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Monday, April 7, 2014
Saturday, September 4, 2010
CMS/MSP Statute Tolling Case Set for Hearing by Federal Court
Friday, January 22, 2021
Is the workers' compensation system ready for the COVID-19 [coronavirus] virus? Live Updates
Monday, October 24, 2011
Insurance Agent Charged With Theft of $255,000 of Work Comp Premiums
Attorney General Linda Kelly identified the defendant as Joseph A. Maurer, 58, of 2558 Welsh Road, Mohnton. Maurer owned and operated Commonwealth Professional Group, a former insurance agency located in Reading, Berks County.
According to the criminal complaint, Maurer is accused of taking more than $188,000 in premiums paid by four municipal governments, including Bally Borough and South Heidelberg Township, located in Berks County, along with Salisbury Township in Lehigh County and Earl Township in Lancaster County. The money allegedly paid to Maurer by all four municipalities was supposed to be forwarded to Pennprime Insurance Trust, of Harrisburg, as payment for workers compensation coverage.
Additionally, Maurer allegedly misdirected premium payments for at least five other policies purchased through his agency, totaling in excess of $67,000 that was supposed to be forwarded to Travelers Insurance and ACE American Insurance Company on behalf of various clients.
Maurer is charged with three counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received, all third-degree felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines.
Maurer was preliminarily arraigned on October 12th before Reading Magisterial District Judge Phyllis J. Kowalski and released on $850,000 unsecured bail. He was also ordered to surrender his passport.
A preliminary hearing for Maurer is scheduled for November 9th, at 1:30 p.m., before Magisterial District Judge Kowalski.
The case will be prosecuted in Berks County by Deputy Attorney General John T. Dickinson of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Insurance Fraud Section.
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- Florida, Oxycodone, Trafficking Workers Compensation and Blame (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
- US Dept of Labor Moves Aggressively on Misclassification of Workers (workers-compensation.blogspot.com)
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Monday, February 1, 2021
CDC issues mandate on wearing of face masks while on conveyances and at transportation hubs
Many of the nation’s employers and employees will be impacted by a recent mask mandate promulgated by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This national Order will establish a uniform science and medical evidence strategy to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV2 (coronavirus) and the emerging spread of variants of the disease.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
NJ Supreme Court Holds Subrogation Conflict Does Not Exist Between Workers’ Compensation and the Auto Insurance Statute
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.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Class Action Certification Sought in NCCI et al v AIG Premium Case
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Monday, October 6, 2014
As U.S. Ebola Fears Widen, Reports of Possible Cases Grow
Infections are a major issue in workers' compensation claims. As health workers continue to become exposed to Ebola virus the question remain what action the Federal government will take to ease the burden upon the nation's insurance industry. Today's post is shared from the njytimes.com/ DALLAS — In Washington, a patient who had traveled to Nigeria and who was suspected of having Ebola was placed in isolation at Howard University Hospital on Thursday. In New Haven, two Yale University graduate students plan to sequester themselves when they return this weekend from Liberia, where they have helped the government develop a system to track the Ebola epidemic. And at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday, a sick man who had just arrived from Brussels was rushed to a hospital amid concerns that he was showing Ebola-like symptoms, a fear later dismissed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With fears about Ebola widening across the United States, federal health officials said Saturday that they were receiving an escalating number of reports of possible Ebola infection, particularly after a Liberian man tested positive for the deadly disease in Dallas last week, the first Ebola case diagnosed in this country. Since the disease began spreading rapidly across West Africa this summer, the C.D.C. said, it has assessed more than 100 possible cases, but only the Dallas case has been confirmed. But increased attention about the virus has jangled nerves around the country, particularly among West African immigrant communities and recent travelers to that region, and placed health care workers on a kind of high alert. “We expect that we will see more rumors, or concerns, or possibilities of cases,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of... |
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Wednesday, June 5, 2013
More Regulation Called for of State Opt-Out Plans
By Peter Rousmaniere and Jack Roberts |
Read more about "opt-out" plans and workers' compensation
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Monday, March 21, 2016
Garlock reaches $480 Million settlement on asbestos claims
Garlock plans to emerge from bankruptcy and establish a trust in the amount of $480 Million to pay asbestos claimants and their families. Garlock a member of the EnPro Industries consortium had made asbestos gaskets.Asbestos is a known carcinogen and causally connected with lung cancer, mesothelioma and other malignancies as well as asbestosis.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Major Players The Rush to Sell More Coverage
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Uber sued for allegedly refusing rides to the blind and putting a dog in the trunk
The Uber app is shown in this Feb. 14, 2013, file photo in Washington, D.C. (AFP) An advocacy group for the blind is suing the app-based ride-sharing service Uber, alleging the company discriminates against passengers with service dogs. The federal civil rights suit filed Tuesday by the California chapter of the National Federation of the Blind cites instances in California and elsewhere when blind Uber customers summoned a car only to be refused a ride once the driver saw them with a service dog. In some cases, drivers allegedly abandoned blind travelers in extreme weather and charged cancellation fees after denying them rides, the complaint said. The complaint filed in a Northern California District Court cites one instance where a California UberX driver put a service dog in the trunk and refused to pull over when the blind passenger realized where the animal was. On another occasion a passenger was trying to explain that his dog was not a pet but a service animal when the driver allegedly cursed at him and accelerated abruptly, nearly injuring the dog and striking the passenger’s friend, who is also blind, with an open car door. The group said it’s aware of more than 30 times blind customers were denied rides in violation of the American with Disabilities Act and California state law. As a result, blind passengers are confronting unexpected delays and “face the degrading experience of being denied a basic service that is available to all other... |
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- Uber denied service to blind passengers, put a guide dog in the trunk of a car, lawsuit alleges (salon.com)
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
CDC Coronavirus Guidance Sets a Standard for Employer Responsibility and Liability
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Drivers' Protected From Being Forced to Violate Safety Regulations
“Our nation relies on millions of commercial vehicle drivers to move people and freight, and we must do everything we can to ensure that they are able to operate safely,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This Rule enables us to take enforcement action against anyone in the transportation chain who knowingly and recklessly jeopardizes the safety of the driver and of the motoring public.”
The Final Rule addresses three key areas concerning driver coercion: procedures for commercial truck and bus drivers to report incidents of coercion to the FMCSA, steps the agency could take when responding to such allegations, and penalties that may be imposed on entities found to have coerced drivers.
“Any time a motor carrier, shipper, receiver, freight-forwarder, or broker demands that a schedule be met, one that the driver says would be impossible without violating hours-of-service restrictions or other safety regulations, that is coercion,” said FMCSA Acting Administrator Scott Darling. “No commercial driver should ever feel compelled to bypass important federal safety regulations and potentially endanger the lives of all travelers on the road.”
In formulating this Rule, the agency heard from commercial drivers who reported being pressured to violate federal safety regulations with implicit or explicit threats of job termination, denial of subsequent trips or loads, reduced pay, forfeiture of favorable work hours or transportation jobs, or other direct retaliations.
Some of the FMCSA regulations drivers reported being coerced into violating included: hours-of-service limitations designed to prevent fatigued driving, commercial driver’s license (CDL) requirements, drug and alcohol testing, the transportation of hazardous materials, and commercial regulations applicable to, among others, interstate household goods movers and passenger carriers.
Commercial truck and bus drivers have had whistle-blower protection through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since 1982, when the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) was adopted. The STAA and OSHA regulations protect drivers and other individuals working for commercial motor carriers from retaliation for reporting or engaging in activities related to certain commercial motor vehicle safety, health, or security conditions. STAA provides whistleblower protection for drivers who report coercion complaints under this Final Rule and are then retaliated against by their employer.
In June 2014, FMCSA and OSHA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the coordination and cooperation between the agencies regarding the anti-retaliation provision of the STAA. The Memorandum allows for the exchange of safety, coercion, and retaliation allegations, when received by one agency, that fall under the authority of the other.
For more information on what constitutes coercion and how to submit a complaint to FMCSA, see: www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/coercion. Please note: the Final Rule takes effect 60 days following its publication in the Federal Register.
This rulemaking was authorized by Section 32911 of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 (MCSA), as amended.
For a copy of today’s Federal Register announcement, see: www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/11/30/2015-30237/prohibiting-coercion-of-commercial-motor-vehicle-drivers.
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Monday, December 1, 2014
Notable Absence of New Ebola Quarantines at New York Area Airports
A day after a doctor who had returned from Guinea about a week earlier became New York’s first Ebola case, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced that they would begin quarantining travelers who had been in contact with Ebola patients in West Africa.
The move, which went beyond federal policy, drew protests from medical aid groups and the Obama administration, who said it would penalize people who were trying to contain Ebola and discourage others from doing so.
But since Kaci Hickox, a nurse, flew into Newark’s airport on Oct. 24 and was kept at a hospital for three days, no one else has been caught up in the quarantine dragnet at the New York and New Jersey airports.
The absence of quarantines is striking, not only because both governors emphatically defended the policy as a necessary precaution, but also because most people returning from Ebola-stricken countries arrive in the United States through Kennedy and Newark Liberty International Airports. Several aid organizations have American health care workers in West Africa, a handful of whom return every week. But New York and New Jersey officials say no one coming through the two airports since Ms. Hickox has reported direct contact with Ebola patients.
“I don’t think we can speculate on whether or not it’s out of the ordinary,” Monica Mahaffey, a spokeswoman for the New York State Health Department, said.
Possible explanations, based on interviews with several doctors who...
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014
US officials expected to announce Ebola screening at airports
Employees at airports have a new problem to be worried about: Ebola. Today's post is shared from cidrap.umn.edu/ Federal officials are finalizing details on Ebola screening steps for travelers arriving at US airports, which may be announced in a few days and may resemble the kinds of questions that outbreak countries are asking departing passengers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said today. The risk of another travel-linked Ebola case, such as the one in Texas, can never be reduced to zero until West Africa's outbreak is extinguished, he said at a media telebriefing today. But he said the CDC and other government agencies are taking a hard look at additional steps, focusing on ones that won't hamstring the response process underway overseas. The three main outbreak countries have so far screened about 36,000 people departing on airlines, with three fourths of them bound for destinations outside the United States. The CDC has trained airport screeners in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, which have flagged 77 people with fever and 3 people with other symptoms. As far as the CDC knows, none of the people with fever had Ebola, and most had malaria, a common illness in that part the world, Frieden said. "I can assure you we will take additional steps, and the details will be worked out and announced in a few days," he added. Senator suggests screening stepsUS Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., issued a statement today saying he spoke with Frieden about tougher screening at US airports and is pleased that the CDC is preparing to... |
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