Continue reading »]]> The National Football League and the Atlanta Falcons are suing nine former Falcons players to force them to litigate workers’ compensation cases in Georgia rather than in California, where dozens of current and former NFL players have sought compensation for injuries sustained from playing football.

The eight-page suit, filed by King & Spalding attorneys Darrick L. McDuffie and S. Stewart Haskins II on behalf of the Falcons and the NFL Management Council, asks U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. to enforce what the suit called a binding arbitration ruling issued last month in New York.

That ruling by arbitrator Michael Beck ordered the nine former Falcons to halt their efforts to collect workers’ compensation benefits in California for injuries stemming from their careers with the Falcons.

When the suit was filed March 5, the players’ claims were pending before the workers’ compensation board in California, the complaint alleges.

The suit appears to be part of a broader fight between the league and the players over how and whether current and former players should be compensated for injuries incurred on the playing field.

The former Falcons players include Roderick Coleman, Wilrey Fontenot, Tony Gilbert, Kindal Moorehead, Stanley Pritchett, Karon Riley, Brett Romberg, Jason Webster and Dez White.

Professional football players injured while playing are generally entitled to workers’ compensation benefits while they are out of work; the benefits include pay for medical expenses arising from that injury, according to the NFL Players Association website.

“This is important since NFL clubs will not pay medical expenses after a player leaves the game unless the player files a workers’ compensation claim,” the website states.

The Atlanta suit is one of a number of federal suits the NFL and professional football teams are filing against hundreds of former football players who have lodged workers’ compensation claims in California, even when the teams for which they played are based elsewhere.

According to a 2010 New York Times investigation, California is the only state where professional athletes who have played as little as a single game in the state may file workers’ compensation claims for long-term injuries they may have sustained years earlier.

According the Times report, California law also bars employees from signing away certain workers’ rights and their unions from bargaining them away. Those policies have prompted the players association to argue that player contracts requiring them to file workers’ compensation claims in their teams’ home states may be unenforceable.

Football players from the Cincinnati Bengals, the Denver Broncos, the Tennessee Titans, the Miami Dolphins, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chicago Bears, the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons have filed workers’ compensation claims in California, according to national news reports.

California’s liberally construed workers’ compensation laws have been bolstered by the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement with the players association. That agreement—which ended last year’s lockout—included a provision that allows players to file workers’ compensation claims in states where their teams aren’t based, according to the website Business Insurance.

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Continue reading »]]> The prices paid for medical professional services for injured workers were higher and rising faster in states without fee schedules compared with states that have them in place, according to a new study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), Medical Price Index for Workers’ Compensation, Fourth Edition (MPI-WC).

Cambridge, MA (PRWEB) March 29, 2012

The prices paid for medical professional services for injured workers were higher and rising faster in states without fee schedules compared with states that have them in place, according to a new study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), Medical Price Index for Workers’ Compensation, Fourth Edition (MPI-WC).

The WCRI study is designed to help public policymakers and system stakeholders understand how prices paid for medical professional services for injured workers in their states compare with other states and know if prices in their state are rising rapidly or relatively slowly. They can also learn if the reason for price growth in their state is part of a national phenomenon or whether the causes are unique to their state and hence, subject to local management or reform.

“In documenting the growing prices paid for the medical care received by injured workers, this unique study also shows the effectiveness of medical fee schedules in controlling those costs,” said Dr. Richard Victor, executive director of WCRI.

For example, six states in the 25-state study-Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Virginia, and Wisconsin-had no medical fee schedules as of 2011. The prices paid for professional services in Virginia, Missouri, New Jersey, Iowa, and Indiana were 27 to 51 percent higher than the median of the study states with fee schedules and the prices in Wisconsin were more than twice the median of the study states with fee schedules, the highest of all the study states.

States without fee schedules also saw more rapid price growth over the 2002 – 2011 study period, with prices in Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Virginia, and New Jersey rising 32 to 38 percent, compared with the median growth rate of 14 percent for the study states with fee schedules. The prices in Wisconsin experienced the most rapid growth among the 25 study states, rising 50 percent.

The study also found that changes in fee schedules were an important factor driving changes in actual prices paid for professional services.

In addition, the study reported that in states with certain services not covered by their fee schedules, the prices paid for those services often grew more rapidly than those for the services covered by the fee schedules.

Unlike the consumer price index for medical care (CPI-M), which measures general prices paid for medical goods and services, the MPI-WC focuses only on the prices paid for the medical care that injured workers receive under their state’s workers’ compensation system.

The MPI-WC tracks medical prices paid in 25 large states from calendar year 2002 through June 2011 for nonhospital, nonfacility services billed by physicians, physical therapists, and chiropractors. The medical services fall into eight major groups: evaluation and management, physical medicine, surgery, major radiology, minor radiology, neurological and neuromuscular testing, pain management injections, and emergency care.

The 25 states included in the MPI-WC, which represent nearly 80 percent of the workers’ compensation benefits paid in the United States, are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Click here to download a free copy of this report.

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Continue reading »]]> NEW YORK — The owner of a Brooklyn tortilla factory where a worker died after falling into a waist-high dough mixing machine has been arrested.

Erasmo Ponce was charged with underpaying employees, falsifying business records, violating workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance laws.

Authorities said Wednesday Ponce surrendered Tuesday and was released on bail.

According to The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/H1PvDQ ), his lawyer said he didn’t’ believe the case merited criminal prosecution.

Days after the Jan. 24, 2011, death of the worker, Juan Baten, the Tortilleria Chinantla (tor-tih-REE’-ah chee-NAHNT’-lah) was shuttered by state officials for operating without workers’ compensation insurance.

The factory eventually reopened, but last July federal authorities cited it for workplace safety violations. The most serious violation was failure to install a barrier on the mixer.

The company is contesting the citations.

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Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com

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Continue reading »]]> A New York Court has ruled that workers injured while on break are entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits.

March 07, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — During the work day there are often many opportunities to be injured. Depending on people’s jobs, dangers could lurk near machinery, in the form of slippery floors or in a cubicle from repetitive motions. However, many people often don’t consider the time taken for a break to be a particularly hazardous; yet, workers can be and are injured while taking breaks.

Recently, in the case of Richard Potter Jr. vs. VM Paolozzi Imports Inc., an appellate court in New York had to decide whether a worker who sustained injuries while on break was entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits. And, according to the court, he was.

In the Potter case, a worker asked his supervisor if he could take a break and use his personal vehicle to go and pick up lunch. Permission was granted, but while returning to work, he was involved in an automobile accident.

The appeals court agreed with the Workers’ Compensation Board that short breaks are not an interruption of employment because they are “closely related” to workers “performance of the job,” according to Insurance Journal. The appeals court also found that this particular employer routinely allowed workers leave the premises while on break. And, in this case, the employee had only been gone a short while and was on his way back to work when he was injured.

In general, workers who are injured during the workday — whether while performing their job or while on break — will be entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits. However, each case is different and the determination of whether an employee injured while on break will be entitled to benefits or not will depend on the unique facts of the case.

If you are an employee who has been injured while working in New York, you may be entitled to benefits to help you while you are recovering. Speak with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney if you are seeking benefits or have had your benefits request denied.

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The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board is transitioning from a paper to an electronic employer report of injury system.

The board will adopt the IAIABC (International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions) Claims Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Standard Release 3.0. Currently, the board accepts New York-specific claims information from employers and insurance carriers through paper submission. But beginning in early 2013, these submissions will be required to match the IAIABC standard and be made electronically.

Founded in 1914, the IAIABC is a not-for-profit trade association representing government entities who administer workers’ compensation systems.

“Electronic filing will reduce system waste and increase efficiency-meaning businesses will save while injured workers will receive their benefits faster,” the board’s executive director Jeffrey Fenster said. “We are working closely with employers and insurers in the workers’ compensation industry to ensure a seamless transition to electronic filing.”

More than 30 states currently use or are planning to use the IAIABC EDI standard for claim submissions. Most national insurance carriers already utilize this standard. The board will implement the mandate of electronic reporting in phases beginning with those national carriers that use IAIABC EDI in other states.

Based on the experience of other states that have implemented the IAIABC standard, the board anticipates that its adoption in New York will yield significant benefits, including:

• Improving the timely delivery of benefits to injured workers

• Providing a single, consistent data format

• Reducing waste, abuse, and delay in the system

• Reducing paper handling costs to system participants outside the Board, i.e., handling, completing, and shipping

• Reducing high costs to the Board for handling, processing, and scanning paper documents as well as certain data entry costs

• Reducing duplicative claim form filings

• Increasing the quality and timeliness of information received by the Board

• Improving data collection for system oversight and policy making

Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, welcomed the change. “The heart of the workers’ compensation system is delivering benefits to injured workers when they need them. Labor supports implementing the new paperless standard, which will quicken the delivery of benefits,” he said.

“Anytime we can streamline that process without compromising the integrity of the system, injured workers are better served. The data collected will also lead to improved information for policy-making in the future. We appreciate the Board’s efforts to improve the delivery of service in this area.”

More information on the electronic claims filing process can be found on the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board’s website.

Source: New York State Workers’ Compensation Board

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Four years after her horrible ordeal began 32-year-old Tabitha Mullings, who became a quadruple amputee after a hospital “mistake,” is getting a hefty $17.9 million payday. After three years going through the courts, Brooklyn Hospital and its doctors have agreed to settle and fork over $9.4 million (the city will pay $8.5 million). Not quite the $100 million she originally was shooting for, but nothing to scoff at either.

Brooklyn Hospital, however, still says it gave Mullings “excellent care.” It just “decided to settle because a sympathetic jury would have been swayed by her ‘profound’ injuries.”

You’ll recall that back in September of 2008, Mullings went to Brookln Hospital in pain and was diagnosed with a kidney stone. She received painkillers and was sent home. But it turned out she had an infection that “choked off blood flow to her hands and feet and she lapsed into a semi-coma for two weeks,” leaving gangrene to set in. Doctors eventualy had to amputate all her limbs and she was left blind in one eye. She now wears her engagement ring around her neck.

Still, Mullings hasn’t let her setbacks bring her down, too much. Told of the settlement today the mother of three boys said, “Now that the lawsuit is behind me, I look forward to going on with my life and caring for my children the best I can. I pray what happens to me never happens to anyone again.”

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A surcharge added to workers’ compensation costs for New York employers is nearly five times the average surcharge in other states, the Workers’ Compensation Policy Institute said this week.

The state has increased the assessments by 10.4 percent and 27 percent in the last two years, a WCPI analysis shows.

Some 32 states impose surcharges on workers’ compensation costs, with an average assessment of 4.2 percent, WCPI officials said Wednesday. New York’s assessment is 20.2 percent.

New York’s assessment is 127 percent higher than the second-highest assessment, 8.9 percent in Minnesota, WCPI officials said.

“This tax burdens all employers, and municipal employers feel this mandate especially acutely as the struggle to provide essential services and contain taxes,” WCPI acting executive director Paul Jahn said in the statement. “This pressure is intensified by the new 2 percent property tax cap.”

States fund their workers’ compensation systems in various ways with assessments on premiums paid by employers being the most common method, WCPI officials said.

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Continue reading »]]> The assessment surcharge added to workers’ compensation costs for New York employers is increasingly becoming a burden for businesses, according to a new study.

In New York State, the assessment surcharge is currently 20.2 percent — which is more than double that of the second most expensive state in the nation (8.9 percent in Minnesota). It is also nearly five times greater than the 4.2 percent average assessment levied by states. Currently, 32 states impose such assessments.

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These assessments are essentially a tax on workers’ compensation premiums and are used by state governments to fund the system, according to the study from The Workers’ Compensation Policy Institute.

Over the last two years, New York State increased this tax by 10.4 percent and 27.5 percent respectively. While states are free to choose various methods for funding their individual workers’ comp systems, the most common method is to impose an assessment or tax on premiums paid by employers, the study noted.

In New York’s surcharge, 10.1 percent on premium is assessed to fund the “Special Disability Fund.” This accounts for half of New York’s assessment charges, the study stated.

The second largest assessment, 5.7 percent of premium, is used to fund the “Reopened Case Fund” — this fund assists with claims that have been closed but later reopen. The third largest assessment, 3.2 percent of premium, is the cost that employers pay for the state to administer the Workers’ Compensation Board. The study said New York’s administrative costs are quite high and, in fact, exceed the total cost of assessments in all the comparable states except Connecticut.

The study is available online at The Workers’ Compensation Policy Institute’s website.

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If a stint in the garden, or an overlong plane ride, sends your back into spasms, you’re not alone: 80 percent of adults will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives, according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Long work hours in one position can make us ache, as can day-to-day stresses that make us unconsciously stiffen. Inactivity can lead to weakness and stiffness.

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Can’t stand that backache anymore? Try swimming. It puts less stress on your back then other sports. — Photo by Corbis

Even the simple habit of walking upright — our human birthright — adds to our back problems. “It puts a lot of stress on the body’s core, which contains the spine,” says Julie Silver, M.D., assistant professor at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and author of You Can Heal Yourself. As your spine ages, “you may get arthritis or slight bulges in the disks, or narrowing of the spinal canal, which can put pressure on the nerves.”

Treatment options can, of course, include medications and surgery. “If you can get similar outcomes with less invasive and potentially safer interventions, those should be your first choices,” says Adam Perlman, M.D., executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C..

Talk to your doctor about some of these nondrug options for back pain:

• Work with a pro. “Physical therapy can focus on strengthening core muscles” — the major muscles of the stomach and back — “and improving flexibility as well as stabilizing the spine,” says Silver. She suggests physical therapy twice weekly for four to eight weeks, plus an individualized home exercise program.

• Get moving. “Do activities — long walks, biking, swimming — where you raise your heart rate and break a sweat at least three times a week,” says Norman Marcus, M.D., a pain medicine specialist at New York University School of Medicine and author of End Back Pain Forever: Without Surgery or Drugs. “That helps back pain by blowing off stress and increasing the capacity of muscles to withstand prolonged activity. Without endurance, your muscles fatigue more easily and you’re more likely to get injured.”

• Stay strong. “As we get older we start to lose muscle,” says Marcus. “Weight training helps us preserve muscle, including those that support the spine.” If you’re unfamiliar with weight training, Marcus recommends working with a physical therapist or exercise trainer who can arrange a personal program for you.

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