After a Thanksgiving hiatus, Health Wonk Review is back with your biweekly view of what the healthcare policy wonk’s have been blogging about. Brad Wright hosts Health Wonk Review: Holiday Shopping Guide at Wright on Health.
Workers Comp Networks – At Managed Care Matters, Joe Paduda has been front and center covering the matter of Aetna’s exit from workers comp and his post today, Aetna part 2. Also related, his post about Where work comp networks are headed.
UBB Report followup – In followup to yesterday’s post, here is a link to the MSHA Upper Big Branch Investigation Report – it’s a detailed account, including transcripts of interviews.
Bloodborne Pathogens – According to the CDC, about 385,000 sharps-related injuries occur annually among health care workers in hospitals, and the average risk of bloodborne infection following one of these injuries is approximately 1.8%. The NIOSH Science Blog posts about needlestick punctures and bloodborne pathogens, highlighting the film Puncture which is about the personal injury case of Vinessa Shaw, a nurse who contracts AIDS after an accidental stick. The post calls attention to the NIOSH injury prevention initiative, The Stop Sticks Campaign. which is aimed at clinical and nonclinical health care workers and health care administrators in hospitals, doctor’s offices, nursing homes, and home health care agencies.
Pole Dancing: – A Georgia Court recently ruled that Pole Dancers are not independent contractors. “The Judge found the club exercised control over the dancers because the amounts charged by the dancers for certain types of dances were set by the club. The club also established what amounts had to be paid by the dancers to the DJ and to other employees of the club each day at the conclusion of their shift. The club could also fine or fire the dancer for not coming to work or being late. The Judge also noted that every other FLSA case brought by exotic dancers from Alaska to Florida had concluded they were ’employees’, and not ‘independent contractors’.” Note: This is not the first pole dancing issue we’ve covered. My colleague posted about another claim with a pole dancing angle last May. This should lead to some interesting search results in our logs – not to mention some disappointed searchers.
Brain Trauma – the New York Times has a 3-part series on 28-year old professional hockey player Derek Boogard’s death due to repeated head trauma, chronic pain and a deadly drug addiction. Read part 1 A Boy learns to Brawl, Part 2 Blood on the Ice and Part 3 A Brain ‘Going Bad’. There is also a related video: An Enforcer’s Story. For a good resource on preventing, treating and living with traumatic brain injury, we point you to Brainline.org.
Related – In doing our rounds, we note that Dave DePaolo has an excellent post on Professional Sports and the Relevancy of Comp.
In the I-guess-it-doesn’t-go-without-saying department – Slightly off track here, but Bob Wilson has a rather unusual warning that we are passing along as a public service: Beware the Door to Door Breast Examiner.
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