Tag: Workers Comp

Chronic pain patients who have opted for medical marijuana as a treatment alternative have been able to significantly cut down on their use of opioid prescription medications and other drugs, according to a recently published study in the JAMA Network Open.

The study looked at 1,724 individuals who identified as suffering from chronic pain, and the results showed that more than half of adults using cannabis to manage their pain simultaneously decreased their use of opioids, prescription nonopioids and over-the-counter pain medication.

Close to 39% of participants also reported that their medical marijuana use led to a decreased need for physical therapy, around 19% said it led to them using meditation less, and 26% reported a decrease in the need for cognitive behavioral therapy.

The adults surveyed were 18 years of age or older and reside in 36 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have medical marijuana programs.

The study looked at individuals who have used medical marijuana to treat pain during the past 30 days, the past 12 months, or ever at all.

The researchers said the results suggest state medical marijuana programs are working and help offer patients an alternative analgesic to treat severe pain.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws released a statement saying the findings should come as no surprise, as legal access to medical marijuana has shown an overall decrease in the use of more harmful prescription medications.

The group said that most patients registered to use medical marijuana in the United States do so for the treatment of chronic pain. 

 

Virginia lawmakers in both chambers will consider adding 911 dispatchers to the list of first responders who are able to file workers compensation claims for post-traumatic stress disorder on presumption that an event witnessed at work caused their mental ailment, according to a pair of bills filed in the last week.

H.B. 1631, introduced Saturday, adds “dispatchers” as qualifying professionals.

S.B. 904, prefiled on Thursday and sent to committee, defines a “public safety telecommunicator” as “an individual employed by a public safety answering point, an emergency medical dispatch service provider, or both, who is qualified to operate communication systems to receive requests for emergency assistance and provide for the appropriate emergency response either directly or through communication with the appropriate public safety office or emergency medical services provider.”

That bill also proposed adding language that permits diagnoses of “anxiety disorder” or “depressive disorder” to qualify for benefits. 

 

 

Lawmakers in Kentucky and Minnesota have introduced legislation that would legalize marijuana in their respective states. 

On Friday, Kentucky legislators unveiled Senate Bill 51, a dual-purpose measure that would make cannabis legal both medically and recreationally.

The Kentucky bill would legalize and regulate the “possession, cultivation, production, processing, packaging, transportation, testing, marketing, sale and use of medical cannabis and adult-use cannabis,” and it would create a Cannabis Control Board to act as the regulatory agency overseeing the state’s program.

The Kentucky measure also contains a provision that prohibits employers from refusing to hire or discriminating against those who use marijuana during nonworking hours if it becomes legal. 

Only adults 21 and older would be permitted to purchase and use cannabis under the bill.

The legislative proposal comes on the heels of an executive order issued in November by Gov. Andy Beshear, which took effect Jan. 1, that allows certain patients to use medical marijuana.

The order only allows the use of medical marijuana, but patients are not actually allowed to purchase the product in Kentucky.

In Minnesota, which legalized medical marijuana in 2014, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 73, which would fully legalize marijuana for recreational use in the state and would create an Office of Cannabis Management to regulate the program.

The bill would allow those ages 21 and older to buy certain forms of marijuana from state dispensaries and to grow up to eight plants at home.

It would also prohibit employers from terminating, disciplining or discriminating against workers who test positive for marijuana. 

 

Washington state legislators have introduced a bill designed to create equitable access to the state’s workers compensation stay-at-work program, which was implemented to help reduce long-term disability.

House Bill 1137, which was pre-filed Thursday, is aimed at allowing employers to offer off-site, light-duty, return-to-work opportunities to injured workers.

Supporters of the measure say current law creates inequities because small employers are less likely to have suitable light-duty jobs and because frontline workers in small businesses are less likely to have access to remote light duty work.

The bills states that return-to-work access is more acute for lower wage earners, many of whom are frontline workers, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has “illuminated the particularly limited and inequitable access to return to work between frontline and remote workers.”

The bill also amends current statute to allow for employers to offer off-site, light-duty return-to-work with an approved nonprofit organization so long as the employer remains responsible for any new injury or occupational disease incurred while the worker is on off-site, light-duty work.

Washington state’s stay-at-work program was created to reduce long-term disabilities and the cost of injuries by incentivizing employers to offer workers transitional return-to-work opportunities.

If signed by the governor, the new law would take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

 

 

 

Nebraska lawmakers will consider amending the state’s workers compensation law to include mental injuries for first responders who experience workplace violence.

Legislative Bill 5, introduced Thursday, defines a personal injury to include mental injuries and illness “unaccompanied by physical injury for an employee” if the employee can prove through medical evidence a connection between the mental injury or illness and an act of violence.

The bill describes workplace violence as “a shooting, hostage situation, act of terrorism, or similar act of violence occurring in the workplace.”

A Pennsylvania appeals court has overturned a trial judge’s dismissal of a case brought by the widow of a worker who died after developing cancer that the man claimed was tied to his exposure to asbestos-containing products while on the job.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Wednesday reversed a November 2019 Philadelphia Common Pleas Court decision that granted summary judgment to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania-based Kreider Dairy Farms Inc. in a case brought by Pamela K. Shellenberger on behalf of the estate of her late husband, Richard M. Shellenberger.

The widow alleged that her husband developed malignant mesothelioma as a result of his exposure to asbestos while working on the boiler at the Kreider Farms dairy processing plant, a disease that claimed his life in early 2019.

The defendants sought to have the case dismissed, alleging Ms. Shellenberger failed to provide evidence that the farm breached a duty of care to her husband since they were not aware of the presence of asbestos during the time of Mr. Shellenberger’s employment.

The trial court determined that “there was no evidence that [the farm] possessed any knowledge of the dangers of asbestos,” and that a finding that the farm breached a duty of care “would stretch the concept of negligence too far …”

The appeals court said the record before the trial court contained “sufficient evidence from which a jury could have concluded that [the farm] should have known of the dangers of asbestos.”

The panel determined that the trial court was wrong to depose of the case at the summary judgment stage and that a jury should have been given the opportunity to weigh in on the facts of the case as opposed to the trial judge dismissing it as a matter of law.

 

 

 

A study of post-operative patients found that pain management involving three days or less of post-surgery opioid prescriptions was effective at managing pain and outcomes, according to a report published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Nineteen cancer treatment institutions, mostly in Buffalo, New York, helped craft the study involving 4068 surgical patients, 82% of whom had cancer. The study sought to better understand whether postoperative pain can be managed “appropriately” after hospital discharge with three or fewer days of an opioid supply.

The prescriptions, of which 95% of participants adhered, “led to a significant reduction in opioids dispensed postoperatively and was associated with significantly decreased conversion to chronic opioid use in postsurgical patients,” according to the study.

Patients also received “standardized patient education” on opioid use following surgeries, which took place between Aug. 1, 2018, and July 31, 2019.

Dubbed a “Restrictive Opioid Prescription Protocol,” researchers wrote that the findings “could lead to a new standard of care for managing postsurgical pain after hospital discharge.”

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation.

 

 

The number of California hospital stays under workers compensation fell by 5.7% in 2021, continuing a trend in which comp hospitalizations declined at a faster pace than hospital stays under private medical coverage, according to a new study by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute. 

The CWCI study, titled Trends in the Utilization of Inpatient Care in California Workers’ Compensation, measured inpatient medical services under different coverage systems and looked at more than 35.3 million hospital stays between 2012 and 2021.

The figures from 2021 brought the total decline during the past 10 years to 48.1%, which is more than triple the decade-long decline of 15% for hospital stays under private coverage, according to the study.

In total, workers comp inpatient hospitalizations represented just 0.5% of all California inpatient stays during the 10-year study period and 0.3% in 2021.

The study compared volume and types of inpatient care covered by workers comp insurance, Medicare, Medi-Cal and private coverage.

Researchers at the CWCI attributed the decline in comp hospitalizations to several factors, including fluctuations in number and types of claims, adoption of new review programs requiring that treatment meets evidence-based medicine standards, and a reduction in the number of spinal fusion procedures, which are more prevalent among the injured worker inpatient population than the general population.

The study determined that while musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders continue to be a main driver of inpatient stays under workers comp, COVID-19 claims were determined to make up more of the share in recent time since such claims were first introduced into the comp system.

Surgical inpatient stays are more prevalent under workers comp than in other systems, the study found, with results showing they made up more than two-thirds of injured worker stays in 2021.

 

New York legislators are pushing numerous changes to the workers compensation system, including a measure that would expand which workers could be reclassified as totally disabled due to an extreme hardship.

Assembly Bill 294, filed Wednesday, would permit claimants to request to be classified to permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardships in cases in which the loss of wage-earning capacity is more than 50%, down from the current 75%.

Under the bill, an “extreme hardship” could be claimed in cases in which an injured worker would be unable to meet expenses for himself or any dependents; when additional medical, functional or vocational factors have further eroded wage earning capacity; or when the worker’s income falls below the federal poverty line.

A separate bill introduced Wednesday, Assembly Bill 337 proposes a wide array of changes to the state’s comp system, including revisions concerning the payment of attorneys fees.

Under the bill, claimants’ lawyers can submit a claim for legal services connected to obtaining authorization for necessary medical treatment in cases in which no compensation award is made, including for advice given to a represented injured worker.

Any approved attorneys fees would be paid by an employer or insurer, and such medical legal fees would serve as a credit against any subsequent attorneys fees in comp cases.

Both bills were referred to the Assembly Labor Committee.