Workers' Compensation

Seeking Balance and Value – Workers’ Comp Expenses and Benefits

Employer Rate Expenses and Injured Worker Compensation, by State

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services issues their Workers’ Compensation Premium Rate Ranking Summary annually. In it, the Department quantifies the cost of workers’ compensation premiums in each state and ranks the states numerically based on the cost to employers for providing workers’ compensation benefits to the workforce.

The Oregon study is focused on the dollar-cost of coverage from the viewpoint of employers.  But, the employer is only one of the parties involved in the workers’ compensation world.  There are also medical professionals, vocational counselors, and the injured workers.  I was interested in how the ranked states would stack up from the injured worker’s perspective, so I looked up the maximum weekly benefit rates for each state, based on information maintained by the Social Security Administration – and made a comparison of my own. 

Understand that workers’ compensation claims have many facets that go beyond weekly benefit rates, and that every state has their own system with it’s own set of benefits and criteria for receiving those benefits.  This includes variations across the states that affect allowance of claims, compensability of claims, allowance of medical treatment and procedures, provision of vocational retraining benefits, conclusions about ability to return to work or placement on total disability pensions, caps on weeks of compensation paid and a variety of compensation structures for final settlements or awards for permanent partial disability.

My comparison is only of two data points: the ranking of cost per the Oregon study and each state’s maximum compensation rate paid to injured workers. It does not factor in the cost of living or average salaries in each state. It does not begin to touch on the issue of the quality of medical care available to workers in each state nor on claim outcomes, restoration of physical function or loss of wage-earning capacity for injured workers. It is a simplistic look at a complicated dataset.

To see an interactive map charting the results, click here.

To see my tally of the maximum compensation rates against the rankings of employer expense, click here.

In the most-recent Oregon summary, issued in October 2016, Washington State ranks 15th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a cost rate of 107% of the median.  The highest-cost state was California, at 176% of the median cost. The lowest was North Dakota, ranked at 51st with 48% of the median expense rate. But, the highest-cost states do not have the highest level of benefits paid to injured workers.

In my non-scientific analysis, Washington State ranked 5th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of maximum weekly compensation rates, at $1,313.06 per week or $5,689.93 as a monthly amount. The state with the highest maximum weekly rate was Iowa at $1,688.00 per week or $7,314.67 monthly. At the bottom of the list was Mississippi with a weekly rate of $468.63 or $2030.73 per month.

The most expensive state, California per the Oregon study, came in at #14 in monetary benefits to workers at a maximum of $1,128.43 per week or $4,889.86 per month. The least expensive state, North Dakota, came in at #10 based on maximum weekly compensation of $1,214.00 or $5,260.67 per month.

It is important for each state’s workers’ compensation system to be run efficiently, fairly, and provide the most “bang for the buck” to improve claim outcomes. For injured workers, on a personal scale, this means quick decisions on medical treatment authorizations to allow a speedy and full recovery after an injury. It also means providing meaningful vocational services when a full recovery is not possible to limit the decrease in earning capacity. On a bigger scale, injured workers need to know that quality medical care is available to them. This requires that doctors receive the payment and support they need to efficiently be able to treat injured workers without drowning in red tape and delays.

A well-run system can result in better outcomes for injured workers and lower costs to employers, all the while avoiding doctor flight. It would appear from the numbers that some states are doing better than others at achieving this goal with several that have lower employer costs and higher maximum weekly benefits to injured workers. This is a goal we can all work towards.

Photo credit: jimmiehomeschoolmom via Foter.com / CC BY

 

Technology

BBC News: Wisconsin Company to Microchip Employees

This BBC News article has popped up all over the internet and I couldn’t resist sharing it here, as well. – kc

A Wisconsin company is to become the first in the US to microchip employees.

Three Square Market is offering to implant the tiny radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip into workers’ hands for free – and says everyone will soon be doing it.

The rice grain-sized $300 (£230) chip will allow them to open doors, log in to computers and even purchase food.

And so far, 50 employees have signed up for the chance to become half-human, half-walking credit card.

But far from being some sort of dystopian nightmare, Three Square Market’s Patrick McMullan believes everyone will soon be wanting their own microchip.

“The international market place is wide open and we believe that the future trajectory of total market share is going to be driven by whoever captures this arena first,” Mr McMullan said.

The company, which provides self-service “micro markets” to businesses around the world, was inspired by the micro-chipping already taking place in Sweden, where so-called “bio-hackers” have been inserting the tiny devices into willing participants for at least three years.

Three Square Market are even working with a Swedish company, BioHax, to deliver the new technology, which they see as one day being simply another payment and identification method – only instead of a credit card or phone, there would be a microchip between your thumb and finger.

But how did employees react?

While a large proportion of the world might think twice before putting a tiny chip in their hand, it seems those at Three Square Market had no such worries.

Out of 85 employees at the company’s head office, 50 have come forward, vice-president of international development Tony Danna told the BBC.

Can they be tracked?

“That is going to be the inevitable reaction,” Mr Danna acknowledged.

“But there is no GPS tracking ability to it. It is really the same thing as the chip that is in your credit card.”

How does it go in – and how do you get it out?

The entire point of the chip is convenience, Mr Danna explained.

Eventually, he hopes it will replace everything you might have in your wallet – from your key fob to your credit card and ID. For now, it is just aiming to make life easier for those using Three Square Market’s facilities.

But the convenience also stretches to installing and removing the chip.

“It takes about two seconds to put it in and to take it out,” he told the BBC. Putting it in is “like getting a shot” using a syringe, while taking it out it like removing a splinter.

“Easy in, easy out,” Mr Danna said.

What if you get robbed?

Like everything in life, it could happen.

But, says Mr Danna, at least it is all in one place, making it easier to cancel all those cards.

Photo credit: kuhnmi via Foter.com / CC BY

Uncategorized

Pope Francis: Labor unions are essential to society

Today’s post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.americamagazine.org

Pope Francis greets the crowd as he leaves his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on June 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Pope Francis greets the crowd as he leaves his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on June 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Labor unions that protect and defend the dignity of work and the rights of workers continue to have an essential role in society, especially in promoting inclusion, Pope Francis said.

"There is no good society without a good union, and there is no good union that isn’t reborn every day in the peripheries, that doesn’t transform the rejected stones of the economy into corner stones," the pope said on June 28 during an audience with Italian union leaders.

"There is no justice together if it isn’t together with today’s excluded ones," he told members of the Italian Confederation of Union Workers.

Unions, he said, risk losing their "prophetic nature" when they mimic the very institutions they are called to challenge, he said. "Unions over time have ended up resembling politicians too much, or rather political parties, their language, their style."

Labor unions must guard and protect workers, but also defend the rights of those "outside the walls," particularly those who are retired and the excluded who are "also excluded from rights and democracy."

Pope Francis denounced situations in which children are forced to work rather than being allowed to study, which is the "only good ‘job’ for children."

Turning to one of his frequently voiced concerns, the pope told the union…

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Opioid Epidemic

NPR: Sloppy Citations of 1980 Letter Led to Opioid Epidemic

Doctor Who Wrote 1980 Letter On Painkillers Regrets That It Fed The Opioid Crisis

June 16, 201712:22 PM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
 
A 1980 letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine was later widely cited as evidence that long-term use of opioid painkillers such as oxycodone was safe, even though the letter did not back up that claim.
 
A one-paragraph letter, barely a hundred words long, unwittingly became a major contributor to today’s opioid crisis, researchers say.

“This has recently been a matter of a lot of angst for me,” Dr. Hershel Jick, co-author of that letter, told Morning Edition host David Greene recently. “We have published nearly 400 papers on drug safety, but never before have we had one that got into such a bizarre and unhealthy situation.”

The letter, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980, was headlined “Addiction Rare in Patients Treated With Narcotics.” Written by Jick and his assistant Jane Porter of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program at Boston University Medical Center, it described their analysis of hospitalized patients who had received at least one dose of a narcotic painkiller. Among the nearly 12,000 patients they looked at, they found “only four cases of reasonably well documented addiction in patients who had no history of addiction.” Their conclusion was that despite widespread use of narcotics in hospitals, addiction was rare in patients who had no history of addiction.

Inaccurate representations of that 1980 letter led to a dramatic increase in the prescribing of opioids for chronic pain, according to an article published this month in the same medical journal by Dr. David Juurlink of the University of Toronto, who researches drug safety. He and his co-authors found more than 600 citations of the letter, a majority of which failed to note that the patients whom Jick and Porter described were in hospitals for brief stays when prescribed opioids. Some of the citations “grossly misrepresented the conclusions of the letter,” they found.

“We believe that this citation pattern contributed to the North American opioid crisis by helping to shape a narrative that allayed prescribers’ concerns about the risk of addiction associated with long-term opioid therapy,” they write, pointing out that citations soared after the introduction of OxyContin in the mid-1990s.

Jick says that when the letter was published in 1980, it was almost inconsequential. “Only years and years later, that letter was used to advertise by new companies that were pushing out new pain drugs,” he says. “I was sort of amazed. None of the companies came to me to talk to me about the letter, or the use as an ad.”

He says the drug companies used his letter to conclude that their new opioids were not addictive. “But that’s not in any shape or form what we suggested in our letter.”

Asked whether he regrets having written the letter, Jick says, “The answer is, fundamentally, sure. The letter wasn’t of value to health and medicine in and of itself. So if I could take it back — if I knew then what I know now, I would never have published it. It wasn’t worth it.”

Photo credit: ThomasWalker via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Reed Johnson

Saying Goodbye and Best Wishes to Reed Johnson

The summer of 2017 has been a time of big changes for Reed Johnson. Reed and his wife, Rachel, were married and Reed has accepted a position with a firm in Portland, Oregon.  Reed & Rachel will be moving to their new home in Oregon soon.

Reed instantly became a part of the Causey Wright family when he joined our firm in 2015. Although we will miss him greatly, we are excited for the opportunities that lie ahead and wish Reed and Rachel all the best going forward.  

Thanks, Reed! We’ll keep in touch!!

Photo credit: Erik Bell

The Boeing Company

Boeing’s Homage to Women Engineers

I found the video The Boeing Company produced to be quite compelling. Below is Boeing’s release statement and a link to the video. It’s worth watching, and sharing. – Kit

For this year’s International Women in Engineering Day, Boeing is highlighting the need for more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 

Through its powerful #WomenMakeUsBetter video, which features Boeing engineers reading and reacting to college rejection letters women received in the early 20th century, Boeing demonstrates we have come a long way – but there is still much more to be done.

Today, only 13% of U.S. engineering jobs are held by women. The #WomenMakeUsBetter video features real Boeing employees who are working hard to change that. 

Boeing understands that women bring important perspectives and different skills to the workforce and that girls need role models in careers like engineering. That’s why Boeing focuses on recruiting diverse employees and reaching out to minority and under-represented communities to encourage them to consider a career in STEM.

Last year, Boeing and the Boeing Charitable Trust gave more than $18 million towards community initiatives that encouraged more than 600,000 women to go into STEM fields. 

Watch the full video to see how #WomenMakeUsBetter.  

Photo: Shirley Jackson, the first African-American female Ph.D graduate of MIT who later went on to become the president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a prestigious engineering school. Tip of the hat to Shawn Adderly. 

Distracted Driving, Workplace Hazard

Distracted Driving – A Workplace Hazard

Today’s post comes from guest author Anthony L. Lucas, from The Jernigan Law Firm.

The dangers of distracted driving prompted OSHA to launch a Distracted Driving Initiative in 2010. The initiative’s primary focus has been to encourage employers to prohibit their employees from texting while driving for work.

One in ten traffic-related fatalities involved distraction in 2015 (the most recent year for statistics) according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The U.S. Government Website for Distracted Driving defines distracted driving as “any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving.” These activities include, but are not limited to, texting, using a cell phone, eating, drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, using a navigation system, and adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player.

Texting while driving is one of the more dangerous distractions because it requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver. Although it is illegal to text while driving in 46 states, many drivers, especially younger drivers, have admitted to texting while driving. According to OSHA, drivers who text while driving focus their attention away from the road for an average for 4.6 seconds, which at 55 mph is equivalent to driving the length of a football field blindfolded.

To learn more about distracted driving and to take the pledge to drive phone-free, visit www.distraction.gov.

Uncategorized

Chaos for Workers’ Compensation Programs–The Elimination of Social Security Numbers?

Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from workers-compensation.blogspot.com

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is readying a fraud prevention initiative that removes Social Security Numbers (SSN) from Medicare cards to help combat identity theft and safeguard taxpayer dollars. The question remains whether the elimination will cause chaos in state workers’ compensation programs since the SSNs have historically been utilized as personal identifiers.

For decades private and public insurance systems have relied upon SSN as a major identifier for benefits delivery and record keeping programs. The change surely is going to increase industry costs for the actual conversion process and create some bumps in the road going forward. Workers and their attorneys may also experience inconvenience in initially obtaining benefits and researching prior records. Furthermore, investigatory resources will suffer the burden additional costs in an attempt to convert information and have it readily available on demand. A critical issue remains for lawyers who handle this data and their ethical responsibility to maintain confidentiality.

CMS has rationalized that the new cards will use a unique, randomly-assigned number called a Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI), to replace the Social Security-based Health Insurance Claim Number (HICN) currently used on the Medicare card. CMS will begin mailing new cards in April 2018 and will meet the congressional deadline for replacing all Medicare cards by April 2019. Today, CMS kicks-off a multi-faceted…

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government, Legislation, Workers' Compensation, workplace injury

Opioids And Doctor Choice

Today’s post comes from guest author Jon Rehm, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said in 2008 that “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” In the context of opioids and workers compensation this could mean reforms to workers compensation systems beyond drug formularies If solving the opioid crisis means limiting the number of doctors who can prescribe opioids, then there will be fewer doctors who will treat workers compensation cases.

Additional licensure and certifications aren’t unheard of in the world of occupational health. In 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented a new rule that only doctors on their registry can perform DOT Physical Examinations for truckers and other professional drivers. This reduced the number of doctors who can perform those examinations. 

When I testified on LB 408, a bill that would have implemented drug formularies for opioids under the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, some doctors were testifying that there was little training in regards to prescribing opioids. Though an opioid prescription registry like the DOT examination registry wasn’t proposed, you could certainly see it proposed as a solution to the opioid problem.

By limiting the numbers of doctor who handle workers’ compensation claims through additional licensing requirements, injured employees will have fewer choices for medical treatment and are more likely to have their employer control their care.

Evidence shows that the workers compensation system has made some contribution to the opioid crisis. According to a 2015 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics over 3.5 million employees were injured at work. Half of those injuries required the employee to miss sometime from work. A study of employees in 25 states done by the Workers Compensation Research Institute revealed that 55 to 85 percent of employees who missed at least one week of work were prescribed at least one opioid prescription.

When I testified on LB 408 the consensus among the doctors testifying on the legislation was that injured workers were more vulnerable to narcotic addiction than other patients who are prescribed narcotic pain medication. Scientific studies give some credence to these conclusions. Workers compensation claims can cause economic insecurity. According to an article in Scientific America, Addiction rates for opioids are 3.4 times higher for those with incomes under $20,000 per year than they are for employees making more than 50,000 per year.

But that article also shared studies that state that pain pill prescriptions are not driving the opioid epidemic. Patients with pre-existing addiction issues are more likely to become addicted to opioids and 75 percent of those who develop opioids start taking opioids in a non-prescribed manner. Furthermore, only 12 to 13 percent of ER patients who are treated for opioid overdoses are chronic pain patients.

Workers’ Compensation is traditionally an area of the law that is controlled by the states. Regulation of drugs is generally an area reserved for the federal government. Any laws imposing additional hurdles or requirements upon doctors who prescribe opioid drugs may have to come from the federal government.

Uncategorized

Fear of Immigration Raids May Harm Workplace Rights

Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.nelp.org

Editor’s Note: Our WA State workers’ compensation system allows benefits to be provided to workers injured on the job without verification of immigration status. – kc

The Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement could have an unintended consequence: reduced willingness to report workplace rights violations.

Getting workers to come forward about workplace rights violations has “always been an issue,” Adrienne DerVartanian, director of immigration and labor rights at Farmworker Justice, told Bloomberg BNA Feb. 23. But the “current environment, with a real focus on immigration enforcement and raids,” has created an “increase in the level of fear and concerns,” she said.

With the highest rates of wage and hour violations among undocumented immigrants—particularly women—employer threats of calls to Immigration and Customs Enforcement are “very strong,” Haeyoung Yoon, director of strategic partnerships at the National Employment Law Project, said Feb. 23.

…

“Even prior to Trump’s immigration policies, there was a culture of fear in our workplaces across the country,” Yoon said. Employers have been known to lob threats to call ICE if workers complain, Yoon said. And now that nearly every undocumented immigrant is subject to enforcement, “there’s greater fear,” she said.

…

NELP is working on pressuring state labor agencies to adopt policies to “act very swiftly when they hear of employers engaging in any kind of retaliatory actionֿ,” Yoon said. Reminding employers that there are consequences for…

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Published by Causey Wright