Do MDs make good business people? Should more hospital CEOs be physicians? Should there be licensing requirements for hospital executives? Read about these and other health policy questions in this week’s edition of Health Wonk Review. Bob Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review is this week’s host. While over at Bob’s blog, check out his recent post on the likelihood of meaningful heath care reform in the next year or two.
Teen worker safety – How safe is your summer job? That’s a question Bill Whittemore is putting to teens and the parents of teen workers as he tries to increase awareness about the importance of on-the-job safety for teens. Whittemore learned this lesson the hard way. Last year, his 17-year-old son James Whittemore was working at his family’s construction company when he was electrocuted and died in his Dad’s arms. Also see: Lost Youth: the stories of four teens injured at work
Politics trumping safety in NV? – The Los Angeles Times covers the matter of the many Las Vegas’ construction deaths, questioning why the state has dropped or sharply reduced penalties that had been proposed by investigators.
Windfall for Ohio’s BWC – Good news as a follow-up to Coingate. Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Comp will recoup more than $50 million. The money comes from the sale of coins and collectibles in the liquidation of assets of an investment fund managed by coin dealer Thomas Noe. Noe is currently imprisoned for 18 years for theft and other crimes, a scandal that had enormous ramifications on the BWC as well as on the state’s political infrastructure. (For more on this scandal, see the Toledo Blade’s archive or see Wikipedia’s recap).
Motivational waterboarding suit – for the bizarre case of the week, see recent developments in the case of the Utah employee who was waterboarded by his boss as part of a motivational training exercise. My colleague Jon discussed this case in his May post on Waterboarding for sales.
