Denver Worker's Compensation Info

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving from The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Happy Thanksgiving from The Law Office O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.
May you enjoy new memories with your family.

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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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Happy Veterans Day from The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Opt-Out Plans - Workers' Comp

Billy Doyle Walker loved working in the sky. He used to say he could see forever, perched high up communications towers as he applied fresh paint.

More On This Investigation

Justin Volz/for ProPublica

This story was reported in partnership between NPR News Investigation's Howard Berkes andMichael Grabell of ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization. View more of this investigation on ProPublica's website:

Inside Corporate America's Plan to Ditch Workers' Comp
One Texas lawyer is helping companies opt out of workers' compensation and write their own rules. What does it mean for injured workers?

Price Check: How Companies Value Body PartsBenefits for the same body part can differ dramatically depending on whom you work for. Look up compensation offered by companies like Costco, Home Depot and Wal-Mart in Texas.

Three years ago, working halfway up a 300-foot steel tower at the LBJ Ranch, the panoramic view included the rolling green hills and meadows of the Texas Hill Country. The tower was used by former President Lyndon B. Johnson to communicate with the White House.

Walker's wife, Krystle Meloy, was 23 then. She was home at the couple's apartment in New Braunfels, Texas, with their 4-month-old daughter, Kaylee, when several of Walker's co-workers unexpectedly knocked at the door.

"They just walked in very silent," Meloy recalls, tears forming in her eyes. "They said Billy fell and he's on his way to the morgue. And I said, 'What?'... I just fell. And we all just started crying."

What happened next to Meloy and Kaylee is indicative of an emerging trend in how workers and their families are compensated following workplace injuries or deaths. Nearly 1.5 million workers in Texas and Oklahoma do not receive state-mandated benefits under heavily regulated workers' compensation and are dependent instead on alternative, largely unregulated benefits plans controlled by employers.

State laws in both Oklahoma and Texas allow employers to opt out of workers' compensation and develop their own workplace injury plans. Those plans generally cover fewer injuries, cut off benefits payments sooner, control access to doctors and even impose mandatory settlements, according to an NPR and ProPublica investigation. In Oklahoma, we found that most plans blatantly violate the law, yet regulators say they are powerless to respond.

Read Whole 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

Disclaimer

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Four benefits under workers’ comp.

Four benefits under workers’ comp.

As you know, there are four benefits in the workers’ compensation system: (1) lost

wage benefits which equal two-thirds of your average weekly wage before taxes; (2)

medical benefits, including full payment of medical bills, prescription medicine, and

physical therapy, including mileage reimbursement for all trips to and from these

providers; (3) disfigurement benefits, in the event you have a scar; and, (4) permanent

impairment benefits, if a permanent impairment is found.

Original Source: From the archives of The Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C.

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Saturday, August 29, 2015

As workers' comp costs climb, benefits fall

Workers' compensation insurance, which covers work-related injuries, continues to get more expensive for businesses and provide lower benefits for workers. The results come from a new National Academy of Social Insurance report on workers' comp benefits, coverage and costs.

According to the analysis of data from 2009 to 2013, benefits as a percentage of payroll declined in 39 states for two major reasons, according to John F. Burton, professor emeritus of Rutgers and Cornell University, as quoted by a National Academy press release.

"The decline is due to a drop in workplace injuries as well as changes in many state laws that made it more difficult for workers' to qualify for benefits," said Burton, who was on the data study panel. "These state laws include more stringent compensation rules, the reduction of coverage for certain medical diagnoses and new legal requirements that make it more difficult for workers to succeed in their claims for benefits."

On average, injured workers received 98 cents per $100 of covered wages. Employers paid $1.37 on average per $100 of covered wages. Costs went up in 27 states.

States with the highest costs were Alaska ($2.58 per $100), Montana ($2.24) and Oklahoma ($2.24). Lowest employer costs were in the District of Columbia (47 cents per $100), Massachusetts (74 cents) and Texas (80 cents per $100). However, the inclusion of Texas requires a caveat because employers aren't required to provide workers' compensation.

Both worker benefits and business costs have been in a long-term downtrend since the early 1990s, when both were at long-term highs.

About 130 million people are under workers' comp protection. One of the big changes in expenses has been health care. In 1980, 29 percent of workers' compensation expenses were health care costs. In 2013, the percentage grew to 50 percent.

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Monday, August 17, 2015

MSHA Proposes Rule to Prevent Crushing, Pinning Deaths and Injuries

Haulage machinery in underground coal mines —such as shuttle cars, ram cars and scoops—would have to be equipped with technology that prevents miners from becoming struck, pinned or crushed, as per a proposed rule from the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

On Sept. 2, MSHA published a proposed rule calling for proximity detection systems on underground coal hauling systems used on the mining section. Proximity detection is a technology that uses electronic sensors to detect motion and the distance between a miner and a machine. These systems provide audible and visual warnings, and automatically stop moving machines before miners are injured.

MSHA estimates that, as of June 2015, 155 of the approximately 2,116 underground coal hauling machines and scoops were equipped with proximity detection systems.

Between 1984 and 2014, pinning, crushing and striking accidents killed 42 miners and injured 179 others. In the most recent five-year period (2010-2014), accidents killed nine miners in 41 cases—23 involved coal hauling machines and 18 involved scoops. In one recent case, on Dec. 16, 2014, a repairman was fatally struck by a ram car at the Highland 9 Mine in Union County, Ky. Proximity detection systems may have prevented all of these deaths and injuries.

“This proposed proximity detection system rule would better protect miners from being crushed or pinned in the confined underground mine spaces where large equipment is constantly in motion,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. “It is an important component of the department’s ‘Plan, Prevent and Protect’ strategy for safeguarding all workers.”

“We know this technology works as a number of mine operators have already installed proximity detection systems on coal hauling machines and scoops,” said Kevin Stricklin, MSHA’s administrator for Coal Mine Safety and Health. “We hope to learn from their experiences during the public comment period.”

In January, MSHA published a final rule requiring the installation of proximity detection systems on continuous mining machines used to cut coal in underground mines. Many continuous mining machines are already equipped with this technology.

The proposed rule requires coal mine operators to use proximity detection systems that do the following:

Cause a coal-hauling machine or scoop to stop before contacting a miner
Provide audible and visual warning signals when a miner gets too close to the machine (within the machine’s warning zone)
Provide a visual signal on the machine that indicates the system is functioning properly
Prevent movement of the machine if the system is not functioning properly
Prevent interference with or from other electrical systems
Be installed and maintained by a person trained in the system’s installation and maintenance.

The proposed rule includes the following phase-in for compliance:

Eight months after the rule goes into effect, coal-hauling machines and scoops manufactured after the effective date of the rule; and coal-hauling machines and scoops equipped with an existing proximity detection system, which can be modified underground must be in compliance.
Thirty-six months after the rule goes into effect, coal hauling machines and scoops equipped with an existing proximity detection system, which cannot be modified underground or needs to be replaced with a new proximity detection system; and coal hauling machines and scoops manufactured on or before the effective date of the rule and not equipped with a proximity detection system must be in compliance.

Thirty-six months after the rule goes into effect, all coal-hauling machines and scoops would need to be in compliance.

In the proposal, MSHA also requests comments on whether this technology should be required in underground metal and nonmetal mines. The comment period will close on Dec. 1, 2015, and MSHA will hold public hearings to allow the public to present their views on the proposed rule.

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

South Dakota Prankster Entitled to Workers’ Comp: Court

The South Dakota Supreme Court says a man who broke his ankle running away from a co-worker on whom he had played a prank at a construction site is entitled to workers’ compensation.

In Jason Petrik v. JJ Concrete, Inc. and EMC Insurance Co., South Dakota’s high court ruled that the state Department of Labor incorrectly denied benefits to concrete worker Jason Petrik. Petrik tricked his co-worker into giving up his seat in an air-conditioned truck on a hot August day in 2012. He broke his ankle jumping over a trench while his co-worker chased him.

Petrik’s employer, JJ Concrete, argued he shouldn’t get benefits because the company’s rules bar horseplay.

“JJ Concrete and EMC Insurance Company refused to pay for Petrik’s medical expenses and refused to provide temporary total disability benefits,” the court wrote in its opinion.

The South Dakota Department of Labor ruled that Petrik’s injury “arose out of” his employment, but did not occur “in the course of” the employment and denied employee benefits, according to the court’s opinion. The circuit court affirmed.

Petrik had argued that during idle times he and his co-workers often “would play jokes and tricks on each other.”

The Supreme Court reversed the lower court rulings. It ruled Petrik’s horseplay wasn’t a “substantial deviation” from his normal work and therefore happened while he was on the job.

The case was remanded to the Department of Labor for an award of workers’ comp benefits.

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Workers' Comp: CA Bill Would Stop Insurers From Suspending Care

A California Senate committee has approved a bill that directly addresses a problem reported in the ProPublica/NPR investigation of state changes in workers' compensation benefits.The measure sponsored by the California Medical Association (CMA) would prohibit insurance companies from using the state's 2012 workers' compensation reforms to reopen approved treatment plans and deny existing medical care.The CMA cited the ProPublica/NPR investigation in justifying the bill.ProPublica/NPR detailed the case of paralyzed worker Joel Ramirez, who lost his home health care after Travelers Insurance reopened his treatment plan. The story prompted the state Department of Industrial Relations to launch an audit of Travelers and to issue a warning to insurance companies that the new workers' comp reforms cannot be used to deny approved home health care.The new bill blocks changes in treatment plans unless there is a relevant and demonstrated change in the medical condition of the injured worker, or the care is determined to no longer be based on current medical evidence or treatment guidelines.Insurance companies "cannot withdraw care until an independent medical review is completed and an alternative treatment is provided—unlike what happened to Ramirez," reports ProPublica's Michael Grabell, in this detailed story on the measure.CMA also cited a 2014 survey of 231 medical practices, which focused on the medical review processes established by California's 2012 workers' comp reforms.Two-thirds of the physicians responding to the survey said new review procedures made it more difficult to get approval for treatment. Close to half said the greatest problem and challenge in the new approval system is "inappropriate denials of medically necessary tests, procedures or services."The Senate bill is opposed by business and insurance interests who worry about unnecessary and costly treatment.Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

Disclaimer

Monday, July 13, 2015

Workers Can Be Fired For Off-Duty Marijuana Use, Colorado Court Says

Pot may be legal in Colorado, but you can still be fired for using it.

The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that a medical marijuana patient who was fired after failing a drug test cannot get his job back. The case has big implications for employers and pot smokers in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational pot in 2012. Though the case involves medical marijuana, the court’s decision could also affect how companies treat employees who use the drug recreationally.

Brandon Coats is a quadriplegic who was fired by Dish Network after failing a drug test in 2010. The company agreed that Coats wasn’t high on the job but said it has a zero-tolerance drug policy.

The court first agreed to take up the case in January.

Courts in California, Montana and Washington state also ruled against medical marijuana patients fired for pot use.

Coats argued that his pot smoking was allowed under a Colorado law intended to protect employees from being fired for legal activities off the clock. Coats didn’t use marijuana at work, and he wasn’t accused of being high on the job. But pot’s intoxicating chemical, THC, can stay in the system for weeks.

The company argued that because pot is illegal under federal law, medical marijuana isn’t covered by the state law.

Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., allow medical marijuana. Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational sales, though court cases so far have involved medical patients.

The Colorado Constitution specifically states that employers don’t have to amend their policies to accommodate employees’ marijuana use.

In arguments last year, Dish attorney Meghan Martinez declared that it didn’t matter whether Coats was ever high on the job.

“This case need not be an endorsement or an indictment of medical marijuana” but a chance to set standards for employee conduct, Martinez said. “It’s a zero-tolerance policy. It doesn’t matter if he was impaired or not.”

Coats’ attorney, Michael Evans, asked the court to issue a narrow ruling that would apply to people like Coats: those in nonhazardous jobs who are not impaired at work and whose employers don’t have federal contracts that could be jeopardized.

Coats was paralyzed in a car crash as a teenager and has been a medical marijuana patient since 2009, when he discovered that pot helped calm violent muscle spasms. He was a telephone operator with Dish for three years before he failed a random drug test in 2010 and was fired. He said he told his supervisors in advance that he probably would fail the test.

A trial court judge and Colorado’s appeals court upheld his firing, saying pot can’t be considered lawful if it is outlawed at the federal level.

Original Source

Contact the Law Office of O'Toole & Sbarbaro, P.C. today if you have a workers' compensation or a Social Security disability case.

http://www.otoole-sbarbaro.com

Phone: 303-595-4777

We are located in the Denver Metro area.

226 West 12th Avenue Denver, Colorado 80204

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