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Happy new year to all our readers! While we were taking a short holiday break, Louise at Colorado Health Insurance Insider was toiling away to produce a special New Year’s Eve Cavalcade Of Risk. There's some good reading there, it's good way to ease your way back into some of the health care issues that lie before us in the...

It's that time of year when the media takes a look back at the top stories of the preceding year so we thought we'd jump on the seasonal bandwagon and offer a retrospective of our top posts for 2008, along with a list of the top 10 most popular posts of all time. Your top 20 favorites of 2008 Bullshit...

When we think of safety on the construction site, it's usually in the context of new and renovated buildings. But deconstruction is fraught with hazards, too. Just as the timing and sequence of events in building must be constantly reviewed from a safety perspective, deconstruction requires a similar review. You could say that failure to anticipate safety concerns, whether you...

We have frequently blogged the labor issues at FedEx, the ubiquitous delivery giant. FedEx relies on "independent contractor" drivers for business and neighborhood deliveries. An interesting article by Corey Dade in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) discusses the potential impact of a Democratic Congress on FedEx's business model. An 800 pound gorilla has just taken a seat in the...

Nancy Germond, blogger at Insurance Copywriter makes a fine debut as host of this week's Cavalcade of Risk #67. It's a good issue. Plus, we like Nancy - we've linked to some of her risk management columns at AllBusiness before. Note her recent timely column: Top Ten Ways to Avoid a Santa Suit. Other blog reads While we tend to...

Last week, OSHA unveiled its final rule on Clarification of Employer Duty To Provide Personal Protective Equipment and Train Each Employee. To comply with this standard, beginning January 12, 2009, employers must provide personal protective equipment and hazards training for each employee covered by the standards. According to OSHA: "The amendments add no new compliance obligations. Employers are not required...

Health Wonk Review — The “Just the Facts, Ma’am” Edition - hosted by Vince Kuraitis at e-CareManagement - Dragnet fans take note! NCCI report on medical benefits - The medical share of total losses has grown dramatically — from just over 40% in the early 1980s to almost 60% today. NCCI takes a closer look: Analyzing the Shift in the...

On December 1 we blogged the story of Taneka Talley, an employee of the Dollar Tree stores who was stabbed to death at work by a deranged racist. We believed that Talley's death was compensable under workers comp, as she died at work, performing her job (she was stocking shelves at the time of the assault). Dollar Tree's TPA denied...

With the Big 3 automakers discussing potential fallout if the federal government doesn't come through with a bailout package, there is one aspect of the fallout that would likely be a mere footnote in the wake of such a massive failure, but that would be of interest to thousands of workers: the issue of what happens to workers compensation claims....

Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour took a temp job for the Christmas rush at the Walmart in Green Acres Mall on Long Island. Some rush. When a crowd of bargain hunters pushed into the store at 5 am on "Black Friday," Damour, a 34 year old who weighed 270 pounds, fell to the floor and was trampled. He died within an hour...

Cavalcade of Risk #66 is posted at Political Calculations, where the blogger who goes under the alias of Ironman takes an innovative approach by offering two editions with all posts presented in a grid-like format, applying a blog post rating system. See Investment Grade and Kit and Caboodle versions for this week's entries. State cost variations - Risk & Insurance...

For many of us, Amityville NY brings to mind a book (and movie) called the Amityville Horror, which tell the story of an innocent couple moving into a house whose prior inhabitants had been murdered. The house is haunted by the ghosts of the deceased. If the story were to happen again, the house would surely be cleaned by Icon...

Dollar Tree is a national company with stores in all 48 states. Everything they offer costs a buck. (They are doing very nicely in this recession.) Here's how they describe themselves: Walk into one of our stores and it hits you immediately: this is a place where shopping is fun. We call it "Thrill of the Hunt". We have worked...

Last week, North Carolina's Occupational Safety and Health division levied 49 citations and $178,000 in fines for workplace hazards on the House of Raeford Farms, one of nation's largest poultry processors. This action was taken in response to serious, repeat safety violations, many involving hazardous chemicals that pose a threat to the safety of both the plant workers and the...

There are a number of ways to purchase workers comp insurance: most companies secure stand-alone policies. Under experience rating, if the company has losses, their costs go up; if they have lower than average losses, they benefit from reduced premiums. Some companies join with others to form a self-insurance group (SIG), where individual companies are no longer in charge of...

Joe Paduda is hosting the post-election edition of Cavalcade of Risk. Dedicated blogger that he is, his post comes to us from Las Vegas, where he offers observations from the floor of the National Workers Comp and Disability Conference. Joe has been a roving workers comp reporter lately. His recent trip follows on the heels of his reports from the...

There is a fascinating article in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that raises interesting implications for workers compensation. Melinda Beck writes that warning labels on medications can actually stimulate symptoms, especially when stress is involved. In other words, when an injured employee reads a warning label - "this medicine may cause vomiting, headaches, drowsiness, etc" - he or she...

Florida employers have seen about a 60% rate decrease since the 2003 workers compensation reform but it looks like all that is about to change. NCCI has just filed for an 8.9% Florida rate increase in the wake of a recent Florida Supreme Court ruling. This is an enormous change, particularly in light of the 18.9 percent decrease that had...

There must be something in the smoke: a few months ago we blogged the tale of Albert Arroyo, a Boston firefighter who participated in a body building contest while collecting workers comp for an alleged disability. Well, to demonstrate that we harbor neither geographic nor gender prejudices, we tell the tale of Christina Hijjawi, a 37 year-old firefighter from San...

Louise has posted "The Election Is Over" edition of Health Wonk Review at Colorado Health Insurance Insider. Now that voters have made their choices and the dust is settling, many wonkers are opining about how health care reform is likely to take shape. Also of note: various posts discuss the ways that advanced technologies are increasing the cost of health...