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(c) 2010-2026 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Kaiser Permanente, Unions Launch New Employee Wellness Program

Organized Labor is improving worker health by encouraging wellness program, a counterbalance to  the erosion of workers' compensation pre-existing disease limitations. Today's post was shared by votersinjuredatwork and comes from www.californiahealthline.org
Kaiser Permanente and the 29 unions that represent its employees in California and eight other regions have teamed up to offer incentive payments to groups of workers who improve their health, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Details of Program

Under the voluntary program, Kaiser's 133,000 workers could earn up to $500 each if participants in their region collectively:
All employees -- even those who choose not to participate -- will be eligible for payouts if:
  • 75% of workers in their region complete an online health survey, which would earn $150 incentive payments for all employees in that region;
  • 85% of workers in their region update their baseline screenings for weight, smoking, cholesterol and blood pressure, which would earn $150 payments for all workers in that region; and
  • There is an average 1.7% improvement and no declines across such measures by December 2014, which would earn $200 for all employees in that region.
The program does not apply to doctors, dentists and executives, but it does include both union and non-union employees.
Kaiser will issue all payouts in 2015. The total cost of the program could reach $66.5 million, according to the Bee.

Comments From Kaiser

Kathy Gerwig -- vice president of employee safety, health and wellness at Kaiser -- said the program is "very inclusive of everybody" and will "drive the culture toward healthier work environments and camaraderie around getting healthier."
She...
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Bangladesh workers must continue to wait for full compensation

Fashion Safety continues to dominate international news and reflects that the movement that the workers' compenstion sparked by the historic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire cannot be rekindled. Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.industriall-union.org


Eleven of the brands and retailers sourcing from the factories involved in the Tazreen and Rana Plaza disasters joined high-level compensation meetings, facilitated by the ILO as a neutral chair, on 11-12 September in Geneva. Many other major companies failed to attend, showing total contempt for the 1,900 workers who were injured and the families of over 1,200 workers who were killed making their products.

IndustriALL Global Union Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle stated: “Consumers will be shocked that almost a half-year has passed since the Rana Plaza disaster with only one brand so far providing any compensation to the disaster’s victims. I respect those brands that came to these meetings. But I cannot understand brands that are not around the table.”

Regarding Rana Plaza out of a total of 29 brands that were invited the following 9 brands showed good faith by attending the meeting: Bon Marché, Camaieu, El Corte Ingles, Kik, Loblaw, Mascot, Matalan, Primark and Store Twenty One.

20 other companies, all of whom were invited, failed to show up: Adler, Auchan, Benetton, C&A, Carrefour, Cato Corp, The Children’s Place, Dressbarn, Essenza, FTA International, Gueldenpfennig, Iconix Brand, Inditex, JC Penney, Kids Fashion Group, LPP, Mango, Manifattura Corona, NKD, Premier Clothing, PWT Group, Texman and Walmart.

IndustriALL, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) presented a proposed...
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Powerful New Videos Encourage Those Who Qualify to Seek Care through the World Trade Center Health Program

Many victims of the 9-11 World Trade Center terorist attack have not yet sought medical care nor filed a claim for benefits. Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from blogs.cdc.gov


Glenn, a retired New York City police officer, shares how the World Trade Center Health Program helped him regain his health.

Though the September 11th attacks were over a decade ago, thousands of people who were in the affected areas continue to experience physical and mental health symptoms as a result of their experience in the days, months, and even years following 9/11. They may not recognize that some cancers, a chronic cough, difficulty sleeping, or frequent heartburn that they— or their children— experience could be a 9/11 related health condition.

NIOSH is teaming up with our community partners to spread the word that help is available through the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program. Created by the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, the WTC Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for responders at the World Trade Center and related sites in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, and for survivors who were in the New York City disaster area. All care for covered conditions is provided at no out of pocket costs for those who qualify.

The WTC Health Program has helped thousands regain their health following the September 11th terrorist attacks. This year the Program is launching a digital campaign to make sure that those who may qualify for care, but are not enrolled, get the help they need and deserve. The campaign features videos of members telling their stories. Both responders and survivors describe...
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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Poor Diet Of Shift Workers An "Occupational Health Hazard"

Today's post was shared by Safe Healthy Workers and comes from www.medicalnewstoday.com


The editors of a leading journal suggest that the poor diet of shift workers should be considered an occupational health hazard. They argue that working patterns should be treated as a specific risk factor for obesity and type 2 diabetes, which have reached epidemic proportions in the developed world, with the developing world not far behind.

With reference to studies published in earlier issues of the journal, that show links between increased risk in type 2 diabetes and shift work patterns in American nurses, Dr Virginia Barbour, chief editor of the journal PLoS Medicine and her fellow editors make a case in this month's edition for classing unhealthy eating as a new form of occupational hazard, especially in those workplaces that employ shift workers, whose easy access to junk food compared to healthier options just makes it harder to keep to a good diet.

Shift work is common in both the developed and the developing world. About 15 to 20% of workers in Europe and the US work shifts, many of them in the health care industry.
As the world moves more toward the 24/7 pattern of "open all hours", shift work will become even more common than this, and if the data from studies cited in their...
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Health Care Spending Will Peak Around 2025 and Then Flatten Out

Recent comment to the cost of medical care in for injured workers appear to reflect that it is a "boomer generation" factor. The question is whether the workers' compensation system can wait until 2025 or will it be dead by then as a result of medical costs. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.motherjones.com


This is apropos of nothing. I happened to be fiddling around with CMS health care expenditures and decided to take a look at how spending has increased year-over-year as a share of GDP for the past four decades. (Example: If spending increases from a 16 percent share of GDP to a 16.4 percent share of GDP, that's a year-over-year 2.5 percent growth rate.)

The chart below is a rolling 5-year average to smooth out the noise. Roughly speaking, it shows a steady decrease in the growth rate. If things continue along these lines, health care spending will continue increasing until it reaches about 21-22 percent of GDP sometime in the mid-2020s. The aging of the baby boom generation might send that number a little higher, but not by a lot, I suspect.

The mechanism is simple: As spending goes up, our collective resistance to higher spending increases, and that's the ultimate brake on health care expenditures. I'm willing to bet that U.S. spending on health care will never top 25 percent of GDP. It might not even top 23 percent.

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Why Health Care Is Stuck — And How to Fix It

Medical costs approximate the largest majority of costs in workers' compensation claims. Today's post was shared by NEJM and comes from blogs.hbr.org


20130918_2

The pressures for fundamental change in health care have been building for decades, but meaningful change has been limited while the urgency of change only grows. The moment of discontinuity has arrived. Already unsustainable costs, an aging population, advances in medicine, and a growing proportion of patients in low reimbursement government programs have made the status quo unsustainable. Change is inevitable.

There is only one real solution, which is to dramatically increase the value of health care. Value is the outcomes achieved for patients relative to the money spent. Without major improvements in value, services will need to be restricted, the incomes of health care professionals will fall, and patients will be asked to pay even more.

In our October Harvard Business Review article “The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care”we describe the strategic agenda that is necessary to create a high value health care delivery system. We believe that there is no longer any doubt about how to increase the value of care. The question is whether providers can make the necessary changes.
Why has it been so hard for health care organizations to improve outcomes and efficiency, despite their best intentions? With so many good, smart people working so hard? With patients’ needs so obvious and so compelling? And with such deep societal concerns about health care spending? The...
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Frigidaire Recalls Professional Blenders Due to Laceration Hazard

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.
Frigidaire Professional blender
Serial plate with model and serial numbers on bottom of unit
This recall involves Frigidaire Professional© brand blender model FPJB56B7MS with a serial number between FFP 49 1203 0001 and FFP 49 1237 00974. The model and serial numbers are located on a serial plate on the underside of the blender’s motor base. Frigidaire Professional is printed on the front base of the blenders. The 5-speed blender is brushed aluminum and has black buttons on the front. The blender container is a 56-oz. clear glass jar with a black lid and a black base.
Incidents/Injuries
Frigidaire has received eight reports of the blender’s blade shaft assembly breaking. No injuries have been reported.
Remedy
Consumers should stop using the recalled blenders immediately and contact Frigidaire for instructions on returning the blenders for a free replacement blender.
Sold at
Best Buy, Target and other stores nationwide and online at amazon.com, bedbath.com and other online retailers from March 2012 through July 2013 for about $130.
Distributor
Electrolux Home Care Products Inc., of Charlotte, N.C.
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...
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