Denver Worker's Compensation Info

Friday, January 10, 2014

Home | News | Minnesota Schools Bring Shoes For Crews Onsite For Employees Minnesota Schools Bring Shoes For Crews Onsite For Employees

Cottage Grove, MN (WorkersCompensation.com) - Elementary school kitchen employee Kathy Drobac knows the value of a slip-resistant shoe, having experienced a few close calls at previous food service jobs.

"There's always stuff on the floor around the dishwasher," Drobac said. 'The shoes really do make a difference.'

Drobac was one of the South Washington County Schools kitchen employees who stopped by the district's main office in Cottage Grove, Minn., last fall to be fitted for new slip-resistant shoes from Shoes for Crews.

The school district is one of a number that held Shoes For Crews fittings for employees in 2013. Because slips, trips and falls are a major cause of workplace injuries, many school districts encourage or require their kitchen and custodial employees to wear slip-resistant shoes for work.

The Eastern Carver County Schools, which has its district office in Chaska, Minn., had a Shoes For Crews fitting last spring to launch a safety program that included beefed up footwear requirements, said Nutrition Assistant Spencer Fischer.

Several kitchen employees had fallen on the job over the past few years, and so the district started the program to significantly reduce the risk of similar accidents in the future.

"How I explain it is the shoes are just kind of a tool for you, because you wouldn't take a hot pan out of the oven without gloves," Fischer said. "As the crew sort of recognized this was actually for their safety, they started to accept it a little more easily."

The value of slip-resistant shoes

A good pair of slip-resistant shoes will significantly reduce the potential to slip on water, oil or soap. And because they are comfortable, available in many styles and generally no more expensive than non-slip-resistant shoes, there's really no reason not to use them.

SFM Risk Consultant Gary Kaurala strongly recommends slip-resistant shoes in kitchen and custodial environments because the sole of the shoe is one of the few elements that can be controlled to prevent slips and falls. These workers are often moving fast, he said, and wet floors are inevitable in a food service environment.

A side-benefit of requiring slip-resistant shoes is the potential to reduce the number of floor mats commonly used in kitchens, resulting in reduced costs and reduced risks related to handling the mats.

"A fall can cause anything from a broken arm or shoulder to a head injury," Kaurala said. "And even a slip that doesn't cause a fall can result in a very serious back strain. That makes a simple preventative measure like slip-resistant shoes well worth the small investment."

Original Source

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Any content of this blog is intended for informational purposes only.It is not intended to solicit business, provide legal advice from The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. and does not serve as a medium for an attorney-client relationship. Therefore, The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. is not responsible for the information on this blog which may not apply to every reader. Always seek professional counsel if you have any legal matters. Contents within the blog of The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C., logos and other related media are protected by the copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions.

Monday, January 6, 2014

MYTH #5: Because FECA Is So Different From State Workers’ Compensation Systems, Private Sector Case Management Best Practices Won’t Work

There are many differences between the federal and most state workers’ compensation systems.

The federal system features include:

Federal agency inability to choose a third party administrator. (All federal workers’ compensation claims are managed by the Department of Labor.)
There are no settlements – injured federal workers currently have the right to be paid workers’ compensation for life if unable to return to work. (There is legislation pending that would impact this.)
45 days of continuation of regular pay by the employing agency early in traumatic injury claims. (There is legislation pending that would impose a 3-day waiting period for this continuation of pay)
No system for routine utilization review. (There are certain requirements currently for Prior-Authorization but not for Second Opinions or IME’s; there is pending legislation that would require regular independent medical evaluations.)
Free choice of treating provider
Limited clinical resources available to the Department of Labor Claims Examiners, who make all adjudication and ongoing benefits decisions.

These differences are frequently cited as reasons that private sector case management best practices won’t work in a federal environment; however, evidence suggests otherwise. Several federal agencies have experienced significant improvement in the performance of their workers’ compensation program when they adopted industry best practices such as:

Agency directed telephonic case management
Early intervention
Focused legacy case management programs
Ancillary networks including but not limited to pharmacy benefits management, physical therapy, durable medical equipment and diagnostic radiology
Stay-at-Work and Return-to-Work initiatives
Internal data and trend analysis including but not limited to chargeback audits and the new federal agency performance metrics, POWER (Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Re-employment). http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dfec/power/

Agencies that have adopted these and other best practices and aggressively monitor and manage ALL open cases have lower costs and disability case rates than agencies that take a more passive approach, relying on Department of Labor and monitoring cases for return to work issues.

Original Source

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Friday, January 3, 2014

My 2014 New Year's Revolutions for Workers' Comp

Welcome to the revolution....

By Robert Wilson

Resolutions are for pansies. Every New Year people seem to make their annual resolutions designed to improve their personal health and well being. Most of us are lucky to get just a few days out of them before their battered and broken remnants are hauled away in the first week of the New Year's trash.

Since these weak and ineffective New Year's resolutions are designed to improve oneself, and I need no such improvement (my wife's personal observations and assessments notwithstanding), I have decided this year not to make any. No, this year I am subscribing to the theory of "go big or go home", and have instead declared my "New Year's Revolutions" for the entire industry. These are the ideas and issues we need to tackle this year.

Of course, actually accomplishing these will take all of us, working in concert as a well oiled machine. It will be a team effort, and every man and woman needs to do their part. Everyone but me, that is. I had to think of these things after all. My job is done.

Fix Our Opioid Abuse Problem - Admittedly this is a big one to start off with, but frankly I am sick of talking about prescription drug abuse in this country. Believe me; we would be much better off just fixing the issue versus wringing our hands and endlessly researching the problem. Doctors, stop prescribing drugs for conditions they were never designed to handle. Claims people, find doctors who can actually help manage pain, as opposed to slathering multiple drugs on top of it and hoping it will go away.

Earlier this year, I attended a conference session that included a Director of Risk for a very large, extremely well known self insured company. That director was discussing their efforts to monitor and control the use of prescription drugs for their injured workers. In what I consider to be the 2013 "Quote of the Year", she said "[Company Name] is not interested in letting doctors kill its employees". I wanted to write about that more extensively, but we were not given approval to go on the record with the company name - primarily because we live in a namby pamby wussy world where we are afraid of offending doctors who kill our employees.

Regarding Doctors, Pay for Performance - Outcomes rule, low fees drool. Paying a bit more for those doctors who consistently get results will save money over the long haul. One carrier this past year conducted a study that showed over 80% of their medical costs were being driven by 7% of the doctors in their network. That is what can happen when you select doctors on the basis of their cost rather than the strength of their ability. Let’s face it; some doctors view the patient as a profit center, and inadequate or unnecessary care is an essential ingredient to making a financial statement healthy, if nothing (and no one) else. Factoring in that some of those doctors may be specialists who inherited truly catastrophic cases, it sounds to me like there is still room to trim that network by 5 or 6%.

Empower Claims Professionals - The front line of customer service at the most critical point of the business relationship, claims handling is in need of an overhaul this year. Improve training, reduce caseloads, provide them with proper tools (in the interest of full disclosure, we sell those tools), and watch outcomes improve while your claims costs drop. A Claims VP of a multi-state western carrier told me this year they had embarked on such a plan, reducing their adjuster caseload to 75. Their litigation costs in California alone dropped 60%. That is phenomenal, considering litigation costs in California never ever drop. They simply increase with every legislative improvement.
Change the Industry Name - Workers' Compensation should be called Workers' Recovery. Words mean things, and these words put the emphasis squarely where it needs to be, and enables all players to clearly understand the end game.

There you have it. Four simple New Years Revolutions. That’s not so bad, considering the benefits that all involved could gain.

My work here is done. Yours is just beginning. Now get cracking, we only have a year.

Original Source

Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year from the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Caga Tio – Catalonia’s Wacky Present-Pooping Christmas Log

Caga Tio is a Christmas tradition in the Catalonian region of Spain. Caga is pronounced caca, and it means ‘poop’. Tio means ‘tree trunk’ or ‘uncle’. So it is basically a tradition of the pooping tree trunk. What does the trunk poop? Why gifts, of course!

The Caga Tio is a small log of wood with a painted face and two front legs. It makes an appearance in homes every year on the 8^th of December, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Children keep the log as a pet until Christmas, feeding it and keeping it warm. They believe the log will grow if they feed it properly.

There is no such thing as a growing log, of course. The parents actually replace the logs every few days with larger ones. It’s easy for families who live in the country; they just go outside, find a piece of wood and paint a face on it. Urban parents have a tougher time. They have to trek into the woods to find larger Caga Tios. But mostly they just buy new ones from shops. The Caga Tio is done growing by Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The full grown log is placed in the center of the living room and covered with a large red blanket. Children gather around, sing songs and hit the Caga Tio with sticks repeatedly, until it ‘poops’ out the presents. Earlier, the tradition was to place the log partially in fire, ordering it to defecate. There aren’t many modern households with fireplaces anymore, so now it’s just down to hitting the log.

Read the Full Article Here

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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Monday, December 23, 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Monday, December 16, 2013

MYTH #4: Technology Will Cure All of Our Ills

There are many exciting technological changes on the horizon, and much discussion about how fast and efficient our world will be. Indeed, the possibilities are tremendous, but only if that technology is integrated and used intelligently.

Technology, like any tool, must be used with skill and purpose. Give a running chainsaw to a monkey, and the results will not be pretty. All you’ll gain is utter devastation and a highly agitated monkey. The same rules apply for the implementation of new technology based systems. Too many companies use process based decisions to conduct technology selection, when they should be focusing on end result goals. New gizmos should not be used just because they are new – they should be used because they help an organization meet a need, and drive the company to successful goal attainment.

Technology selection should start with two basic questions:

1) What are we trying to accomplish?
This, of course, contains a broad set of queries. What are the pain points? Where are our production bottlenecks? What do we need to stay competitive? What costs need reducing? A successful company will involve their “front line” employees in this discussion, and eliminate any disconnects between reality and upper management’s perception of reality.

2) What do we need to solve the issues we just identified?
It is a simple idea. Identify the needs, and work with those actually tasked with doing the job to determine what will meet them. It is from this point that a company can begin to define specifically what solutions it should be looking for.

A final warning: Technology will likely take your company mobile in the coming years. Having a plan to separate and protect your employee’s personal lives will not only make you an employer of choice, it will keep many agitated monkeys off your back.

Original Source

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit

LIKE most construction workers who come to see Patricia Zavala, the two dozen men who crowded into her office in Austin, Tex., one afternoon in March had a complaint.

Reworking Labor

Articles in this series examine the changing face of labor as the nation's unions and collective bargaining rights decline.

Previous Article in This Series »

Case by Case in Texas (August 11, 2013)

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Erich Schlegel for The New York Times

Luis Rodriguez sought help from the project after he lost part of his finger on a construction job.

The workers, most of them Honduran immigrants, had jobs applying stucco to the exterior of a 17-story luxury student residence. It was difficult, dangerous work, but that was to be expected. What upset them was that for the previous two weeks their crew leader had not paid them; each was owed about $1,000.

Ms. Zavala, the workplace justice coordinator at the Workers Defense Project, listened to their stories and then spent a month failing to persuade the contractors to pay the back wages. So Ms. Zavala, 27, a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the daughter of a Peruvian immigrant, turned to what she calls the nuclear option: the workers filed a lien on the building site. That legal maneuver snarls any effort to make transactions on the property and sometimes causes banks and investors to freeze financing.

The lien, along with a threatened protest march, quickly got the attention of the dormitory’s developer, American Campus Communities, and the general contractor, Harvey-Cleary Builders. Within hours, Harvey-Cleary arranged a meeting between the stucco contractor and the unpaid workers, and, presto, Harvey-Cleary and the contractor, Pillar Construction, agreed to pay the $24,767 owed to the workers.

“Liens are the very best tool workers have,” said Cristina Tzintzún, executive director of the Workers Defense Project. Instead of dealing with subcontractors, she said, “you’re negotiating with the project owner and general contractor. They can no longer shift responsibility and say: ‘I paid the guy downriver. It’s out of my hands.’ ”

The Workers Defense Project, founded in 2002, has emerged as one of the nation’s most creative organizations for immigrant workers. Its focus is the Texas construction industry, which employs more than 600,000 workers, about half of whom, several studies suggest, are unauthorized immigrants.

Immigrant workers, especially those who are undocumented, are especially vulnerable to abuse by contractors. Each year, the Workers Defense Project, which has 2,000 dues-paying members, receives about 500 complaints from workers who say they were cheated out of overtime or denied a water break in Texas’ scorching summer heat or stuck with huge hospital bills for an on-the-job injury.

The Workers Defense Project is one of 225 worker centers nationwide aiding many of the country’s 22 million immigrant workers. The centers have sprouted up largely because labor unions have not organized in many fields where immigrants have gravitated, like restaurants, landscaping and driving taxis. And there is another reason: many immigrants feel that unions are hostile to them. Some union members say that immigrants, who are often willing to work for lower wages, are stealing their jobs.

“The Workers Defense Project is not like a union — it welcomes everyone,” said Luis Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant who sought the group’s help after he lost a finger in a construction accident. “It is always willing to take in more people and help more people.”

At a recent Workers Defense Project meeting — they are held every Tuesday night — the atmosphere was part pep rally, part educational session, part social hour. After a dinner of tacos, rice and beans, about 60 workers plotted strategy for a demonstration against the developer of a 1,000-room Marriott hotel. A skit mocking the developer drew raucous laughter. The energy and sense of solidarity were reminiscent of what America’s labor unions had many decades ago, before they started to stumble and stagnate.

Worker centers, which are among the most vigorous champions of overhauling immigration laws, coalesce around issues or industries. For example, there is Domestic Workers United, which persuaded New York and Hawaii to enact a bill of rights for housekeepers and nannies, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which has gotten most Florida tomato growers to adopt a workers’ code of conduct and to increase pay by at least 20 percent. Young Workers United played an important role in persuading the San Francisco City Council to enact a paid-sick-days law and a minimum wage of $10.55 an hour. With labor unions losing members and influence, these centers are increasingly seen as an important alternative form of workplace advocacy, although no one expects them to be nearly as effective as unions in winning raises, pensions or paid vacations.

“Worker centers are filling a void by reaching out to a work force that is particularly hard to reach out to,” said Victor Narro, a specialist on immigrant workers at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Read the full story here

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Monday, December 9, 2013

Social Security Update

Based on recent information received from the Social Security Administration, claims
in Denver, from the time of application to the time of hearing, takes approximately 19.3 months. This assumes that there has been a denial of Social Security benefits along the way. Sometimes claims are approved but this is less frequent than denial.

Source: NOSSCR, Social Security Forum, National Ranking Report. Volume 35, No. 10, October
2013.

Contact Neil O'Toole and John Sbarbaro

at the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Phone: 303-595-4777

Located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Friday, January 10, 2014

The value of slip-resistant shoes

Monday, January 6, 2014

Friday, January 3, 2014

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Monday, December 23, 2013

Monday, December 16, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Reworking Labor

Related

Case by Case in Texas (August 11, 2013)

Erich Schlegel for The New York Times

Monday, December 9, 2013