Workers' Compensation

Friday, December 13, 2013

Petition Aims to Build First Federally Funded Mesothelioma Program

Helping asbestos victims may become a Federal effort. Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.asbestos.com

As the youngest person to become chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt played a major role in U.S. military history -- a war hero whose service spanned World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
It's only appropriate that the Mesothelioma Center for Excellence at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center is adopting his name.
Zumwalt died from pleural mesothelioma cancer almost 14 years ago, an ending that far too many veterans have suffered, stemming from the once-extensive use of asbestos in the armed forces.
His life was dedicated to those who bravely served their country. Now his memory will be, too.
If the efforts to become the first federally funded mesothelioma program are successful, the Elmo Zumwalt Treatment & Research Center in Los Angeles is expected to blossom and become a premier destination for veterans battling this disease.
"These (veterans) are our heroes. They've given so much of themselves. They deserve the best care we can give them, particularly with this disease," said Clare Cameron, executive director of the nearby Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. "I think it is so important to take care of them now. They have earned that right."

Help With Petition Signatures

Cameron has been gathering petition signatures supporting efforts by the West Los Angeles VA and the Zumwalt family. She will present the petition early in 2014 to Robert Petzel, M.D., Under Secretary for Health for the U.S....

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Increase in miscarriages coincided with high levels of lead in D.C. water, study finds

The study findings, which are scheduled to be published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, do not prove that the city’s lead crisis caused fetal deaths or miscarriages. But the results show a significant correlation between the two events.
Lead is an extremely toxic metal, and ingestion of lead paint dust and high doses of lead in water have been traced to brain damage, behavioral problems and developmental delays in children. Exposure to lead has also been linked to miscarriages. In the early 1900s, lead-laced pills were used to induce abortions.
The study, by Virginia Tech environmental engineer Marc Edwards, contrasts sharply with government-led health studies that were released amid an outcry after people learned of hazardous lead in the water in 2004. Those studies largely rejected the notion that the water had harmed public health.
The data seem “to confirm the expectation, based on prior research, that about 20 to 30 extra fetal deaths occurred each year that the lead in water was high,” Edwards said.
One rushed and disputed analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asserted in April 2004 that there was no indication of health trouble from the water problem, even among children in homes with the highest lead levels in the water. Under repeated criticism, the CDC published a corrected analysis in 2010, acknowledging that this overarching statement had been misleading and based on incomplete data.
Today, the city’s...

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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Florida New Case Filings Continue To Go South

FL New Case Filings Decrease

Florida has again issued a through and expansive report concerning its workers' compensation system. A model for transparency, the report reflects a continued decline in new case filings.
Click here to read the complete report.

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Merck agrees to proposed $27.7 mln settlement over Fosamax lawsuits

Many injured workers have been prescribed Fosamax for treatment of their conditions. Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.reuters.com

By Nate Raymond and Jessica Dye
NEW YORK Dec 9 (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc said on Monday that it was prepared to pay $27.7 million to settle lawsuits by hundreds of people who sued the company over allegations that its osteoporosis drug Fosamax caused bones in the jaw to deteriorate.
Lawyers for Merck and plaintiffs disclosed the proposed settlement at a court hearing in New York to resolve 1,140 lawsuits pending in federal and state courts. Any settlement would need to be approved by a judge.
Merck, which confirmed the agreement later on Monday, said the accord requires a 100 percent participation rate and evidence that the claimants satisfy eligibility requirements. The deal covers about 1,200 people, the company said.
"We hope to bring this to a successful conclusion," Paul Strain, a lawyer for Merck, said at the hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan before Judge John Keenan, who has presided over federal litigation by plaintiffs claiming that they developed osteonecrosis of the jaw from taking Fosamax.
The condition is a disease that causes bones in the jaw to deteriorate or die.
The settlement would resolve a large portion of the 5,255 product liability cases facing Merck over Fosamax, a one-time blockbuster drug with $3 billion in sales in 2007.
Sales have declined since Fosamax lost patent protection in 2008. Through September, Merck had reported $421 million in Fosamax sales in 2013.
Of the lawsuits over Fosamax, about 860 of the cases were before...

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Wah, Wah, Wah

Occupational disease claims present difficulty in the delivery of medical care. Today's post was shared by WorkCompCentral and comes from daviddepaolo.blogspot.com

At least that's the message that I got out of the latest study from researchers at National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in their study just published by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

According to them, accepted workers' compensation claims that do not result in medical payments could be costing group health insurers at least $212 million a year because folks who don't get their treatment through work comp for their work injuries or illnesses do so through their group health provider.

Claims that do not result in medical payments through work comp are referred to as "zero-cost claims" in the study.

The researchers' analysis of more than 12,000 claims from 2002 through 2005 revealed that 15.9% of the claims were zero-cost claims. Claimants with zero-cost claims were more likely to use group health insurance services and incur more group health costs.

"In the three months before an occupational injury, 53.9% of workers with positive-cost workers' compensation medical claims and 61.6% of workers with zero-cost workers' compensation medical claims used the outpatient group health insurance at least once," the study says. "Within three months after an occupational injury, group health insurance utilization for outpatient services increased to 61.2% and 74.1% for workers with positive- and zero-cost workers' compensation medical claims, respectively."

In addition, one of the study's most significant findings...

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SEAK Announces 2014 Seminar Schedule

SEAK is the sponsor of the largest and most highly regarded national workers’ compensation and occupational medicine conference. SEAK’s Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Medicine Conference was first held in 1980 and takes place each July on Cape Cod. Their attendees learn from international thought leaders and go home with cost saving solutions to their issues. They have over 50 exhibitors in attendance each year and SEAK's conference is an annual networking event.

Seminar	Location	Start ▾	End
SEAK Advanced Orthopedics for Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Health Professionals	Hyannis, MA	July 21, 2014	July 21, 2014
Return to Work: Evidence Based Skills and Strategies	Hyannis, MA	July 21, 2014	July 21, 2014
Advanced Neurology for Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Health Professionals	Hyannis, MA	July 21, 2014	July 21, 2014
The Excellent IME: Master’s Class	Hyannis, MA	July 21, 2014	July 21, 2014
ADA and FMLA: In Depth	Hyannis, MA	July 21, 2014	July 21, 2014
34th Annual National Workers’ Compensation and Occupational Medicine Conference	Hyannis, MA	July 22, 2014	July 24, 2014

Click here for further information.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

More Cost Shifting

A recent study reports that zero-cost workers' compensation claims merely shift costs to other programs.

Oklahoma workers' compensation opt-out provisions spark judicial questions

The new law enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature would convert the state from a judicial workers' compensation system to an administrative one.

Photo - Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin talks with reporters in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, July 17, 2013, following a speech to the National Lieutenant Governors Association annual meeting. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin talks with
reporters in Oklahoma City,
Wednesday, July 17, 2013, following
a speech to the National Lieutenant
Governors Association annual meeting.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

It would allow employers to opt out of the system as long as they provide coverage for the same injuries as the state-operated administrative system and provide benefits to injured workers that are at least as generous.
Law a high priority
The law was a high priority of Gov. Mary Fallin and Republican legislative leaders, who have said it will help businesses by reducing workers' compensation costs. Opponents claim cost savings will come at the expense of injured workers.
Oklahoma City attorney John McMurry, who is challenging the law on behalf of two state lawmakers and the Professional Fire Fighters of Oklahoma, argued that not all Oklahoma employers and employees would be treated equally under the law.
Employees of companies that opt out of the system would have “fewer rights” than employees of companies that participate in the administrative system, McMurry argued.
An employee of an opt-out company who is dissatisfied with the way the employer has handled a claim would first have to appeal to a panel of three persons appointed by the employer, McMurry said.
Eventually, the employee would be able to appeal a series...

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How ALEC Serves As A 'Dating Service' For Politicians And Corporations

ALEC has endorsed workers' compensation as program to shield corporate liability. "
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the State of (insert state) specifically reaffirms the principle of workers’ compensation as the exclusive remedy and rejects the rationale for tort liability based on legal theories such as dual capacity/dual persona, intentional injury without proof that the employer acted with deliberate intention to cause the injury, or third party action against employers for work-related injuries." Today's post is shared from NPR.org .

A batch of internal documents recently leaked to The Guardian has revealed new insights into the goals and finances of the secretive group called ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations. Together, they develop model bills that lawmakers introduce and try to pass in their state legislatures. Through these model bills, ALEC has worked to privatize public education, cut taxes, reduce public employee compensation, oppose Obamacare and resist state regulations to reduce global warming gas emissions.
"ALEC is like an incubator of predominantly conservative legislation," Guardian correspondent Ed Pilkington tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "The vast majority of the model bills are conservative in their...

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Characterizing the quality of supportive cancer care can guide quality improvement of veterans

Objective  To evaluate nonhospice supportive cancer care comprehensively in a national sample of veterans.
Design, Setting, and Participants  Using a retrospective cohort study design, we measured evidence-based cancer care processes using previously validated indicators of care quality in patients with advanced cancer, addressing pain, nonpain symptoms, and information and care planning among 719 veterans with a 2008 Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry diagnosis of stage IV colorectal (37.0%), pancreatic (29.8%), or lung (33.2%) cancer.
Main Outcomes and Measures  We abstracted medical records from diagnosis for 3 years or until death among eligible veterans (lived ≥30 days following diagnosis with ≥1 Veterans Affairs hospitalization or ≥2 Veterans Affairs outpatient visits). Each indicator identified a clinical scenario and an appropriate action. For each indicator for which a veteran was eligible, we determined whether appropriate care was provided. We also determined patient-level quality overall and by pain, nonpain symptoms, and information and care planning domains.
Results  Most veterans were older (mean age, 66.2 years), male (97.2%), and white (74.3%). Eighty-five percent received both inpatient and outpatient care, and 92.5% died. Overall, the 719 veterans triggered a mean of 11.7 quality indicators (range, 1-22) and received a mean 49.5% of appropriate care. Notable gaps in care were that inpatient pain screening was common (96.5%) but lacking for outpatients (58.1%). With opioids, bowel prophylaxis occurred for only 52.2% of outpatients and 70.5% of inpatients. Few patients had a timely dyspnea evaluation (15.8%) or treatment (10.8%). Outpatient assessment of fatigue occurred for 31.3%. Of patients at high risk for diarrhea from chemotherapy, 24.2% were offered appropriate antidiarrheals. Only 17.7% of veterans had goals of care addressed in the month after a diagnosis of advanced cancer, and 63.7% had timely discussion of goals following intensive care unit admission. Most decedents (86.4%) were referred to palliative care or hospice before death. Single- vs multiple-fraction radiotherapy should have been considered in 28 veterans with bone metastasis, but none were offered this option.
Conclusions and Relevance  These care gaps reflect important targets for improving the patient and family experience of cancer care.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Rehospitalization Rates Fell In First Year Of Medicare Penalties

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

During the first eight months of this year, fewer than 18 percent of Medicare patients ended up back in the hospital within a month of discharge, the lowest rate in years, the government reported Friday. This drop occurred during the first year that Medicare financially penalized hospitals for their readmission rates, and the government seized on the decrease as evidence the incentives are having an effect.

revolving door300

The government is targeting rehospitalizations as a significant indicator of gaps in medical quality in the nation’s hospitals. While some elderly patients inevitably return to the hospital, the government and some researchers believe many of those returns are avoidable if hospitals monitor patients after their release to ensure they get appropriate medications and follow-up visits with doctors.
In the first year of the program, which began in August 2012, Medicare fined 2,213 hospitals—about two-thirds of those it evaluated— for higher than anticipated readmission rates. Last August, Medicare issued a second year of penalties against 2,225 hospitals. The maximum penalties created by the health law have risen from 1 percent of regular Medicare payments to 2 percent, and they will increase for a third and final time next August to 3 percent.
The new data reported by Medicare show that readmission rates for the first eight months of 2013 dropped below 18 percent, half a percentage point below 2012’s rate of 18.5 percent. From 2007 to...

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A Twist of Fate: Italian Asbestos Victims’ Investigator Finds Evidence Stephan Schmidheiny’s Avina Foundation Donated to Yale University by Linda Reinstein

Today's post was shared by Ban Asbestos Network and comes from www.gban.net

Revoke Convicted Asbestos Criminal Stephan Schmidheiny honorary Yale doctorate_edited-2

Posted on December 9, 2013
Corporate Crime Reporter: Italian Asbestos Victims Call on Yale To Revoke Honorary Degree to Schmidheiny @CorpCrimeReport
The Courant: Asbestos Victims Ask Yale To Revoke Honorary Degree Of Former Factory Owner @hartfordcourant
Yale Daily News: A Toxic Legacy @yaledailynews
ADAO BLOG: ADAO Supports AFEVA’s Plea to Yale University to Revoke Schmidheiny’s Honorary Doctorate
On October 30, 2013, an Italian asbestos victims’ group, Associazione Famigliari Vittime Amianto (AFeVA) has sent a letter and petition to Dr. Salovery asking Yale to revoke asbestos criminal, Stephan Schmidheiny’s, honorary doctorate.
Yale University awarded billionaire Schmidheiny an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1996, ten years after the Eternit plant in Casale was closed, leaving behind an environment disaster. The Italian court noted that Schmidheiny’s actual knowledge of the deadly hazards of asbestos dated back at least as far as 1976 when he attended an Eternit managers conference and was involved in key decision-making about the company’s asbestos business.
Yale University asserted in the October 30^,2013 letter that neither Schmidheiny, Eternit nor Schmidheiny’s Avina Foundation ever contributed gifts or grants to Yale. Wrong! In an interesting twist, however,...

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Delay Or Deny At Your Risk

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

There are so many reasons why both employers and workers feel that workers' compensation is "broken" or doesn't work.

Peter Rousmaniere, who is beginning work this week for WorkCompCentral, suggests in his column reviewing two studies on perceived delays in medical treatment that delay may arise as much from indifferent doctoring skills as days elapsing on the calendar.

An employer consultant relayed to me a factual scenario indicating another cause of this perception - standard claims administration protocol, which is defensive in nature as opposed to being aggressively pro-active.

Rousmaniere cites a couple of studies in his column. A Texas Department of Workers' Compensation survey of injured workers documents wide discrepancy in perceptions, but also notes that up to 50% of all survey respondents complained of some delay in receipt of treatment.

Another study cited by Rousmaniere conducted by Harbor Health, which specializes in designing workers’ compensation provider networks, looked for differences in claims outcome, including medical cost and litigation rates, and if surgical treatment happened early or late in the course of treatment.

Harbor Health found that early surgery in carpal tunnel cases (earlier than recommended by treatment guidelines) produced slightly more cost in medical expense but much less cost in indemnity expense.

Let's put these findings into context.

Assume a 28 year old male worker who complains of "...

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Passengers had to tell NJ Transit driver he struck pedestrian in Jersey City, report says

The NJ Transit bus driver who struck and critically injured a Union City man Friday night did not even know he struck the man until he was notified by passengers on the bus, police said in an accident report.

The posted speed limit for the street is 25 miles per hour, the report said.

The incident occurred in front of the Engine 14 Firehouse, whose members were among the first responders at the scene. When police arrived, the victim was being treated for injuries to his head and right leg.

The man was taken to the Jersey City Medical Center. The driver told police that he was turning left onto Palisade Avenue from Congress Street when passengers told him there was a "commotion" in the street. The driver said he never saw the man, the report said.

At the JCMC, medical officials were unable to get an account of what happened from the victim.

The 58-year-old underwent emergency surgery early Saturday morning and underwent a second surgery Sunday, Jersey City Medical Center spokesman Mark Rabson said. He was in guarded condition this afternoon.

NJ Transit officials refused to comment on the incident and would not say if any actions have been taken against the bus driver.

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Harness driver from Jersey City critically injured in racetrack accident

Harness race drivers are subject to workers' compensation coverage in NJ. Today's post is shared from philly.com
Members of the harness racing industry across the country are rallying to support a harness driver from Jersey City, who was critically injured at a Philadelphia racetrack on Nov. 17.
Anthony Coletta, 31, was critically injured after he was trampled by a horse during a four-horse accident at Harrah’s Philadelphia racetrack in Chester, Penn., according to Harnesslink.com.
Philly.com reported the accident occurred during the night's 11th race just short of two minutes into it. The accident was recorded on video, and, according to Philly.com, it shows one horse appearing to stumble to the ground as a second horse rams it from behind, causing Coletta to flip several feet into the air and onto the track, as a horse comes up behind him. Other horses collided.
Coletta was taken to a local medical facility and then flow by Medivac helicopter to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania where he underwent surgery for brain trauma and multiple fractures, reported Harnesslink.com. It was reported as of the next morning Coletta was breathing on his own, the website reported.
Horsemen throughout the country have been organizing fundraising events and others are donating portions of their winnings to help pay for Coletta’s hospital expenses, it was reported.
The efforts are all being coordinated by one of Coletta’s best...

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Copyright

Friday, December 13, 2013

Help With Petition Signatures

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