Fresh HWR – Health Wonk Review, Kabuki Theater Edition is freshly posted by Brad Wright at Wright on Health. In this edition of the biweekly best of the health policy blogoshphere, Brad rounds up recaps and rounds up reactions to last week’s Health Care Summit. A good edition, plus, some nice Japanese art prints!
Happening right now – On Thursday March 4 – that’s today – from 9 am to 6 pm, join OSHA’s live webcast, a first-ever live streamed public meeting. Over 200 people have registered to attend and more than 45 presentations will be made on to the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, Dr. David Michaels. If you can’t make the event, keep up with OSHA happenings on its newly launched Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/OSHA
Google & pharma – At Health Business Blog, David Williams posts about the Google crackdown on ads for online pharmacies – only VIPPS-certified pharmacies (as selected by the National Association of Pharmacy Boards) will be allowed to post adwords. This will eliminate “rogue” pharmacies, which sounds reasonable. But it also eliminates Canadian pharmacies and some smaller outfits. Consumer protection or kowtowing to the big pharma interests? Read more about the controversy.
P&C industry: don’t lump us in financial reform – have you heard about the Property & Casualty Leaders Coalition? You may yet. This is a new coalation eleven CEOs from the nation’s largest property casualty insurance companies – among them State Farm Insurance, Allstate Corp., Travelers Companies Inc., Chubb Corp., ACE Group, Nationwide Insurance, Liberty Mutual, and Zurich Financial Services Group – who have banded together to urge Congress to leave them out of the financial services overhaul legislation. “There is no public policy justification for taking funds from companies in our industry, especially on a pre-event basis, to bail out other financial institutions deemed to be overexposed to failing ‘systemic’ companies.”
How much risk is too much? – In Jobs to Die For, Yvonne Guilbert looks at people who risk their lives to work in jobs they love. One of the cases profiled is that of animal trainer Dawn Brancheau. Claims Journal features this related item: SeaWorld Death Raises Questions About Animal Entertainment Safety. And on the topic of high-risk endeavors with passionate participants, some are wondering if this year’s winter Olympics went to extremes.
Director’s cut – Here’s a topic you won’t see much about in the upcoming Oscar awards: Hollywood and risk. Fireman’s Fund dishes up its annual list of the riskiest films it insures.
Other noteworthy briefs
At Comp Time, Roberto Ceniceros ponders Schwarzenegger’s legacy and what comes next for California’s workers comp.
Check out The Great Captive Shuffle, by Dave Lenckus of Risk and Insurance: Fresh blood courses through the captive regulatory veins in Vermont, Delaware, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii and Nevada, as new faces prepare to alter the captive landscape.”
Joe Paduda always has the lowdown on the medical side of workers comp and this week, he has Texas covered in a recent pair of posts at Managed Care Matters: Texas’ efforts to add science to the art of work comp medicine and Texas’ efforts to control WC Rx.
Tags: HWR
