Good news for workplace safety advocates. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times, OSHA has been ordered to release company names and the worker injury and illness rates of the American workplaces with the worst safety records. This will allow reporters and the general public to identify the riskiest employers and will also provide the data to evaluate OSHA’s efficacy. Read more on this story at Confined Space.
In a recent report, The Center for Studying Health System Change finds that the proportion of Americans under age 65 covered by employer-sponsored insurance fell dramatically from 67 percent to 63 percent between 2001 and 2003. According to Ross at The Bloviator, this change affects 9 million people, many in the 18-39 age range.
Thanks to Tom at Inter Alia, we learn that The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Information has launched a new version of Quality Check, a tool to compare the quality of medical care at more than 16,000 facilities nationwide. Tom points out that you can compare up to 6 organizations at the same time.
According to a recent survey of 450 large employers conducted by Hewitt Associates, most employers don’t track the costs of employee absence. The study notes that almost one-third of the company’s polled had implemented absence management programs.