IMPROVING CHEMICAL FACILITY SAFETY AND SECURITY

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.whitehouse.gov

The White House

EXECUTIVE ORDER

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IMPROVING CHEMICAL FACILITY SAFETY AND SECURITY

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Purpose. Chemicals, and the facilities where they are manufactured, stored, distributed, and used, are essential to today's economy. Past and recent tragedies have reminded us, however, that the handling and storage of chemicals are not without risk. The Federal Government has developed and implemented numerous programs aimed at reducing the safety risks and security risks associated with hazardous chemicals. However, additional measures can be taken by executive departments and agencies (agencies) with regulatory authority to further improve chemical facility safety and security in coordination with owners and operators.

Sec. 2. Establishment of the Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group. (a) There is established a Chemical Facility Safety and Security Working Group (Working Group) co-chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Secretary of Labor or their designated representatives at the Assistant Secretary level or higher. In addition, the Working Group shall consist of the head of each of the following agencies or their designated representatives at the Assistant Secretary level or higher:

(i) the Department of...

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Facebook Disclosure for 87 Class Action Plaintiffs? Federal Court Denies Discovery Request

Social media accounts are evidential to determine the credibility of the a party in a workers' compensation claim. Take it one step further and they can also be a factor in determining deviation from employment. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from p.ost.im

Social media accounts, typically Facebook, are currently a hot-button issue for plaintiff ESI production in civil litigation. Most courts (but not all!) require a threshold showing that the public account has relevant information that would lead to discoverable evidence before requiring a plaintiff to produce private portions of the account.

In an order dated July 19, 2013 in the case of Jewell v. Aaron’s, Inc., Civil No. 1:12-CV-0563-AT (N.D.Ga. 2013), 87 opt-in plaintiffs are suing their employer for, among other claims, not allowing certain lunch breaks as required by law. The defendants sought, among their discovery requests:
“All documents, statements or any activity available that you posted on any internet Web site or Web page, including, but not limited to, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, or a blog from 2009 to the present during your work hours at Aaron’s store.”

ICD-10 will impact workers comp, non-HIPAA entities, too

ICD codes are ruling workers' compensation and the lives and claims of injured workers. Today's post was shared from /ehrintelligence.com.

"They might not have to play by all the same rules, but healthcare providers shouldn’t forget the impact ICD-10 will have on non-HIPAA covered entities such as workers compensation, nursing homes, and home health agencies.  While non-HIPAA entities are not mandated to switch to the new code set on October 1, 2014, the changing tide will sweep them along with the complex transition whether they like it or not.  Medical providers should be aware of the struggles of their non-HIPAA partners, especially as the care coordination spectrum expands to include more and more external organizations that may not always be on the same page.

"t may seem like those entities that are allowed to stick with ICD-9 would be happy to do so.  But in fact, staying with the old code set, which will not be maintained or updated after 2014, might be more trouble than it’s worth.  Technically, workers compensation insurance could demand all provider claims to contain ICD-9 codes for as long as they please, but the undue hardship that would place on medical professionals has been deemed too great by some large insurance plans such as the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (OBWC), which is planning to use ICD-10 after the implementation date.

Non-HIPAA entities could also choose to accept ICD-10 codes from providers but crosswalk them back to ICD-9 if they don’t want to upgrade their systems.  But the extra work to create accurate and reliable mappings from a very detailed code to a broader ICD-9 one seems a little pointless.  “Even though claims professionals don’t have to be immediately fluent in ICD-10, they should be forward-thinking and follow the market in the direction it’s headed,” suggests John Sarich, VP of Strategy for VUE Software in a post for Claims Journal. “It will require some upfront investment, but will ultimately outweigh the lost time that accompanies translating every medical record you encounter.”

"And payers such as workers compensation and property and casualty insurance (P&C) do have a vested interest in the detail and specificity provided by ICD-10, mandate or no.  They will spend less time pestering physicians for more and more documentation to validate a claim for an injury, reducing the administrative burden for everyone involved – assuming payer claims processors are properly trained in the new code set and don’t need to return to the provider to ask for clarification.

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Cyclospora: It Is Not Over Yet - US Count at 548 Cases

The mystery of the Cyclospora infection continues, putting workplaces at risk  from the disease.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported nine more US Cyclospora infections, raising its case count to 548, but the total does not include 21 of the most recent cases that the TexasDepartment of State Health Services (TDSHS) has listed on its Web site. Those additions would bring the tally to 569.

The number of affected states remained at 19 (see CDC map below), but the CDC said that not all cases are confirmed to be linked to an outbreak in Iowa and Nebraska traced to a contaminated salad mix from Mexico. The states with by far the most cases are Texas, 220 (by the CDC's count); Iowa, 153; and Nebraska, 86.

The most recent illness onset was Jul 28, but most illness-onset dates are from the middle of June through early July, the CDC said. Of the 548 cases, 34 (6%) have required hospitalization.

Investigations have linked restaurant-related illness clusters in Iowa and Nebraska to a packaged salad mix from a Taylor Farms facility in Mexico, and this week the company voluntarily stopped shipping all of its leafy greens to the United States.
Aug 14 CDC outbreak update
Aug 14 TDSHS update

 

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The Reverberating Impact of Low Wages

Today's post was shared by RWJF PublicHealth and comes from www.rwjf.org

A recent vote by the Washington D.C. City Council requires large retailers to pay a minimum hourly wage of $12.50 an hour—$5.25 more than the current minimum wage of $7.25 nationally and $8.25 in D.C.— and the decision received wide attention, especially when retailers planning to build new stores in the city said they’d pull the plug on the projects if required to pay the higher salaries. But at least two recent magazine articles explain why there’s been a fervent recent push to try to push up the wages of those in low-paying jobs. New York Magazine recently surveyed 100 fast food restaurant employees in that city and asked, among other things, “can you live off your paycheck?” The answer appears to be no. The average pretax monthly pay for the surveyed workers was $984 while average monthly expenses including rent, utilities, groceries and cell phone bills was $1,115—which adds up to $131 more in expenses than pay.

Bonus Link: Why does income matter to health? See a NewPublicHealth infographic on how stable jobs and income lead to healthier lives.

And last weeks’ New Yorker Magazine added heft to the need to look at the current minimum wage rate, in light of just how critical that income is to many households. According to the article, while low-wage retail jobs were once squarely aimed at high school students looking for pocket money and those looking for supplemental income, in the last few years of stiff unemployment,...

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ExxonMobil Knew for Years About Defects in Ill-Fated Arkansas Pipeline

Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.fairwarning.org

Despite risks, oil giant added stresses to pipeline that eventually ruptured. Since at least 2006, ExxonMobil realized that its 1940s-era Pegasus pipeline had many manufacturing defects like the faulty welds that, in March, sent crude oil spewing into a Mayflower, Ark., neighborhood. Its seams were known to be prone to cracking, too. Still, Exxon added new stresses to the pipeline by starting to carry a heavier type of oil, reversing the direction of the flow and increasing the amount of crude surging through it. Separately, the costly oil spill cleanups in Mayflower and in Marshall, Mich., highlight the potential hazards of transporting heavy Canadian crude as the Obama administration nears a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. InsideClimate News, The New York Times

Lax reporting, scant oversight undermine 27-year-old program to track hazardous chemical storage. Under the U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, private and public operations must issue an inventory of potentially hazardous chemicals at their sites. The inventory, known as a Tier II report, is filed with state, county and local emergency-management officials. The information is then supposed to be made public to help first responders and residents plan for emergencies. But operations across the U.S. often misidentify chemicals or their location, and sometimes don’t report on the substances at all. The system has drawn scrutiny since April’s deadly...

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Improving Patient and Worker Safety: Opportunities for Synergy, Collaboration and Innovation

Today's post was shared by US Dept. of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

What is healthcare?

Healthcare is involved, directly or indirectly, with the provision of health services to individuals. These services can occur in a variety of work settings, including hospitals, clinics, dental offices, out-patient surgery centers, birthing centers, emergency medical care, home healthcare, and nursing homes.

What types of hazards do workers face?

Healthcare workers face a number of serious safety and health hazards. They include bloodborne pathogens and biological hazards, potential chemical and drug exposures, waste anesthetic gas exposures, respiratory hazards, ergonomic hazards from lifting and repetitive tasks, laser hazards, workplace violence, hazards associated with laboratories, and radioactive material and x-ray hazards. Some of the potential chemical exposures include formaldehyde, used for preservation of specimens for pathology; ethylene oxide, glutaraldehyde, and paracetic acid used for sterilization; and numerous other chemicals used in healthcare laboratories.

How many workers get sick or injured?

More workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other. This industry has one of the highest rates of work related injuries and illnesses. In 2010, the healthcare and social assistance industry reported more injury and illness cases than any other private industry sector -- 653,900 cases (Table 2 [268 KB PDF, 29 pages]). That is 152,000 more cases than the next industry sector: manufacturing. In 2010, the...

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