Holiday Health Wonkery – Just a spoonful of latkes makes the medicine go down? Hank Stern hosts a Chanukah-themed Festival of Lights edition of Health Wonk Review at InsureBlog – it’s fun, interesting, and contains substantial wonkery.
Claims Webinar – Mark Walls, who many of you may know from his LinkedIn Work Comp Analysis Group fame, is hosting a complimentary 90-minute webinar on Tuesday, December 11: Take your Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling from Good to Great. Mark’s been plying his profession for 22 years, so you can’t get a better claims guide. Click through to see topics or to register.
Firefighter hazards – Stop, drop, and roll: workplace hazards of local government firefighters, 2009 (PDF) – “When compared with all workers, firefighters are injured in similar ways but at a much higher rate, with work-related injuries caused by “stress, exertion, and other medical-related issues” accounting for the largest number of deaths and with risks of fatal injuries 25.7 percent higher and nonfatal injuries and illnesses over two times greater.” – BLS report by Gary M. Kurlick, economist in the Office of Compensation and Working Conditions, Division of Safety and Health Statistics, at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Chimp attack – Roberto Ceniceros of Business Insurance brings us the most recent development in the sad saga of the CT woman who was attacked by her employer’s pet chimp: Woman disfigured in chimp attack settles with owner’s estate for $4M. We’ve written about aspects of this horrific case in the past – see: the crazed chimp case, Exclusive Remedy” for Losing Your Face?, and (Uncompensable) Nightmare at Work.
Depression and Work Comp – Does your organization offer depression screening for injured workers? Risk Scenarios: Down for the Last Time offers case in which missed cues and poorly handled communication made a difficult workers’ compensation case much more painful than it should have been.
Mind over Matter – Osteoarthritisis is “the most common joint disorder” and occurs “due to aging and wear and tear on a joint.” Will arthroscopic surgery relieve related pain? Read about prior studies in Kneedless Surgery. For more debunking, see Gary Schwitzer’s HealthNewsReview, which has a mission of “helping consumers critically analyze claims about health care interventions and by promoting the principles of shared decision-making reinforced by accurate, balanced and complete information about the tradeoffs involved in health care decisions.” The site offers commentary, evaluations, and grading on health care journalism, advertising, marketing, public relations and other messages – a great consumer resource.
Fraud – Two pretty large cases of fraud hit our radar this week, proving that work comp fraud perpetrators can come in many flavors, even among those you pay to trust. On WorkCompWire, we learned about $2.7 million Florida fraud case involving a former correctional officer and at Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda blogs that Pennsylvania County was defrauded by its risk manager to the tune of $490,000.
Telecommuting – In a recent Human Resource Executive, Carol Harnett makes the case that Telework is Good for Business, and she uses the experiences that many businesses had with Hurricane Sandy as examples. At LexisNexis, attorney John Stahl looks at work comp issues related to the mobile workforce and home-based employees.
Workplace Violence – The current issue of Risk Management Magazine has a Time Line of Workplace Homicides and at Risk Management Monitor, Ralph Metzner posts about preventing workplace violence.
News Briefs
- Social Media Screening: Here’s How to Use it in Your Hiring Decisions
- Managing the Managers Who Manage Managed Care
- The Aging Workforce and the Importance of Ergonomics
- CBO Investigates Prescription Drug Use Link to Medicare Spending
- NIOSH: Decompression Sickness and Tunnel Workers
- Employees with Autism
- Seven Secrets Every Whistleblower Needs to Know
- Construction Injuries and Fatalities Cost California’s Economy $2.9 Billion Between 2008 and 2010
- OSHA Publishes Guidance Document for Inspection of Roadway Construction