A bill designed to prevent violent acts against healthcare workers was recently introduced in the California Assembly. Assembly Bill 30 (AB 30) would bolster existing laws mandating
hospitals to have safety and security plans.
The measure is in response to the October death of Cynthia Palomata, an RN, who died after an attack at a California detention center. (WCxKit)
AB 30 if passed would necessitate:
1. Certain types of security measures when hospitals update their security plans.
2. Employees to receive proper violence prevention and response training.
3. Hospitals to improve reporting of violent incidents.
4. The California Correctional Standards Authority to establish standards for safety to protect healthcare workers in correctional facilities. (WCxKit)
5. Medical workers would have the right to involve local law enforcement in cases of workplace violence.
6. The state would be able to impose fines against hospitals failing to comply.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
Fairfield, Ohio chiropractor has been indicted on charges of workers compensation fraud and theft, following an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Special Investigations Department (BWC SID). According to Fox19.com, Bruce Holaday, owner of Back and Spine Center on Mack Road, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury.
BWC SID initiated an investigation after receiving an allegation saying Holaday was concealing from BWC his direct involvement in the treatment of injured workers. Holaday was unlawfully using the names and provider identification numbers of the chiropractors with whom he practiced after being permanently decertified as a BWC health care provider, preventing him from seeking and obtaining reimbursement from BWC. (WCxKit)
Holaday also pleaded guilty to a charge of workers comp fraud in December of 1996, when he was proprietor of Advantage Care Chiropractic, Inc. He billed BWC for $13,006 in services he did not provide.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
A Winnipeg health agency pleaded guilty to a workplace safety charge and was penalized nearly $80,000 after a worker suffered soft tissue injuries to his head and left forearm.
On April 24, 2008, the employee was working in a Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) laundry facility when the incident occurred. The worker reached into an industrial washing machine to remove several mops that had failed to tip onto an adjacent dryer-conveyor, said Heidi Graham, a spokeswoman with the WRHA in Winnipeg. (WCxKit)
"As the worker was reaching into the washer's drum, the large metal hopper – attached by hinges to the top of the washer – moved into its 'down' position and pinned him between the hopper and the washer's metal door opening," she says. The washer continued its programmed cycle of tilting upwards to accept the dirty laundry suspended in the bags overhead."
The worker experienced "substantial soft tissue injuries" to the side of his head, including a cut to his left ear that required stitches. "While there was substantial soft tissue injury to [his] left forearm, it was not broken," Graham adds.
Unable to return to work, the employee remains on workers compensation and is likely to retire later this year, she says.
The WRHA pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 under Section 16.4(1)(a) of Manitoba's Workplace Safety and Health Regulation for failing to ensure that all machines in the workplace could safely perform their intended functions. More specifically, it was cited for failing to provide an LX445 Lavatec Washer-Extractor with optional metal hopper attachment to prevent a worker from coming into contact with moving parts.
Sean Brennan, a Manitoba Crown prosecutor, says the WRHA was hit with a $65,000 OH&S fine, a $13,000 victim fine surcharge and a $50 court fee.
Following the mishap, the health agency's management team and workplace safety coordinator convened a group to ensure safety at the facility, which opened in 2006 and employs about 120 staff. The subsequent action plan, Graham notes, was reviewed and approved by the province's OH&S division. It has since been fully implemented. (WCxKit)
Accidents at industrial laundry operations have proven fatal in the past. In April of 2007, a worker in Ontario died after becoming trapped between the chute and the door opening of a washer extractor, the province's Ministry of Labor reports. Booth Centennial Healthcare Linen Services, the employer, was penalized a total of $112,500 for OH&S contraventions.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
Working people across the United States and around the world recently joined the global labor movement to take part in six days of global action and a call for trade union rights for Mexican workers. The events across the globe coincided with the fifth anniversary of the deaths of 65 Mexican miners in 2006.
Uniting across borders, working people are demanding an end to the intimidation and labor rights violations of workers in Mexico. From Korea and Australia, to South Africa and the United Kingdom, working families are standing together to call on the Mexican government to: (WCxKit)
1. Hold employer and government officials accountable for the Pasta de Conchos mine explosion that killed 65 miners on February 19, 2006.
2. Abolish systemic violations of workers' freedom of association, including employer-dominated "protection contracts" and interference in union elections.
3. End the use of force — by the state or private parties — to repress workers' legitimate demands for democratic unions, better wages, and working conditions, and good health and safety conditions.
4. End the campaign of political persecution against the Mexican Miners' Union and the Mexican Electrical Workers' Union. (WCxKit)
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO noted, "The Mexican government is right to demand respect for Mexican workers living and working in the United States but it has an equal obligation to protect working families in Mexico and end its on-going assault on their basic rights to safety at work and to organize and participate in unions."
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
The last stamp of approval on a bill focused on reforming Montana’s workers compensation system was given by the state’s House of Representatives.
According to KAJ18.com, legislators brought a pair of competing bills this session. State Sen. Ryan Zinke offered the first bill designed to save money by trimming provider rates. State Rep. Scott Reichner is leading a second bill designed to save money by slashing benefits to injured workers. (WCxKit)
Zinke's bill died in committee while the House passed Reichner's bill.
Reichner said dropping rates to 20% in 2011 would cause Montana to be ranked 45th in the nation in workers comp rates – not a viable solution.
It’s expected further work will be needed including input from the Governor before the bill passes a third reading prior to moving to the Senate. (WCxKit)
Rep. Chuck Hunter said the bill is not “balanced and isn’t fair,” and he hoped for an opportunity to correct this deficit.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
When an employee is seriously injured and receives a disability rating that classifies the employee as permanently and totally disabled, the employee can be eligible to receive both workers compensation permanent total disability benefits (name of benefits vary by state) and social security disability benefits at the same time. If the injured employee was allowed to receive both workers compensation disability benefits and social security disability benefits at the same time, the employee would be receiving more compensation on a weekly or monthly basis than the compensation they would receive if they were still working. To prevent this duplication and overpayment of disability benefits, Social Security and state workers compensation statutes have offset provisions reducing the amount paid to the disabled employee.
Disabled employees can not receive more than 80% of their “average current earnings before the disability began. Average current earnings are defined by the Social Security Administration as the highest of:
1. The average monthly earnings from covered employment (social security taxes paid) during the highest five years in a row, or
2. The average monthly earnings in a single calendar year from covered employment after the disability began or any of the five calendar years before the disability began.
3. If the disabled employee is 62 years old or older, the primary insurance amount upon which the disabled employee can receive disability benefits (the average earnings over the employee entire life time of paying social security taxes).
Disabled employees who have second jobs where they receive payments “under the table” – with no Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes paid, will learn the downside of not paying taxes is they can not collect social security disability (or for that matter workers compensation disability) on the undeclared / untaxed income. (WCxKit)
Interestingly, the Social Security Administration defers to the laws of each state as to whether the workers compensation payment or the social security disability payment will be offset. In most states, the social security disability payment is reduced to the amount that will equal 80% of the average current earnings when added to the workers compensation disability payment. In a few states, the state law requires the social security disability payment to be primary, and the state work comp disability payment is reduced to make up the difference between what the social security disability payment would be and the 80% of the average current earnings.
An example of how this works: The employee is under the age of 62 at the time of the combined social security disability and workers compensation disability payments began. The employee was earning $900 per week prior to the injury and is receiving from the workers compensation insurer a permanent total disability payment of $600 per week. Based on the employees earning records with the Social Security Administration, the employee is entitled to $250 per week after being accepted as permanently disabled by the Social Security Administration. Instead of the employee collecting $850 per week ($600 from work comp and $250 from Social Security) the employee will collect a total of $720 per week (80% of the $900 per week earnings – assuming the employees earnings immediately prior to the injury were the highest “average current earnings” the employee had). {Note: Social Security does not pay their disability benefits weekly. Their portion of the total disability benefits will be paid monthly.}
In the above example, in most states the employee would still collect the $600 per week from the workers compensation insurer and the equivalent of $120 per week from the Social Security Administration, for a total of $720 per week. In the states where the state law puts the Social Security Disability payment as primary, the employee still gets the $720 per week, but the workers compensation insurance company pays $470 per week ($720 minus the $250) for their permanent disability payment, and the Social Security Administration pays their $250 per week equivalent on a monthly basis.
Another oddity of the reduction in social security disability benefits and workers compensation disability benefits is there is no offset or reduction for the employee receiving other types of disability benefits or other income including:
4. Private disability insurance benefits
5. Federal, state and local government disability benefits
6. Veteran's Administration disability benefits
7. Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act sickness benefits
8. Black Lung Part B benefits
9. Proceeds from a third party liability settlement
10. Jones Act Payments
11. Payments from a tort lawsuit
12. Unemployment benefits
13. Private pension or private insurance benefits(WCxKit)
If the disabled employee elects to take a lump sum settlement instead of their weekly payments for their permanent total disability benefits owed by the workers compensation insurance carrier, the Social Security Administration will consider it as an offset. When this happens, the Social Security Administration will prorate the lump sum settlement over the period that weekly benefits would have been paid and reduce their social security disability payment accordingly. If the lump sum settlement indicates a portion of it for future medical expense, that portion will be excluded from their calculations.
Author Rebecca Shafer, JD, President of Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. is a national expert in the field of workers compensation. She is a writer, speaker and website publisher. Her expertise is working with employers to reduce workers compensation costs, and her clients include airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: RShafer@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
Nearly all problems on a workers comp claim are traceable to the first report of injury (FROI). The first report (C-2 in NY) is one of two or three documents starting a claim. Other forms are the worker’s application for benefits (C-3 in NY) or an initial medical report sent to the workers compensation board.
However, the employer’s first report of injure (C-2) is determines, more than anything else, what the future course of the claim will be like, such as:
1. Will there be, literally, a dozen or more unnecessary hearings?
2. Will there be a trial over non-existent defenses?
3. Will real defenses go unnoticed until far too late, or never be noticed at all?
4. Will reserves be unnecessarily high?
5. Will proper payments be too late? (WCxKit)
6. Will the wrong witnesses be called on the wrong issues?
If these questions sound like unchecked chaos, it is really very close to an average performance than it is to a rare failure. Why?
Persons routinely review first reports coming in from a variety of employers know the answer: blank boxes. Or boxes marked “unknown” in answer to relevant questions. Questions an employer, with a bit of diligence, can answer; or explain why an answer is not possible.
The remedy to the above is a phone call and a document. The person required to complete the first report of injury is a witness to the incident and does not have the necessary knowledge to answer all, or even most, of the questions on a first report. If the person is a witness, usually a foreman, it’s unlikely answers to such questions as the workers compensation insurance policy number, date of coverage, etc., are known.
As a result, pressure to get a report, any report, in quickly inevitably leads to the deadly barrage of blanks. In time, the blanks metamorphose into land mines exploding unexpectedly at hearings months or years in the future.
The first measure to take when blank boxes are encountered is a phone call. People able to provide quick answers to transform the blank box into a source of useful information are within the sound range of a ringing telephone. Therefore, make the correct phone ring and get the answer.
The second measure involves some pieces of paper and a stapler. The first report of injury form may have nearly sixty boxes to complete, with little space for complicated answers. Therefore, let documents answer the questions and, to assure their presence, staple them to the report form. And put the best of all answers — “see attached”– into the appropriate box.
Be pro-active about dissemination of information. Send a copy to the carrier, of course, but also to the workers compensation board, the worker and the worker’s attorney. Sooner or later, all will need the information so make it sooner. (WCxKit)
Documents have certain advantages over witnesses, the chief being that they never change their stories. Share them with others. Ask Ted who should be copied on these documents – you'd be suprised.
Remember, if the employer leaves boxes blank the worker’s attorney will be happy to volunteer the answers and it’s rare the employer will agree with those conclusions.
Author: Attorney Theodore Ronca is a practicing lawyer from Aquebogue, New York and an expert in providing training to employers in basic reporting and investigation of workers compensation claims. His NY FROI Training Program and Coaching can help employers do it right the first time. He also is a frequent writer and speaker, and has represented employers in the areas of workers compensation, Social Security disability, employee disability plans, and subrogation for over 30 years. Attorney Ronca can be reached at 631-722-2100.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
Fundamental safety management failings were the root cause of Britain's most costly industrial disaster, a new publication reveals. The report into the explosion and five-day fire at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in December 2005 tells, for the first time, the full story of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency's (EA) investigation.
Drawing on previously unpublished material held back until the criminal prosecution was complete and the appeals process exhausted, “The Buncefield Explosion: Why Did it Happen?,” identifies several failings including: (WCxKit)
1. Systems for managing the filling of industrial tanks of petrol were both deficient and not fully implemented
2. An increase in the volume of fuel passing through the site put unsustainable pressure on those responsible for managing its receipt and storage, a task they lacked information about and struggled to monitor. The pressure was made worse by a lack of necessary engineering support and other expertise.
3. A culture developed where keeping operations going was more important than safe processes, which did not get the attention, resources or priority status they required.
4. Inadequate arrangements for containment of fuel and fire-water to protect the environment.
Gordon MacDonald, the chairman of the COMAH Competent Authority Strategic Management Group publisher of the report, said, "Major industrial incidents are thankfully rare. This report will help make them even less frequent by sharing some key insights and lessons with the wider high hazard industries. Companies that work in a high hazardous industry need to have strong safety systems in place, underpinned by the right safety culture. Buncefield is a stark reminder of the potential result of a poor attitude towards safety. The local community was devastated and the environmental impact of the disaster is still evident today. With estimated total costs exceeding £1billion, this remains Britain's most costly industrial disaster."
In July 2010, five companies were fined a total of £9.5million ($15 plus million) for their part in the catastrophe. The 36-page report highlights a number of process safety management principles, the importance of which was underlined by the failings at Buncefield:
1. There should be a clear understanding of major accident risks and the safety critical equipment and systems designed to control them.
2. There should be systems and a culture in place to detect signals of failure in safety critical equipment and to respond to them quickly and effectively.
3. Time and resources for process safety should be made available. (WCxKit)
4. Once all the above are in place, there should be effective auditing systems in place to test the quality of management systems and ensure that these systems are actually being used on the ground.
At the core of managing a major hazard business should be clear and positive process safety leadership with board-level involvement and competence to ensure that major hazard risks are being properly managed.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
A Danish study commissioned from Aarhus University by the 3F union reports that workers on airport tarmacs are breathing in extremely high levels of ultra fine particle emissions from aircraft engines, at a high cost to their health.
According to the health and safety department of the European trade union institute (ETUI), a case of bladder cancer in a baggage handler has been recognized as an occupational disease. Danish trade unions are calling the national and European authorities to account by campaigning for a series of demands including an exposure limit value. (WCxKit)
The studies authors measured the air concentration of ultra fine particles (diameters below 100 nanometers) on the aircraft parking aprons and maneuvering areas at Copenhagen airport. Measurements in one area studied showed concentrations above 500,000 particles per cm3.
For comparison, recorded levels in the Danish capitals most heavily polluted avenue have never topped 40,000 particles /cm3. The chemical properties of these ultra fine particles are still being analyzed and the findings will be published in a new report.
The union launched a "Clean-Air" campaign and struck up contacts with the ETUC and Manchester and Arlanda (Sweden) airports to up the campaign to EU-level.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
The U.S. Department of Labors Mine Safety and Health Administration recently issued a fatality alert to the mining community profiling the causes of and circumstances surrounding the 71 fatal accidents that occurred last year.
"2010 will be remembered for the dramatic explosion that killed 29 men at the Upper Big Branch Mine and for the deaths of 42 other miners across the nation whose lives ended in needless tragedy," said Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "We can — and must — honor all of these miners by increasing our efforts to ensure safe and healthy workplaces for our nation's miners." (WCxKit)
Of the 71 deaths in 2010, 48 occurred in coal mines. Twenty-three occurred at metal and nonmetal operations, and nearly half of those victims were contractors. Excluding the 29 miners who died at Upper Big Branch, preliminary information indicates that more than half of the remaining 42 deaths involved violations of the "Rules to Live By" standards, found at:
and represent the same causes of deaths that have occurred frequently over the past 10 years.
"We must all learn from these tragedies and act to prevent additional fatalities," said Main. "Fatalities are not inevitable. They can be prevented using effective safety and health management programs, workplace examinations for hazards, and effective and appropriate training so that miners recognize and understand the hazards, and how to control or eliminate them."
MSHA has posted summary information on its Web site,
http://www.msha.gov identifying causes of the mining fatalities that occurred in 2010, best practices to prevent them, posters for mine operators to print and display in their organizations, and other information on preventing fatalities in mining workplaces. Fatal investigation reports, once completed, are also available at that site. (WCxKit)
Among the causes of death in last years mining fatalities:
1. Seven metal/nonmetal miners died in powered haulage accidents. Four surface coal mine truck drivers were killed in powered haulage accidents when they lost control of their trucks and either struck another truck, turned over the truck, or the truck went through a berm and over a high wall.
2. Six coal miners were killed working in close proximity to mining or haulage equipment.
3. Six coal miners and two metal/nonmetal miners were fatally crushed by roof falls and rib rolls.
4. Six metal/nonmetal miners and two coal miners died when they were struck by falling material or moving objects.
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
©2011 Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. If you would like permission to reprint this material, contact Info@WorkersCompKit.com.
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