Bill to protect texters who send messages to drivers is promised

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nj.com

A Republican assemblywoman from Monmouth County plans to introduce legislation to protect texters from being sued if they send a distracting message to a driver who gets into an accident. The bill, authored by Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, comes in response to last week’s groundbreaking decision by two state appeals court judges who said texters who send messages to someone they know is driving have a responsibility to other drivers. “It is a sad state of affairs when a court believes that someone sending a text message can be held accountable if they have a special reason to know the recipient will be driving a vehicle and then read the message,” Casagrande said. “This legislation puts the responsibility where it belongs – in the front seat with the driver – not with the sender who can be held culpable for something beyond their control.” Last week’s ruling was the result of an appeal by a couple who were riding a motorcycle through Morris County in September 2009 when they collided with a pickup truck that had just crossed over a double center line. The couple, David and Linda Kubert, each lost a part of a leg in the crash. They sued driver Kyle Best of Wharton and Shannon Colonna, who sent Best a text message moments before the accident. A three-judge panel tossed out claims against Colonna, saying there was no evidence to suggest she knew Best was driving. However, two members of the appellate panel said...

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Confirmed: Fracking practices to blame for Ohio earthquakes

Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes from www.nbcnews.com

Wastewater from the controversial practice of fracking appears to be linked to all the earthquakes in a town in Ohio that had no known past quakes, research now reveals. The practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting water, sand and other materials under high pressures into a well to fracture rock. This opens up fissures that help oil and natural gas flow out more freely. This process generates wastewater that is often pumped underground as well, in order to get rid of it. A furious debate has erupted over the safety of the practice. Advocates claim fracking is a safe, economical source of clean energy, while critics argue that it can taint drinking water supplies, among other problems. One of the most profitable areas for fracking lies over the geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which reaches deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York. The Marcellus Shale is rich in natural gas; geologists estimate it may contain up to 489 trillion cubic feet (13.8 trillion cubic meters) of natural gas, more than 440 times the amount New York State uses annually. Many of the rural communities living over the formation face economic challenges and want to attract money from the energy industry. Youngstown quakesBefore January 2011, Youngstown, Ohio, which is located on the Marcellus Shale, had never experienced an earthquake, at least not since researchers began observations in 1776....

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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). 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.

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In California, Renewed Debate Over Home Care

Today's post was shared by The New Old Age and comes from newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com

An important struggle over home health care is playing out in California, the nation’s most populous state, including nearly five million residents age 65 and older. Unions and organizations representing the elderly have joined together to push for legislation that would license agencies, certify workers and create a publicly accessible caregiver registry. Home care agencies are pushing back, saying they favor regulation but oppose the measures under consideration. The legislation, Assembly Bill 1217, has already passed the State Assembly and was passed out of the State Senate’s appropriations committee on Friday. It will be up for a vote on the Senate floor next week. An estimated 1,400 home care agencies and 120,000 paid caregivers would be affected by the proposed legislation, which is essentially an effort to bring consumer protections to an industry that has been likened to the Wild West. “It’s just not right that I can check the license status of an air-conditioning repairman but I can’t do so for someone coming into my home to care for a loved one,” said Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, a Democrat and the bill’s sponsor.

UPS Won’t Insure Spouses Of Some Employees

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

Partly blaming the health law, United Parcel Service is set to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere.

Many analysts downplay the Affordable Care Act’s effect on companies such as UPS, noting that the move is part of a long-term trend of shrinking corporate medical benefits. But the shipping giant repeatedly cites the act to explain the decision, adding fuel to the debate over whether the law erodes traditional employer coverage.

Rising medical costs, “combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost,” UPS said in a memo to employees.

The company told white-collar workers two months ago that 15,000 working spouses eligible for coverage at their own employers would be excluded from the UPS plan in 2014. The Fortune 100 firm expects the move, which applies to non-union U.S. workers only, to save about $60 million a year, said company spokesman Andy McGowan.

UPS becomes one of the highest-profile employers yet to bar working spouses from the company plan. Many firms already require employees to pay a surcharge for working-spouse medical coverage, but some are taking the next step by declining to include them at all, consultants say.

“They are simply saying to the spouse outright, ‘If you have coverage somewhere else you are not eligible...

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Tacking Health Care Costs Onto California Farm Produce

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nytimes.com

Farm labor contractors across California, the nation’s biggest agricultural engine, are increasingly nervous about a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will require hundreds of thousands of field workers to be covered by health insurance.

While the requirement was recently delayed until 2015, the contractors, who provide farmers with armies of field workers, say they are already preparing for the potential cost the law will add to their business, which typically operates on a slender profit margin.

“I’ve been to at least a dozen seminars on the Affordable Care Act since February,” said Chuck Herrin, owner of Sunrise Farm Labor, a contractor based here. “If you don’t take the right approach, you’re wiped out.”

A Conservative Re-Envisioning Of The Health Care Overhaul

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

Tired of hearing policy experts and politicians debate the 2010 health care law?  What if you took the Affordable Care Act out of the conversation?  If you could scrap the nation’s current health care system and build a new one, what would it look like?

A group of health care experts from Stanford University, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the University of Southern California, among other institutions, has compiled a report with their answer to that question.  Funded by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute’s National Research Initiative, the document offers a variety of ideas that its authors say would achieve universal coverage, protect the poor and the sick and restrain health care cost growth, among other priorities.

“In many ways, the ACA has been a distraction, because people think that all of the health care debate boils down to ‘do you support the ACA or do you oppose it?’ ” said Darius Lakdawalla, one of the authors and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, as well as a  professor of pharmaceutical economics in the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy. “To us, that is really a very narrow and misleading question.”

The report’s proposals include allowing health insurers to charge premiums that reflect consumers’ health care costs and providing generous subsidies to help the poor obtain...

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NJ Governor Christie to Propose Workers' Compensation Reform

The NJ Workers' Compensation system is in for a change. Governor Chris Christie of NJ is taking aim at reforming the NJ system.

In the past, unsuccessful major attempts to reform the State's workers' compensation

system have come from interest groups from outside of the State, ie. 1980's national insurance Industry (AIA) concerns. Now the focus is changing, and the proposals for reform will be coming from the the State's Chief Executive, a major coalition builder who has successfully tackled major legislative changes during his term in office.

Historical efforts on workers' compensation reform in NJ have been:

-1974 Following the NJ State Commission on Investigation "Report of the NJ Workmen's Compensation System"
-1980's Following the WCRI Study attempt to adopt AMA Medical Guidelines

-1998 An attempt to increase the calculation of the State Average Weekly Wage, Dependency      Benefits and Legislative Oversight

-2008 Following the NJ Star Ledger expose ("How NJ Fails Workers") on temporary and medical benefit issues

“'We’re going to be coming up with a package of proposals that’s going to work both sides of that,' Christie told a caller on his monthly NJ 101.5 FM radio show tonight.

'The employers who may not be stepping up and meeting their obligations and also the employees who are committing fraud on the worker’s comp system,' he said."

Click here to read the complete article:  Christie to present plan to reform N.J. worker's compensation system (NJ.com)

Workers’ Compensation 2013 – What Happens on the Other Side of The Fiscal Cliff?

The fiscal reality is that workers’ compensation is in greater jeopardy than ever before as the debate in Washington is not about the deficit at all. The debate is about government spending which includes health care.

Overall health care devours 18 percent of the US economy and amounts to 25% of the Federal budget.

Medical treatment for injured workers continues to be delayed, denied and limited under current workers’ compensation programs. Medical costs continue to be shifted to other programs including employer based medical care systems and the Federal safety net of Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration and Tricare.

While a trend continues to emerge to offer “Opt Out” and “Carve Out Programs,” they are not global enough to solve the critical budget deficit issues. The latest emerging trend is for employers to utilize ERISA based medical care plans to efficiently delivery medical care. In NJ a limited alternate dispute-resolution procedure between unions and employers has been introduced. See “NJ Care Outs –Another Evolutionary Step” authored by David DePaolo.

The US economy continues to be very weak. This in an ominous signal for the nation’s workers’ compensation program which is starved for premium dollars. Premiums are based upon salaries and real median incomes continued their dramatic decline over the last decade from $54,841 in 2000 to $50,054 in 2011. There just may not be enough dollars available in the workers’ compensation programs to pay for present and lifetime medical care.

Even the present Federal system leaves much to be desired. Whether Federal rationing medical care becomes a reality is unknown. Physicians are under economic scrutiny as the “Doc Fix” to limit provider fees continues as a cloud over all medical programs. The agreement reached by Congress still does not resolve the 26.5% percent cut reimbursement cut to physicians who treat Medicare patients. The law merely "freezes" payment to physicians.

Workers’ compensation programs presently structured provide no real economic incentive to monitor and compensate for more favorable medical outcomes. On the other hand, the Federal government, with broad and sweeping regulatory ability, is able to continue to make strides in many areas including present incentives to hospitals and proposed incentives to physicians to provide medical treatment with fewer complications and ultimate better outcomes

Steven Ratner in the NY Times points out the dramatic increase in the nation’s health care costs. He wrote, “…no budget-busting factor looms larger than the soaring cost of government-financed health care, particularly Medicare and Medicaid.”

Solving the economic gridlock of the country will require an approach to re-invent a medical program for injured workers. A global single-payer program under Federal control will eliminate duplicative administrative State and private efforts. The Federal government has the clout to provide efficient enforcement and co-ordination.

Now that we are on the other side of the fiscal cliff, the opportunity to be creative is possible. The US needs to transition to a single-payer health care system subsuming a medical care program for injured and ill workers who suffer both traumatic and occupational conditions.

Read more about the "single-Payer System" and workers' compensation

Workers' Compensation: A Single Payer System Will Solve the ...
Nov 29, 2012
The question is whether the nation will recognize that the US needs tol take the bold step previously taken by the European Community, finally adopt a single payer medical care program. The perpetual cost generator that ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

NJ Urged to Adopt Single Payer System for Workmens Comp
Jun 06, 2011
NJ Urged to Adopt Single Payer System for Workmens Comp. A coalition that has been formed in NJ is urging that the Garden State follow the lead of Vermont and establish a single-payer system. Single-payer movements ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Vermont Single Payer System Called the Dawn of A New Era
Apr 03, 2011
The proposed state based Vermont Single-Payer health care system, that would embrace workers' compensation medical care, is gaining momentum. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, citing increased ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

RICO Issues Can Be Cured With A Single Payer Medical System
Mar 22, 2011
Vermont's proposed single payer system would seperate medical care from indemnity. Vermont's single proposed single-payer system would likely also provide a primary care doctor to every resident of Vermont. This would ...
http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

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Path to Federalization: A National Workers Compensation System--US Supreme Court Validates

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 Affordable Health Care for America Act (ACA) 2009, it has set the precedent to federalize the nation's fragmented and chaotic workers' compensation medical delivery system.

John G. Roberts Jr.,
Chief Justice US Supreme Court

Validating Mechanism
In a 5 to 4 ruling, Chief Justice Roberts validated the individual mandate as a permissible exercise of congressional power under the Taxing Clause of the US Constitution. Under 26 U.S.C. Section 5000A. The law requires that: (a) an individual must maintain minimum essential coverage for each month beginning after 2012; and (b) if there is a failure to maintain minimum essential coverage, a "penalty" is imposed "on the taxpayer" of $695 per year or 2.5% of family income, whichever is greater. The penalty "shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as taxes."

The Chief Justice, writing for himself, stated, "Every reasonable construction must be resorted to in order to save a statute from unconstitutionality." If it is "fairly possible" to interpret the statute as merely imposing a tax on those who've failed to purchase insurance. Writing for the majority, the Chief Justice stated, that the penalty is not a tax for anti-injunction act purposes. The Court, he wrote, needs to look beyond the label when assessing the constitutionality. For constitutional purposes Justice Roberts reasoned that the penalty may be considered as a tax when: it is not so high that there is no choice; and it is not limited to willful violations; and the penalty is collected by the IRS through normal means.

Constitution of the
United States

The Court indicated that the assessment is not really a "penalty." "Taxes that seek to influence conduct are nothing new," the Chief Justice wrote. He reasoned for the Court that there are no negative legal consequences to not buying health insurance, because beyond requiring a payment to IRS, Congress anticipated that some 4 million people would pay the penalty, and Congress did not treat them as "outlaws."

While certain taxes are prohibited under the U.S. Constitution, the penalty under the Affordable Health Care for America Act 2009 is not barred. The Court reasoned that the Constitution states, "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion of the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken." The majority of the Court held that a tax on "going without health insurance" does not fall within any recognized category of direct tax since it is triggered by certain specific circumstances.


The US Supreme Court previously validated compulsory workers' compensation programs. Compulsory compensation systems have been held not to be an arbitrary classification contrary to the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution, 14th Amendment.  The state-enacted systems were created for the protection of the lives, health and safety of the employees.  The systems provide payment of compensation through a state mandated system for injuries to employees or for the death of employees resulting from injuries related to work, regardless of fault.  The compensation systems are held as a simple, inexpensive and expeditious method of providing recovery to employees who are injured in a highly organized and modern industrial employment environment.  New York Central Railroad Company v. White, 243 U.S. 188, 37 S.Ct. 247, 61 L.Ed. 667 (1917). See also, Lower Vein Coal Co. v. Industrial Board of Indiana, 255 U.S. 144, 41 S.Ct. 252, 65 L.Ed. 555 (1921) and In re Asbestos Litigation, 829 F.2d 1233 (3d Cir.1987), cert. denied 485 U.S. 1029, 108 S.Ct. 1586, 99 L.Ed.2d 901 (1988).

Medical Delivery & Fees
Generally, the ACA provides a much needed national structure for the regulation, delivery, and enforcement of medical coverage. The ACA contains significant fraud and abuse provisions. In 2010 the law significantly expanded the government's authority to prosecute Faults Claims Act (FCA) cases. In 2011-2012 the ACA triggers increased provider screening, oversight and reporting. The ACA also establishes the Independent Payment Advisory Board to evaluate fee schedules and expands the scope of Medicaid and CHIP payments. 


Unlike most State compensation systems that presently struggle with both expeditious medical delivery as well the value and responsibility of medical care, the ACA provides a uniform system and expeditious system. The fragmented network of complex, dilatory and inconsistent results in the State programs have been described recently by national experts as "irrational" and "unjust."  They characterize the present compensation programs as "....dizzying and frustrating in its complexity, and apparent irrationality,"  and  they conclude that "a substantial proportion of persons with work-related disabilities do not receive workers' compensation benefits," and in need of a better format. 

Non-Traditional Revenue Stream
In addition to the widely publicized tax for non-compliance, the ACA contains several other innovative revenue provisions that will provide additional funding from collateral sources without burdening al employers globally. In 2010 an indoor tanning service tax was implemented. In 2011 annual fee was instituted on pharmaceutical companies as well as  an increased penalty for early withdrawal from health savings accounts. In 2013 the following provisions go into effect: the Medicare payroll tax will increase for high-income individuals, an excise tax on medical device manufacturers, limits on Flexible Spending Accounts, and the elimination of the deduction for Employer Part D subsidy. In 2014 there will be an annual fee on health insurance plans. In 2018 there will be an excise tax and high-cost plans commonly referred to as the "Cadillac tax."

"Libby Care"--Universal Care 

Center for Asbestos Related Disease
Libby, MT.

A provision of the Act, that has already been implemented, provides for the treatment of medical conditions, including asbestosis & mesothelioma, arising out the Libby, Montana asbestos contamination. The industrially caused   catastrophe in Libby has resulted in widespread illness and death. The ACA provides medical attention to those exposed to occupational toxins. The Center for Asbestos Related Disease is now operating in Libby, MT. The “Libby Care” provisions, and its envisioned prodigies, will embrace more exposed workers, diseases and geographical locations, than any other program of the past. This type of program, minimally, needs to be expanded to include all occupational illness nationally.

The Future: Universal Health Care

Landmarks on the Path to Federalization

It is very doubtful that ACA repeal legislation, to be offered by the Republicans in the House will pass Congress, nor will the President sign it.. There may be some technical and substantive revisions to the ACA in the next Congress. If there is a mixed political government after the next election,  the ACA will be implemented and go forward as the law of the land.


History reveals that a series of efforts have been made by the Federal government  to federalize medical care for industrial accidents and illnesses. 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 accelerated the nation down that promising path.
....
Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). 

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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 ...

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Workers' Compensation: Agenda Announced for Public Meeting on ...

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In December 2010 US Congress passed and President Obama signed, The World Trade Center Health Program, marking yet another advance on the path to federalize the nation's workers' compensation program.

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Designing the New Federal Workers Compensation Program

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 ...

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Workers' Compensation: Synchronizing Federal Care for Oil Spill ...

Jul 13, 2010

As The Path To Federalization expands, this debate will expand. A recent study by the Center for American Progress addresses these concerns. "Health threats from the oil spill may linger unseen, perhaps for more than a ...

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Workers' Compensation: A Nuclear Workers' Compensation Disaster

Mar 16, 2011

Historically The Federal government's role has been to rise to the occasion and walk further down a path to federalization. On a smaller scale than the potential consequences of the Japanesse debacle, the US was first in line ...

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Workers' Compensation: Vermont Universal Health Care to Embrace ...

Mar 05, 2011

Nationally, advocates to improve the delivery of medical benefits to injured workers have urged federalization of the medical delivery system into a single payer approach through universal health care. ... Compensation Claim Draws Major Public Attention (workers-compensation.blogspot.com); Vermont Governor Sets Out to Lead U.S. to True Universal Coverage (huffingtonpost.com); The World Trade Center Health Program Expands The Path to Federalization ...

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Workers' Compensation: Libby Care Launches - Center for Asbestos ...

Apr 03, 2010

The recent health care reform legislation provided for the Libby Care which will provide universal medical care for victims of asbestos related disease. The plan is a pilot program for occupational disease medical care fully ...

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Workers' Compensation: Libby Care Program Begins Enrollment ...

May 19, 2010

The “Libby Care” provisions, and its envisioned prodigies, will embrace more exposed workers, diseases and geographical locations, than any other program of the past. Potential pilot programs will now be available to ...

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National Experts Call Workers Compensation System Irrational and Unjust

National workers' compensation experts, Law school Dean Emily A. Spieler and Professor John F. Burton, in a recently published article in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine conclude that the present that the present  workers' compensation systems is "irrational" and "unjust." 

Characterizing the program as "....dizzying and frustrating in its complexity, and apparent irrationality,"   they conclude that "a substantial proportion of persons with work-related disabilities do not receive workers' compensation benefits." They review such alternatives as universal medical care, "providing healthcare to workers regardless of the source of injuries or disease."

Click here to read the entire article, "The Lack of Correspondence Between Work-Related Disability and Receipt of Workers' Compensation Benefits," American Journal of Industrial Medicine 55:487-505 (2012).

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The World Trade Center Health Program Expands The Path to

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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 ...

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In December 2010 US Congress passed and President Obama signed, The World Trade Center Health Program, marking yet another advance on the path to federalize the nation's workers' compensation program.

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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 ...

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Workers' Compensation: Synchronizing Federal Care for Oil Spill ...

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As The Path To Federalization expands, this debate will expand. A recent study by the Center for American Progress addresses these concerns. "Health threats from the oil spill may linger unseen, perhaps for more than a ...

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Historically The Federal government's role has been to rise to the occasion and walk further down a path to federalization. On a smaller scale than the potential consequences of the Japanesse debacle, the US was first in line ...

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Nationally, advocates to improve the delivery of medical benefits to injured workers have urged federalization of the medical delivery system into a single payer approach through universal health care. ... Compensation Claim Draws Major Public Attention (workers-compensation.blogspot.com); Vermont Governor Sets Out to Lead U.S. to True Universal Coverage (huffingtonpost.com); The World Trade Center Health Program Expands The Path to Federalization ...

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Contagion in The Workplace: Ready or Not

The recent scientific announcement that scientists have developed an airborne strain of a highly contagious and deadly H5N1 flu virus brings to front burner the issue, once again, of whether the workers' compensation system is ready to respond effectively to a large spread viral  epidemic.

Whether the release is because of an unintentional act, or a terrorist attack, the workers' compensation system has not established a protocol for responding with urgent medical care and an elaborate and expedited medical delivery and benefit system.

Read more: Debate Persists on Deadly Flu Made Airborne (NY Times)

“This research should not have been done,” said Richard H. Ebright, a chemistry professor and bioweapons expert at Rutgers University who has long opposed such research. He warned that germs that could be used as bioweapons had already been unintentionally released hundreds of times from labs in the United States and predicted that the same thing would happen with the new virus.

“It will inevitably escape, and within a decade,” he said.

.....

For over 3 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. 

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Common Themes, The Green Mountain System & Newt Gingrich

Editors note: This is a re-post of yesterday's blog. Google had a systemwide issue and during their maintenance they did not restore this post.

Common themes of a single payer medical system are emerging. History can repeat itself. The announcement by NewtGingrich to run for the presidency in 2012, and the anticipated signing of the Vermont Single Payer medical care legislation, may set the stage for "the perfect storm" to gather impetus for a system that brings workers' compensation care into a unified system.

As the Vermont legislation goes to Governor Peter Shumlin for signing in a couple of weeks, the eyes of the nation will switch focus to the debate in Washington and the presidential race of 2012. Congress and the new administration will be required to focus on the issue of waivers that will be effective in 2014. 

Newt Gingrich had advocated in the past to move the cost occupational medical care onto the backs of employees. He would relieve employers from contributing to workers' compensation medical care and Medicare.

Workers' Compensation is a summary and remedial system that affords injured workers medical care to cure and relieve medical conditions that result from occupational exposures and accidents. In most instances employees find it necessary and prudent to retain the professional assistance of an attorney to assist them in obtaining medical treatment for work related accidents and occupational exposures.

For over 3 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.

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