Quote of the day
"Overall, I don't think any other common work-injury treatment is as fraught with patient noncompliance risks as chronic-pain management is. I include fatality as one of those risks."
Peter Rousmaniere, consultant
Chino Maintenance Firm Owner Fined for Noncompliance
The owner of a Chino janitorial/housekeeping firm faces a $17,000 fine and a stop-work order for failure to show proof of workers’ compensation insurance to investigators during an enforcement sweep, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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Illegal Worker Returns to Rhode Island to Sue Employer
A former tree care worker who suffered severe facial injuries in a chainsaw accident but whom authorities deported before he could sue his employer in workers’ compensation court returns to Providence on humanitarian parole to get his day in court. Rhode Island law grants him the right to pursue a workers’ comp claim despite his illegal status, according to the chief judge of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Court. By Karen Lee Ziner, Providence Journal [With Photos] Go to the Full Story…
Yukon WCB Stays Most Charges in Mine Worker’s Mauling
Four of six negligence charges against a mining services company whose employee was mauled to death by a grizzly bear last year have been stayed by the Yukon Workers’ Compensation, Health and Safety Board. CBC News
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Conventional Tools Failing to Tame Chronic Pain
Accounting for chronic-pain sufferers isn’t an exact science, but the problem is starting to show its hand in the proliferation of painkillers: the lion’s share of drug costs is for opiates, and most opiate use is for long-duration injuries. Moreover, utilization review, pharmacy management and case management have simply failed to control the number of chronic-pain cases or their duration. By Peter Rousmaniere, Risk & Insurance
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Employee Negligence Ruling Ohio Court’s First Major Reversal Since 2000
The Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling allowing a fast-food employee who was injured after violating workplace rules to collect workers’ compensation is the court’s first reversal of a major ruling in seven years, and the last reversal in a major case also dealt with workers’ comp. The court has agreed to reconsider 39 of its decisions in the past 10 years. By James Nash, Columbus Dispatch
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Will U.S. Warm to Chile’s Model for Disability Cost Reduction?
In a new National Center for Policy Analysis study, “Integrated Disability and Retirement Systems in Chile,” former World Bank economist Estelle James concludes that the United States and other developed countries could reduce their disability costs and the number of disabled workers by adopting features of Chile’s system. NCPA
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N.D. Measure Would Give Workers’ Comp Control to Gov
A proposed ballot measure in North Dakota would give the state’s governor power to hire the top manager at Workforce Safety and Insurance, North Dakota’s workers compensation agency. Currently, the agency’s chief executive is hired by an appointed board of directors; the governor can’t fire the director. By AP via KXMC (Minot, N.D.)
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Injury at W.V. Workers’ Comp Building Sparks Suit
A woman who tripped over the entrance of the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Division in Charleston sues the building’s owner. Elsewhere, Sarah K. Winn of the Charleston Gazette reports that Cambridge Integrated Services Group Inc. plans to lay off its 62 Charleston employees because the state gave the company’s workers’ compensation claims processing job to another company. By Cara Bailey, West Virginia Record
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