CA Rand Study-Workers Comp System Broken-CA Labor Fed Leader Says Get "more QME's"

CA Rand Study Says Workers Comp Utilization Review Boards and Qualified Medical Examiner System Busted-CA Labor Fed Leader Says Get "more QME's"

At a meeting of the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation CHSWC on August 19, 2010, Barbara Wynn of the Rand Corporation in a study ordered by the commission reported
that company doctors were gaming the Utilization Review Boards UR to rule against workers in their workers compensation cases and that the state had to "unclog the QME system".
The insurance industry with the support of Governor Schwarzenegger and nearly the unanimous support of the Democrats and Republicans passed SB 899 to supposedly reform the workers compensation system. The "reform" they pushed has resulted in a 50% cut in permanent disability payments to tens of thousands of injured workers, the elimination of vocational training for new jobs and also an obstacle
course to prevent workers from getting treated quickly and properly. This failure to treat seriously injured workers quickly leads to their health deterioration. The corporate controlled Department of Workers Compensation set up a "Utilization Review Boards" and require that workers who need prompt surgeries have to go to "Qualified Medical Examiners" when employers or insurance companies challenge the decisions of their own doctors. This has resulted in workers spending years waiting to get their injuries treated and has benefited the insurance industry and drug companies when workers are forced to take medication instead of being treated for their injuries.

Workers have testified that they have spent years waiting to get their surgeries approved and some have even committed suicide. A representative of the California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day attacked the insurance industry at the meeting for torturing workers who need to get their injuries taken care of quickly before they become permanently disabled as a result of their injuries.
At the same hearing, the CHSWC chair Angie Wei who is also a legislative director of the California AFL-CIO Labor Federation said the solution to the collapse and gaming of the UR and QME's by employers and the insurance industry was to "get more QME's". Wei was also partly responsible for the California AFL-CIO taking a "neutral" position on the deregulation of workers compensation in California through SB 899.
A representative of the California Coalition for Workers Memorial Day also raised a challenge to the commission about the elimination of all professional medical staff by the Governor and Director of CA OSHA Len Welsh. Welsh it was also reported had harassed and terrorized OSHA inspectors and staff not to enforce the regulations that is part of their job.
http://www.workersmemorialday.org/documents/indictmentCa-Osha.htm
Unfortunately Angie Wei's boss California AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Art Pulaski has refused to make any public statement or political education campaign against the destruction of CA-OSHA including attacks on the staff and the elimination of professional medical personnel despite requests from health and safety advocates. This attack on CA-OSHA in fact did not start with the Schwarzenegger administration but also during previous Democratic governors including Gray Davis. The proposed layoff of the last doctor of Ca-OSHA in fact took place while Gray Davis was governor and was stopped by a health and safety activists going public about this attack.

Instead of raising this issue of the attack on CA-OSHA on the CHSWC board and backing up the speaker from the CCWMD, Board Chair and CA AFL-CIO Legislative Director Angie Wei was silent about this serious health and safety danger because of the lack of any medical staff for California's 17 million workers. The CA AFL-CIO and the organization Worksafe in the past have also supported voluntary compliance programs that allow companies such as IBM and others to avoid providing documentation of illnesses and other problems to CA-OSHA officers. It has also meant the lack of inspections to enforce CA-OSHA regulations.

Dr. Jack Thrasher Ph.D. also testified at the commission that as a result of the insertion of ACOEM rules into California Workers Compensation regulations by the insurance industry, workers are being contaminated by mold and are not being covered by workers compensation. He pointed to the case of injured Poway Toyota workers who were sickened by the mold at the auto dealership and then faced owners and a manager who have sought to force workers to go to state disability and be put in the Family Leave program because they were avoiding their liability.

There are approximately five employees of Toyota of Poway who have pending workers’ compensation claims and injured worker Tim Hack has filed OSHA complaints that were ignored by the agency.
http://moldtruth.wordpress.com/
Dr. Thrasher Ph.D gave a report on serious harmful affects of mold on the health of workers and the public including the brain. The Commission was speechless since this issue has been covered up by the insurance industry and employers who want to avoid liability for injuries and sickness caused by mold. He introduced several new documents that have been written and said that the Commission needed to investigate the role of the insurance industry in pushing the ACOEM regulations.
http://www.drthrasher.org/
Angie Wei also said that some workers were waiting to see a CA-OSHA inspector when they had serious health and safety violations and there were no inspectors available. She failed to point out that labor unions could have protests and public action to demand health and safety for workers instead of waiting and waiting for CA-OSHA to enforce safety regulations.

A speaker from CCWMD also pointed out that in the case of Agraquest biotech worker David Bell, CA-OSHA did not have the capability to investigate contamination in the biotech industry due to genetically engineered products that are new or unknown as to their affects on workers and the public. It was also pointed out that not having professional medical personnel in the CA-OSHA agency meant that these biotech illnesses and violations could not be even understood and dealt with. While workers are under deadly threat in California the profits of the insurance industry have skyrocketed. Billions of dollars are going into the pockets of billionaires like Warren Buffet and other companies like Zenith, Citi Group, Zurich, Gallagher & Bassett , Liberty Mutual and other companies.
The speaker from the CCWMD also said that the Commission should begin a study of the financial conflicts of interests that Workers Comp Judges and the Workers Compensation Appeal Board have with insurance companies and employers both insured and self-insured. It was pointed out that the Workers Compensation Appeals Judge Suzanne F. Dugan had ruled against an appeal by Agraquest injured biotech worker David Bell on his workers compensation case and her husband had a financial relationship with Agraquest. Her husband Michael T. Dugan had sponsored an Agraquest event. This was not disclosed by the judge who refused to recuse herself from the case. Complaints are being prepared against the judge for malfeasance and covering up workers compensation fraud. The CCWMD speaker declared that there were systemic conflicts of interest and corruption of the entire workers compensation system and it has been subverted by the insurance industry and employers to limit their liabilities.
http://www.biotechawareness.com

The California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day CCWMD is for the elimination of the insurance industry in healthcare and for all premiums to go directly to providers with a single payer system. This would save billions of dollars and end the need for injured workers to negotiate with insurance companies about their treatment and care as part of any settlement on their workers comp injuries. Since injured workers lawyers only get paid when they make a settlement this means that injured workers are pressurized to agree to small settlements that do not provide for their medical care over the long term. It was also pointed out at the hearing that there is a massive costs shifting going on as injured workers healthcare and other costs are shifted to the State, local agencies and SSI who are picking up the costs of their injuries. This massive cover-up and cost shifting scheme is growing yet the CA-AFL-CIO and Angie Wei refuse to make this issue as well.

California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day
http://www.workersmemorialday.org

Photograph of Angie Wei, Chair of the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation and the California AFL-CIO Legislative Director