Workers' Compensation

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Wal-Mart sued in Georgia over wrong prescription

Today's post is shared from Westlaw Journal Professional Liability.

A pharmacist at a Wal-Mart store in Georgia filled a man’s prescription for blood pressure medication incorrectly, causing him to develop kidney failure, according to a state court lawsuit.

Plaintiff Harold Williams, who also worked at Wal-Mart, says the company fired him while he was sick from the taking the wrong medication.

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Williams says he went to a Wal-Mart pharmacy in Roswell, Ga., in January 2013 to get a prescription for 25 milligrams of hydralazine, a blood pressure medication.

The unidentified pharmacist who filled the prescription gave him 25-milligram tablets of hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic used to treat fluid retention, the suit says.

(Click here to read the complaint on WestlawNext.)

Williams says that because of the error, he took doses of the wrong medication and later was diagnosed with acute renal failure and hospitalized.

He seeks to hold the pharmacist liable for negligence and malpractice. The suit also says Wal-Mart failed to properly hire, train, retain and supervise its pharmacist and other employees.

The complaint seeks compensatory damages from the defendants for past and future medical bills, past and future lost income, and past and future pain and suffering. It also requests punitive damages solely against Wal-Mart for allegedly firing Williams.

Williams v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. et al., No. 15-EV-000040, complaint filed (Ga. State Ct.,...

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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Feds investigating explosion that injured 3 at AGL Welding Supply in Clifton

Today's post is shared from northjersey.com

Firefighters work at the scene of an explosion at a welding company in Clifton.
tariq zehawi/staff photographer

A Paterson man was severely burned and another worker was injured at a Route 46 supply store when oxygen they were using to fill cylinders inexplicably exploded Friday morning, fire Chief Vincent Colavitti Jr. said.

Roberto Silva, 45, has been taken to St. Barnabas Medical center and it appeared Friday afternoon that he would survive, Colavitti said. The other worker, who suffered from minor smoke inhalation, and a truck driver working nearby who also was shaken up by the force of the explosion were treated and released.

The 7 a.m. explosion at the AGL Welding Supply Co. at 600 Route 46 also ignited a fire that went to three alarms and prompted shutdowns of both vehicular and mass transit traffic in the immediate area.

The fire was declared under control at 8 a.m. But the chief said the three alarms had been needed in summoning enough staffing to deal with bitter cold conditions. The fire also had been contained by the building’s sprinkler system until firefighters arrived.

With oxygen still leaking from the storage tank after the explosion, Route 46 near the plant was shut down in both directions, as was Exit 154 of the Garden State Parkway northbound. Also, nearby trains were halted because of the possibility of additional explosions, Colavitti said. Firefighters were able to shut off the...

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Overturning Obamacare Would Change the Nature of the Supreme Court

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

In the first Affordable Care Act case three years ago, the Supreme Court had to decide whether Congress had the power, under the Commerce Clause or some other source of authority, to require individuals to buy health insurance. It was a question that went directly to the structure of American government and the allocation of power within the federal system.

The court very nearly got the answer wrong with an exceedingly narrow reading of Congress’s commerce power. As everyone remembers, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., himself a member of the anti-Commerce Clause five, saved the day by declaring that the penalty for not complying with the individual mandate was actually a tax, properly imposed under Congress’s tax power.

I thought the court was seriously misguided in denying Congress the power under the Commerce Clause to intervene in a sector of the economy that accounts for more than 17 percent of the gross national product. But even I have to concede that the debate over structure has deep roots in the country’s history and a legitimate claim on the Supreme Court’s attention. People will be debating it as long as the flag waves.

But the new Affordable Care Act case, King v. Burwell, to be argued four weeks from now, is different, a case of statutory, not constitutional, interpretation. The court has permitted itself to be recruited into the front lines of a partisan war. Not only the Affordable Care Act but the court itself is in...

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Most Americans Support Paid Sick Days, Parental Leave

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

A majority of Americans think employers should be required to pay for sick leave and time off for new parents, according to a HuffPost/YouGov poll.

Seventy percent say companies should be compelled to offer paid sick leave to employees, while 67 percent favor paid maternity leave, and 55 percent support paid paternity leave, the poll found.

About 40 percent of private-sector workers, many in lower-wage industries, aren't guaranteed paid sick days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. President Barack Obama has urged employers to offer the benefits voluntarily and has asked Congress and state legislatures to pass legislation requiring paid leave.

Lawmakers' opinions on the benefits diverge largely on partisan lines. Americans in general, however, are more supportive.

The poll found a majority of Republicans and Democrats support requiring paid sick leave, although Democrats are 31 percentage points more likely to do so. There were similar partisan gaps on maternity leave and paternity leave.

Women are 14 percentage points more likely to support paid sick leave than men, 15 points more likely to support maternity leave, and 9 points more likely to back paternity leave. Those with children under age 18 are slightly more likely than those without kids to back all three policies.

The divide in opinion on sick leave and maternity leave has remained relatively unchanged since HuffPost last asked about the issue in June 2013. Paternity leave,...

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Investigation Underway in Metro-North Train Crash

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

When a crowded commuter train slammed into a car on the tracks on Tuesday night, it dislodged the electrified third rail, which, combined with gasoline from the vehicle, created a deadly inferno, federal investigators said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

“The entire interior of the first rail car was burned out,” said Robert L. Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The result was the most deadly accident in the history of the Metro-North Railroad, with six people killed and more than a dozen injured after the collision in Valhalla, in Westchester County.

Even as investigators worked to understand why a car became stranded on the tracks, Mr. Sumwalt offered some explanation for why the accident was so deadly.

He said the train plowed the car 1,000 feet down the tracks and, as it went along, tore up 400 feet of electrified rail.

That rail, he said, first penetrated the car “behind and below the driver’s seat” and exited the car by the right rear tire. It then pierced the train, breaking up in 80-foot segments. At least one of those segments penetrated the second rail car.

But he said many questions remained unanswered. Specifically, he said, in these types of accidents, train passengers are rarely killed.

“Usually it is not endangering the occupants of the train,” he said. “We intend to find out what makes this accident different.”

Mr. Sumwalt said it also remained unclear why the S.U.V. was on...

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GOP Chairmen Offer Alternative To Health Law

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

Key GOP chairmen from the Senate and House plan to unveil a blueprint Thursday for repealing the health law and replacing it with a proposal the lawmakers said would reduce health care costs, improve quality and expand coverage.

The measure retains many elements of a proposal Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Richard Burr of North Carolina released a year ago with former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. That proposal did not get traction, but the senators are pushing it again and now are working with House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) .
(Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images

“Our plan allows patients to make health care decisions for themselves – without a maze of mandates, fines and taxes,” Hatch, who chairs the Finance panel, said in a press release. “This plan is achievable, and above all, fiscally sustainable.” Burr heads the Select Committee on Intelligence.

With the GOP controlling both houses of Congress this year, Republicans are continuing their fight against the health law. The House voted Tuesday to repeal it, although Republicans are not expected to garner enough votes to override the veto that President Barack Obama has promised if the bill passes Congress. At the same time, Republicans have stepped up their interest in possible alternatives to the health law....

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Blue Cross North Carolina’s Price Tool Could Shake Up Medical Industry

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

Leslie Goldfarb of Charlotte had been talking to two surgeons about knee surgery and worrying about her out-of-pocket costs.

When she recently read about a new online database from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, she checked the average reimbursement for those surgeons. One of them averaged about $1,500 less in total costs associated with the arthroscopic surgery she’s having. And Blue Cross pays about twice as much if the same doctors do the procedure in a hospital – costs that pass through to her with a high-deductible plan.

She used that data to schedule her surgery.

“You don’t have to legislate medical costs to come down,” Goldfarb said. “All you have to do is make the information available.”

That’s the idea.

Until recently the cost of medical care had been a closely guarded trade secret and patients had little reason to care when health insurance covered most of the expense. Now, however, as patients become responsible for more of their medical costs, such information is seeping out through online tools.

How that will play out in the medical marketplace remains to be seen, but Blue Cross’ North Carolina disclosure is creating national buzz. A recent post on Forbes.com said it could “represent the dawn of a new age in health care.”

“Transparency in general is a good thing,”...

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Medical Debt Still a Problem Under Health Law — Despite Protections

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

Elizabeth and Britt Harmon struggled for years to have a child, and were thrilled when their son Orin was born in February 2013. But they were unprepared for the medical problems that then upended the Brooksville, Maine couple’s lives.

Orin was born with pulmonary stenosis, a heart condition, and severe asthma. He required constant care, including frequent trips to the hospital and medications that cost hundreds of dollars. The Harmons had insurance through Britt’s job at a plumbing company, but it covered “maybe half” of their child’s medical expenses, Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth Harmon with son, Orin, who is just a few days old in this picture.
They are resting at home between medical appointments. (Photo by Britt Harmon

Then, Britt’s employer dropped insurance as a benefit at the end of 2013; he lost his job in June. The family scrambled to find coverage but went three months without any before qualifying in July for MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid program for low-income people. By then, the Harmons had accumulated thousands of dollars in medical debt, Elizabeth said. They’re still working — with the help of a local non-profit organization — to pay it off.

“I’ve sold furniture out of my own house to try to pay off some of the bills,” she said. “There were so many bills, it was impossible to keep track of everything.”

The federal health law was intended to keep a surprise illness or...

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Friday, February 6, 2015

Republican Lawmakers Set To Unveil Health Law Replacement Plan

Health care is a known unknown in the future of workers' compensation. If the Scott Walker's Wisconsin plan to dismantle workers' compensation is implemented, will that lead to more uninsured workers, or a merger into a universal health care program? Will it be a step backward to the 1994 Contract With America and the Newt Gingrich plan to eliminate workers' altogether? The debate continues as the 2016 national election cycle continues to frame the issues. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton declined to give details on the plan. Some Republicans are pushing tax credits and deductions for health care, and others are pushing the idea of "portable" health coverage -- the ability to take your insurance from job to job.

The Associated Press: GOP Lawmakers Ready A Plan To Replace Obama Health Care Law
A Republican House committee chairman says he and two GOP senators are preparing to release a plan for replacing President Barack Obama's health care law. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton declined to discuss details Tuesday, but said the proposal will give Republicans a proposal that they can stand behind. The Michigan Republican said he, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina will unveil their proposal Thursday. (2/3)

The Fiscal Times: New GOP Congress Develops Alternate Health Plans
House lawmakers are planning to vote for a 60th time today to repeal the president’s health care law – a vote that’s legislatively pointless but politically symbolic. Many of the 47 GOP freshmen who were elected last November won at least in part because their constituents were anti-Obamacare. (Ehley, 2/3)

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No, Cancer is Not Mostly Bad Luck - The Role of Environmental Factors

Today's post is shared from http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jsass

No, cancer is NOT mostly bad luck. We've set the record straight in Science magazine (Ashford et al, 6 February 2015) after it published an article and accompanying editorial so full of misstatements that scientists around the world, including myself, felt compelled to correct the record with the facts. (See Science 2 January 2015 study by Drs. Tomasetti and Vogelstein and accompanying "bad luck of cancer" editorial by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel, with subsequent "backlash" editorial here).

Our letter to the editor of Science not only challenges the misstatements of the reports that most cancers are due to 'bad luck', but points out that such misstatements dangerously undermine successful efforts to prevent cancers. Many cancers are linked to diet, lifestyle factors, alcohol, tobacco, sexual activity, and environmental factors. There is overwhelming evidence that cancer and other life-threatening diseases can be prevented by improving diet and lifestyle habits, and limiting harmful exposures to environmental factors including some chemicals like formaldehyde and diesel exhaust, asbestos, some viruses, alcohol, radiation, and second hand smoke. People are exposed to carcinogens at work, home, school, and recreation areas. For example, there are cancer-causing chemicals in household products, building materials, personal care products, food and food additives, tobacco products, industrial emissions, and...

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Thursday, February 5, 2015

Budget Changes To Medicare, HHS Programs Would Garner $399 Billion In 10 Years

The Obama Administration is making a concerted effort to lower medical costs through budgetary restrictions. It is unknown whether this is really meant to merely reduce service or establish greater efficiency. The CMS program is the model for the majority workers' compensation medical cost schedules. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from kaiserhealthnews.org

Official photographic portrait of US President...

President Barack Obama
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

President Barack Obama's budget request includes proposals that would increase spending for some Medicare beneficiaries, including co-payments for new Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care services and a surcharge on premiums for new beneficiaries who buy private insurance to supplement Medicare. The budget also calls on the federal government to use its buying power to negotiate drug prices.

The New York Times: Budget Plan Sees Savings In Changes To Medicare
In his new budget, President Obama proposed on Monday to squeeze $399 billion over the next 10 years out of Medicare, Medicaid and other programs run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the proposals, many Medicare beneficiaries would have to pay more for their care and coverage. The president would, for example, introduce a co-payment for new Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care services, and he would collect $4 billion over 10 years by imposing a surcharge on premiums for new beneficiaries who buy generous private insurance to supplement Medicare. (Pear, 2/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama Health Budget Calls For Authority To Negotiate Drug Prices
The Obama administration’s fiscal 2016 budget request calls for allowing the government to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and giving regulators new funding to fight Ebola. The Department of Health and Human Services request proposes a budget authority of about $1.09 trillion for fiscal 2016, up from $1.04...

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

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9/11 Victims Lawsuit Seeks Disclosure of Classified Saudi Information

King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz in 2002

King Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz in 2002 (
Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com

A still-classified section of the investigation by congressional intelligence committees into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has taken on an almost mythic quality over the past 13 years — 28 pages that examine crucial support given the hijackers and that by all accounts implicate prominent Saudis in financing terrorism.

Now new claims by Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted former member of Al Qaeda, that he had high-level contact with officials of the Saudi Arabian government in the prelude to Sept. 11 have brought renewed attention to the inquiry’s withheld findings, which lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the attacks have tried unsuccessfully to declassify.

“I think it is the right thing to do,” said Representative Stephen F. Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts and an author of a bipartisan resolution encouraging President Obama to declassify the section. “Let’s put it out there.”

White House officials say the administration has undertaken a review on whether to release the pages but has no timetable for when they might be made public

Click here to read the entire article.

Click here to read more about the 9/11 Victims Fund.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Workers' Compensation Insurer Has: Grandfather in Wheelchair Trapped in Care Home

The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), whose members represent Californians injured on the job, today noted that Los Angeles television station KNBC-TV has reported on another Californian hurt on the job who is being denied needed home health care support by a workers’ compensation insurer. “Insurance carriers deny three and a half million treatment recommendations a year, many of them for home health care support for patients who don’t want to be in an institution, but at home,” said CAAA President Bernardo de la Torre. “Insurers use the system of delay and denial to avoid paying for legitimate, necessary medical treatment and support for patients. As there are no meaningful penalties for insurer misconduct, they continue to mistreat people like Nicolas Mercado. This must change.”

From KNBC-TV report:

“A grandfather in a wheelchair says he's trapped in a care facility far from home because the state won't obey a court order to pay for home modifications. San Bernardino resident Nicolas Mercado, a 54-year-old grandfather, was rendered a quadriplegic in 2011, when the big rig he was driving for work crashed. He's been living in a care facility in Garden Grove ever since, because his home lacks the modifications to fit his wheelchair….”

Labor Rights for Home Care Aides Are Delayed Yet Again

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

An enduring injustice was supposed to end on Jan. 1. That was the effective date for new rules by the Labor Department that would have required employers of home care aides for the elderly and disabled to pay at least the federal minimum wage and time and a half for overtime. Specifically, the new rules would have ended a federal regulation from 1974 that labeled home care aides “companions,” a designation that lets their employers — generally, for-profit agencies — ignore basic labor protections.
Justice, however, has been delayed. The Jan. 1 effective date was postponed late last year when a federal judge, Richard Leon, said he first had to issue a decision on a challenge filed by the International Franchise Association and other home care employer groups. On Jan. 14, Judge Leon overturned the new rules, on the highly debatable ground that only Congress can remove the companionship label. The Labor Department has filed an appeal, but the issue won’t be resolved until June, at the earliest.
Judge Leon’s decision is at odds with a unanimous Supreme Court decision in 2007 that raised many questions about how to change the companionship designation and concluded that “Congress intended its broad grant of definitional authority” to the Labor Department “to include the authority to answer these kinds of questions.”
In an even more indefensible part of his decision, Judge Leon agreed with the industry position that home...

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The proposed FACT Act delays compensation for asbestos victims, puts privacy at risk

Washington, D.C. — The following is a statement from American Association for Justice CEO Linda Lipsen on the introduction of the Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency (FACT) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“With nearly 10,000 Americans suffocating every year from horrific asbestos diseases like mesothelioma, Congress should be focused on ensuring justice for the victims and protecting the public health and safety. Instead, asbestos corporations and the U.S Chamber of Commerce have orchestrated a calculated campaign to delay and deny justice for dying asbestos victims.

“The reintroduction of the FACT Act is a reminder of the lengths asbestos corporations will go to evade being held accountable. It is offensive that the same corporations that profited from hiding the dangers of asbestos would now turn to Congress to force the public release of asbestos victims' personal information, delaying compensation and putting their privacy at risk.”

Asbestos Victims & Asbestos Trusts on H.R. 526:

H.R. 526 is a massive intrusion on the privacy of asbestos victims and their families

In a May 20, 2013 letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, asbestos victims stated:

“The FACT Act forces the asbestos trust funds to reveal on a public database personally-identifiable information about asbestos victims and their families. This would include private work history, asbestos exposure information, the last four digits of their social security numbers, and even the personal information of children who were exposed at an early age. This is offensive. The information on this public registry could be used to deny employment, credit, and health, life, and disability insurance. We are also concerned that victims would be more vulnerable to identity thieves, con men, and other types of predators.”

H.R. 526 will lead to higher costs for asbestos trusts and compensation delays for asbestos victims

In a November 8, 2013 letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, asbestos trusts stated:

“The bill does not, as its proponents claim, protect either the trusts or their beneficiaries. Rather, the bill merely changes the rules in the tort system so as to impose increased costs on the trusts' claimants. The litigation advantage that this bill provides to solvent asbestos defendants is its only practical purpose. … the trusts believe that the bill will unduly and unnecessarily increase the trusts' administrative burdens and will inevitably lead to higher non-reimbursable costs and delays in the processing of claims and payment to holders of asbestos claims. Such a bill does not protect the trusts or their beneficiaries; it burdens them.”

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

Monday, February 2, 2015

Consumer group responds to introduction of asbestos legislation, HR 526

Upon the reintroduction of the Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency Act in the U.S. House of Represeem through increased transparency, National Consumers League Executive Director Sally Greenberg has issued the following statement:

“The FACT Act of 2015 is a misguided attempt to derail the important work of the asbestos bankruptcy fund. This bill, if passed, would put the burden on some of the most vulnerable Americans—victims of asbestos-related illnesses—in their quest to achieve fair settlements for harms made against them. The FACT Act would unfairly give insurers the upper hand regarding asbestos claims and that is wrong. We urge Congress to stop this bill in its tracks.”

H.R. 526, purports to reduce fraud in the asbestos bankruptcy trust system.

Related articles

Thursday, January 29, 2015

New Clues on Google’s Plans for Insurance

The Google Compare auto insurance shopping site has been up and running in the United Kingdom for two years.

The insurance industry takes it for granted that Google will soon introduce its Google Compare auto insurance shopping site, which has been in Britain for two years, in the United States. Yet, despite a whole lot of spadework, the effort has continuously been delayed.
But in a note on Thursday, Ellen Carney, an analyst with Forrester Research, produced a summary of where the operation stands. Ms. Carney used the fact that a Google employee recently became a licensed insurance agent on behalf of a presumed Google competitor to speculate that the effort might be delayed because Google was about to buy (or has already bought) a San Francisco insurance agency as a means of entering the California market.
“As late as last month the site was expected to launch in California, to be followed in Q1 2015 with likely launches in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Last I heard was that California pilot wouldn’t begin until sometime in Q1,” Ms. Carney wrote, speaking about Google Compare’s presumed introduction in the United States.
According to Ms. Carney, Google has spent more than two years pitching insurance companies on Google Compare, a site that aims to let people do an easy comparison of auto insurance rates. In Britain, the site has shoppers enter their license and registration number, after which Google presents a list of insurance...

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Looking Back: Nellie Kershaw-The First Reported Asbestos Victim

Nellie Kershaw.jpg

Nellie Kershaw (c. 1891 – 14 March 1924)

Today's post is shared from wikipedia.org/
Nellie Kershaw was an English textile worker from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Her death due to pulmonary asbestosis was the first such case to be described in medical literature, and the first published account of disease attributed to occupational asbestos exposure.^[1]^[2] Before his publication of the case in the British Medical Journal, Dr William Edmund Cooke had already testified at Kershaw's inquest that "mineral particles in the lungs originated from asbestos and were, beyond reasonable doubt, the primary cause of the fibrosis of the lungs and therefore of death".^[3] Her employers, Turner Brothers Asbestos, accepted no liability for her injuries, paid no compensation to her bereaved family and refused to contribute towards funeral expenses as it "would create a precedent and admit responsibility".^[4] She was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.^[5] The subsequent inquiries into her death led to the publication of the first Asbestos Industry Regulations in 1931.
Nellie Kershaw was born to Elizabeth and Arthur Kershaw in Rochdale in 1891. In 1903 she left school, aged 12, to take up employment in a cotton mill and 5 months later began working at Garsides asbestos mill.^[1]^[2] She transferred to Turner Brothers Asbestos on 31 December 1917, where she was employed as a rover, spinning raw asbestos fibre into yarn.^[2]^[6] She was married to Frank Kershaw, a...

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Monday, January 26, 2015

US Supreme Court Rules Health Care Benefits Are Subject to Strict Contractual Interpretation

The Supreme Court reviewed the contractual limitations of health care benefits for retired workers and ruled that benefits may not continue until the death of the employee. It did not accept that a presumption of coverage exists.

Health care coverage has become a more costly benefit because of expensive treatment and pharmaceutical protocols, as well as increased longevity. This decision will influence lifetime medical coverage and will ancillary impact settlement negotiations involving workers' compensation insurance medical benefits.

Today's post is shared from scotusblog.com/

"Monday’s decision in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett resolves a dispute about the vesting of health-care benefits under a collective bargaining agreement. Neither the Employee Retirement Income Security Act nor the National Labor Relations Act obligates employers to provide health-care benefits, but of course employers often do, and their commitments to provide those benefits often appear in collective-bargaining agreements. As so many companies struggle to deal with the overhang of providing employee benefits to long-retired employees, it should be no surprise that employers are pressing harder and harder to limit those obligations. Hence the litigation at hand.

Continue reading »

When Home And Health Are Just Out Of Reach

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

Donna Giron is frail. She has Crohn’s disease and uses a wheelchair to get around because walking exhausts her.
But she doesn’t want to be in the nursing home where she has lived since May.
Giron, 65, is looking to rent a small house in the industrial town in the Cleveland suburbs where she grew up. Using federal funds from a special project, thousands of elderly and disabled nursing home residents have been able to move into their own homes in recent years. The experimental project has reached people in 44 states, including more than 5,400 in Ohio. It connects people to the medical and living support they need to move into private homes, so that they can live independently.
But often the housing is the sticking point. Giron doesn’t have family members who could take her in, so she’s house-hunting. As she tours one likely prospect, she manages to get out of her wheelchair to maneuver down some stairs; at the bottom, Giron looks out a window at the front porch and says she can picture herself sitting outside watching the neighborhood.

Donna Giron wheels through the halls of the nursing home she's lived in since May. Finding an affordable home of her own has been difficult. (Photo by Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN)

Donna Giron wheels through the halls of the nursing home she’s lived in since May.
Finding an affordable home of her own has been difficult.
(Photo by Sarah Jane Tribble/WCPN)

Then, she sees the kitchen.
“Oh, we even got a dishwasher! Oh, my goodness gracious. Yeah, I want this one. I want this one,” she says, laughing.
Despite her health problems, Giron feels out of place in the nursing home, where many...

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