.
With lake waters at their limit, there were only two choices, neither of them good. One was to risk breaching the 143-mile dike, a potential catastrophe to the agricultural tracts south of the lake and the small communities that depend on them. The other was to release billions of gallons of polluted water into delicate estuaries to the east and west.
Following its post-Hurricane Katrina guidelines, the Army Corps of Engineers chose the estuaries, rather than test the dike’s vulnerabilities.
As a result, the St. Lucie River estuary in the east and the Caloosahatchee River estuary in the west, which depend on a naturally calibrated balance of salt and fresh water, were overwhelmed. The rush of fresh water from the lake and the estuaries’ own river basins, along with the pollutants carried in from farms,...
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Sunday, September 8, 2013
Fla. appeals court says $33M in damages to smoker’s widow not excessive
A Florida appeals court this week denied a tobacco company’s request for a new trial in a lawsuit brought against the company by the widow of a former smoker.
Also Wednesday, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal upheld a $33 million award to the widow, Dorothy Alexander, saying the damages were not excessive.
After a three-week trial, the jury found in favor of Alexander on her claims against Lorillard Tobacco Company for strict liability, fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud by concealment and negligence, but found Alexander’s husband, Coleman, 20 percent comparatively liable.
The jury awarded Alexander $20 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
Lorillard filed multiple post-trial motions, including motions seeking remittitur of the compensatory and punitive damages awards.
The Miami-Dade County Circuit Court denied all of Lorillard’s post-trial motions except the motion for remittitur of the compensatory damages award and remitted the compensatory damages award to $10 million.
After computation of comparative fault, Alexander was awarded $8 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, which the trial court declined to remit.
Lorillard appealed.
On appeal, the tobacco company basically reiterated its post-trial claims of error. Additionally, it claimed that it is entitled to a new trial on compensatory damages rather than the...
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'Flurry' Of New Reports Show Wide Variations On Insurance Rate Costs
| News outlets continue to follow recent studies released by several health policy groups about the expected premiums for plans offered on the new online insurance marketplaces. McClatchy: Studies Show Varying Costs For Coverage Under Obamacare A flurry of new reports from prominent health care research organizations show the cost of individual health coverage under Obamacare will vary widely among states next year, but drastic predictions of premium "sticker shock" have not materialized thus far. New research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the RAND Corp. and Avalere Health have found competitive, affordable prices for individual coverage in states where the information is available. Those states include Washington, California, Florida, South Carolina and Texas (Pugh, 9/5). Marketplace: New Reports Give Estimated Costs Of Healthcare Reform Plans The health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act open in October. This week some reports are giving new estimates of how much money it will take to get into some of those plans (Hill, 9/5). Huffington Post: Obamacare Premiums Will Vary Widely By State And City: Report Retail prices for health insurance can be considerably different based in part on the cost of health care services where a person lives, even within the same state, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported Wednesday. Premiums also vary based on age, family size and tobacco use. But under Obamacare, prices cannot be based on someone's medical history and patients... |
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Price of Vicodin Three Times More in Maryland and Pennsylvania When Dispensed by a Physician
New studies from Cambridge-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) says the average price paid for physician-dispensed Vicodin, a commonly dispensed narcotic pain medication in Maryland and Pennsylvania, was three times more than the price paid for the same drug dispensed at a pharmacy ($1.46 versus $0.37 per pill in Maryland and $1.22 versus $0.37 per pill in Pennsylvania).
According to the studies, the average prices paid to physician-dispensers were often more than double the prices paid for the same drugs dispensed at a pharmacy. Issues related to physician dispensing in Maryland have been debated, but no change has been made. Physician dispensing has been growing rapidly in Pennsylvania. In 2011, physicians dispensed 23 percent of workers’ compensation prescriptions and were paid 38 percent of what was spent for all prescriptions for injured workers. This was an increase from 17 percent of all prescriptions and 18 percent of total prescription costs three years earlier. “In many states across the country, policymakers are debating whether doctors should be paid significantly more than pharmacies for dispensing the same drug,” said Dr. Richard Victor, WCRI’s executive director. “One question for policymakers is whether the large price difference paid when physicians dispense is justified by the benefits of physician dispensing.” The Maryland study found that prices paid to physician-dispensers for many common drugs... |
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Workers’ Compensation Task Force meets
The Workers’ Compensation Task Force reconvened Friday to kick off a series of monthly meetings designed to further address the state of Delaware’s workers compensation premiums.
Four months earlier, the task force presentation an 18-point plan to reform the state’s increasing workers’ compensation. The plan was translated to legislation and signed into law in June. “We have had some developments since we issued our report,” said Lt. Gov. Matthew Denn, the chairman of the 20-member task force. Since 2007, the state has been working to cut back on high premium rates. Insurance legislation enacted in 2007, Senate Bill 1, included provisions to create a Health Care Advisory Panel (consisting mostly of health care personnel) to reform the payment system and develop practice guidelines for the most common workplace injuries, as well as create a Data Collections Committee. The reforms passed helped the state facilitate nearly a 40 percent decrease in rates, jumping from having the nation’s third most expensive workers compensation premiums in 2006 to the 34th most expensive by 2010, according to the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary. But, the premium rate has skyrocketed since then, rising over 40 percent in two years. The legislation, House Bill 175, addresses the task force’s four major workers compensation concerns. Curbing the high workers compensation medical costs was a priority, so the... |
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