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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: 5.3/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 15:16:48

Cavalcade of Risk #116

Posted on October 20, 2010
We are pleased to be hosting the biweekly Cavalcade of Risk. We thought we'd kick things off on a light note with these amusing ads from Bangkok Insurance that cleverly illustrate the concept of probability. Insurance is based on weighing and measuring the odds, and protecting ourselves against those odds...

Illiteracy has its Rewards

Posted on October 19, 2010
When a laborer is unable to perform physical work, the options are limited, not only for the worker, but for the workers comp system as well. Meet Pennsylvania's Sam Muzzicato. He came to America from his native Italy in 1969. He had only four years of schooling in Italy...

Fresh Health Wonk Review! And news notes on the rescue, medical marijuana & more

Posted on October 14, 2010
Click on over to Healthcare Economist, where Jason Shafrin has posted Health Wonk Review to the "Rescue", a most excellent edition of health policy wonkery, proving that our regular participants have as many trenchant opinions and observations about healthcare post-reform as they did pre-reform...

Tip Toeing Around Obesity

Posted on October 13, 2010
Obesity as a health problem is not going away, nor is the issue of whether obese people are considered disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The latest iteration of this saga involves the late Lisa Harrison, a morbidly obese employee of Resources for Human Development (RHD) in New Orleans...

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Pre-Employment Fibs, Compensability, and Second Injury Funds

Posted on October 12, 2010
There is no doubt that Ronald Babin, an electrician in Louisiana, was injured at work. He was in the bucket of a truck, working on a transformer, when the bucket mechanism malfunctioned, crushing the bucket into the transformer for several minutes. Babin huddled in the bottom of the bucket until co-workers were able to gain control of the mechanism...

Commercial drivers & medical certification (and other alarming commercial transportation safety matters)

Posted on October 07, 2010
On Mother's Day in 1999, Custom Bus Charters' bus driver Frank Bedell veered off a highway near New Orleans, killing 22 passengers and injuring 20 others. Just 10 hours before this trip, Bedell was treated at a local hospital for "nausea and weakness...

Cavalcade of Risk, #115

Posted on October 07, 2010
Check out Cavalcade of Risk #115 - your biweekly compendium of risk posts - this time, the "open enrollment" edition....

The Pizza Delivery Chronicles, Part Two: Drivers at Risk

Posted on October 05, 2010
In yesterday's blog on this topic, we told the story of a pizza delivery driver whose undisclosed seizure problem put others (and herself) at risk. Today we examine the inordinate and ultimately terrifying risks that routinely confront the people who deliver pizzas to homes...

The Pizza Delivery Chronicles, Part One: Liability

Posted on October 04, 2010
Every time I see a marginal car with a pizza delivery sign slapped onto the roof, I think about the driver. How old? How experienced? How desperate to make a few bucks in a tough economy? And from the employer's viewpoint: how competent is the driver? Just how far must an employer go before they entrust a driver with the...

Fresh other-worldly Health Wonk Review & other news tidbits

Posted on September 30, 2010
Check out the latest Health Wonk Review posted by Peggy Salvatore at Healthcare Talent Transformation - it's chock full of good posts and entertaining to boot: Health Wonk Review: Take Me To Your Leader - Egads! And in a few other news items ... Can you offer unpaid internships? - Is your organization eligible to offer unpaid internships? If you...

Washington State: Comp Monopoly at Risk with Initiative 1082

Posted on September 29, 2010
In November the voters in the Evergreen state have the opportunity to end one of the few remaining monopolistic systems for workers compensation (the three others are North Dakota, Ohio and Wyoming). As you might expect, there is much fulminating and little rational discourse evident in the pre-election build up on Initiative 1082...

OSHA's squeaky Whistleblower Protection Program

Posted on September 28, 2010
Most people are aware that, since 1970, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has been responsible for issuing and enforcing standards for workplace health and safety. But if I were a betting person, I would wager that far fewer are aware of OSHA's responsibilities in relation to the Sarbanes Oxley Act...

The Tolls of Bell: Corruption in California

Posted on September 27, 2010
Most of us associate a determination of disability with the inability to perform some or all aspects of a job. But most us do not work in Bell, California. When former Bell police chief Randy Adams agreed to leave his job as chief in Glendale and run the department in Bell, he entered into an unusual agreement with city administrator...

Required reading: how to find the best docs

Posted on September 24, 2010
The folks at American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) know something about doctors. They also know quite a bit about workplace injuries in that most of the members are physicians actively practicing in the field, in one capacity or another...

Social networking, workers comp & the law

Posted on September 22, 2010
In the past, we've featured assorted news items about how employers and insurers are turning to social networks to monitor employees for potential fraud. In fact, just last week, we learned about how the New York State Insurance Department's Fraud Bureau recently cracked a case as a result of a Facebook posting...

Cavalcade of Risk from Down Under

Posted on September 22, 2010
Russell Chatwood hosts this week's edition of Cavalcade of Risk. Our host from "down under" brings the latest and greatest from the world of risk, with a heavy skewing to healthcare. Think that's on everyone's mind, at least here in the pre-election U...

Reckless, Negligent, Compensable

Posted on September 21, 2010
Matt Mitchell was an Illinois state trooper. On November 23, 2007, he was bombing along Interstate 64 at 126 miles per hour, on his way to an accident scene. He was chatting with his girlfriend and sending text messages. The road was somewhat clogged with holiday travelers...

Virginia Comp: Bad Law, Devastating Results

Posted on September 20, 2010
Last year the Insider blogged the unfortunate fate of Arthur Pierce, who died in a work-related accident, but whose claim was denied due to a glitch in the Virginia comp statute. Fearing a rash of bogus claims by workers faking severe brain injuries, the lawmakers allow insurers to deny any unwitnessed incident where the injured worker cannot testify to what...

Health Wonk Review and other noteworthy news briefs

Posted on September 16, 2010
Louise Norris of Colorado Health Insurance Insider hosts the Politics, Money and Health edition of Health Wonk Review. There's a particularly good crop of posts and Louise does a great job offering summaries, so be sure to check it out! Follow up to tower safety - In posting yesterday's dramatic tower-climbing video, we appealed to any safety to experts to...

You think your job is tough?

Posted on September 15, 2010
Last week, we rocked and rolled you with a dramatic video of a cruise ship tossed in a storm, but for sheer fear factor, we think this video may top that one. Normally, we wouldn't post another video so soon after that one, but we think this one may not stay up for long! Once we caught our breath after...

FedEx in MA: Buying Time

Posted on September 13, 2010
Five years ago we blogged the problem FedEx would inevitably run into in Massachusetts, where the definition of "employee" is so inclusive, it's almost impossible to find a truly "independent contractor." Well, the proverbial chickens have come home to roost...

Investigation report for the cruise from hell

Posted on September 09, 2010
Yesterday's scary cruise ship video provoked quite a bit of interest, both in terms of our posting and also on the web at large. A few interesting follow-on links and stories have surfaced in the last day, which give added dimension to the story, particularly from a risk management perspective...

Cavalcade of Risk #113 and a scary work scenario

Posted on September 08, 2010
Our friend David Williams is hosting Cavalcade of Risk #113 over at Health Business Blog. Also of note on his blog, his post on a recent Kaiser study on healthcare, which includes some interesting statistics about practices related to healthcare quality monitoring...

It's fresh Health Wonk Review and news roundup day

Posted on September 02, 2010
Grab a coffee and head on over to Hank Stern's InsureBlog, where he's posted Health Wonk Review: In the Here and Now. He describes it as a "minimalist" style, which means more meat, less potatoes! And in other noteworthy news this week: Twittering insurers - Terry Golesworthy features an interesting post about how insurers are using Twitter, along with lists...

ADA and Fitness for Duty Exams: No Fear

Posted on August 31, 2010
Today we examine an interesting case where the ADA runs up against OSHA's general duty clause, where the individual's right to "reasonable accommodation" collides with the need to ensure the safety of the general public. In 1999 Oscar Brownfield became a policemen in Yakima, Washington...

Remembering Katrina

Posted on August 30, 2010
If you haven't discovered the gem that is the Boston Globe's "Big Picture" yet, you are missing a wonderful feature. Billed as "news stories in photographs" it is a themed news essay curated by Alan Taylor. From the BP oil disaster to the floods in Pakistan, the photos add a visual narrative to breaking stories of the day...

Massachusetts Comp: The Power of "Any 3 Persons"

Posted on August 26, 2010
Massachusetts has been in the forefront of the independent contractor issue. The state has narrowed the definition of "independent contractor" to the point where almost anybody can be defined as an employee. But how do you enforce this? Where is the leverage to confront employers who are avoiding comp premiums by misclassifying their employees as independent contractors? Under the direct...

Cavalcade of Risk #112 and various workers comp news briefs

Posted on August 25, 2010
The Notwithstanding Blog puts a medical spin on things in hosting Cavalcade of Risk #112: Medical School Edition. This is an excellent showing for a new host and a relatively new blogger, self described as an "economics-trained fledgling first-year medical student...

Health Wonk Review and other workers comp news notes

Posted on August 19, 2010
Joe Paduda is the man of the moment. His Managed Care Matters blog is worth a regular perusal for the informed commentary he offers about the medical side of workers comp. Today, there's twice as much reason to visit because he's the host of this week's Health Wonk Review, in which the focus is on implementing health care reform...

After 2 teen deaths, OSHA puts grain handling facilities on notice

Posted on August 16, 2010
Farm work is hazardous business. Recently, we focused on the deaths of two Michigan teen farmworkers who were killed while working in a silo. Last week, we learned about the recent deaths of two more young workers who died in an Illinois grain bin which is owned by Haasbach, LLC...

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