Workers' Compensation

Saturday, November 16, 2013

“Stand By Your Pan”: Cook Safely This Thanksgiving to Prevent Kitchen Fires

Today's post was shared by U.S. CPSC and comes from www.cpsc.gov

Pan on fire on a stove

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is alerting consumers that the threat of fires in the kitchen triples on Thanksgiving Day. From 2009 through 2011, there was an average of about 1,300 cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day. This is more than three times the average daily rate from 2009 through 2011 of about 400 cooking fires a day.

“As fire safety experts have said for years, ‘Stand by your pan!’” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “If you are frying, grilling or broiling food, stay in the kitchen. Not following this advice can be a recipe for disaster on Thanksgiving and throughout the year.”

When it comes to fires in the home, cooking fires are number one. They accounted for nearly 150,000 fires (more than 40 percent of all annual unintentional residential fires) each year from 2009 through 2011. Unattended cooking is the top cause of cooking fires. Cooking fires also caused the most home fire-related injuries, with an estimated annual average of nearly 27 percent, or 3,450 injuries each year.

Overall, CPSC estimates an average of 362,300 unintentional residential fires, 2,260 deaths, 12,820 injuries and nearly $7 billion in property damage attended by the fire service occurring each year between 2009 and...

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Obama Selects Health Policy Advocate as Surgeon General

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.nytimes.com

President Obama nominated Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, an early supporter and grass-roots advocate for the Affordable Care Act, as surgeon general on Thursday.

Dr. Murthy, 36, is a founder and the president of Doctors for America, a group that campaigned for the health care law before Congress passed it in 2010 and that was an outgrowth of Doctors for Obama, which worked to help elect the president in 2008. He is a doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School.

At a Rose Garden event in October 2009, held as the Senate Finance Committee was set to vote on the legislation, Dr. Murthy said that Mr. Obama “understands that the current system isn’t working for patients, but it’s also not working for doctors.”

Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Thursday in a statement that Dr. Murthy “will be a powerful messenger” on health policy. His nomination is subject to Senate approval.

Last year, he was the co-author of an article for The New Republic responding to criticism of the health care law and citing its support among doctors, although it acknowledged qualms among them. “Doctors will support the new law to the extent that it becomes visible in their everyday lives, and make these lives better,” it said.

He also has been a leader in H.I.V. prevention and AIDS education in both the United States and India. In 1995, he helped found Visions, a nonprofit AIDS and...

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Friday, November 15, 2013

Taxi cab assaults: A different danger behind the wheel

Today's post was shared by NIOSH Transportation and comes from www.thespec.com

When a passenger held a knife to his throat three years ago, Muhammad Azeez stopped driving taxi for a month. He's still too scared to work the night shift.
Azeez is not alone. According to a 2011 survey, Toronto's iTaxiworkers Association reported more than half of the respondents had been assaulted, and 70 per cent felt in physical danger while driving.
Many cities believe partitions in cabs are the best way to protect drivers. But new research from the U.S. shows that dashboard cameras, not partitions, are most effective at reducing taxi driver homicides.
These findings come amid a city-wide review of the taxi industry. Three Toronto drivers were stabbed in one week earlier this year, despite the requirement of cameras in cabs. The review will also assess the feasibility of adding partitions.
Azeez believes that might be the best option. "Maybe a partition would have stopped him putting a knife to my throat," he says of his assailant. "The camera takes a picture, but a partition actually shields you from a person with a gun or knife."
Crimes against taxi drivers dropped 75 per cent after cameras became mandatory in Toronto cabs in 2005. But the murder rate involving cab drivers still remains the highest of all occupations.
Following the brutal murder of driver Mahmood Bhatti by a passenger in 2006, Councillor Janet Davis brought forward a motion to approve partitions. It passed, and the idea is currently under review.
"The...

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Taxpayers pay high cost for low fast-food wages, lawmakers are told

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

SACRAMENTO — Low wages paid by the fast-food industry come with a high public cost for California taxpayers, academics and advocates for the working poor told state lawmakers.

Workers at hamburger, pizza and other, mainly franchise, eateries are paid at near-minimum-wage levels, making them eligible for public assistance that totaled an average of $717 million a year in California from 2007 to 2011.
The condition of low-wage fry cooks and sandwich makers was the focus of a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly labor committees Wednesday. The inquiry was held in the wake of a 60-city protest in August by fast-food employees. Protesters, backed by the Service Employees International Union, called for collective bargaining and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
Simone Sonnier Jang, a mother of two who works at a Los Angeles McDonald's, said she wouldn't be able to survive financially without subsidized housing, day care and medical care for her children and cash assistance.
"Without that I wouldn't be able to pay rent, cover the cost of utilities," she said, "and I wouldn't be able to buy my own food."
The drain on the safety-net funding is alarming, said Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina). "The taxpayer should not have to subsidize one industry," he said.
The movement got a boost in September when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation raising the California minimum wage from $8 to $10 an hour, in two steps, by 2016.
Much of the data...

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Expediting Drug Development — The FDA's New “Breakthrough Therapy” Designation

Today's post was shared by NEJM and comes from www.nejm.org

Many people with serious or life-threatening illnesses for which there are no satisfactory treatments are understandably eager to gain access to new therapies and are willing to trade off greater certainty about a drug's performance for speed of access.

Because the typical clinical drug-development program takes about 7 years, during which a substantial body of safety and efficacy data is generated, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has long-standing expedited pathways available for drugs being studied for such illnesses. However, many patients and their advocates continue to believe that clinical development is sometimes prolonged beyond what is necessary.

During the congressional considerations leading up to passage of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act of 2012 (FDASIA), a variety of provisions related to this theme were put on the table.

When the bill was enacted, two modifications of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act addressed the issue of drug development for serious illnesses: a new “breakthrough therapy” designation for investigational drugs and expansion of the statute regarding accelerated approval.

The breakthrough-therapy designation has since been introduced into the FDA portfolio of expedited programs for serious conditions....

Perspective
Rachel E. Sherman, M.D., M.P.H., Jun Li, J.D., Ph.D., Stephanie Shapley, M.B.A., Melissa Robb, R.N., and Janet Woodcock, M.D.
N Engl J Med 2013; 369:1877-1880November 14, 2013 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1311439

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White House rejects asbestos bill

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.politico.com

President Barack Obama’s administration came out against a key piece of asbestos legislation Tuesday just days after headlining a fundraiser at the homes of two of the top asbestos litigators in the country.
In a swing through Texas last week, two of the country’s top asbestos attorneys, Russell Budd and Peter Kraus, hosted fundraisers that brought in an expected $1 million-plus for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee over the course of three hours at their Dallas-area homes.
Continue Reading

On Tuesday evening the White House put out a statement opposing a piece of legislation aimed at regulating asbestos bankruptcy trusts. Budd and Kraus both sit on the boards of several of these trusts.

The White House and the Office of Management and Budget did not respond to a request for comment.
The trusts allow companies with significant liabilities to secure protection for future claims, but often have advisory committees made up of people from the same law firms that represent the asbestos clients.
The Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act — backed by business interests such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — would require the trusts to disclose additional information about the claims the pay to victims, in order prevent false or inflated claims.
In a statement Tuesday evening, the White House warned that the legislation would make publicly available the personal information of individuals who had filed asbestos-related injuries. Additionally,...

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He Got His Wish

Today's post was shared by WorkCompCentral and comes from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

I had put my airplane away for the evening after visiting my mom and dad yesterday, and was exiting the secured gate at the airport when a woman had pulled up and frantically waved me down.

Her 88 year old dad was at the airport, his hangar was "right over there" (we could see it from the gate) and his car was parked out front and the door of the hangar was partially open.

She was panicking. Her dad ALWAYS was home by 4 p.m., but her mom said he hadn't returned yet - it was about 5:15 when this encounter occurred.

So I let her through the gate and escorted her to the hangar where the lights were on and her dad was sitting in the back seat of his Navion, looking asleep.

Except he was cold to the touch when I climbed up the ladder to check on him. I called 911, flagged down airport security, and tried as best I could to offer some condolence to Julie (we finally introduced ourselves).

I couldn't help but think of the irony that I had just returned from yet another trip dealing with my dad in the hospital, on the border of life and death with all sorts of tubes and wires in him, making sure my mom was taken care of and dealing with the Business of Dad, and Julie's father seemed to have passed peaceably, quickly it seemed, in his airplane, still holding an approach chart in his hand.

Julie was distraught and sad, of course, at the sudden death of her father. But she told me that he had always said he wanted to die in his airplane.

He got his wish.

And that little tale has absolutely...

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Bill aims to protect workers wrongly labeled as independent contractors

Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.newsobserver.com

The hunt for cheap labor has led to a rash of payroll fraud by companies scraping for any advantage in a sputtering economy, lawmakers say.
As a result, they say, American taxpayers are cheated out of millions, workers are underpaid and the injured are denied workers compensation. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill introduced legislation Tuesday, in conjunction with a Senate hearing, in an effort to curtail what they say has become a widespread practice that hurts not only workers but also law-abiding companies that can’t compete with the bad actors.
The issue is common in fields such as those for janitors, homecare workers and cable installers. But it’s especially prevalent in the construction industry, where a company can save as much as 30 percent of its costs by wrongfully reporting its workers as independent contractors instead of employees.
The practice is known as misclassification. In the most basic terms, if the employer is directing the worker, including setting his or her schedule, telling the worker what to do, when to do it and how to do it, the worker should be listed as an employee, according to federal rules.
By listing workers as independent contractors, companies can avoid paying insurance, taxes and overtime. It also shields companies from responsibilities of having to protect those working for them.
Matt Anderson of Ira Township, Mich., needs only to look at his left hand to see the potential...

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Blowing the Whistle on the Chamber of Commerce

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.forbes.com

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform recently released a report on the False Claims Act (FCA)—the primary whistleblower legislation utilized by the federal government. Unfortunately, its analysis presents a fundamentally defective approach to addressing fraud in business.
In short, the Chamber’s report concludes the following: there is a lot of fraud in American commerce, particularly the kind of fraud (much of it in healthcare) that costs American taxpayers billions and billions of dollars annually (in excess of $70 billion according to the Government Accountability Office). In fact, fraud is such a big problem that Congress needs to amend the FCA and reduce protections and rewards available for those who risk their careers to report that fraud.
The reality is that the FCA is an example of how the government works at its best and most efficient. In fact, another recent study by the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund concludes that the government actually recovers $20 for every $1 it invests in fraud investigations pursuant to the FCA.
And there is a reason for it. It is because it may be the one area where government appropriately harnesses the private sector profit motive. It is the one area where government outsources ordinary people, driven by their own morality, conscience, and, yes, desire for money, to help do government’s work and provide a public good in the process. In fact, some...

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More Obamacare Enrollees In California Than In 36 States Combined

Today's post was shared by Huffington Post and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

Obamacare California

Obamacare California

The only thing that perhaps matched the vastness of the spread or the depth of the traction of the "death panel" lie was the predictability that such a lie would come to be told in the first place. After all, this was a Democratic president trying to sell a new health care reform plan with the intention of opening access and reducing cost to millions of Americans who had gone without for so long. What's the best way to counter it? Tell everyone that millions of Americans would have increased access ... to Death! The best account of how the "death panel" myth was born into this world and spread like garbage across the landscape has been penned by Brendan Nyhan, who in 2010 wrote "Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate." You should go read the whole thing.But to summarize, the lie began where many lies about health care reform begin -- with serial liar Betsy McCaughey, who in 1994 polluted the pages of the New Republic with a staggering pile of deception in an effort to scuttle President Bill Clinton's health care reform. As Nyhan documents, she re-emerged in 2009 when "she invented the false claim that the health care legislation in Congress would result in seniors being directed to 'end their life sooner.'"Nyhan: "McCaughey's statement was a reference to a provision in the Democratic health care bill that would have provided funding for an advanced care planning for Medicare recipients once every five...

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Work Comp Lost Focus

Today's post was shared from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

As part of a cadre of bloggers that write about workers' compensation, one of the questions we are often asked to address is, "what is wrong with workers' compensation?".
The California Division of Workers' Compensation largely answered that question by announcing that they have issued a new, mandatory, Form 105 for unrepresented workers to request a panel qualified medical examination.
The new form is at http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/FORMS/QMEForms/QMEForm105.pdf. Take a look at it, and tell me if you were not savvy about workers' compensation if you would not be intimidated and/or befuddled by this monstrosity of bureaucratic irrationality.
I know what the administration was thinking when this form was developed - that claims administrators would be the primary users.
But if it is an unrepresented injured worker the amount of data required, the exact procedure to be used, and the terms contained within the form all conspire against a fair outcome for the claimant.
For instance, is an injured worker going to understand that the reason for a QME panel request is based on Labor Code section 4060, 4061 or 4062?
NO.
And unless your claim is relatively simple, are you, as an unrepresented, likely unsophisticated consumer of workers' compensation resources really going to know which medical specialty should be performing the services?
NO.
And how about this daunting, foreboding warning: "If you do not select a QME from the panel, schedule an appointment with the QME and inform the...

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What “Lies” Beneath the Wall Street Journal Asbestos Article, Myths and Facts Exposed

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.takejusticeback.com

On March 11, 2013, the Wall Street Journal published an article that fits neatly in the play book of Big Asbestos’ campaign to avoid compensating the asbestos victims they deliberately harmed by vilifying the victims and accusing them and their families of “fraud.” The goal of this campaign, led by asbestos corporations, their insurers and their front groups, is to delay and deny until asbestos victims die.

Rather than focusing on these victims and their families who have been devastated by asbestos disease, the WSJ article perpetuates the same deceptive and inaccurate claims about the asbestos trusts that Big Asbestos has been campaigning on for years. At no point does the article claim to have actual evidence of widespread fraud; instead, the article relies on unnamed, unidentified “politicians, judges and defense lawyers” that claim that the “opportunity for abuse flourishes.” What the WSJ's data analysis does show that the trusts have a very low anomaly rate and are operating efficiently, especially for such a massive system.

These unfounded accusations are used by Big Asbestos to push legislation at the state and federal levels that would add significant time and costs to the justice process for victims. The following are some of the most deceptive claims in the article:

Myth: There are too many asbestos lawsuits and claims.

Fact: There are many asbestos lawsuits and claims because...

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J&J Said to Reach $4 Billion Settlement of Hip-Implant Suits (1)

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

J&J Said to Reach $4 Billion Settlement of Hip-Implant Suits (1)

J&J Said to Reach $4 Billion Settlement of Hip-Implant Suits (1)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ:US) will pay more than$4 billion to resolve thousands of lawsuits over its recalledhip implants in the largest settlement of U.S. legal claims fora medical device, three people familiar with the deal said.

The accord will resolve more than 7,500 lawsuits in federaland state courts against J&J’s DePuy unit, said the people, whorequested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speakpublicly about the settlement. Patients who have had hipsreplaced claimed in the cases that the implants were defective.

The company will pay an average of $300,000 or more foreach of those surgeries, the people said. The agreement doesn’tbar patients whose artificial hips fail in the future fromseeking compensation from J&J, they said. That means thesettlement is uncapped in terms of its total value, according tothe people. The settlement is expected to be announced next weekin federal court in Toledo, Ohio.

The agreement “resolves a lot of litigation that couldhave dragged on for years and cost J&J much more money in thelong run,” said Carl Tobias, who teaches product-liability lawat the University of Richmond in Virginia.

The settlement will be the second multibillion-dollaragreement this month for J&J, the world’s largest seller ofhealth-care products. J&J, based in New Brunswick, New Jersey,agreed Nov. 4 to pay $2.2 billion to resolve...

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House Considers Bills to Limit Americans’ Rights

Today's post was shared by Take Justice Back and comes from www.justice.org

House Considers Bills to Limit Americans’ Rights

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Home Newsroom AAJ News House Considers Bills to Limit Americans’ Rights

For Immediate Release: November 12, 2013

Contact: Katie Gommel
202-965-3500, ext. 6645
media.replies@justice.org

House Considers Bills to Limit Americans’ Rights

Washington, DC—The following is a statement from America Association for Justice President Burton LeBlanc in response to the passage of H.R. 982 and H.R. 2655 out of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules.

“Corporations should not bully Americans out of their rights to access justice.

“H.R. 982 would violate asbestos victims’ privacy and allow asbestos corporations to delay and deny justice until asbestos victims die. Asbestos kills over 10,000 Americans every year, and the industry hid the dangers for decades; the last thing this industry needs is a handout from Congress.

“H.R. 2655 is the latest favor to multinational corporations seeking to undermine the rights of American workers and consumers by adding unnecessary burdens and delays to the civil justice system. At a time when our courts are already suffering from persistent underfunding, Congress should focus efforts on improving access to justice.”

As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through...

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Lawsuit abuse bill passes U.S. House

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill aimed at reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits plaguing the nation’s legal system.

The House voted 228-195 in favor of the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act.

Smith

Of those 228 votes for the legislation, 225 came from Republicans and three came from Democrats. Of the 195 against the bill, 193 came from Democrats and two came from GOP representatives.

LARA, or House Resolution 2655, would impose mandatory sanctions on lawyers who file meritless suits in federal court.

Specifically, the bill would:

- Reinstate sanctions for the violation of Rule 11. Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was originally intended to deter frivolous lawsuits by sanctioning the offending party;

- Ensure that judges impose monetary sanctions against lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits, including the attorney’s fees and costs incurred by the victim of the frivolous lawsuit; and

- Reverse the 1993 amendments to Rule 11 that allow parties and their attorneys to avoid sanctions for making frivolous claims by withdrawing them within 21 days after a motion for sanctions has been served.

The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, in September.

“LARA encourages attorneys to think twice before filing frivolous lawsuits,” Smith said at the time.

The National Association of Manufacturers, in a letter ahead of the House vote, urged lawmakers to...

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U.S. House passes FACT Act

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Farenthold

Farenthold

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the FACT Act, which would require more transparency from asbestos trusts, after sometimes heated debate earlier in the day.

Farenthold

The House voted 221-199 to pass HR 982, also known as the Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act. The vote closely followed party lines, with only five Democrats voting in the majority.

The measure would require asbestos trusts, which were established to pay off future claims against asbestos companies, to release quarterly reports about who seeks compensation. Republicans say the measure would cut fraudulent claims and reduce the number of people trying to double dip and get compensation from active companies as well as these trusts.

Democrats, on the other hand, said there is no evidence of such fraud. They also claim victims’ personal and medical information would be more public.

During Wednesday afternoon’s debate, resolution sponsor Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said fraud cuts the amount of money available for legitimate asbestos claims.

“This is for the victims,” he said. “It’s two pages of text. There is no requirement of any action by the (asbestos) victims. The trusts are the only ones required to do something. This doesn’t involve broad release of information.

“It just requires them to tell who they’re paying money to and what they’re paying, so there is no double dipping....

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Mississippi courts still sympathetic to lung litigation in wake of scandal

Today's post was shared by Legal Newsline and comes from legalnewsline.com

Porter

Porter

Porter

Johnson

PORT GIBSON and LAUREL, Miss. (Legal Newsline) – Last decade’s flood of mass silicosis suits into Mississippi courts dried up in the heat of scandal, but new silicosis suits are steadily streaming into the same sympathetic courts.

The new suits, like thousands that federal judge Janis Jack reviewed in 2005, depend on little evidence beyond X-ray reports of a well paid expert.

In a dramatic turn of events, the expert behind the new suits once joined Jack in ripping the experts behind the old suits.

Pulmonologist Steven Haber of Houston, who now testifies at $450 an hour for depositions and $5,000 a day for trials, once echoed Jack’s opinion that doctors manufactured reports for the lawyers who paid them.

Those doctors lost reputations and licenses, and avoided prosecution by invoking Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination.

Haber has found success employed as an expert for attorneys Allen Smith of Ridgeland, and Timothy Porter, Patrick Malouf and John Givens of Jackson, who run a constant cycle of trials around the state.

At a wrongful death trial in September in Port Gibson (Claiborne County), defense attorney Walter Johnson of Watkins & Eager in Jackson confronted Haber with an affidavit he had produced for purposes of the WR Grace bankruptcy. In it, Haber was critical of B-readers, or readers of X-rays.

Haber testified that he never met the deceased claimant Lawrence Armstrong and that the only information he had reviewed...

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Obama: Insurers Can Extend Canceled Policies Into 2014

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

President Obama announced Thursday that insurers will be permitted to extend canceled insurance policies into 2014, due to the difficulties consumers are having enrolling in new insurance coverage through the new online marketplaces.

More coverage: Obama Offers Fix For Insurance Plan CancellationsA transcript follows.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: ... It has now been six weeks since the Affordable Care Act's new marketplaces opened for business. I think it's fair to say that the roll out has been tough so far, and I think everybody understands that I'm not happy about the fact that the roll out has been, you know, wrought with a whole range of problems that I've been deeply concerned about.

But today, I want to talk about what we know after these first few weeks and what we're doing to implement and improve the law. Yesterday, the White House announced that in the first month more than 100,000 Americans successfully enrolled in new insurance plans.

Is that as high a number as we'd like? Absolutely not.

But, it does mean that people want affordable health care. The problems of the website have prevented too many Americans from completing the enrollment process, and that's on us, not on them. But, there's no question that there's real demand for quality affordable health insurance.

In the first month, nearly a million people successfully completed an application for themselves or their families, those applications represent more than 1.5 million people. Of those 1.5 million,...

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