Blog

A Staten Island woman has settled a personal-injury lawsuit with NYC Transit for $300,000, her second agency settlement in five years.

According to court papers, Lydia Batson suffered neck injuries in July 2006 during a collision on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge while riding a Manhattan-bound bus.

Her lawyer said the crash exacerbated injuries suffered in another accident in 2003 involving another city bus.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/staten_island/for_bus_injury_myzg1wPJ0XQeNEtZV0NhCN#ixzz1PTE2NiTf

The Stanley Cup final series that concluded with Game 7 on Wednesday night was not simply a highly charged, vituperative and sometimes violent clash of two excellent hockey teams.

It was also a clash of cultures between cities on opposite coasts of the continent, and it produced surprising results — including a level of passion so high in both Boston and Vancouver that it occasionally seemed threatening.

“Sometimes when you look at it from the inside and you see how fans react and so on, you say, Is that acceptable?” Bruins Coach Claude Julien said Wednesday morning. “But at the same time, that’s what excitement creates.” Julien had been asked only to compare the sports cultures during the finals in both cities. The question did not mention fan misbehavior, but that is where Julien went with his answer.

“As long as it doesn’t cross the line, I certainly think it’s a great thing for both cities,” he said.

There were, in fact, no truly ugly fan incidents in either place heading into the final game. (There were also no guarantees about what might happen in Vancouver, or in Boston.)

But the level of rhetoric in both cities was superheated all series long after the Alexandre Burrows-Patrice Bergeron biting incident in Game 1; the Aaron Rome late hit that gave Nathan Horton a concussion in Game 3; Johnny Boychuk’s can-opener tangle-up, which left Mason Raymond with a fractured vertebra; and other incidents involving taunting, fighting and perceived news conference insults.

“It’s been an ideal situation for you guys to have plenty to write about,” Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said Wednesday. “I’m surprised there have been different questions floating around instead of the same ones, which is nice and refreshing. There have been plenty of story lines, plenty of motivation for everybody to win this thing.”

In Boston, the motivation revolved around Horton, whom the team and fans embraced as a kind of fallen hero whose sacrifice served as a rallying point. Fans wearing Horton’s Bruins sweater were a constant feature on the TD Garden video screen.

Across Canada and the United States, his injury reinforced a notion that the Canucks were a dirty team.

But when the Canucks’ Raymond was injured, Boychuk escaped penalty and suspension, and Vancouver General Manager Mike Gillis complained loudly about it. The team’s fans were incensed. Why did the N.H.L. suspend Rome for giving Horton a concussion, they said, and not suspend Boychuk for causing an injury that was at least as serious?

“I’ll be wearing Raymond’s jersey loud and proud tomorrow,” JulieLarson89 wrote on a CBC Web site.

The level of passion for the Bruins surprised many of the hundreds of Vancouver fans who made the trip to Boston. They learned about how self-contained and even parochial Boston sports culture can be, from tales of Red Sox fans going to cemeteries after World Series victories to spread the word to long-dead relatives, to the identification of hockey players as Beanpot legends or products of Boston College, Boston University, Merrimack, Lowell, New Hampshire and other institutions foreign to the Canadian conversation.

Meanwhile, many notions about Canada were changed during this series, including the idea that all Canadians would unite behind the Vancouver team.

One large contingent of Bruins fans was found in Nova Scotia. Their support was perhaps tied to the strong links between Halifax and Boston forged in 1917, when Boston sent aid after a collision of munitions ships touched off an explosion in Halifax Harbor that killed an estimated 2,000 people. Each year the Nova Scotia government thanks Boston by sending the city a large Christmas tree, which is displayed on Boston Common.

But there were plenty of Boston fans elsewhere in Canada as well. Much of Welland, a small Ontario industrial city between Toronto and Buffalo, was rooting for the Bruins because Horton and Daniel Paille grew up there.

Yet 30 miles away in Grimsby, Ontario, the town seemed to be pulling for Vancouver, because that is where the Canucks’ Bieksa comes from — proving that hockey fandom in Canada can be far more community-based and personal than in the United States.

On the eve of Game 7, it should perhaps not come as a surprise that the players were calm in the face of all the rhetoric and the continent-spanning passions of the divergent fan bases.

“It’s all about enjoying the day,” Canucks center Ryan Kesler said. “Every day, you don’t wake up playing for the Cup, Game 7. You know, it’s awesome.”

Yes, the eloquent Bruins fourth-liner Shawn Thornton was asked, but how do you deal with the pressure?

“Pressure? Pressure is having five kids and no job,” he said, smiling. “This is fun.”

NORMAL — Republican lawmakers told local business leaders Thursday that the spring legislative session in Springfield featured a welcomed smattering of bipartisanship but left unfinished two issues critical to Illinois employers: workers compensation reform and the capital bill.

Lawmakers are likely headed back to Springfield next week to avoid a $30 million shutdown of state construction projects. During a flurry of legislative activity last month, the House refused to go along with $430 million in additional education and social services spending tacked onto the capital bill by Senate Democrats.

State Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, told about 140 people at Thursday’s McLean County Chamber of Commerce State Legislative Update that lawmakers will pass either a six-month version of the capital bill, or agree on a full-year plan that includes an agreement to consider the $430 million down the road.

State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said “failure is not an option.” Officials have said the costly shutdown, which would have to be set in motion next week, would idle 52,000 workers. Illinois Chamber President Doug Whitley has previously called the threat of a shutdown “distressing and unacceptable.”

“We’re gonna get a capital bill implemented and going, because it’s too critically important when it comes to jobs,” said Rep. Brady, speaking along with six other Central Illinois Republican lawmakers at the McLean County Chamber’s event, held at Illinois State University’s Alumni Center. (The Chamber’s political action committee has made campaign contributions to both Bradys in the past.)

Rep. Brady also said he was disappointed in the outcome of efforts to reform the state’s workers comp system — often Exhibit A in descriptions of Illinois as unfriendly to businesses.

The overhaul passed last month would reduce medical fees by 30 percent, saving companies at least $500 million, and allows employers to organize medical networks for handling cases.

But Brady said the final bill, now awaiting the governor’s signature, didn’t address what’s called “primary causation,” which would essentially raise the burden-of-proof threshold for workplace liability. The overhaul added American Medical Association guidelines to state law to help determine impairment, but Brady said the guidelines ended up too “watered down.”

“If you call this ‘reform,’ it’s not reform,” he said. “It’s a step in the right direction, but time will tell.”

State Rep. Jason Barickman, R-Champaign, said an overlooked part of the recent state income tax hike was the return of Illinois’ estate tax, applied to the transfer of assets after death. Estates valued at less than $5 million are excluded from the federal estate tax, but the state’s threshold is only $2 million.

Barickman said that’s unfair to Illinois farmers, especially as farmland values soar.

“It puts a penalty on those who’ve succeeded in their small business and family,” he said.

State Rep. Keith Sommer, R-Morton, said he urged other businesses to follow the lead of Peoria-based Caterpillar, whose CEO earlier this year spoke publicly about his concerns with Illinois’ business climate.

“We need more of that,” Sommer said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reporter Ryan Denham can be reached at twitter.com/ryanpantagraph

Baseball
Derek Jeter went on the 15-day disabled list yesterday because of a strained right calf, an untimely setback as he pursues 3,000 career hits. The Yankees put the All-Star shortstop on the DL for the first time since 2003, making the move before their game against Texas. Jeter limped off the field Monday night, four innings after he got his 2,994th hit. An MRI revealed a Grade 1 sprain, the mildest kind . . . Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche will have season-ending surgery today on a torn labrum in his left shoulder . . . The Orioles said pitching coach Mark Connor has resigned for personal reasons. Bullpen coach Rick Adair took over for Connor. Longtime Orioles player and coach Terry Crowley will serve as the interim bullpen coach . . . The Blue Jays demoted righthander Kyle Drabek to Triple A Las Vegas. Drabek was tagged for three homers and eight earned runs in four innings of Sunday’s 14-1 loss to the Red Sox . . . Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds’s former personal trainer, was barred from coaching his son’s team in the Burlingame Youth Association in northern California after a parent complained about the convicted steroids dealer’s participation.

Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!
ShareThis

Colleges
Pryor sorry, set for supplemental draft Terrelle Pryor ended his silence — for exactly 97 seconds. Speaking out, albeit briefly, for the first time since his college career at Ohio State ended embroiled in scandal, Pryor appeared with agent Drew Rosenhaus and apologized to the Buckeyes, his former teammates, and now-departed coach Jim Tressel for his role. “I say sorry to all the Buckeye nation and all the Buckeye fans across the country,’’ Pryor said. “I never meant to hurt anybody directly or indirectly with my conduct off the field and I am truly sorry.’’ Pryor had already been suspended by Ohio State and the NCAA for the first five games of what would have been his senior season this fall for accepting improper benefits, such as cash and discounted tattoos. Pryor is aiming to be selected in the NFL’s supplemental draft this summer . . . Auburn coach Gene Chizik’s new contract allows him to be paid if there is an NCAA investigation into possible major rules violations, a departure from his previous deal . . . Seattle University accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference in 2012 . . . Stonehill College football player and Brockton native Henry Thevenin died Monday night from complications after a two-month battle with leukemia. Thevenin, a 2009 graduate of Brockton High School, appeared in seven games for the Skyhawks, including the last six in 2010 . . . Virginia Commonwealth assistant coach Mike Jones was named men’s basketball coach at Radford . . . Kelsey Bruder of Florida won the Honda Sports Award as the nation’s top softball player.

Cycling
FBI on to Armstrong-Hamilton meeting The FBI has contacted a Colorado restaurant to get surveillance tapes of a conversation between seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and former teammate Tyler Hamilton over the weekend. Armstrong and Hamilton ran into each other at a restaurant in Aspen Saturday night, a few weeks after Hamilton went on “60 Minutes’’ and accused Armstrong of doping and encouraging his teammates to use performance-enhancing drugs as well. Hamilton’s attorney Chris Manderson said his client was rattled by some of Armstrong’s comments. “It was aggressive and intimidating and we thought it should be reported to federal investigators,’’ Manderson said. Armstrong and one of his lawyers said the conversation was uneventful. Jodi Larner, co-owner of the restaurant called Cache Cache, said the FBI was coming today to take the restaurant’s surveillance tapes. However, the tapes only capture the kitchen area and not the front of the restaurant, where the incident occurred.

Tennis
Serena rusty, but wins at Eastbourne After nearly a year off the WTA Tour, Serena Williams regrouped after a slow start to defeat Tsvetana Pironkova, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of a Wimbledon warm-up in Eastbourne, England. Next up is a repeat of the 2010 Wimbledon final against top-seeded Vera Zvonareva, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over wild card Heather Watson. Ana Ivanovic advanced to a second-round match against Venus Williams with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Julia Goerges of Germany. On the men’s side, top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his first round-match against Denis Istomin, 6-2, 7-5. A foot injury forced former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt to quit his match against Olivier Rochus while trailing, 6-2, 3-0 . . . Kim Clijsters is in doubt for Wimbledon after aggravating an ankle injury during a 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 loss to Italy’s Romina Oprandi at the Unicef Open in Den Bosch, Netherlands.

Miscellany
Connecticut woman sets swim record Elizabeth Fry, 52, of Westport, Conn., broke the record for the fastest swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, N.J., going 17 1/2 miles in 4 hours and 59 minutes, beating the 5:06 set by Australia’s Tammy Van Wisse in 2006. NYC Swim spokesman Dave Herscher said Fry, who suffers from asthma, also became the first swimmer — male or female — to complete the course, finishing the 35-mile round trip at Battery Park City in lower Manhattan last night . . . Angel McCoughtry scored 18 points and the Atlanta Dream used three big runs to cruise to a 79-58 victory over the New York Liberty in the WNBA . . . Katie Douglas had 22 points with seven rebounds to lead the Indiana Fever to an 82-74 victory over the Tulsa Shock . . . Swedish defenseman Carl Gunnarsson re-signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs . . . Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip got in to the NASCAR Hall of Fame on their third try, headlining the third five-member class. They’re joined by eight-time series champion crew chief Dale Inman, nine-time Modified champion Richie Evans, and pioneering driver and owner Glen Wood . . . Three-time US figure skating champion Johnny Weir is sitting out the upcoming season, but still plans to compete at the Sochi Olympics.

June 15, 2011 — A pizza delivery guy who gets punched in the mouth during a robbery. A UPS driver who is hit in the face with falling boxes. A farmer kicked by a horse. An amusement park worker playing Spiderman who couldn’t quite stick to the wall.

What do these people have in common? They all experienced workplace-related dental injuries that were covered by workers’ compensation. But finding a dentist to treat them was a challenge for insurance companies handling such claims.

Dentists have shied away from workers’ comp cases because of low reimbursement rates and the complicated claims process. But now there’s a company that works with insurance companies and guarantees payment to dentists while also streamlining the paperwork. And now thousands of dentists across the U.S. have signed up to treat such cases.

“Insurance companies were saying that it’s hard to find dentists who would accept workers’ comp cases,” Stacey Whidden, CEO of Express Dental Care, explained to DrBicuspid.com. “And dentists complained about low reimbursements and the amount of paperwork. It took a lot of convincing because they had bad experiences with workers’ comp.”
“It was miscommunication between both the dentists and the insurance companies.”
— Stacey Whidden, Express Dental Care

The 10-year-old company handled more than 29,000 dental claims last year using 16,000 dentists in its network. The injuries run the gamut: In addition to pizza delivery people who get punched during robberies and farmers who get kicked in the teeth by a skittish animal, Express Dental Care has seen claims for mechanics hit with wrenches, hockey players hit by pucks, baseball players hit by bats or balls, roofers, construction workers, and migrant workers injured by farm equipment or falling branches.

“We’ve had a lot of UPS and FedEx drivers who fell or had boxes hit them in the face,” Whidden said. “The amusement park cases are always funny.”

Express Dental Care connects insurance companies with the dentists in its network, then helps clinically manage the cases.

“We tell dentists what forms to fill out, and we help with the paperwork,” Whidden explained. Each state has different forms, she noted; some, like Florida, change theirs every year.

The company also removes the doubt about reimbursements, confirming in advance just how much dentists will be paid for their services.

“We let them know what the reimbursement will be so they’re guaranteed payment of the procedures approved,” she noted. “We take the risk that the insurance company will pay.”

Some states have workers’ comp fee schedules, but many don’t, Whidden pointed out.

“Many dentists don’t understand workers’ comp,” she said, “so it was miscommunication between both the dentists and the insurance companies.”

How it works

Express Dental Care schedules an appointment with a dentist who does the evaluation and submits a treatment plan that is analyzed to ensure the work will be covered by the insurance company. The company also advises dentists on dental notes that may be required to document the injury and substantiate the claim.

“Dentists want to treat the whole mouth,” Whidden said. “But if the items aren’t related to work injuries, like if they have cavities that are nowhere near the dental trauma, then the worker has to pay for those himself.”

Participating dentists say the referrals have helped build their practices because the patients often become regular clients. And in the current bad economy, many are finding that it’s a way to fill otherwise empty chairs.

Whidden’s company helps insurance companies understand why the same injury can cost different amounts. “They would get an $800 bill for a chipped tooth, then the next day they’d get a $1,500 bill for the same thing, and they didn’t understand why,” Whidden said.

Sometimes dental work is needed before other injuries can be treated. One worker couldn’t have knee surgery because he had an oral infection that had to be cleared up before he could get anesthesia, Whidden recalled.

Other cases require specialists such as endodontists and maxillofacial surgeons, and the company has to explain and justify their treatments. “We have to go back and forth between specialists and explain that you have to wait for bone grafts to heal before putting in implants,” she pointed out.

The cases also differ due to the worker’s prior dental history. “If a young person slips and chips their tooth, it’s simple because they have good bone structure, and they’re usually in good dental health,” Whidden explained. “But if the injured worker hasn’t been to the dentist in 10 years, they may have perio disease, gingivitis, or poor bone structure so it’s not going to be a simple crown. Sometimes it’s so much more that’s needed.”

When migrant workers get hurt, the paperwork gets complicated because they often move from the state where they were injured to other states while following the harvest.

Prices also vary depending on geographic location: Bills will be more in New York City or San Francisco than Des Moines, IA, for example, Whidden said.

“Injured workers just want to be treated and have their mouth restored,” she said, “and they deserve good care.”