Workers' Compensation

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Playing the TSA Cancer Lottery

The Japanesse nuclear reactor radiation leak and the risk taken by the Fukusima workers, as well as in food contamination, has focussed increased concern about the unsafe use of radiation equipment used by the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) in x-ray machines to scan passengers at airports. David Brenner, Phd,DSr, a researcher at The Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University in New York, reports that TSA's use of the machines will create an increase risk to passenger by causing an additional 100 cancers in the population each year. He calls for the use of different equipment to screen passengers.

At a US Senate hearing last week, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) revealed that TSA had made reporting errors in the statistics it has compiled in defense of the use of body scanners. "That is completely unacceptable when it comes to monitoring radiation," Collins said. "If TSA contractors reporting on the radiation levels have done such a poor job, how can airline passengers and crew have confidence in the data used by the TSA to reassure the public?"

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Monday, March 21, 2011

US Labor Department Launches Mobile-Optimized Website to Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Mobile site features audio tour and background of historic event

WASHINGTON — In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the deadly fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, the U.S. Department of Labor today announced a new website and audio tour optimized for smartphones documenting that milestone in labor's history.

With audio narrated by Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and other senior Labor Department officials, the website highlights 21 locations throughout the New York City metropolitan area that played a role in the March 25, 1911, fire. Users can read and hear about the events that led up to the fire, its victims and the aftermath. The fire killed 146 workers and was an early tipping point in the struggle to ensure basic health and safety precautions in the 20th century workplace.

"The events of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and their impact over the last 100 years are chilling reminders of the importance of the work of the Labor Department," said Secretary Solis. "As we continue to ensure that every company takes responsibility for the safety and health of its workers, we must also remember that although much has improved over the last 100 years, these images are still relevant today."

The website is http://m.dol.gov/shirtwaist. Audio recordings of the narration are also available by calling 866-487-2365.

On Friday, March 25, at approximately noon EDT, Secretary Solis is expected to deliver keynote remarks at the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire sponsored by the Service Employees International Union in Greenwich Village (Washington and Green Streets) in Manhattan.

The Labor Department's mobile tour is one of many commemorative efforts organized by nonprofit groups; labor unions; academia; and local, state and federal entities surrounding the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy.

Note: If you are not on a mobile device, please visit the tour on the full website

Commemoration- Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: A Century Later

The Forward has published a special section for its new March 25 issue to commemorate and honor the 100^th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. The section features the first-ever translations of the Jewish Daily Forward’s original Yiddish coverage of the event, including the front page of March 25, 1911, the day of the fire, stories about the heroes of the fire, and Editor Abe Cahan’s editorials about the tragedy.

The special section also includes an original essay from David Von Drehle, author of Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, as well as the winners of its Triangle Fire Poetry Contest, a prize poetry contest that the Forward held earlier this year to elicit submissions for both an English and Yiddish poem to honor the poetry of Morris Rosenfeld who documented the fire at the time and to reflect upon the fire’s meaning and legacy. The winner of the English poem was Zackary Sholem Berger of Baltimore, Md and the winner of the Yiddish section was Alec (“Leyzer”) Burko of New York City.

Lastly, another neat part of the section is a video tour featuring Chris Connor, a retired NYC fire marshal who visits the current building where the Triangle Fire took place (now a part of NYU’s campus) to document what went wrong on that fateful day.

Click here to see the special section. http://tinyurl.com/4vzrfa3

An Important History Lesson In Workplace Safety Laws

Guest Blog by John B. Boyd

“The only thing new under the sun is the history which you don’t know.” Harry S Truman

I am amazed at the number of Republicans and Democrats who love to credit our founding fathers with abundant wisdom, then conveniently ignore some of the historical facts about the legislation these legendary giants implemented during our early history. This is true whether for national health care, or, for appropriate workers’ compensation insurance coverage.

In 1798, the United States Congress passed an Act for Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen. This law required all seamen who worked in the merchant marine (private companies) to pay a special tax to fund medical care and hospitals for seamen who were sick or injured. The government deemed that merchant seamen were necessary to the economic health of America and their hard labor jobs often produced injuries that if left untreated would result in an unnecessary loss of their labor and economic hardship for our country.

Thomas Jefferson was the Senate leader and John Adams the President. I dare say both of them were very familiar with our Constitution and it’s restrictions, yet they both helped put in place this common sense law and never once considered it an affront to personal liberty.

There is very little difference between that act and compulsory health insurance other than one is a tax and the other a fine if one doesn’t comply. Both require citizens to help fund their own health care. Both have the power to create a healthier workforce and consequently a healthier economy.

Next month marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which is credited with the impetus for the need for strong unions; for national workers’ compensation laws; and, for states to enact safety laws regulating the workplace.

Today’s legislators would well be served by such history lessons.

John B. Boyd practices in Kansas City, Missouri (www.boydkenterlaw.com). He was the former Acting Chairman of the Labor & Industrial Relations Commission of Missouri. John is a founding member of and Past-President of the Workers' Injury Law and Advocacy Group and a member and former Vice-President of the Missouri Trial Lawyers Association. He is a charter Fellow in the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers. He is counsel to the Missouri AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee and represents various labor organizations.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Breast Cancer Presumed Occupational Illness

Fire fighters in Canada are supporting legislation that would establish a legal presumption that breast cancer is an occupationally related illness. The legislation also creates a presumption that 3 other cancers (skin, prostate and multiple melanoma) are causally related to their employment in claims for workers' compensation benefits.

Click here for pending legislation: Bill#6 http://tinyurl.com/4ns622b

Industry Coalition Wants to Cut CMS Conditional Payments

A group of about 50 employers, insurance carriers and vendors have formed a coalition to endorse legislation (H.R.1063) introduced this week that would ease reporting requirements and reimbursement procedures of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). The organization, the Medicare Advocacy Recovery Group [MARC], contends that the proposed legislation will:

"Empowering Medicare to provide settling parties with the amount of their MSP repayment obligation during the settlement process, will allow taxpayers to settle quicker, and repay the Medicare Trust Fund faster.
"MSP Reform will provide a more affordable and less intrusive MSP system that protects beneficiaries and the Medicare Trust Fund, but does not waste limited judicial and other resources or needlessly confuse parties trying to settle a claim resulting from an injury to a beneficiary.
"MSP Reform will also eliminate the required use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and Health Insurance Claim Numbers (HICNs) in the reporting process, create a basic right of appeal for all parties to resolve a CMS MSP determination, clarify the statute of limitations, and require the CMS Actuary to determine a threshold below which the recoveries are so small it makes no sense to apply the complex MSP laws.

Theoretically it sounds like the change would create a more efficient system to establish: time limits for claim reimbursement; a statute of limitations for liability (3 years); an avenue for redress directly to the judicial system; and a threshold amount for reimbursement. However, the proposal would actually defeat the basic philosophy of the workers' compensation act.

The convoluted logic of the employer/insurance group just makes no sense. It is like saying that I didn't bother buying enough postage on a timely basis so I will just mail my letter at half-price. The universal legislative intent of workers' compensation act mandates that the employer is responsible for medical care of its injured workers. The insurance industry has tried other gimmicks before to continue its long history of cost shifting, and those have rightly failed as Congress wouldn't buy into them.

While employers and insurance carriers delay and deny compensation benefits, shifting the cost to the taxpayers through depletion of the Medicare system, is both offensive and repugnant. If the coalition wants to ride the carousel of "it's not how long, but how much," in doling out benefits, then they should not blame CMS for delays and penalties, caused by the coalition's own failure to report on a timely basis in the first place.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

A Nuclear Workers' Compensation Disaster

As Japanese nuclear energy workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are being ordered to abandon efforts to contain the radiation emission, now at 1,000 times the safe limit, serious concern exists whether the US workers' compensation could handle a similar disaster, if not the consequences of the present event. The gut reaction in the US has been to lean on the Federal Government to bailout the ailing patch work of ailing state compensation systems. The lack of Federal preparation may not be adequate to permit an effective response this time around.

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 in other mass disasters including: Beryllium workers, coal miners compensation, 9-11 Victims Compensation and subsequent Zadroga Fund, and the Gulf oil spill program. In the past the Feds have even prepared to help with H1N1 flu compensation and in the preparation of a Smallpox compensation program.

The Japanese model of delay and denial has proved ineffective. The victims of the Sumitomo Metal Mining uranium processing plant disaster in 1999 were summarily denied benefits for their ensuing radiation health problems.

While similar reactors in the US pose identical design problems, preparation is lacking in the US to provide an adequate response, and even integrate or utilize, the best of the state workers' compensation programs. Those systems are universally struggling to handle the delivery of benefits for occupational exposures. The Federal government has even ignored the implementation of legislation sponsored Senator Edward Markey (MA) for the prophylactic distribution of potassium iodine (KI) pills to those who are in a potential radius of exposure near nuclear reactor sites.

One would think that we would have learned from the Three Mile Island Diaster decades ago or Chernobyl (prediction of fatal cancers of 9,000 to 28,000 between 1986 and 2056). Even the warnings of leaks of similar nuclear reactors like Oyster Creek in NJ or Shoreham in NY, all close to major population centers, have not seemed to create a momentum of urgency.

Notoriously late to react in situations of latent disease has become the classic US policy. We have seen this repeated public health policy in other toxic exposures such as asbestos and tobacco. It is not that we didn't know, it is merely that the government just chose to ignore the public health issues. Unfortunately, this policy has compounded the problems for ailing workers' compensation systems, and it maybe too little and too late to prevent a meltdown of the entire system.

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