Litigation falls in California for workers comp
- The number of independent medical reviews used to resolve California workers’ comp medical disputes continued to decline in the first half of 2022, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.
- CWCI’s latest review shows that 62,859 IMR decision letters were issued in the first half of this year in response to applications submitted to the state, down 7.6% from 68,039 letters issued in the first six months of 2021.
- The latest full-year count shows 133,494 letters issued in 2021, down 2.4% from 136,738 letters in 2020 and down 27.7% from the all-time high of 184,735 letters in 2018.
- IMR physicians issued medical necessity decisions on 261,708 primary service requests, but by 2020 that had fallen 17.5% to 215,788 decisions, and in 2021 it continued down, falling to 209,782.
Regulators provide more info on confined space entry requirements
- OSHA Training Services Inc. has created a “Confined Space Entry Blog,” which helps people better understand the requirements of the agency’s permit-required confined space entry standards for construction and general industry.
- There are too many workers suffering fatalities and serious injuries while conducting confined space entry work, OSHA contends.
- More than 1,000 workers involved in confined space entry work died in the U.S. between 2011 to 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
- This new blog is written by Curtis Chambers, a confined space expert with 35 years of experience working as an occupational safety and health manager and consultant, and safety officer in Texas.
Construction worker electrocuted
- A construction worker identified the worker as 41-year-old Robert Philyaw died during an accident on the job.
- Philyaw was working on the electricity at the construction site when he was accidentally electrocuted.
- HEMSI spokesman Don Webster said emergency crews were called to a site located near the old Burlington Coat Factory store on University Drive around 1:25 p.m.
- An investigation is ongoing.
Foundry faces more than $300,000 in fines
- An OSHA investigation found that a Middletown, N.J., foundry willfully exposed workers to numerous safety and health hazards, citing the company for 14 violations with proposed penalties of $303,106.
- OSHA opened an inspection at the Engineered Precision Casting Co., a steel and aluminum foundry, in response to a complaint.
- Inspectors determined the company did not provide employees with the required personal protective equipment and failed to provide hazard communication training on the chemicals in use and on energy control procedures.
- The agency also found the company had not established an inspection program for overhead cranes or implemented a written respiratory protection program.