Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, from The Jernigan Law Firm.
Blue Cross Blue Shield has created an online pricing tool to help patients compare prices of about 1,200 non-emergency medical procedures. Patients can now search for the best financial deal for services offered within North Carolina.
By exposing this previously undisclosed information, patients are now able to go and see services according to the databases average procedure costs. The pricing tool also reveals the most expensive and most affordable option for each procedure.
In order to look up costs and doctors available to preform your procedure, you first access the pricing tool at: http://www.bcbsnc.com/content/providersearch/treatments/index.htm#/ . Then, you enter the treatment or service you would like in the first blank, your current location, and how many miles you are willing to travel for the service. Once you have entered all of this information, you just click search and your results will be immediately displayed. You can organize your results by cost, provider name, or distance.
To see the original article by John Murawski in The News and Observer explaining the pricing tool, click below:
Today’s post was shared by The Green Workplace and comes from www.fastcodesign.com
Even though it’s now old news that sitting is killing us all, people still sit a whole lot, especially at office jobs. Standing desks are one solution, but office workers often have to take the initiative to request one from their employers. What if, instead, an office’s very design simply ruled out the option of sitting all day?
RAAAF (Rietveld Architecture-Art Affordances), a Netherlands-based experimental studio that works at the intersection of visual art, architecture, and science, collaborated with artist Barbara Visser to design "The End of Sitting," a conceptual office with no chairs and no traditional desks. Instead, the office is filled with faceted three-dimensional geometric shapes on which workers can stand, lean, perch, or even lie down. Viewed from above, the white objects resemble an artist’s abstract rendering of cracked glacial ice more than furniture. They range from waist-height to shoulder-height, allowing workers to change positions throughout the day.
Ricky Rijkenberg
The designers spent 10 days building the labyrinthine "experimental work landscape" from plywood frames and a secret render (described as being "as hard as concrete") at Looiersgracht 60, an Amsterdam-based exhibition space. "The End of Sitting" is part art installation, part psychological study: it’s the visual component of architect Erik Rietveld’s research project, called "The Landscape of Affordances: Situating the Embodied…
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.kshb.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The widow of a Raytown veteran killed by a rare and aggressive cancer says she’s convinced her husband’s illness was brought on by his exposure to toxic fumes from “burn pits” during his service in Iraq.
Now she’s warning other veterans to speak to their doctors about risks associated with the pits.
Sgt. Matthew Gonzales received a diagnosis of Esthesioneuroblastoma four years after returning from Tikrit, where he worked regularly near a burn pit used to dispose of medical waste by burning it with jet fuel in a large open pit.
“One thing that caught me off guard is that they didn’t have any protective gear covering themselves,” his widow, Elizabeth, said of a video her husband showed her of the pit. “I asked about that, and he felt confident saying, ‘The government wouldn’t put us in any harm’s way. They’re going to protect us.’”
After an oral surgeon discovered the mass that turned out to be the start of her husband’s cancer, Elizabeth Gonzales now says that’s exactly what the government did.
“The surgeon said that exposure to different toxicities like sands and paints and things like that would cause a person to get this type of cancer,” Gonzales told 41 Action News. “I started researching burn pits and found out that there’s thousands of soldiers and contractors who are reporting different medical issues since their exposure to burn pits.”
Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from www.theguardian.com
Within the US Department of Labor, there is a little-known bureau: the Women’s bureau.
Since 1920, the bureau has focused on tracking and supporting the growth of women in the workforce.
Many things have changed over the past 90-plus years. In 1920, women accounted for just 21% of working Americans. By 2012, that number had more than doubled, with women making up 47% of American workers. More than 75% of single mothers are the sole breadwinners in their families.
Even as things have changed, many things have stayed the same. The wage gap still persists – with women earning about 78 cents for every dollar that men earn. About 6% of female workers earn minimum wage, compared to just 3% of men.
Until that changes, the bureau won’t rest. There is still a lot of work to do, says Latifa Lyles, the director of the bureau.
“While we are the only federal agency that focuses on women in the workforce and women’s economic security issues, we are part of a larger coalition in the Obama administration who are making sure that we are addressing women’s issues in a coordinated way and improving programs and outcomes with other federal agencies,” says Lyles.
One of the partners working closely with the bureau is the White House Council on Women and Girls. This past year, President Obama and the bureau convened a summit on working families that brought together low-wage workers, business owners and policymakers to discuss the issues that affect working…
When you whack yourself with a hammer, it feels like the pain is in your thumb. But really it’s in your brain.
That’s because our perception of pain is shaped by brain circuits that are constantly filtering the information coming from our sensory nerves, says David Linden, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and author of the new bookTouch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind.
"There is a completely separate system for the emotional aspect of pain — the part that makes us go, ‘Ow! This is terrible.’ "
– David Linden, neuroscientist, Johns Hopkins University
"The brain can say, ‘Hey that’s interesting. Turn up the volume on this pain information that’s coming in,’ " Linden says. "Or it can say, ‘Oh no — let’s turn down the volume on that and pay less attention to it.’ "
This ability to modulate pain explains the experiences of people like Dwayne Turner, an Army combat medic in Iraq who received the Silver Star for valor.
In 2003, Turner was unloading supplies when his unit came under attack. He was wounded by a grenade. "He took shrapnel in his leg, in his side — and he didn’t even notice that he had been hit," Linden says.
Despite his injuries, Turner began giving first aid and pulled other soldiers to safety. As he worked, he was shot twice — one bullet breaking a bone in his arm. Yet Turner would say later that he felt almost no pain.
Today’s post was shared by US Labor Department and comes from blog.dol.gov
As more and more companies begin outsourcing key business functions and enlisting the help of staffing agencies to provide workers, a fissure forms in the workplace, disrupting traditional employment relationships. Without a direct employee-employer relationship, these companies oftentimes mistakenly relinquish employer responsibilities which can have an adverse impact on workers who might experience a loss of benefits, inadequate health and safety protections, and sometimes lower pay.
The Wage and Hour Division promotes compliance with a number of laws which impact almost every industry in the United States. One way to reach the 7.3 million establishments and 135 million employees covered by WHD laws in the U.S. is through planned initiatives like the one launched 2 years ago in the temporary staffing industry by the division’s New Orleans District Office. Recognizing the valuable and the important role that these employers play in today’s economy, the Wage and Hour Divisions’ Southwest and Southeast Regions began directed investigations to address concerns about the industry practice of misclassifying a portion of worker’s earnings as per diem payments.
Per Diem Pay Schemes
The investigations under the temporary staffing initiative uncovered evasive per diem schemes through which companies misclassified a portion of workers’ earnings as per diem payments. Per diem payments are compensation for living expenses incurred on behalf of the employer,…
The Port of Seattle issued a statement on February 12, 2015 urging the PMA and ILWU to reach a resolution to their contract dispute:
In light of US West Coast ports’ limited activity this weekend, the ports of Seattle and Tacoma continue to press the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union to resolve the impasse in contract negotiations.
The ports do not have a seat at the negotiating table, however we have been exercising the limited options available to try to mitigate impacts on our customers and to keep cargo moving.
We share the frustration of the farmers, manufacturers, retailers, truckers and warehouse and distribution operators, who are suffering collateral damage as they continue to lose billions of dollars and lay off employees.
A lockout or strike would put even more stress on the working people throughout our state who rely on ports for their livelihood.
Taken together, marine cargo operations in Tacoma and Seattle support more than 48,000 jobs across the region and provide a critical gateway for the export of Washington state products to Asia.
This protracted negotiation is resulting in widespread economic damage and will have a lasting impact on our state’s economy.
We risk losing our role as a critical gateway as shippers seek alternatives to West Coast ports.
gCaptain reported on the weekend suspension of cargo loading and unloading at west coast ports, noting that the Pacific Maritime Association said that terminal yard, rail and gate operations at the ports, which handle nearly half of U.S. maritime trade and more than 70 percent of imports from Asia, would go on at the discretion of terminal operators through the weekend. gCaptain quoted a statement from the PMA: “In light of ongoing union slowdowns up and down the coast which have brought the ports almost to a standstill, PMA member companies finally have concluded that they will no longer continue to pay workers premium pay for diminished productivity.”
gCaptain’s report continued:
Announcement of the weekend suspension came two days after the chief labor negotiator for the companies at the 29 West Coast ports warned that waterfronts that have been plagued by severe cargo congestion in recent months were nearing the point of complete gridlock.
The companies have repeatedly accused the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 20,000 dockworkers, of deliberating orchestrating work slowdowns at the ports to gain leverage in contract negotiations that have dragged on for nine months
The union denies this and faulted the carriers themselves for the congestion, citing numerous changes in shipping practices as contributing factors.
The union also has downplayed the magnitude of the congestion, suggesting that management was exaggerating a crisis as a late-hour negotiation ploy.
Our local West Seattle Blog has been following the (lack of) progress between the PMA and ILWU. The WSB reported on two days of horrible traffic between West Seattle and downtown, which was caused by a backlog of trucks crowding the surface streets around Terminal 18. The following day, the traffic had returned to normal. From an outisder’s perspective, it seemed that the drivers of Seattle had been used as a pawn in the match between PMA and ILWU.
Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.king5.com
I-5 bridge collapse over Skagit River
(Photo: KING)
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Transportation has filed a $17 million lawsuit to recover costs related to the 2013 Skagit River bridge collapse.
The lawsuit names four parties as responsible: the truck driver whose oversized truck hit the bridge; the driver’s employer; the pilot car driver; and the owner of the metal shed being transported.
In November, the Washington State Patrol issued a report on its final findings from the collapse, saying that the driver hit 11 arced sway braces on the bridge during the accident that sent two cars into the river.
The Washington State Patrol Major Accident Investigative Team cited the truck driver for negligent driving, stating the bridge collapse resulted from a series of miscalculations, mistakes and errors by the truck driver and his employer, including:
• The truck driver did not know the accurate height of his oversized load, and received a permit for a load two inches lower than the one he carried.
• The truck driver failed to research the route to ensure it could accommodate his over-height load. Had he taken the advanced safety steps required of all drivers who haul oversized loads, he would have known the left southbound lane of the bridge provided adequate vertical clearance for the load.
• The pilot-car driver was on the phone as she crossed the bridge and did not notify the truck driver of the height clearance pole striking the bridge.
Evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder can be traced back to 1300BC – much earlier than previously thought – say researchers.
The team at Anglia Ruskin University analysed translations from ancient Iraq or Mesopotamia.
Accounts of soldiers being visited by “ghosts they faced in battle” fitted with a modern diagnosis of PTSD.
The condition was likely to be as old as human civilisation, the researchers concluded.
Prof Jamie Hacker Hughes, a former consultant clinical psychologist for the Ministry of Defence, said the first description of PTSD was often accredited to the Greek historian Herodotus.
Referring to the warrior Epizelus during the battle of Marathon in 490BC he wrote: “He suddenly lost sight of both eyes, though nothing had touched him.”
His report co-authored with Dr Walid Abdul-Hamid, Queen Mary College London, argues there are references in the Assyrian Dynasty in Mesopotamia between 1300BC and 609BC.
Ghosts
In that era men spent a year being toughened up by building roads, bridges and other projects, before spending a year at war and then returning to their families for a year before starting the cycle again.
ONE OF government’s most basic responsibilities is protecting public health. That’s not happening in Ringwood with a notorious old dump that is now a Superfund site.
Rather than remove more than 100,000 tons of toxic waste dumped about 40 years ago by the Ford Motor Co., the borough wants to build a recycling center on top of it. That’s bad enough.
What’s even worse is that the state Department of Environmental Protection is going along with the plan, according to a letter the agency sent recently to an attorney representing the borough. Nearby residents should be outraged that borough and state officials are seemingly so unconcerned about a real risk to public health.
The dumping site, which is off Peters Mine Road and near where many members of the Ramapough Lenape Nation live, has had a particularly sordid history.
Ford, which once had a plant in nearby Mahwah, began disposing paint sludge in the wooded terrain in the late 1960s, when such dumping was not uncommon. The federal Environmental Protection Agency oversaw a cleanup of the site in the early 1990s and, in 1994, proclaimed the area free of contaminants. That was not true. After a series by The Record in 2005 found that huge amounts of waste were still in the ground, properly cleaning up the area was again an issue.
The borough’s plan is to cover the contaminated area with a 2-foot layer of soil and synthetic material. A recycling center would then be constructed on top. It is not unusual for old dumps, or…
