Workers' Compensation

Friday, September 27, 2013

OCCUPATIONAL VIOLENCE

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from www.cdc.gov

Violence on the Job - image of shattered glass

The magnitude of workplace violence in the United States is measured with fatal and nonfatal statistics from several sources. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) reported 13,827 workplace homicide victims between 1992 and 2010. Averaging over 700 homicides per year, the largest number of homicides in one year (n=1080) occurred in 1994, while the lowest number (n=518) occurred in 2010.

From 2003 to 2010 over half of the workplace homicides occurred within three occupation classifications: sales and related occupations (28%), protective service occupations (17%), and transportation and material moving occupations (13%).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) reported an estimated 130,290 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work during the 2003 to 2010 time period. The Healthcare and Social Assistance Industry accounted for 63% of these injuries and illnesses each year.

Data collected by the Consumer Product Safety Commissions’ National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) that is collected in collaboration with NIOSH (NEISS-Work Supplement) estimated more than 137,000 workers were treated in emergency departments for nonfatal assaults in 2009.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) estimated the number of nonfatal violent crimes occurring against persons 16 or older while they were at...

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Thursday, September 26, 2013

AIG CEO: Anger over AIG bonuses ‘just as bad’ as lynchings

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from m.washingtonpost.com

Robert Benmosche (Bloomberg News)

AIG's CEO Robert Benmosche -- who came in to rescue the company after the 2008 financial crisis -- told the Wall Street Journal that the outrage over the bonuses promised to AIG's members was just as bad as when white supremacists in the American South used to lynch African Americans:

The uproar over bonuses "was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitchforks and their hangman nooses, and all that -- sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong."

Yes, enduring some public criticism for receiving multimillion-dollar bonuses after helping crash the global economy is a lot like being hanged from a tree by your neck until you die.
These kinds of sentiments don't emerge in a vacuum. Benmosche is expressing a view that was pretty common back in 2010 and 2011, when it was kind of a thing for members of the besieged 1 percent to compare public anger over their compensation to the way Nazi Germany treated the weak. There was supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis:

"Taxes are going to go up regardless. What I'm afraid of is, we shouldn't punish any one group. Whether we're punishing people who are wealthy," he said. "New York is for everybody; it's for the poor, it's for the middle-class, it's for the wealthy. We can't punish any one group and chase them away. We - I mean, Hitler punished the Jews. We can't have punishing the '2 percent group' right now."

...

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Exclusivity Rule: Court Holds Risk of Death Contemplated by Legislature

A NJ Appellate Court has ruled that the Exclusivity Bar prohibits the estate of a fatally injured trash truck driver from proceeding with an intentional tort claim against his employer. Even though the employer may have defeated the neutral safety switch and was cited for violations by OSHA, the Court ruled that the industry risk of being fatally injured was contemplated by the Legislature when promulgating the NJ Workers' Compensation Act.

Sellino v Pinto Brothers Disposal, Docket No. A-2064-12T1, 2013 WL 5300076 (Decided: September 23, 2013)

….

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.

NJ Workers' Compensation Maximum Rate Rising in 2014

The maximum NJ Workers' Compensation is proposed to rise to $843.00 per week in 2014. The rate is based upon the State's Average Weekly Wage (SAWW). The rate applies to temporary disability, permanent disability, permanent total, permanent partial total, and dependency benefits.
The rate for 2013 is $826.00.

NJAC 12:235-1.6 (September 3, 2013)
2013 NJ REG TEXT 335666

California employer sentenced for insurance fraud

Employer fraud is rampant. As costs to do business increase the underground economy continues to expand. Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.dailynews.com

A West Hills man was sentenced Thursday to 29 days in county jail and three years’ probation after pleading guilty to one count of insurance fraud for failing to report employee income in order to pay lower premiums on his air-conditioning company’s workers’ compensation policy.

Officials with the California Department of Insurance said Douglas Lambert, 48, did not report or under-reported employee income to Clarendon National Insurance Co. from 2006 to 2009 for Lambert Air Conditioning, a company he owned and operated in Visalia, near Fresno in Northern California.

“Fraud is a multimillion-dollar enterprise, which costs consumers over $210 million annually,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in a statement.
“Lambert cheated both Clarendon National and the State of California out of over $110,000, and by doing so passed the cost of his fraud onto consumers across the state,” Lambert was living and working in Tulare County at the time the initial complaint was filed with the Department of Insurance and was prosecuted in Northern California.

Authorities said he filed at least one workers’ compensation claim for an employee’s injury during the time frame of the investigation even though he was not paying insurance on the employee’s wages.

He was ordered to pay $110,381 in restitution and will serve his sentence in Los Angeles County jail.

While he was living up north, a spokesman for the department said he...

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Thousands of California injury claims made by professional athletes

Professional football injuries have taken the national spotlight as workers' compensation claims are being outlawed and restrcted in many jurisdictions. The path being taken, elimination of insurance coverage, is one that will ultimately result in the elimination of body contact sports. Economic incentives, and the lack of them, direct the business of professional athletes and ultimately the root to a healthier workplace. Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.latimes.com

The National Football League’s increasingly visible injury legacy has become a topic of national debate, one that threatens to cast a lasting shadow over the country’s most popular, and profitable, sport.

Far less attention has been paid to the physical woes of other athletes, but a review of injury filings in California suggests that professional athletes of all stripes walk away from their sports with nagging and often permanent injuries.

Over the past two decades, more than 2,500 claims have been filed by former baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer players against their former teams in California’s workers’ compensation system.

In the past six years, more than 940 of them -- among them stars such as two-time baseball most valuable player Juan Gonzalez and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- have made filings alleging serious brain and head injuries.

The claims were isolated as part of a Los Angeles Times analysis of more than 3 million filings made to the California Division of Workers’ Compensation. Last month, The Times published a searchable database of claims by football players, and now it's being updated will all other major team sports.

Database: workers' comp claims by baseball players
Database: workers' comp claims by basketball players
Database: workers' comp claims by hockey players
Database: workers' comp claims by soccer players
Database: workers' comp claims by women's basketball players
Although the total...

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U.S. Sees Direct Threat in Attack at Kenya Mall

Terrorism is a valid concern in the workplace. Safety in shopping malls may require additional security requirements for malls. In Israel metal-detectors have been used to check patrons entering malls. Today's post was shared by The New York Times and comes from www.nytimes.com

Viewing the deadly siege at a shopping mall in Kenya as a direct threat to its security, the United States is deploying dozens of F.B.I. agents to investigate the wreckage, hoping to glean every piece of information possible to help prevent such a devastating attack from happening again, possibly even on American soil.

For years, the F.B.I. has been closely watching the Shabab, the Somali Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for the Nairobi massacre and recruited numerous Americans to fight and die — sometimes as suicide bombers — for its cause.

The Shabab has already attacked most of the major actors trying to end the chaos in Somalia — the United Nations, Uganda, aid groups, the Somali government and now Kenya. The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars bankrolling anti-Shabab operations for years, and there is growing fear that the group could turn its sights on American interests more directly, one of the reasons the Obama administration is committing so many resources to the investigation in Kenya.

“We are in this fight together,” said Robert F. Godec, the American ambassador to Kenya. “The more we know about the planning that went into this, the way it was conducted, what was used, the people involved, the better we can protect America, too.”

Less than a day after the bloody standoff ended, more than 20 F.B.I. agents wearing flak jackets and helmets were combing through the...

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N.J. boosts public workers' insurance coverage for alcoholism, drug addiction

Obesity is a front page story in NJ every day as Governor Christie struggles to loose weight. While the Governor spoke in April 2013 about revising the state's workers' compensation system, he has been silent on the subject after his initial announcement. With an election quickly approaching in November he has turned to the endorsement of legislation to treat drug addiction mental illness and obesity. All of these efforts are strong indicators that a healthier workforce is being encouraged and will ultimately benefit the workers' compensation system by reducing pre-existing and co-existing conditions. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nj.com

Gov. Chris Christie, shown here in Asbury Park at an unrelated event today, announced that the state's health benefits plan for public workers will cover alcoholism and drug addiction the same as other mental illnesses starting next year.Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger

More than 200,000 public workers in New Jersey will get enhanced insurance coverage for mental illnesses such as alcoholism and drug addiction beginning next year, Gov. Chris Christie announced today.

A committee of state and union officials approved "mental health parity" on Friday for the state's second-largest health benefits plan. It means the same level of coverage now provided for a biologically-based mental illness — such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder — will apply to other types of illnesses such as alcoholism, drug addiction and eating disorders.

The expansion is expected to cost "less than $5.1 million a year" and will affect more than 217,000 current and retired workers enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program, Christie's office said in a news release today. The insurance plan covers state, county and local government workers as well as employees of New Jersey's public colleges and universities, and their dependent family members.

Along with that change, the committee approved "four new lower-cost health plan options" and a new "wellness program" that seeks to encourage healthier lifestyles by offering workers gift cards worth $100 to $250 per person every...

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Votive Candle Holders Sold at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Recalled Due to Fire Hazard; Made by Mercuries Asia

Mercury has been long known to be a dangerous substance for workers. In fact, the Mad Hatter who is described in the Alice in Wonderland, suffered from mercury poison. Today's post was shared by U.S. CPSC and comes from www.cpsc.gov

Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Mercuries Asia “Ant” Votive Holders Packaging

Recall Details

Units

About 7,900

Description

This recall involves candle holders designed to resemble a large ant. The black metal candle holders are 6 ½-inches tall and were sold as either a male or female. The male ant has a polka dot bow tie and the female has a white pearl necklace. Both ants hold up a clear glass votive cup. The words “Backyard BBQ” and “Glass Votive Holder” are printed on the front of the packaging. SKU number 426154 can be found on the underside of the packaging.

Remedy

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled votive candle holders and return them to any Cracker Barrel Old Country Store location or mail to Mercuries Asia USA, Ltd., 1501 Gary Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018 for a full refund, including shipping.

Sold exclusively at

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store locations nationwide from May 2013 through June 2013 for about $6

Importer

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® of Lebanon, Tenn.

Manufacturer

Mercuries Asia Ltd., of Taipei, Taiwan

Manufactured in

China

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about your experience with the product on SaferProducts.gov...

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Work Comp Steps Up to ACA

The Affordable Care Act's impact on workers' compensation is going to take many forms. David DePaolo points out in his shared blog today some of the aspects as the ACA is close to launch. Whether the ACA is going to emasculates the workers' compensation system is yet unknown It is sure heading that way in the new less litigious and aging society.

One of the big questions I have had since the Affordable Care Act became law was how the workers' compensation underwriting market would react since it seemed that there would be a broadening in the class of health care workers coming into the scene.

That question was given some evidence yesterday when ProAssurance, a writer of medical professional liability insurance based in Birmingham, Ala., announced a proposed acquisition of Pennsylvania-based workers' compensation writer Eastern Insurance Group for $205 million.

Eastern offers workers’ compensation to employers with generally 1,000 employees or less that traditionally pay an average premium per policy of $21,956, according to filings with Securities & Exchange Commission. Also, Eastern concentrates on low- to middle-hazard classes of businesses, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest regions. In 2012, it reported workers comp premiums written of $182.9 million.

Among those employers Eastern counts as policy holders are small hospital systems, long-term care facilities, physician and dental practices and home health care providers....

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Chart of the Day: Hands-Free Talking Is as Bad as Talking on a Handset. Maybe Even Worse.

Distracted driving doesn't get better by the use of hands free technology. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com

Michael O'Hare points us this morning to a study of cell phone usage in cars that confirms the obvious: it's dangerous. More dangerous than driving drunk, in fact. What's more, as the chart on the right shows, hands-free talking doesn't help. In fact, for certain

tasks it makes things even worse. O'Hare explains what's going on:

To understand the reason, consider driving while (i) listening to the radio as I was (ii) conversing with an adult passenger (iii) transporting a four-year-old (iv) sharing the front seat with a largish dog.
Why are the first two not dangerous, and the last two make you tense up just thinking about them?

The radio is not a person, and you subconsciously know that you may miss something if you attend to something in the road ahead, but also that you won’t insult it if you “listen away”, and it won’t suffer, much less indicate unease. The adult passenger can see out the windshield and also catch very subtle changes in your tone of voice or body language.

If you stop talking to attend to the car braking up ahead, the passenger knows why instantly, and accommodates, and because you know this, you aren’t anxious about interrupting the conversation. The dog and the child, in contrast, are completely unaware of what’s coming up on the road or what you need to pay attention to; the former is happy to jump in your lap if it seems like a good idea at any moment, and the child demands attention on her own schedule and at...

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Judge again asks sides to settle in Calif. lead paint case

Lead paint litigation is facing a sentinel decision that will set the direction for the future of environmental and occupation litigation. Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg on Monday ended proceedings in a 13-year-old case against paint companies by admonishing both sides, again, to settle.

Kleinberg made his remarks after closing arguments in The People of California v. Atlantic Richfield Co. et. al., which seeks to hold five defendant paint companies liable for an alleged lead paint public nuisance in 10 county and municipal jurisdictions in the state.

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” Kleinberg said, quoting John Adams who defended British soldiers in the Boston Massacre trial of 1770.

Kleinberg also recalled a one-word response made by a judge in a civil case he tried as a lawyer. The judge, he said, asked the plaintiff’s lawyer how his clients felt about their prospects, to which the lawyer responded “Very confident.”

“Why,” asked the judge.

Kleinberg said the case settled a few days later.

Saying it is “never too late to settle,” Kleinberg encouraged the sides to bring an end to the litigation that has spanned more than a decade and could put the defendants – Atlantic Richfield Co., ConAgra, DuPont, NL Industries and Sherwin Williams – on the hook for more than $1.4 billion to abate lead paint in pre 1978-built homes. Kleinberg said it takes He said it...

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Prescription-Drug Coupons — No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

The cost of pharmaceuticals prescribed in workers' compensation claims remains a seriously advancing cost to the system. Employers blame injured workers for the cause and the demand. Is the actual demand being driven by the pharmaceutical industry? The following is shared from The New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org.

: Visit nearly any official website for a brand-name drug available in the United States and, mixed in with links to prescribing and safety information, you'll find links to drug “coupons,” including copayment-assistance programs and monthly savings cards.

Most offers are variations on “Why pay more? With the [drug] savings card, you can get [drug] for only $18 per prescription if eligible” or “Get a free 30-capsule trial of [drug] with your doctor's prescription and ask your doctor if [drug] is right for you.” Why do manufacturers offer drug coupons? Are they good for patients in the long run? Are they even legal?

Commercial drug-insurance plans typically have tiered pharmaceutical formularies to guide prescription-drug use, requiring relatively small patient copayments (approximately $5 to $15) for inexpensive generic drugs and higher copayments (perhaps $25 to $100) for brand-name drugs. Manufacturers use coupons to reimburse patients for this difference in copayments when they buy brand-name medications, so that, for people with commercial insurance coverage, the out-of-pocket costs are the same as those for generic drugs.

Drug coupons are implemented through subsidies paid by drug manufacturers. Patients nearly always print coupons off...

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Joseph S. Ross, M.D., and Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H.
N Engl J Med 2013; 369:1188-1189 September 26, 2013 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1301993

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Prospect voters choose to abolish Fire Department

Residents of the Village of Prospect voted Tuesday to abolish its Fire Department.
The 82-46 vote comes as the village faces possible bankruptcy as it struggles to cope with a 2008 workers compensation claim from a volunteer firefighter that amounts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, any fire in Prospect will be covered primarily by Barneveld’s department, and also by Remsen, Mayor Fran Righi said. The Prospect fire station likely will become a satellite station.

“As of right now, the village owns all their assets,” Righi said of the Prospect Fire Department. “As of 8 a.m., the tones will not sound, we will be changing the locks and taking an inventory.”

Late Tuesday afternoon, there was a slow but steady trickle of voters coming to the Prospect Village municipal building to vote.

The sky was clear, the scent of wood smoke hung in the air and the clock at the corner of Upper State and Summit streets pointed to high noon.

Of the roughly 175 people eligible to vote, 128 cast ballots. Few, however, would disclose to the media their decision.

“I’m for the Fire Department,” said resident Kim Fazekas. “I think there is a different solution.”
But George Zacek said he had voted to abolish the department.

“The way it is structured now, there’s just a small number of families that are liable for every comp case that arises,” he said. “It puts a tremendous burden on the...

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Questionable Workers Comp Claims Report: Fewer Claims and More Disputes

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) today released an analysis of workers’ compensation (WC) questionable claims (QC) referrals submitted from Jan. 1, 2011, through June 30, 2013.

The report finds that while the total number of WC claims has been decreasing, the percentage that is deemed “questionable” has been rising.

QCs are claims that NICB member insurance companies refer to NICB for closer review and investigation based on one or more indicators of possible fraud. A single claim may contain up to seven referral reasons.

California ranked first generating a total of 2,270 WC QCs. It was followed by Illinois with 689. New York was third with 688.

In 2011, 3,349,925 WC claims were found in the Insurance Services Office (ISO) ClaimSearch^® database. That number decreased to 3,244,679 in 2012, and is on track to decrease again in 2013 based on the 1,498,725 claims received in the first half of 2013.
In 2011, 3,474 WC QCs were referred to NICB. That number increased to 4,460 in 2012 — a 28 percent rise. WC QCs accounted for 3.5 percent of the 100,201 QCs submitted in 2011, and increased to 3.8 percent of the 116,171 QCs in 2012.

Through the first half of 2013, 2,325 WC CQs have been referred to NICB (3.7 percent of 62,352 total QCs), compared with 1,681 through the first half of 2011 and 2,174 through the first half of 2013.

The distribution of WC QCs follows a standard Monday–Friday workweek with...

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Friday, September 27, 2013

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Recall Details

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Remedy

Sold exclusively at

Importer

Manufacturer

Manufactured in

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

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