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Showing posts sorted by date for query federalization. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query federalization. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Income inequality last year rose in 15 states

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

The nation became more unequal last year.
The Gini Index, a measure of income inequality, was higher, in a statistically significant way, in 2013 than in 2012, rising from 0.476 to 0.481, according to a new Census Bureau report. A score of zero suggests perfect equality where all households have equal income, while a score of one suggests perfect inequality, where one household has it all, and the rest have none.
Alaska was the only state to see its Gini Index score decline, while 15 states posted increases. D.C. and the remaining 34 states saw no change. The 15 states that saw income inequality rise last year were: Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
Those results reflect a multi-year trend: Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve reported that “[o]nly families at the very top of the income distribution saw widespread income gains between 2010 and 2013.”
And income inequality can have cascading effects. In a Monday analysis, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s concluded that income inequality acted as a drag on state tax collections.
“The findings from our research indicate that tax revenue growth slows as income inequality rises, especially for the sales tax-dependent states,” the report’s authors wrote. “This suggests to us that inequality is having a detrimental effect on economic growth.”...
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Saturday, September 6, 2014

NH Governor Hassan Creates Workers’ Compensation Commission for Reform

In order to help reduce workers’ compensation costs that are a burden on New Hampshire businesses and ensure that injured workers have access to high-quality care, Governor Maggie Hassan today issued an Executive Order creating the Commission to Recommend Reforms to Reduce Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs.

“Employers and workers have done their part to increase workplace safety, but New Hampshire has become one of the most expensive states in the nation for workers’ compensation, a burden on businesses across the state,” Governor Hassan said. “By bringing together business leaders and experts from insurance, health care and labor, the Commission to Recommend Reforms to Reduce Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs provides an opportunity for stakeholders to identify ways to reduce workers’ compensation medical costs and ensure that injured workers have access to quality care. With these reforms, our businesses will be able to re-invest these dollars in growing their companies, creating new jobs and keeping our economy moving in the right direction.”

Tasked with making recommendations to reform New Hampshire’s workers’ compensation system, the commission will review the data behind New Hampshire’s high workers’ compensation costs; analyze efforts by other states to successfully reduce workers’ compensation costs; review how other states ensure continued access to quality care for injured workers; and develop comprehensive reforms that will reduce costs and premiums and improve New Hampshire’s workers’ compensation system while ensuring that injured workers have access to quality care.

According to the Oregon Workers Compensation Rate Ranking Study, New Hampshire rose from the 14th-most expensive state for workers’ compensation coverage in the country in 2008 to the ninth-most expensive in 2012. In addition, data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance shows that workers’ compensation surgical procedures in New Hampshire are 83 percent more expensive than those in the region and more than twice as expensive as they are nationally. For more information on New Hampshire’s workers’ compensation costs, visit www.nh.gov/insurance/media/pr/2014/documents/052214.pdf .

“New Hampshire is among the most expensive states for workers’ compensation, an unnecessary disadvantage for businesses that operate here,” said New Hampshire Insurance Department Commissioner Roger Sevigny. “I look forward to working with the commission to improve our workers’ compensation system by making recommendations to reduce costs and premiums while ensuring that workers have access to quality care.”

Commissioner Sevigny will be the chairman of the Commission to Recommend Reforms to Reduce Workers’ Compensation Medical Costs. He will be joined on the commission by New Hampshire Department of Labor Commissioner Jim Craig or a designee from the department, as well as a diverse group of experts representing workers, employers, insurance professionals and the health care sector.

The Commission’s final report is due to the Governor on December 1, 2014.

Other members of the commission are:
Brian Allen, Vice President of Government Affairs at HELIOS (formerly Progressive Medical/PMSI)
Donald F. Baldini, AVP and State Affairs Officer at Liberty Mutual Insurance
Pamela Bronson, Administrator at Access Sports Medicine & Orthopedics
Paul W. Chant of Cooper Cargill Chant
Tammy Denver, Director of Claims & Coverage Programs at NH Public Risk Management Exchange (Primex3)
Edward Dudley, Executive Vice President/CFO of Catholic Medical Center
Mark Erdody, Director of New England Claims for Cove Risk Services, LLC
Marc Lacroix, New Hampshire Physical Therapy Association and Director of Specialty Services at Concord Hospital
David Lang, President of Professional Firefighters of NH
Mark Mackenzie, President of NH AFL-CIO
Peter McNamara, President of NH Automobile Dealers Association
Dr. Gregory Soghikian of New Hampshire Orthopaedic Center
Ben Wilcox, President & General Manager of Cranmore Mountain Resort

Full text of the Governor’s Executive Order

Friday, September 5, 2014

9/11 Responders Urged To Register For Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Next week marks the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. Many workers' who may be entitled to benefits have not yet enrolled. Today's post is shared from cbslocal.com

Elected officials and union activists are urging Sept. 11 responders to sign up for New York workers’ compensation benefits.
They say that those who worked around the World Trade Center site should enroll with the state Workers’ Compensation Board.
Next Thursday, the 13th anniversary of the terror attacks, is the deadline to sign up.
The officials said even people who are not sick should register because it preserves their right to get benefits in the future if they do fall ill.
It also is open to workers who live in other states.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler said that “those who have paid such a high price” deserve compensation.
“This does not mean that you are injured or ill now, but it does preserve your ability to file a claim later,” Nadler said.
Nadler was joined at Friday’s City Hall press conference by representatives of several unions, including DC 37 and the Laborers Local 78.
As WCBS 880’s Jim Smith reported, Reverend Bill Minson spent months in and around ground zero working as a chaplain. He’s not sick now, but knows the air was like a ticking time bomb.
“An incubation period for many of these cancers and things can’t be calculated,” he said.
...
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Thursday, September 4, 2014

More Big Firms Shifting To High-Deductible Health Plans

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

The New York Times examines the movement among large employers towards high-deductible plans that shift more health care costs to workers. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal looks at how the ACA may affect job-based plans next year.
The New York Times: High-Deductible Health Plans Weigh Down More Employees
Just as employers replaced pensions with retirement savings plans, more large companies appear to be in the midst of a similar cost-sharing shift with health plans. Besides making workers responsible for more of their care, employers hope these plans will motivate employees to comparison-shop for medical services — an admirable goal but one that some say is hard to achieve. ... With high-deductible health plans, consumers pay for all their medical services — at the insurer's negotiated rate — until they meet their deductible. After that, consumers typically pay coinsurance, which is a percentage of each service — say 10 to 35 percent — until they reach the out-of-pocket maximum (Siegel Bernard, 9/1).
The Wall Street Journal: Get Ready For Health-Insurance Enrollment
If you get health insurance through your workplace, you'll probably have a chance this fall to make important decisions about your coverage and costs. Because many corporate health plans hold their annual open-enrollment periods in October and November, many employees can expect to get a packet of benefits, or instructions for...

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Appeals Court Deals Major Blow to Implementation of Affordable Care Act


Today's post is shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

A federal appeals court on Tuesday dealt a serious blow to the Obama administration’s implementation of its signature health-care law, striking down subsidies available to some consumers who purchase health coverage on insurance exchanges set up by the federal government.

WSJ’s Brent Kendall has more on the breaking legal development out of Washington:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, invalidated an Internal Revenue Service regulation that implemented a key piece of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The regulation said subsidies for health insurance were available to qualifying middle- and low-income consumers whether they bought coverage on a state exchange or one run by the federal government.

The ruling potentially could cripple the Affordable Care Act by making subsidies unavailable in as many as 36 states where the federal government has run some or all of the insurance exchanges.

The court sided with challengers, four individuals and three employers, who argued the health law allowed subsidies only for insurance purchases made through state exchanges. The issue became an important one after the law was enacted because more than two-thirds of the states chose not to set up their own exchanges, relying on federally run exchanges instead.

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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Workers’ Compensation: The Road Ahead

This article is another installment of my continuing series entitled, 'The Path to Federalization."


Historical analysis of corporate wealth provides insight as to why the Nation’s workers’ compensation, conceived as a remedial social insurance program, has become dysfunctional. The National interest that drives the program is a strong predictor of future coverage for injured workers' and their families.

Over a century ago, in 1911, the US adopted a patchwork of programs to provide benefits to injured workers in a summary fashion. While much has changed over the century, the majority of states continue with the traditional programs, although they are seriously restricted in benefit delivery.

James Surowiecki authored an article, “Moaning Moguls,” in this week’s New Yorker magazine that focuses on why the system has really changed:

 

“A century ago, industrial magnates played a central role in the Progressive movement, working with unions, supporting workmen’s compensation laws and laws against child labor, and often pushing for more government regulation. This wasn’t altruism; as a classic analysis by the historian James Weinstein showed, the reforms were intended to co-opt public pressure and avert more radical measures. Still, they materially improved the lives of ordinary workers. And they sprang from a pragmatic belief that the robustness of capitalism as a whole depended on wide distribution of the fruits of the system.”
***
“If today’s corporate kvetchers are more concerned with the state of their egos than with the state of the nation, it’s in part because their own fortunes aren't tied to those of the nation the way they once were. In the postwar years, American companies depended largely on American consumers. Globalizationhas changed that—foreign sales account for almost half the revenue of the S&P 500—as has the rise of financial services (where the most important clients are the wealthy and other corporations). The well-being of the American middle class just doesn’t matter as much to companies’ bottom lines. And there’s another change. Early in the past century, there was a true socialist movement in the United States, and in the postwar years the Soviet Union seemed to offer the possibility of a meaningful alternative to capitalism. Small wonder that the tycoons of those days were so eager to channel populist agitation into reform. Today, by contrast, corporate chieftains have little to fear, other than mildly higher taxes and the complaints of people who have read Thomas Piketty. Moguls complain about their feelings because that’s all anyone can really threaten. “


As income inequality continues to fan the stalemate in Washington, there is little hope for a rescue of the nation’s ailing workers’ compensation system from extinction. Unless corporate greed yields to national interest, workers’ compensation as we now know it, will be subsumed into a program financed by taxpayers instead of consumers.

….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Click Here to Read More About "The Path to Federalism"

Monday, June 16, 2014

Undocumented Aliens Ensnared By Workers' Compensation



Peter Rousmaniere comments today about the problems, threats and fears that undocumented aliens confront with the nation's patchwork of compensation programs. Injured undocumented aliens in states than mandate the submission of a social security number to file an initial application for workers' compensation benefits are particular targets for criminal fraud enforcement.

"The eight million undocumented workers comprise about 6% of the total civilian workforce. By studying estimates of undocumented worker penetration by occupations ranked by injury risk, one can reasonably project that undocumented workers sustain one out of every ten work injuries. This high volume is invisible to almost everyone except for adjusters, case managers, lawyers and others who work directly with injured workers and have learned their work and life patterns. The rate varies greatly, from maybe 2% in West Virginia, a low foreign-born population state, to over half within the fruit and vegetable producing counties of southern California."

Reconciliation of this issue remains uncertain for a multitude of reasons. The future of immediate national reform of immigration laws this election cycle now looks bleak with Eric Cantor's recent primary defeat. States will continue to use Social Security information for tax collection and enforcement, in addition to the reconciliation of other programs such as Medicare and unemployment benefits. 

Ironically as Rousmaniere points out in his commentary, the power of the employer over the employee, is a huge challenge to the improvement of safety and health in the workplace. Shifting the burden from employers to US taxpayers is problematic. As the Affordable Care Act is fined tuned in the years ahead, the issue of undocumented aliens will become both a more dominate moral and legal issue in need of reform.

Monday, May 26, 2014

I.R.S. Bars Employers From Dumping Workers Into Health Exchanges

The IRS moves to protect workers' under the ACA. Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — Many employers had thought they could shift health costs to the government by sending their employees to a health insurance exchange with a tax-free contribution of cash to help pay premiums, but the Obama administration has squelched the idea in a new ruling. Such arrangements do not satisfy the health care law, the administration said, and employers may be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual marketplace.
The ruling this month, by the Internal Revenue Service, blocks any wholesale move by employers to dump employees into the exchanges.
Under a central provision of the health care law, larger employers are required to offer health coverage to full-time workers, or else the employers may be subject to penalties.
Many employers — some that now offer coverage and some that do not — had concluded that it would be cheaper to provide each employee with a lump sum of money to buy insurance on an exchange, instead of providing coverage directly.
But the Obama administration raised objections, contained in an authoritative question-and-answer document released by the Internal Revenue Service, in consultation with other agencies.
The health law, known as the Affordable Care Act, builds on the current system of employer-based health insurance. The administration, like many in Congress, wants employers to continue to provide coverage to workers and their families.
“I...
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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Throw The Book At 'Em

There seems to be no limit in the amount of fraudulent conduct that transpires within the workers' compensation system. If employer fraud is not enough, the system is constantly undergoing abuse from business interests, ie. medical provo\iders, who abuse the system. The Federal Governments role in enforcement is ever increasing and expansion is trending wider. The gobal expanssion nationally of a universal program for monitoring and enforcement of medical fraud is encouraging. Today's post is shared from David DePaolo http://daviddepaolo.blogspot.com/

It's a shame that hundreds, if not thousands, of injured workers underwent unnecessary spinal fusion surgeries and must live with the debilitating aftermath of significant disability because of people whose greed overrides the well being of fellow humans.

I had learned about Michael Drobot and Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, and their co-conspirators, preying on workers' compensation patients some time ago.

On Friday though, Federal prosecutors announced that Michael D. Drobot faces up to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks in a $500 million fraud scheme relating to spinal fusions and admitted to bribing state Sen. Ron Calderon to delay legislation to repeal the separate reimbursement for spinal hardware.

Calderon, D-Montebello, was indicted one day earlier on 24 charges, including bribery, money laundering, wire fraud and filing a false tax return. His brother, former...

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Related articles

California state Sen. Ron Calderon accepted $88,000 in bribes, FBI affidavit alleges (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
IMR: DWC Get Out of the Way (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
One Claim Going OTOC (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Work Comp Lost Focus (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
OK's True Cost Control Feature (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
The Conflict Between NAFTA and Comp (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Being Professional (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)

Read more about "Federalization of Workers' Compensation"
Jul 05, 2012
United States Supreme Court has taken a giant leap forward to facilitate the Federalization of the entire nation's workers' compensation system. By it's recent decision, upholding the mandate for insurance care under the ...
Dec 23, 2010
Yesterday the US Congress passed and sent to the President, The World Trade Center Health Program, marking yet another advance on the path to federalize the nation's workers' compensation program. The Federally ...
Jul 05, 2010
The trend toward Federalization of workers' compensation benefits took a giant step forward by recent Presidential action creating the British Petroleum Oil Compensation Fund. While the details remain vague, the broad and ...
Jun 14, 2012
Yesterday the US Congress passed and sent to the President, The World Trade Center Health Program, marking yet another advance on the path to federalize the nation's workers' compensation program. The Federally .


Friday, May 17, 2013

Obamacare Will Be Collecting Workers' Compensation Medical Records

The implementation of Affordable Care Act data collection regulations will include the collection of medical information concerning work related accidents and injuries.  The coalition of this information will broadly advance the concept of universal medical care and impose yet another route for the Centers for Medicare and Medicare to strengthen enforcement under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.

The largest and most expansive database of personalized medical information is being established under the umbrella of an newly created unit under the authority granted to the Internal Revenue Service, The Federal Data Services Hub. Personal medical records, including electronic medical records, will be incorporated into the program. 

"On March 23, 2010, the President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
(P.L. 111-148). On March 30, 2010, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 
(P.L. 111-152) was signed into law. The two laws are collectively referred to as the Affordable 
Care Act. The Affordable Care Act creates new competitive private health insurance markets –
called Exchanges – that will give millions of Americans and small businesses access to 
affordable coverage and the same insurance choices members of Congress will have. Exchanges 
will help individuals and small employers shop for, select, and enroll in high quality, affordable 
private health plans that fit their needs at competitive prices. The IT systems will support a 
simple and seamless identification of people who qualify for coverage through the Exchange, tax 
credits, cost-sharing reductions, Medicaid, and CHIP programs. By providing a place for onestop shopping, Exchanges will make purchasing health insurance easier and more understandable 
and will put greater control and more choice in the hands of individuals and small businesses."

Read more about "Federalization" and workers' compensation:

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Do I Need To File A Tax Return On My Workers Compensation?

Today's post comes from guest author Paul J. McAndrew, Jr. from Paul McAndrew Law Firm.

If you received workers’ compensation benefits, you may be wondering if you will need to report this money to the IRS and pay taxes on it. Under the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Act, money that you receive as workers’ compensation benefits is not taxable, with a few exceptions. You will have to pay taxes on your work comp benefits if:
  • if the benefits are retirement plan benefits (this is true even if you retired due to disability)
  • if part of your workers’ compensation benefit money lowers the amount you receive from your Social Security or Railroad Retirement Benefits. In that case, that the part of your workers compensation benefits is considered part of your Social Security (or RRB) and may be taxable.
If you return to work, your salary will be taxable again, as is it was before you received workers’ compensation benefits.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Jobs, Growth & Universal Healthcare


Robert Reich, in a 3 minute video, states the reasons why jobs, growth and universal healthcare are needed to expand the US economy. 

This is reflective of the issues plaguing the nation's workers' compensation system, especially soaring medical delivery costs (administrative, clinical and pharmaceutical).  

Read more about "universal healthcare" and workers' compensation:

Feb 01, 2013
Medical care afforded by workers' compensation delivery systems will ultimately be merged into a universal national program, despite all the opposition along the way. My friend, and cycling inspiration, who keeps me trying to ...
Nov 09, 2012
Going forward it is imperative that a universal medical program be established to provide medical treatment for all work-related occupational injuries and exposures. The delay and denial of medical benefits to those who suffer ...
Jul 05, 2012
Those efforts demonstrate a commitment to bring the nation ever closer to a universal care medical program incorporating the entire patchwork of workers' compensation medical delivery systems. The US Supreme Court has ...
Mar 05, 2011
Vermont Universal Health Care to Embrace Workers Compensation. A two-stage bill in Vermont is geared to establishing a single-payer medical health care system that would include medical for workers' compensation ...