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Disability Law

Workers Comp Insider

About workers compensation insurance, risk management, workplace health and safety, occupational medicine, and related topics.
By Lynch Ryan

Post Frequency: 5.6/day

Last Entry: May 20, 2013 at 12:56:43

Workers Compensation Looking Up?

Posted on May 20, 2013
Dennis Mealy, chief actuary for NCCI, has issued his state of the line report on workers compensation. There's a lot of good news for insurers, along with a few little red flags that might well morph into big banners of bad news. Mealy's presentation will soon be available as a webinar at the NCCI site, but for the moment, let's...

Risk, Austerity, ACA, Women in Manufacturing, Terrorism & other news of note

Posted on May 15, 2013
Our New Zealand blogger pal Russell Hutchinson lends a global perspective to this week's Cavalcade of Risk #183 - check it out! Austerity's impact on public health - over at Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda looks at the impact that financial austerity measures in Greece and Iceland have had on public health, suicide rates, hospital admissions, and other measures of...

Health Wonk Review and other occupational news of note

Posted on May 09, 2013
Joe Paduda has a not-to-be-missed robust edition of Health Wonk Review posted at Managed Care Matters. It covers health care cost trends, reform implementation, motivations and more. Get your biweekly dose of health wonkery from the best in the blogosphere to stay current on the trends...

Annals of Claims Management: Full Catastrophe Denial

Posted on May 07, 2013
In the Insider's decade of exploring workers comp, we have encountered many unusual instances of compensability, legitimate claim denials and outright fraud. But rarely have we found cases where a claims administrator, in this case, a TPA, simply refuses to pay for medically necessary treatment...

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Freedom of Religion = Freedom from Workers Comp?

Posted on April 30, 2013
When Jakob Hutter founded the Hutterian Brethren Church in the 1530s, he was not worried about workers comp (which would not exist for another 350 years). He just wanted the freedom to practice his communal religion in what is now Germany/Austria. He incurred the wrath of Ferdinand I, who, in the name of the gentle Jesus, arrested and tortured Hutter...

April 28 is Workers Memorial Day

Posted on April 26, 2013
Each year, April 28 is designated as Workers Memorial Day. OSHA says that, "It is a day to honor those workers who have died on the job, to acknowledge the grievous suffering experienced by families and communities, and to recommit ourselves to the fight for safe and healthful workplaces for all workers...

Health Wonkery Calls

Posted on April 25, 2013
Hank Stern at InsureBlog has posted the latest edition of Health Wonk Review, Money Tree Edition. If you have no interest in American health care, you can skip it. But given that health care impacts literally everyone on the planet, this timely compendium is worth a few moments of your valuable time...

Massachusetts: Governor Adding Insult to Injury?

Posted on April 24, 2013
We have long touted Massachusetts as the gold standard for workers compensation reform. In 1990 the state operated the second or third highest cost comp system in the nation; today MA is ranked 44th, with rates less than half of those in the other New England states...

When safety was subversive

Posted on April 23, 2013
In 1980, OSHA produced a film about its origins, talking about the rights of workers to a safe workplace. A few year's later, Thorne Auchter, head of OSHA under Ronald Reagan, recalled and destroyed copies of the film. He also banned it, but a few union officials kept hidden copies...

Cavalcade of Risk; Events in Boston

Posted on April 17, 2013
Jason Shafrin has posted Cavalcade of Risk #181: The 'What If' Edition at Healthcare Economist. In addition to a good roundup of risk-related posts, he talks about events at the Boston Marathon from a risk perspective. Security expert Bruce Schneier puts the risk in perspective, too: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On Boston's our neighbor so it...

Health Wonkery and a big Friday roundup of other news notes

Posted on April 12, 2013
Louise Norris posts an excellent edition of health wonkery this week at Colorado Health Insurance Insider: Health Wonks Tackle New Questions in Healthcare Reform. She notes that the range of topics is far-reaching, but that most are at least loosely associated with some aspect of health care reform...

Why isn't there a workers' comp app for that?

Posted on April 08, 2013
In his recent column A Workers' Comp App Store? in Risk & Insurance, our friend Peter Rousmaniere poses the question, "When will mobile devices be used to improve work safety and injury response?" He notes that Personal Lines insurers are taking the lead and cites a few examples...

Annals of Compensability: A Tick in Time

Posted on April 08, 2013
Ben Ciccone Inc. is a construction company that confronts formidable risks every working day. They are involved in excavation, site development, bridge construction and, if that isn't risky enough for you, blasting and demolition. Most underwriters would give them a quick pass...

News Roundup: Risk, Rx, Ergonomics & More

Posted on April 03, 2013
Biweekly Risk Roundup - Cavalcade of Risk #180 is now posted by Michael Stack at the AMAXX blog - check it out. Dispensing Docs - New study casts doubt on benefits of physician-dispensed meds - According to the findings of a recent research study conducted by the California Workers' Compensation Research Institute, even after controls to curb price differentials, the...

Health Wonk Review: Spring Must be in the Air

Posted on March 28, 2013
We open this weeks edition of Health Wonk Review with a breaking news alert: The criminal indictment against Punxsutawney Phil has been dropped. Despite the fact that spring appears elusive, the rascally rodent won't have to look for his shadow from a jail cell next year...

Annals of Compensability: (Lack of) Education Pays

Posted on March 26, 2013
Imagine identical injuries to two workers: one is a junior college graduate, the other lacks a high school diploma;one can read and compute fairly well, the other reads at the 8th grade level and performs math at the 6th grade level. The injury involves failed back syndrome, with the injured worker experiencing fairly constant pain and the inability to perform...

Bagpiper's Fungus, Cheesewasher's Lung & other obsolete occupational maladies

Posted on March 22, 2013
Did you ever hear of rose gardener's disease, nun's chastity of fiddler's neck? All apparent names for occupational maladies of yesteryear. Watch this fascinating short video clip charting 10 strange occupational hazards. Some of these conditions are associated with professions that are confined to the dustbins of history - becoming a loblolly boy isn't a career path for young...

News roundup: risk, happiness, state fund in Illinois, new hire compliance & more

Posted on March 20, 2013
Risk Roundup - Check out this week's Cavalcade of Risk #179 - March 20th, 2013 Edition posted at My Personal Finance Journey Taking care of business - At WorkCompWire, Joe Paduda poses the question What business are you in?" He hazards a guess that most of us would say "the insurance business" but he argues that we are really in...

Annals of Compensability: A Tale of Two Blisters

Posted on March 18, 2013
Back in November we blogged the story of John Pearson, a diabetic whose tight workboots - provided by his Arkansas employer - caused a blister that led directly to diabetic neuropathy. The injury was deemed compensable under workers comp. Today we examine a similar blister saga involving Earl Sterling, a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Mississippi...

Health Wonk Review, Compensability Challenges, Accommodations & More

Posted on March 14, 2013
Chewy Health Wonk Review - David Williams has posted Health Wonk Review: A Lot to Chew On at Health Business Blog. - and he is right, with the Affordable Care Act implementation proceeding, he notes that it is "the golden era for health wonks." When you stop by David's place, drop a note of congratulations - he is celebrating his...

UBB mine disaster: the plot thickens as former CEO Blankenship implicated

Posted on March 12, 2013
In the ongoing saga of the federal investigation into the April 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster that resulted in the deaths of 29 miners, things recently took a dramatic turn. The legal-criminal proceedings have resulted in four convictions to date...

News from around the blogosphere: Risk roundup, transitions & other noteworthy items

Posted on March 06, 2013
Risk Roundup - David Williams hosts Cavalcade of Risk #178: Little bit of everything edition over at Health Business Blog. David's a good blog citizen - he'll be hosting next week's Health Wonk Review, too! Transitions - Isaac Asimov said "The only constant is change...

Opioid Catatrophe: The Data Leads to Doctors

Posted on March 04, 2013
After two stimulating days at the Workers Comp Research Institute conference, the Insider is ready to solve the opioid problem. To be sure, WCRI is a research-driven organization and makes no claims of solving problems; it simply reveals them through stark, powerful data...

Health Wonkery, FMLA, State Barometers, TRIA and more

Posted on February 28, 2013
Health wonkery - Dr. Jaan Sidorov presents the February Edition of the Health Wonk Review: Insightful Nuggets From the Best Health Policy Blogs at his Disease Management Care Blog. He's organized the posts by topic: "Obamacare's key reforms, various health economists' latest divinations on health care costs, hospitals, Medicaid, the internet, California, medical education and some British humor...

Retired Jocks Dig for Gold in the California Hills

Posted on February 25, 2013
We have long noted how the generous benefit structure in California encourages professional athletes to file claims long after their careers are over. These athletes need not play for teams based in California: just playing a few games in the state over the course of their careers opens the door for generous lump sum payouts and, more important, lifetime medical...

Don't worry, it's just ESD!

Posted on February 22, 2013
From the "what not to do" school of safety, we have this amusing video tutorial by Mehdi Sadaghadar on Electrostatic Discharge. And once you've learned what not to do from the helpful Mr. Sadaghader, you can visit the Mr. Static page, which includes info on charging, ionization, explosions, and other ESD-related topics...

A Fine Line Between Willful Intent and No Fault

Posted on February 20, 2013
The severe injuries to a utility lineman in Tennessee delineate the fine line where "no fault" ends and "willful intent" begins. In January 2009, Troy Mitchell and his crew were replacing a forty-foot power pole with a new pole forty-five feet in height...

Training Employers: How To Reach The Other 80%

Posted on February 19, 2013
Last week, WorkersCompensation.com published a blog post by John D'Alusio entitled, "The Responsibility of Policyholder Education." (note: subscription required) In it, Mr. D'Alusio talks about a friend's troubling, frustrating and painful experience after a work injury, a torn finger tendon...

Health Wonk Review, Office Romance, Old at 35, RTW and more

Posted on February 14, 2013
Peggy Salvatore posts a sweet Health Wonk Review - Valentine's Day Edition: Here's Your Heart! at Healthcare Talent Transformation blog. The compendium of posts from some of the brightest minds in the health policy blogsphere is a good way to take a biweekly pulse of healthcare policy developments if the topic isn't on your radar every day! Valentine's Day -...

"A worker's first day at work shouldn't be his last day on earth"

Posted on February 12, 2013
Temporary worker Lawrence Daquan Davis was 21 years old - just a few months over the legal drinking age in Florida when he began working at the Bacardi Rum bottling plant in Jacksonville. Sadly, he had a very short career. It began on August 16, 2012 and ended shortly before 5 pm on the same day after he was crushed...

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