Copyright
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Stephen Levin MD - Dies of Cancer
After the passing of Dr. Selikoff, Dr. Levin chaired the Environmental Sciences Department and maintained the archives of Dr. Selikoff. Dr. Levin was a leader and advocate for occupational disease research and treatment. His research work in post World Trade Center airborne toxins and disease build the foundation for the passage of the Zadroga 9-11 Health Benefits legislation enacted by Congress 14 months ago.
Joel Shufro, Executive Director of NYCOSH and Bill Henny, NYCOSH Board Chair, made the following statement, "He understood that the health of working people was directly tied to the health of the labor movement - that being organized into union or any other formation - was the first and most important step workers could take to protect their safety and health."
Stephen Levin championed the cause for helping victims of environmental and occupational disease. Ironically, like his predecessor, Dr. Selikoff, he also succumbed to cancer, the disease that they both battled against for others. Dr. Levin's will be sadly missed but his legacy will on.
See also:
Dr. Stephen Levin dead of cancer NY Daily News
"As the medical director of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dr. Stephen Levin had long known how damaging airborne toxins were to unprotected lungs."
A memorial service will take place Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 4 p.m. at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Stern Auditorium, 1468 Madison Avenue (@ E. 100th Street, New York, NY 10029.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
It is Time To Do The Right Thing
A recent decision by the NJ Courts illustrates the weaknesses of the present workers' compensation system when dealing with occupational exposures. The social remedial system called workers' compensation was designed before recognition of the compensability occupational illnesses.
The initial system was to furnish benefits without fault and in a summary and remedial fashion to injured workers. For the most part, that system worked from 1911 until the 1950's when the legacy of asbestos, used in World War II to insulate ships, came back to haunt the American worker by the manifestation of latent asbestos diseases including mesothelioma, a rare and fatal cancer.
Recently a NJ court denied the compensability of an asbestos related condition based upon the claimant's own knowledge of the causal relationship of an asbestos related medical condition and his own occupational exposure. Additional the court held that medical expert testimony was not required to support a motion to dismiss for the failure to meet the requirement of the statute of limitations.
In the 1970's the US Department of Labor was concerned with the same weaknesses and unavailability of benefits. The US DOL commissioned the Environmental Sciences Center at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine under the leadership of the late Irving J. Selikoff, MD to study and analyze the problem. The weaknesses of the system, even though less dramatic than present, led to the conclusion that the workers' compensation systems just didn't work for occupational disease conditions. Additionally, costs for medical treatment of asbestos related conditions were being shifted at an estimated $10 Billion dollars, at that time, to the Medicare system.
Dr. Selikoff studied two major cohorts in analyzing the inadequacies of the workers' compensation system. One group were insulators, and another group were 933 former plant workers at The Union Asbestos and Rubber Company of Paterson NJ who worked in war production between 1942 and 1944. Strikingly, the dormant medical conditions caused by the occupational exposure to asbestos fiber, and the latent condition of the disease for decades, caused major problems in filing claims. Those included the statute of limitation and diagnosis by medical professionals. Some professional were Grade B readers certified by The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and even those experts in the field were challenged in Court.
The report, that was submitted to the US Congress, concluded that the failure of the workers' compensation system to provide benefits to many who were exposed to asbestos, and the inadequate benefits to others. Their low rates were based on extremely low wages at the time of exposure. For these and other reasons, the report concluded, that the workers' compensation had failed to adequately provide treatment and other benefits. Since workers' compensation was not meeting the needs, claimants flocked to the tort system in epidemic proportion resulting in "the longest running tort" in American judicial history, "asbestos litigation." That litigation continues to this day. Even scores of companies that have reorganized under bankruptcy to avoid liability exposure are now providing benefits under a claims procedure.
While the NJ Court's decision may have been on point with regard to the Rules adopted to govern workers' compensation cases, it is time to revisit whether the Rules are too strict and defeat the social and remedial goals of the system that was envisioned by the creators in 1911. On a global scale, the failure of the workers' compensation to provide benefits results in the inequitable shift of responsibility to the general taxpayer.
To meet the needs of those exposed occupationally, Congress needs to act now upon a global and unified solution. One path to the goal of correcting inequities of the system is to advance a system of universal medical care. The US government must do the right thing. The medical delivery system for occupational diseases must come under a national universal medical care program. Additionally Congress must meet its moral and social responsibility and finally ban asbestos use in the US once and for all.
Read the decision: Russo v. Hoboken Board of Education, A-1861-10T4 (App. Div. November 29, 2011)
"...the WCJ found that he knew asbestos could cause lung disease and other medical problems as early as "the 70s." She noted that Russo "made complaints about the exposures to harmful substances . . . while still teaching." The WCJ further found that Russo "was well aware of the potential harmful effects of asbestos exposure," and she rejected his claim that the petition was not time-barred "because he was never informed by any of his treating physicians that his cancer was related to this exposure."
Related articles
- Changing the Fundamental Rules of Workers Compensation (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, A Pioneer of Mesothelioma Medical Research (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Why is the US Still in the Asbestos Business? (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- The Gingrich Revival and The Future of Workers' Compensation (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Fallout From The Failure of Super Committee May Cascade Into Workers Compensation Medical Delivery (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- Gingrich: Workers' Compensation is History (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, A Pioneer of Mesothelioma Medical Research
I met Dr. Suzuki in the early years of my career when I litigated some of the initial claims involving asbestos exposures at The Union Asbestos and Rubber Company's (UNARCO) plant in Paterson, NJ. Dr. Selikoff, and my late father, a lawyer, both of Paterson, were involved in the "original 17" asbestos worker claims in 1954 before the New Jersey Division of Workers' Compensation.
Following the successful disposition of those claims, Dr. Selikoff expanded his research at the ESL in New York City. Dr. Suzuki became the lead pathologist of that pioneering medical-investigative team. Dr. Suzuki played a critical role in the Paterson Asbestos Control Group that followed up, through autopsy, the cohort of 933 former workers of the UNARCO facility and their families. His analysis of the pathology of the asbestos-related tumors produced, along with Dr. Selikoff and his knowledgeable team, some of the sentinel epidemiological studies linking asbestos-related exposure of workers and their families and bystanders to asbestos exposures.
The following obituary was published by the Collegium Ramazzini
Professor Suzuki received his M.D. degree from the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo in 1953. He completed one year internship in Tokyo at the Setagaya National Hospital, and was licensed in 1954 by the Japanese Government.
In 1954 he joined the Department of Pathology in the Keio University School of Medicine starting as an "Assistant of Pathology". Dr. Suzuki's early work on the kidney he proved the presence of the mesangium, the third structural element of renal glomerulus. Working with new technology - the electron microscope, he was able to further define the structure of the mesangium.
In 1959, he was awarded the Doctorate of Medical Sciences in the field of Pathology. In 1960 he was sent abroad as an International Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) training at New York University School of Medicine under Professor Johannes Rhodin. In 1961 he trained at the Mount Sinai Hospital Renal Pathology Division under Dr. Churg. He returned to Keio University 1962 as a faculty member. In 1966, Dr. Suzuki was invited to re-join Mount Sinai as a Research Associate. In addition to renal pathology with Dr. Churg, he started to investigate pathology of asbestos related diseases with Dr. Dr. Irving J. Selikoff.
The research on asbestos-related diseases included seminal work on pulmonary asbestosis, the development and formation of asbestos bodies and electron microscopy of human malignant mesothelioma. In 1973, Dr. Suzuki again returned to Japan to serve as Chairman and Professor of Anatomy at Fujita-Gakuen University School of Medicine.
He returned to Mount Sinai in 1975 as Research Professor of Community Medicine and Research Associate Professor of Pathology. For the next 31 years, from 1975 to 2006, he devoted his time solely to the investigating the pathology of asbestos-related diseases. One of his most significant contributions was providing support to Selikoff's ground-breaking epidemiological study on asbestos insulation workers. Slide by slide, he reviewed the pathologic autopsy and biopsy samples taken from approximately 5,000 cases of insulation workers and confirmed the diagnosis of asbestos-related diseases.
He was promoted to Professor of Pathology in 1989 and in 1991 to Professor of Community and Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Suzuki published 171 peer review scientific papers. Dr. Suzuki estimated that over the course of his career in research, he had examined and written up approximately 538,000 individual slides.
Suzuki received several honors in addition to those conferred by the Collegium Ramazzini. Other awards include the honorary title of Guest Professor at Tokai University School of Medicine (1993-1996) and Honorary Visiting Professor of Pathology at Keio University School of Medicine (1999-2000).
Related articles
- Cancer Risk Passes to Next of Kin
- About Asbestos/Mesothelioma Litigation and Claims
- Haledon Man Sues Asbestos Plant for Wife's Death
- Families of Asbestos Workers Vulnerable
- The History of Asbestos and The Law
- Frequently Asked Questions About Asbestos Litigation
The author, Jon L. Gelman, practices law in Wayne, NJ. He is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (Thomson-Reuters). For over five decades, the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have represented injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
© 2011 Jon L Gelman. All rights reserved.
Recommended Citation: Gelman, Jon L., Dr. Yasunosuke Suzuki, A Pioneer of Mesothelioma Medical Research, www.gelmans.com (2011), https://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/2011/11/dr-yasunosuke-suzuki-pioneer-of.html
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Allianz Firemans Fund Increases Asbestos Reserves by $301 Million
Asbestos has been a known carcinogen for decades. It is a natural occurring mineral that that has been used for its non-flammable properties. Medical conditions occur such as asbestosis, mesothelioma and other cancers, decades after the initial exposure.
Initially sold by companies in the 1920s, without warning of its known dangers, asbestos use continues not to be banned in the US. Disease from asbestos exposure is predicted to continue at very high rates.
The largest transfer of economic wealth in the United States from Industry to the private sector, other than in the Attorney General’s thirty-eight State tobacco litigation, emanated from asbestos litigation which had its geneses in workers’ compensation. The late Irving Selikoff, MD’s pioneering efforts in providing expert testimony, based upon his sentinel studies of asbestos workers in Paterson, NJ, created the trigger mechanism for a massive wave of claims for occupational health care. The workers' compensation program never did adequately nor efficiently or expeditiously provide medical care.
The workers’ compensation system did not provide an adequate remedy because of a constellation of reasons, and subsequently, the wave spread to civil litigation out of desperation for adequate benefits. Asbestos litigation has been named, "The Longest Running Tort” in American history. Asbestos litigation expanded into bankruptcy claims that continue unabated and the epidemic of disease continues. The remaining cases in the Federal court system were transferred to Federal Multi District Litigation (MDL 875) and the majority are finally concluding after twenty years of Panel consolidation.
Large verdicts continue to be reported in asbestos claims. A Los Angles jury recently awarded $208.8 Million in what has been recognized as the largest asbestos verdict ($200 Million punitive damages) in the State of California. The case involved a household contact exposure to asbestos fiber. The wife of the asbestos worker was exposed to asbestos fiber on the clothes of her husband that he brought home and that she cleaned.
Click here to read more about asbestos related disease and claims for benefits. For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered asbestos related illnesses.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
$208.8 Million Awarded in California Asbestos Case
Liability was apportioned 70% against CertainTeed Corp and 30% against the Los Angles Department of Water and Power.
Asbestos is a known carcinogen and knowledge of the relationship of human exposure to asbestos fiber and mesothelioma, a rare malignancy, has been known since the 1920's. Cases for household contact exposure to asbestos fiber are common.
In Paterson NJ the Union Asbestos and Rubber Company Plant (UNARCO) was the subject of a sentinel study by the late Irving J. Selikoff, MD, who found that of the 933 workers who were employed during the war years, over 300 had died by 1976 of asbestos related disease, and that household contact illness and disease was very prevalent.
Click here to read more about asbestos related disease and claims for benefits. 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 asbestos related illnesses.
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Health Reform Act Charts a New Course for Occupational Health Care
Friday, April 2, 2010
Positive Pathological Findings in the Lungs of World Trade Center Patients
MSMC took the early initiative in medically investigating the World Trade Center (WTC) first responders. Following up on the 2001 event MSMC had conducted pathologic evaluations of WTC dust present in lung tissue of a sampling of the lose exposed to WTC dust. It is estimated that between 60,000 to 70,000 responders have been exposed.
"We found that three of the seven responders had severe or moderate restrictive disease clinically. Histopathology showed interstitial lung disease consistent with small airways disease, bronchiolocentric parenchymal disease, and nonnecrotizing granulomatous condition. Tissue mineralogic analyses showed variable amounts of sheets of aluminum and magnesium silicates, chrysotile asbestos, calcium phosphate, and calcium sulfate. Small shards of glass containing mostly silica and magnesium were also found. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) of various sizes and lengths were noted. CNT were also identified in four of seven WTC dust samples."
Click here to read more about the WTC exposures and workers' compensation.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Secretary at Former Asbestos Plant Awarded $17.87 Million
The lawsuit alleged that Pneumo Abex LLC and Honeywell International Inc. and their corporate predecessors knew of the dangers of asbestos and failed to warn their employees and customers of the hazards.
UNARCO also operated an asbestos plant in Paterson NJ from 1942 through November, 1954. It produced asbestos pipe covering and textile material for US Navy ships and and others. The Paterson NJ group of workers, and their families, became the cohort group for sentinel studies conducted by the late Irving J. Selikoff, MD (1915-1992), who linked asbestos exposure to various disease including: asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Those studies ultimately lead to a world renown conference in 1964 sponsored by The New York Academy of Sciences.
Asbestos is still mined in Canada. The use of asbestos in the United States has yet to be banned in the United States.
Disease caused by asbestos has resulted in an epidemic of disease and resulting massive amounts of workers' compensation occupational exposure claims and civil actions. Asbestos litigation has been deemed "The Longest Running Tort in American History."
Click here to read more about asbestos and workers compensation.
Click to read more about asbestos litigation.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Congress, Health Care & Unintended Consequences
Highlights of the NASI (National Academy of Social Insurance) conference convened in Washington were findings presented by eminent leaders in the field. Professor John Burton, Rutgers University, pointed out that newly created barriers to workers’ compensation were pushing more injured workers to the Social Security disability system for benefits. This reflects a phenomenon that occurred in the late 1970’s when a study commissioned by the US Department of Labor and conducted by Mt. Sinai Hospitals’ Environmental Sciences Laboratory, revealed that the inadequate benefit delivery system of workers’ compensation for asbestos related illness, was forcing injured workers and their families into the civil justice arena for adequate compensation.
The problems have not changed in decades; they have only gotten worse, maturing into a system that is in critical condition and on life support. In 1980 Irving J. Selikoff, M.D. reported, “There has been widespread acknowledgement of significant problems with disability compensation for workers in the United States. One major area of concern has been the shortcomings with regard to occupational disease. Whatever the suitability of current workers’ compensation systems in the 50 states for injuries and work accidents, there has been little disagreement about the inadequacies of such systems for workers who become disabled by illness or, if they die, for their surviving dependents.”
Complex questions continue to exist between the scientific and legal communities as to the path to be taken. Barriers placed into the path of recovery, including pre-existing and co-existing conditions, which result in limited or delayed recovery and major shifting of the economic responsibility upon the public/private benefit systems need to be removed. The unspoken social consequences continue as a silent epidemic as families and survivors struggle in silence.
Looking backward over the noble experiment in California which turned sour, Tom Rankin, former President of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, expressed his regret of the reform. The former Labor leader theorized that the results were “unintended consequences.” Indeed he is looking forward to solutions springing forth in a “public option” embedded into the national health care legislation.
Some participants at the NASI conference alleged a major shortcoming of the California workers’ compensation legislative reform effort. Doug Kim, a lobbyist for the claimant’s attorneys, disclosed that the injured workers’ advocates were not invited to partake in the discussion that lead up to crafting the initial drafts of the 2004 California reform legislation SB 899.
History reveals, that when the theoretical reforms were practically applied, the injured workers suffered serious setbacks. If these were in fact “unintended consequences,” then one must consider the active involvement of all stakeholders when looking forward to solutions. The courts in California have consistently upheld challenges to the inequitable results, pointing to the legislative intent to reduce costs. Absent from the discussions of the presenters were practical systemic applications to improve the present system. The “blood and guts” of the traumatic, delay and denial, struggles of navigating in a crippled workers’ compensation system, in California and elsewhere, is verification that change is mandated.
As North Carolina attorney, Valerie A. Johnson, so eloquently remarked, “workers’ compensation is supposed to be a simple system.” The process has now been obstructed by encroaching elements of fault, contributory negligence, apportionment of pre-existing conditions and difficulties of the element of time, manifested by latent diseases unknown to the fathers of the system a century ago. The advance of medical science has brought forth new and innovated modalities that have contributed to soaring medical costs. The convergence of these issues has generated higher administrative costs.
Pecuniary Industry motives have worked adversely to improving safety in the workplace. The need for workers’ compensation would be minimized by adopting a safer occupational environment. Under reporting of workplace accidents continue as the Government Accountability Office announced. Nebraska Appleseed reveals that workers feel intimidated and are apprehensive to report injuries and unsafe work conditions. This is scenario is compounded by the fact that undocumented workers, who have even less job security, work in jobs with higher risk. The Bush Administration did not make efforts to allow OSHA to heighten enforcement efforts. All of these ingredients combine to create a recipe that just doesn’t work.
The US Senate advanced the health care legislation to a floor debate in an unusual late Saturday night session. This action may indeed provide an opportunity for the stakeholders in workers’ compensation to all join in the debate and look for solutions to the delivery of appropriate medical care in an efficient and timely fashion. To avoid “unintended consequences” yet again, injured workers and their advocates will need to be active participants and engage in the debate now.
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To read more about workers’ compensation and universal health care solutions click here.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
APHA Calls for US Asbestos Ban
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Asbestos Debate is Over
Asbestos is one of the modern world’s most historic occupational medical disasters. Not only is it well documented, it continues not to be banned in the US , in fact, the incidence of asbestos related disease reported has turned upward, according to recently released NIOSH data (1979-2003.
In a recent review of the Craighead volume, the New England Journal of Medicine, has called it, “….highly personalized with strong individual viewpoints. It is less authoritative as a source for risk assessment and litigation issues.”
Yet others have including: Victor L. Roggli (Pathology of Asbestos-Associated Diseases), Barry I. Castleman (Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, Fifth Edition) and Paul Brodeur (Outrageous Misconduct) have followed in the historic footsteps of the late, Irving J. Selikoff, MD and have guided us to seek a remedy and cure for wrongdoings of the past.
The asbestos debate is over. It is no longer time to profit from the debate and sell controversy. It is no longer time to allow this product to be sold anywhere in the world for profit. It is time to direct attention to provide medical treatment to those who suffer from asbestos related illness and draw our attention to find a cure for this disease.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Diagnosing and Curing the Ailing NJ Workers' Compensation System
The State has a history of being a heavily industrialized state with a huge legacy of pollution from asbestos to petrochemical. Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, of Paterson, NJ, began his landmark studies on asbestos workers in New Jersey. In 1911, almost a century ago, NJ adopted an administrative system known as workers' compensation and it was the intent of the Legislature to provide a speedy and cost effective system of delivering statutorily defined benefits to injured workers while passing the costs onto the consumers of products and services.
This will be the first major evaluation of the workers’ compensation system in 30 years. The last one resulted in a fraud report from the NJ State Commission of Investigation and subsequent statutory change.
Much has changed from the past. In 1911 modern medicine was unknown and so were the diseases that it now treats. The program’s benefits were meager and the conditions eligible for compensation were few and far between. More Americans have died from occupational disease in the United States of America in the past 40 years than in all wars dating back to 1776. Hearings on S.79 before the Subcomm. of Labor and Human Resources of the Senate Comm. on Labor and Human Resources, 100th Cong. 1st Session, S.Hrg. 100-56, pt. 1, at page 1 (1987). Collateral benefit programs did not exist: major medical insurance, long term disability, social security and pension programs.
We are experiencing a struggling economy today. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich stated, “Fifty years ago, when over a third of the American workforce was unionized and most big industries were oligopolies, it was fairly easy for unionized workers to get higher wages and benefits without putting any individual company at a competitive disadvantage. The higher wages and benefits were merely passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices or came out of profits that would otherwise go to investors. Today, though, most companies are in fierce competition because new technologies combined with globalization have destroyed the old oligopolies and allowed many new entrants.”
Today the workers’ compensation process is confronted with the complexity of the causal relationship of new diseases to synergistic occupational exposures to complex substances as well as traumatic events. Multiple bureaucratic benefits programs that are not formally connected burden the system with claims and liens. Revenue is limited by fewer manufacturing facilities and it is more costly to provide medical treatment and pharmaceutical protocols that result in miraculous recoveries as well as serious and fatal unfortunate results. Benefits must be paid out longer since the average person has a greater life expectancy, ie 1911 – 50 yrs of age and 2007 – 78 years of age.
As in medicine, one must look at both subjective complaints and objective findings to guide its evaluation of the workers’ compensation system. One can hear the cry’s of injured workers “Waiting in Pain,” and of the injured workers and the families of those who did not survive the compensation system. Stories of frustration and outrage are reported in the press. Testimony to the NJ Senate will come from the stakeholders who have economic interests in the system and those who are organized representatives of those who are unable to speak any longer. Those voices must be heard and evaluated. It is important to heed to words and wisdom of all and evaluate them in the context of self-motivation.
The compensation system has been portrayed as, “a dead elephant in the room,” and one that fails to carry out the legislative intent of 1911. Professor Emeritus, John F. Burton, Jr., of Rutgers University of the School of Management and Labor Relations, describes the NJ system as, "It's kind of a sleepy system…” that is “…not particularly worker-friendly."
Unlike The Constitution, the workers' compensation act deals not in the theoretical and vague general concepts of Democracy. The compensation act is a document, which within its four comers, speaks with certainty, specifics and details.
The program has failed because under the present system the Legislative intent cannot be carried out. One cannot drive a 1911 model car on the NJ Turnpike today. Workers' Compensation should be viewed in that context, and not as a cash cow for any interest parties.
The Act can no longer provide medical treatment in an efficient and effective manner consistent with the legislative intent to provide social remedial benefits through a liberal and summary social insurance program. Medical coverage has become acute in NJ and in other jurisdictions. Almost a majority of workers will soon be uninsured for major medical coverage. NJ should take the initiative, as other states have, to provide for universal health care. NJ should combine workers' compensation medical coverage with a universal employer based medical care program and have a single payer system. A single payer system will be cost effective, efficient and provide more appropriate delivery of medical care.
The workers' compensation system began in 1911 with the noble mission as a social remedial system providing an efficient and certain system of benefits to injured workers. Today, the system struggles to protect employees as the rapidly evolving landscape is demanding increased attention to reconsideration of an IHC system in light of the consequences of the program's costs and the consequences of being uninsured for healthcare benefits. The participants in the current program, including employees and employers , will require a more balanced and certain medical delivery system. The lack of healthcare coverage takes an enormous toll on the uninsured, which results in avoidable deaths each year, poorly managed chronic conditions, undetected or under treated cancer and untried life-saving medical procedures. An Integrated Health Care plan is a potential national shift to reduce costs so that a healthcare safety net can be maintained for workers and their families.
“Full-time healthcare would save money. Instead of paying for two insurance plans – one to cover healthcare for injuries and illnesses on the job and another for injuries and illness off the job – businesses would buy one plan. As Roger Thompson, former director of Travelers Insurance Workers’ Compensation Strategic Business Unit put it, the present system is ‘like having two trains going down separate tracks and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have all the administrative costs to maintain these separate systems.’” R. McGarrah, “Full-time Healthcare for America’s Working Families [Draft],” AFL-CIO (August 22, 2003).
In the short run, adopting such concepts, proposed by Senator Stephen M. Sweeney and Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen, would be fine initial steps:
- prohibiting the future raiding of revenue on designated workers' compensation funds (CSR-60) should be enacted;
- swifter scheduling and use of continuous trials;
- greater permanent, temporary rate and dependency [A-2499], benefits;
- rate increases [A-2498] should be enacted;
- a review of judicial appointments as recommenced in the 1974 by the State Commission of Investigation report;
- an enhanced in-service judicial training curriculum;
- exclusive jurisdiction of the Division of Workers compensation over medical fee disputes [A-2501];
- a less burdensome Uninsured Employer Fund system to shift the responsibility to the State to locate and serve responsible parties and in the alternative to carryout the mandate of the Legislature to make payment to uninsured workers and asbestos victims expeditiously and even more swiftly in exigent cases;
- an independent oversight commission [A-2503] should continuously evaluate the status and progress of this system that handles trust funds and benefits valued at over $1.8 Billion dollars per year; and
- Data Match with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to comply quickly with the Medicare Secondary Payer Act which was enacted decades ago.
By evaluating the health of the compensation system thorough an intensive analysis of both the objective findings and subjective complaints, the NJ Senate will have the opportunity to enact modern, creative and innovative solutions that will be able meet the present needs of the workers, the employers and taxpayers of State. The NJ Legislature has the opportunity to craft an up-to-date system that will cure the ailing and antiquated workers’ compensation system and embrace today’s needs and tomorrow’s future and bring the State into a new century.