Archive for August, 2006

Cell Phones Revisited: Siren Calls on the Road to Oblivion

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006

It seems that the Insider revisits the cell phone while driving issue once every year. (Just type “cell phones” on the search engine to the right.) This year is no different, except that red flags for employers are beginning to accumulate. Cell phone use by employees is something every employer needs to begin thinking about.
We are deep into the era of multi-tasking. We are all trying to do too many things at once. Actually, multi-tasking is probably a misnomer, because the brain can truly only do one thing at a time. Perhaps we should call it “sequential tasking” – where we shift rapidly from one point of attention to another. Sure, we’re driving down the road. But when we pick up the cell phone to answer a call, or try to dial while hurtling down the highway, we momentarily take our focus away from the road to the phone itself.
Research is beginning to accumulate on the high risk of accidents for drivers using cell phones. The University of Utah has published several studies, the most recent of which finds cell phones as potentially dangerous as alcohol:
“We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit” of 0.08 percent, which is the minimum level that defines illegal drunken driving in most U.S. states, says study co-author Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving.”
Well, many states are considering laws on cell phone and driving, but only a handful have taken action. If you scan the globe, you will find European countries taking a much more aggressive stance against cell phone use while driving. Here, a few states require head sets and four (Colorado, Delaware, Maryland and Tennessee) prohibit young drivers from using cell phones. But for the most part, in the land of the free, drivers are still free to chatter away, endangering themselves and their fellow drivers as they barrel on down the road.
You Condone it, You Own it!
If drivers have been given a free pass, their employers have not. Court cases are beginning to accumulate, where employers are held responsible for the negligence of employees who cause accidents while talking on cell phones. Under the theory of “vicarious responsibility,” employers are held accountable for the havoc created by the inattention of chattering employee-drivers. (A very good history of the problem developed by the Insurance Information Institute can be found here.)
As luck would have it, one of the most prominent cases involves a lawyer. Attorney Jane Wagner was driving down the road, making work-related calls. (As far as I know, she wasn’t trying to take notes at the same time.) In any event, her car struck something – a deer, she thought, so she kept on going. It turns out she hit a 15 year old girl, who subsequently died. Wagner was convicted of leaving the scene of an accident. She lost her law license. Her employer, charged with complicity through the “vicarious responsibility” theory, reached a settlement prior to trial and paid a substantial sum. (You can find a summary of the case here, at the Fisher & Phillips LLC site.)
Policies versus Practices
This is not a comfortable situation for employers. While it’s easy enough to issue a policy prohibiting cell phone use while driving, it’s really hard to make it stick. You can “require” employees to pull off to the side of the road before using a cell phone. But how would you enforce it? Would you discipline an employee who violated the policy? Can you really expect people to ignore in-coming calls, simply because they’re in a moving vehicle? How many of us can ignore the siren call of the cell?
This may well be another situation where technology has outstripped our capacity to function. Back in 1990 there were 4.3 million cell phone users – and the units functioned poorly in moving vehicles. Now we have 212 million cell phone users, all of whom are connected to work, family and friends 24/7. Like it or not, we have bought into the notion that we must be accessible all the time, even when we’re deep into the risk-laden activity of driving. We’re putting ourselves and other drivers at risk. And now, it appears, our employers are on the hook as well.

Cavalcade of Risk, Issue 5

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006

We are pleased and honored to serve as host for Cavalcade of Risk #5. We could opine at length on the nature of risk – and we often do – but with 20 post submissions ready and rearing to go, we will commence with this week’s roster without further ado. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t first offer a special thanks to HG Stern at InsureBlog, not only for being the visionary who launched this risk carnival, but also for his gracious and generous assistance in helping us to compile this issue.
The importance of trust – citing a Wharton Business School experiment on the effects of a breakdown in trust, Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters discusses deception, trust and the healthcare industry, suggesting that complex policy restrictions and limitations may indeed save a buck now, but are likely to further erode trust and backfire over the long term.
Debt collection – Michael Herrin, aka Debt Collection Lawyer, offers sound advice on important steps you should take to ensure collection before the matter even becomes a debt. He also gives us a behind-the-scenes view of collection in his post about a collection attorney’s tools of the trade.
Electronic medical records – Michael Cannon of Cato at Liberty suggests that if we want electronic medical records, we first need to fix the incentives, and opines that ” … when House Republicans plan to vote this week on legislation that would spend your tax dollars to encourage the creation of electronic medical records, it seems like a classic case of one fouled-up government intervention begetting another.”
Corporate security – Wenchypoo discusses the rise of low-tech spying and the shocking ease of breaching corporate security in her eponymous blog, Frugal Wisdom From Wenchypoo’s Warehouse.
Immigrant workers – Peter Rousmaniere at Working Immigrants discusses the immense challenge of verifying employer compliance with immigration laws in a two-part post. Part two.
Personal finance – Kristin McAllister at Making Cents discusses important planning considerations in her post to buy (a home), or not to buy, that is the dilemma.
Emergency care – in a post on emergency care, Bob Vineyard of InsureBlog raises the issue of whether there is a lack of incentives for taking personal responsibility.
Economic systems – Brandon Peele at GT discusses the concept of Namaste Economics, suggesting that it is an evolution of the current Quid Pro Quo Economics.
Appraisals – Joe Klein of Roth CPA uses the recent decision by a tax court in the matter involving The Kohler Company to demonstrate why the choice of the right appraiser can really make a difference when it’s time to pay the IRS.
Hospitals and medications – David Williams of Health Business Blog has a piece of advice: Going to the hospital? BYOMD. He discusses why leaving medication choices to the hospital can be dangerous to your health.
Health incentives – We already knew (or suspected) that lifetsyle choices can help us increase or reduce the risk of disease, or even death. Marcus Newbury of Fixin’ Healthcare reports that a recent Wall Street Journal report demonstrates a financial benefit, as well.
Another take on incentives – Justin at Health Flux offers another take on the WSJ poll about lifestyle choices. He thinks that punishing folks who make unhealthy choices may not be such a good idea after all.
Pandemic Prep – with all the news centered on the Middle east, it’s easy to forget about other risks. Bob Sargent of Specialty Insurance Blog reminds us that there’s a potential bird-flu epidemic looming, and offers some helpful links.
Investing – blogger “frugal” at My First Million at 33 shares some some must-do money saving tips for potential investors, written from an amateur’s perspective. He covers everything from risk tolerance to how often one should review a portfolio.
Credit card fraud – You know all those little stops you make to get gas or a gallon of milk? Jeffrey Srain of Personal Finance Advice shows us that when and how often we make those little convenience stops can trigger bells and whistles at the credit card fraud center.
The politics of gambling – Jason Ruspini of Risk Markets and Politics explains how gambling could be the basis for “predictive markets.”
More lessons we can learn from gambling – Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution explains what roulette wheels and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests have in common.
Budgeting tips – Prince of Thrift at Becoming and Staying Debt Free offers a refreshing formula for a personal budget in his post Understanding the Great Misunderstanding
Risky fun – here at our own Workers Comp Insider, Jon Coppelman offers the definitive word on goofing off when it comes to horseplay and humor on the job in analyzing a recent workers comp decision from the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Calling all medical bloggers: we want you
Envision Solutions and The Medical Blog Network (TMBN) have launched the first comprehensive survey of the global healthcare blogging community, a systematic attempt to gather comprehensive opinion and demographic data. from the global community of healthcare bloggers. Learn more about and participate at Taking the Pulse of the Healthcare Blogosphere survey.

Immigration Policy: Cracking Down or Cracking Up?

Tuesday, August 1st, 2006

Our colleague Peter Rousmaniere continues to track the rocky road to a new immigration policy in his invaluable working immigrants blog. He brings our attention to the new federal emphasis on enforcement. The administration is cracking down on employers of illegal immigrants, not just slapping wrists as in the past, but slapping on handcuffs as well.
Julia Preston writes in the New York Times (registration required) that immigration agents went after the Garcia Labor Company, a temporary worker contractor that provides low-wage laborers to businesses from Pennsylvania to Texas. The feds brought a 40-count indictment, part of a new strategy by immigration officials to clamp down on employers of illegal immigrant laborers.
Maximino Garcia, the president of the company, was charged with aiding illegal immigrants and money laundering. If convicted, Mr. Garcia, who pleaded not guilty, could serve 20 years in jail and forfeit his headquarters building and $12 million.
Fear and Loathing Among Immigrants
The new policy is beginning to create an environment of fear in Ohio’s immigrant communities.
“It’s a very uneasy feeling,” said Sister Teresa Ann Wolf, a Roman Catholic nun who works with immigrant workers in Canton, Ohio. “People are afraid to leave the house to go to the store. They are afraid to come to church.”
While the old immigration agency brought just 25 criminal charges against employers in 2002, this year Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already made 445 criminal arrests of employers. Some 2,700 immigrant workers were caught up in those operations, and most were deported.
Hiring illegal immigrants “has been a low-risk, high-reward enterprise,” said Brian M. Moskowitz, the agency’s special agent in charge for Ohio and Michigan. “We want to send the message that your cost of business just went up because you risk your livelihood, your corporate reputation and your personal freedom.” They may well send a message, but are they really proposing a crack down that will encompasses literally millions of people?
The President’s Strategy
President Bush is pushing for enforcement in order to pre-empt his party’s right wing. He probably still has hopes of developing a more balanced approach, combining a new registration and certification process for illegal immigrants with more robust enforcement. At the moment, however, the policy is dramatically out of balance, emphasizing pure enforcement without offering immigrants any new paths to legitimacy. As a result, more and more immigrant labor will be driven underground. This strategy puts undocumented workers at high risk. Safety standards, already compromised among this population, will erode even further. Wages and benefits will drop and exploitation will increase.
It is neither feasible nor desirable to totally eliminate undocumented workers. Throwing out a few thousand people and locking up a few employers are not going to solve any problems. The big crack down is the symptom of failure: we need these marginalized workers and we need to figure out how to legitimize their role in our economy. For the moment at least, we lack both the will and the compassion to develop a lasting solution.