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Monday, October 27, 2014

National Trends and Developments in Workers' Compensation

This brief looks at trends and developments in state workers' compensation systems across the nation over the last 25 years, identifying at least seven that undermine workers' human rights to health and work with dignity. The brief calls for immediate action to end the roll back on injured and ill workers' rights and advocates for broad systemic change based on human rights notions. Workers' comp is one of several systems created through public policy to offer social protection and health care to some people in certain scenarios, which, together, are failing to guarantee everyone access to health care and income support when they need it. It is ultimately the government's responsibility to guarantee and enable all people to enforce their rights to universal health care and a basic income.
Downloads:
Workers Comp Trends and Developments October 2014.pdf

- See more at: http://www.nesri.org/resources/national-trends-and-developments-in-workers-compensation#sthash.nNJrsF3v.dpuf

IMIG 2014: New Molecules and New Therapies – Advancing Mesothelioma Carehttp://imig.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/fennell.jpg

Keynote, Dean Fennell presents on treatment developments for mesothelioma

Click here to watch Dean Fennell

Construction worker killed in crash identified

Today's post was shared by Trucker Lawyers and comes from journalstar.com
The death of a construction worker hit by a vehicle on Tuesday as he worked on a highway project south of Tilden is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Alejandro Banueldo-Flores, 59, had worked for Werner Construction Co. for about 30 days and was performing flagging operations on Nebraska 45 around 7:25 p.m. when a southbound vehicle driven by Roger Wynn, 66, of Meadow Grove struck him, according to officials.
Bonita Winingham, OSHA’s area director in Omaha, offered condolences to the family and co-workers of Banueldo-Flores and urged drivers to slow down and be alert for workers.
No arrests or citations had been issued as of Wednesday morning, the Antelope County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the Antelope and Pierce county sheriff’s offices with help from the Nebraska State Patrol.
Antelope County Attorney Joe Abler, who released Banueldo-Flores' name, did not say where the man lived.
OSHA has fined Werner Construction twice, following the deaths of workers in 2009 and 2013, according to a U.S. Labor Department news release.
On Sept. 17, 2013, an employee got caught between a semitrailer and a front-end loader on Nebraska 14 near Albion. OSHA fined the company $10,500 for three violations.
On Oct. 7, 2009, a worker was pulled into a paving machine on a job site along U.S. 275 between Norfolk and Battle Creek. OSHA fined Werner...
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IMIG: Dr. Constantine Alifrangis Speaks on Next Generation Sequencing in Mesothelioma

Dr. Constantine Alifrangis focused on the study of cancer genomes and how it might be used to identify new treatments and individualize care for patients with mesothelioma. These approaches have identified specific genomic alterations in mesothelioma associated with unexpected drug sensitivities in mesothelioma. As for other cancers, study of cancer genomes in mesothelioma has the potential to guide development of novel therapies for this disease.Click here to hear and see more about this work.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Quarantined nurse to CNN: 'My basic human rights' are being violated

Today's post is shared from cnn.com
Kaci Hickox, a nurse placed under mandatory quarantine in New Jersey, went on CNN on Sunday and criticized the "knee-jerk reaction by politicians" to Ebola, saying "to quarantine someone without a better plan in place, without more forethought, is just preposterous."
Hickox, an epidemiologist who was working to help treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has tested negative twice for Ebola and does not have symptoms, she said.
"This is an extreme that is really unacceptable, and I feel like my basic human rights have been violated," Hickox told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union."
She described herself as "physically strong" but "emotionally exhausted."
"To put me through this emotional and physical stress is completely unacceptable," she said.
She slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for describing her as "obviously ill."
"I'm sorry, but that's just a completely unacceptable statement in my opinion. For him -- a politician who's trusted and respected -- to make a statement that's categorically not true is just unacceptable and appalling," Hickox told Elizabeth Cohen, CNN's senior medical correspondent, in a separate interview.
Hickox told Crowley that mandatory quarantine is "not a sound public health decision" and that public health officials -- not politicians...
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Modern Workplaces Add Complexity to Workers' Compenation Cases

Premises liability is a major issue currently in workers' compensation claims as people "work at home." The change by created by eliminating a commute also changes the pattern of risk. While the coming and going rule may be avoided there are other distractions at home that create new issues challenging compensability. Today's post is shared from thelegalintelligencer.com
A day at work isn't always just a day at the office. Attorneys in workers' compensation practice know that all too well. And as technological advances allow more workers to telecommute and correspond on work matters from outside of the office, the conditions surrounding compensable incidents are increasingly complicated.
"The ability of an employer to maintain access to an employee and the ability of an employer to give instructions to an employee remotely have increased," said Edward Neyhart, of the Law Offices of Byrne, Neyhart & Higgins. "As people work remotely more and more and people are engaging in various activities and mobile technology allows people greater access to travel and working away from the office setting, it becomes a much more important issue."
Neyhart said he has been inundated with workers' compensation cases this year, many borne out of a constant connection to the office.
"[These cases] are just the beginning of the pattern of litigation that is going to have to work its way up to the appellate courts," he said. "Employers and insurance companies have to adapt to the changing status of liability."
According to a 2010 survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 24 percent of workers telecommute, meaning they work from home for at least some of their hours each week. That can blur the lines on compensable injuries, especially for those who only work from home sometimes.
"It puts them in the...
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GOP changes tune on cutting Social Security with elections on the line

The focus of the upcoming, expensive, mid-term elections has moved away from Obamacare and toward other issues. This development may impact quite heavily upon medical delivery on a Federal level  and may finally be a major concession that Universal Medical will just have to be accepted because of the need to rein in costs and for efficiency. Today's post is shared from washingtonpost.com/

Cutting federal health and retirement spending has long been at the top of the GOP agenda. But with Republicans in striking distance of winning the Senate, they are suddenly blasting the idea of trimming Social Security benefits.
The latest attack came in Georgia, where the National Republican Campaign Committee posted an ad last week accusing Rep. John Barrow (D) of “leaving Georgia seniors behind” by supporting “a plan that would raise the retirement age to 69 while cutting Social Security benefits.”
Crossroads GPS, the conservative nonprofit group founded by GOP strategist Karl Rove, has run similar ads against North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan (D), Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor (D) and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). Crossroads accused Hagan of supporting a “controversial plan” that “raises the retirement age.”
Pryor’s opponent, Rep. Tom Cotton, meanwhile, is one of at least three Republican candidates in competitive Senate races who have released cheery ads promising to protect Social Security. In Colorado, Rep. Cory Gardner (R) appears in a new ad with his “Grandma Betty” and vows to “honor every penny we promised today’s seniors” — a pledge that seems to conflict with demands by Republican congressional leaders for a less-generous inflation formula to calculate seniors’ cost-of-living increases.
Older voters typically dominate the electorate in non-presidential years, so the resort to...
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