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Re: “WCB hostage-taker sentenced to 11 years; Gunman gets double credit for time served,” Nov. 23.

I was totally astonished to hear that Patrick Clayton got 11 years for the hostage-taking at the WCB office in Edmonton. Some of the Workers’ Compensation Board employees wrote impact statements to the court, with regards to the situation, which probably has affected their lives. But these same employees either failed to realize or refused to admit that the WCB has been holding injured workers hostage for years, without being charged or convicted of hostage-taking.

The only difference is the WCB never used a gun, just ignorance and case workers who are only concerned about the bonus pay they get. I do not approve of what Clayton did, but I certainly realize why he did it, and I am sure it will happen again, and maybe next time, the out-come won’t be as sweet.

It is time for the Alberta government to step up and hold a full independent public investigation into, my opinion, a corrupt WCB system.

Darryl Kallis, Medicine Hat

The New York Court of Appeals ruled against insurers in six separate cases Nov. 15 by upholding a law requiring private insurers to deposit payments for some workers’ compensation benefits into state trust funds.

The 6-0 ruling applies to six cases involving workers who were injured before the law, the New York Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill, was enacted in 2007, according to Reuters.

In the leading case, Randy Raynor hurt his back while working for Landmark Chrysler in December 2004. His workers’ compensation claim was settled in June 2008, when a judge ordered Erie Insurance Co., Landmark’s insurance carrier, to place about $200,000 in a trust fund for Raynor, Reuters reported.

Landmark and Erie Insurance Co., based in Pennsylvania, sued the state Workers’ Compensation Board in 2009, claiming that Raynor was not protected by the law because he was injured before it was enacted.

The insurance company also claimed the law violated the Takings, Contracts, Equal Protection and Die Process clauses of the U.S. Constitution because it puts private insurers at a competitive disadvantage in relation to the state insurance fund and self-insured entities such as New York City, according to Reuters.

Erie also said that a provision capping the number of weeks for which a claimant can collect workers’ compensation, passed at the same time as the trust-find law, also applies to workers with permanent partial disabilities, Reuters reported. The cap, ranging from 225 to 525 weeks, depends on the percentage of income that was lost as the result of an injury, and applies only to those injured after the law’s enactment in March 2007.

The Court of Appeals ruled against Erie and in favor of Raynor and workers in the other cases.

The New York Workers’ Compensation Reform Bill was created to protect injured workers with permanent partial disabilities from the potential insolvency of private insurance carriers. Before the law, insurance companies had more control of the terms in workers’ compensation settlements, including the payment schedule.

November 16, 2011 – 11:12am

ALBANY, N.Y.—The New York Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling that requires employers to make lump-sum payments to a state trust fund for certain permanent partial disability benefits.

A 2007 reform of New York’s workers compensation law capped the amount of PPD benefits for claimants after March 2007 and required private insurers to deposit lump-sum PPD benefits into the state Aggregate Trust Fund after July 2007.

However, employers argued in Randy Raynor vs. Landmark Chrysler et al. that the lump-sum provision should not apply to employees who were injured prior to March 2007 but received benefits after July 2007 because it would be “speculative” to calculate lump-sum, uncapped awards for those claimants.

Periodic payments

Landmark Chrysler had sought to make periodic PPD payments to Mr. Raynor, who injured his lower back on the job in 2004 and was awarded benefits in 2008, court records show.

In 2008, a workers comp judge ordered the company’s insurer, Erie Insurance Co., to deposit $196,865—the value of Mr. Raynor’s uncapped and unpaid PPD benefits at that time—into the trust fund. The state Workers’ Compensation Board upheld that decision in 2009.

In its ruling Tuesday, the New York Court of Appeals said the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board accurately interpreted the law when it required Landmark Chrysler to pay lump-sum benefits.

“Although the carrier argues that the legislation, as enacted, is unfair and places an unanticipated financial burden on private insurance carriers, we are merely interpreting the statute by applying the rules of statutory construction,” the appellate court ruled. “It is not our role to pass on its fairness or wisdom.”

Similar decisions issued

The appellate court also disagreed that the lump-sum provision was applied retroactively, because it involved only PPD cases considered after New York’s workers comp reforms were passed. It also said the payments were not unfair, in part because they do not increase the PPD benefit amounts for claimants.

Citing its logic in the case concerning Landmark Chrysler, the court issued similar decisions Tuesday involving United Rentals Aerial Equipment Inc., Gould Pumps ITT, Halsted Communications Ltd., Trico and Duke’s Plumbing & Sewer Service Inc.

(Reuters Health) – Going through a set of warm-up exercises before practices and games cut the rate of knee and ankle injuries in girls playing soccer and basketball in a new study.

Fewer of the high school students suffered noncontact injuries, including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprains, when their coaches were trained to lead the warm-up sessions.

Researchers said that training coaches in these exercises may be a low-cost way to prevent injuries that sometimes require expensive surgeries — and may turn girls off from physical activity. Exercise in teen girls has been linked to better grades, less obesity and lower pregnancy rates.

“We see that girls that are active in sports are less likely to get involved in some of these other high-risk behaviors, so keeping them active and making sure an injury doesn’t take them out is important,” said Dr. Cynthia LaBella, from the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who worked on the study.

Warm-ups, she added, are “worth the time and the money invested for the long-term health of the girls.”

Tim Hewett, head of sports medicine research at The Ohio State University and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, said that during puberty, both girls and boys shoot up in height, but girls’ muscles don’t develop as much as boys’ do.

Because of that imbalance, studies have shown they get between two and 10 times more injuries like ACL sprains than boys, he added.

“The good news in all this is, these imbalances that we observe can be corrected with neuromuscular training,” Hewett, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

LaBella’s study involved mostly low-income girls playing on high school soccer and basketball teams in Chicago public schools. Ninety coaches were randomly assigned to be taught a warm-up program involving strengthening, balance and agility exercises to lead before every game and practice, or to stick with their usual warm-up routine.

The warm-up also involved exercises focusing on how to jump and land safely. The regimen was designed to take about 20 minutes, and coaches were given a DVD and laminated card to help them keep track of the exercises.

Over the course of the season, they recorded whenever one of their athletes missed a practice or game due to a leg, ankle or foot injury.

About 1,500 girls were included in the study — half on teams that did the warm-up program, and half on teams that didn’t. In total, there were 96 injuries during the 2006-2007 season in the “control” group that did no extra stretching and strengthening, compared to 50 injuries in girls who did the warm-ups.

Specifically, there was a 35 percent reduction in leg overuse injuries with the warm-up program and a 44 percent lower rate of acute non-contact injuries.

The researchers calculated that three or four coaches would need to be trained in the exercises to prevent one gradual-onset injury and between 11 and 16 coaches to prevent an ACL sprain or any type of injury that required surgery.

Even the cost of training 16 coaches, at about $1,300, would be significantly less than the $17,000 or more needed for ACL surgery, they wrote in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine this week.

Some coaches might not want to use the warm-up program because it takes time out of already limited practices, LaBella and her colleagues said. Along those lines, coaches that were instructed to do warm-ups as usual, without learning the exercises, generally didn’t do them at all or had athletes do warm-ups themselves, they found.

“Coaches oftentimes are hesitant to take practice time away from skill development,” LaBella told Reuters Health. “They may only get the gym for an hour.”

But, she continued, “We really feel like it should be a routine part of sports training for teenage girls. It’s worth the investment.”

Hewett said that the warm-up exercises, when done correctly, can improve jumping height and power — not just prevent injuries. That’s one way to sell them to coaches, he said.

“You can make a huge difference in the athleticism of these girls,” Hewett said. “There’s many ways we can show these kids that they’re faster, quicker, more balanced athletes.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/v3L9r4 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, online November 7, 2011.