Quote of the day
"The odd thing is there's no rhyme or reason for which (Medicare) cases move ... for the individual person waiting for relief, it's a very trying experience."
Peter Calderone, New Jersey's chief workers' compensation judge
Gilroy Faces Spiraling Benefits Costs
In Gilroy, the cost of covering city employees’ benefits has risen 72 percent over the past six years, outpacing the city’s total budget expenditures more than twice over. And Mayor Al Pinheiro, vice president of the Santa Clara County Cities Association, says he’s seen other nearby cities weathering similar cost increases.
By Chris Bone, Gilroy Dispatch
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New Jersey’s Medicare Backlog in Workers’ Comp a ‘Scandal’
The backlog of New Jersey cases awaiting Medicare approval has emerged as one of the most persistent problems in the Garden State’s workers’ compensation system, affecting the injured workers who need the money the most: the totally disabled and the elderly. By John P. Martin and Dunstan McNichol, Newark Star-Ledger
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Oversight Board Sought in Mountain State
Over the objections of West Virginia State Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, who labels it “the antithesis of everything we’ve done to privatize workers’ compensation in this state,” a joint interim subcommittee agrees to seek the creation of a special oversight committee of lawmakers to govern rules for the state’s privatized workers’ comp system.
Go to the full story by Lawrence Messina, AP via Charleston Daily Mail
Go to the full story by Mannix Porterfield, Beckley Register-Herald
Pennsylvania County Paid Administrator Twice Contract Amount
Records show that the workers’ compensation fund administrator fired by self-insured Lackawanna County, Pa., amid an FBI investigation, received more than twice the amount of basic service fees its contracts required, and the company at one point started paying itself from county funds designated for other purposes. By Boris Krawczeniuk, Scranton Times-Tribune [With Photo] Go to the Full Story…
Commentary: Ruling a ‘Moral Victory’ Against WorkSafe BC
Despite revisions to its rules, the British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board is still viewed as an institution designed to frustrate, thwart or even deliberately test those who must deal with its bureaucracy. But a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling against the WCB relating to one of its self-created rules is one small victory for injured workers. Burnaby Now
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Editorial: Ohio Auditor Is on the Right Track
Both Gov. Ted Strickland and State Auditor Mary Taylor both want to prevent a repeat of the breakdown in financial controls that contributed to the loss of $300 million through theft and mismanagement at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and both want to implement tougher internal audit controls. Auditor Taylor has the better plan.
Go to the full editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Go to the full editorial in the Wheeling Intelligencer
Study Links Cell Phone Use to Cancer
Prolonged use of mobile and home cordless phones increases the risk of cancer, according to a new report in Occupational Health Medicine, and the dangers have been downplayed because most cancers take at least ten years to develop, and relatively few people have been using wireless phones intensively for that long. By Clive Akass, Personal Computer World via Computer Active (U.K.)
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