Tag: Workers Comp

A Washington state company that was cited after a 16-year-old worker was catastrophically injured on a construction site in the summer of 2023 is now also facing child labor law violations in connection with the incident, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries said Tuesday.

The department said Vancouver-based Rotschy LLC has been issued an additional $51,800 in fines on top of the $156,259 it was previously issued over an incident in which the teen worker lost both of his legs after he was dragged underneath the blade of a walk-behind trencher during a job in La Center.

The general contractor was cited for a willful serious violation for allowing workers to operate equipment without training or experience. The new violations allege that the company broke laws designed to protect minor workers, according to the department.

The company was cited for denying minor workers meal breaks, employing minors for more hours than legally permitted during a school day, and starting a teen’s workday before 5 a.m., the department stated. 

 

 

Medicare and other insurance programs apparently took a bath in a Tennessee podiatrist’s scheme of prescribing and dispensing medically unnecessary — and virtually useless — foot bath medications.

Dr. Nathan Lucas, of Advanced Foot & Ankle Care of Memphis LLC, which includes two in-house pharmacies, was convicted Monday in the scheme that investigators say resulted in nearly $4 million in insurance claims, with Medicare and the state-run TennCare absorbing the biggest losses, as reported by WKRN in Memphis, Tennessee.

The foot soaks included capsules, creams and powders that were not indicated to be dissolved in water and some of which were not even water soluble, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Dr. Lucas, who was convicted of five counts of health care fraud and faces 10 years on each count, reportedly chose these medications to prescribe and dispense specifically based on their anticipated reimbursement amount, rather than for patient’s medical needs, according to the report.

 

 

Kansas lawmakers are again considering legalizing medical marijuana after several years of failed legislation.

S.B. 555, introduced Tuesday and referred to the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, would under a pilot program authorize the state Secretary of Health and Environment “to enter into contracts for the limited cultivation, processing and distribution of medical cannabis for patient use upon a physician’s recommendation.” Similar bills failed to gain traction since 2021.

The bill would also impose requirements for physician certifications recommending medical cannabis use and provide a list of qualifying conditions for use, such as cancer, traumatic brain injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

 

 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health on Monday released a guide for hospitals to improve health care worker well-being, providing a process for hospitals to start making organizational-level changes that aims to improve the mental health of health care workers.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, health workers are facing “a mental health crisis” due to the “overwhelming” demands of work — the issue has resulted in health care worker shortages, worker “burnout” and injuries. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also chimed in with plans to address violence against health care workers — an issued that experts say is contributing to health care worker struggles. At least 29 states have also moved forward with plans.

The new guide outlines six steps for hospital leaders to take, which NIOSH says was pilot-tested among six U.S. hospital systems. The steps include creating a 12-month plan to review operations to determine how they support professional well-being; building a dedicated team to support professional well-being; removing barriers to seeking care, such as intrusive mental health questions on credentialing applications; developing a suite of communication tools that help share updates with the workforce about your hospital’s journey to improve professional well-being; and integrate professional wellbeing measures into an ongoing quality improvement project.

 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Monday said it cited an Oklahoma contractor after a worker suffered asphyxiation while trying to repair a water tank at a Purcell well site in September 2023.

OSHA cited Pauls Valley-based C&M Roustabout Services LLC for 16 serious violations relating to numerous failures that contributed to the worker’s death, including allowing employees to enter a confined space without an atmospheric evaluation or required permit, failing to have testing and ventilation equipment space entry programs in place, and not training employees on confined space hazards.

OSHA proposed $103,232 in penalties.

During the incident, the worker had entered a confined space to fix a leaking bulkhead valve in a production tank and lost consciousness.

Two employees who tried to rescue their co-worker suffered effects from exposure to low atmospheric conditions, but were otherwise uninjured, OSHA said.

C&M Roustabout has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday it cited a Texas contractor after an 18-year-old worker died in a trench collapse at a work site near Fulshear in September 2023.

OSHA cited Houston-based Hurtado Construction Co. for one willful violation and five serious violations and proposed $257,811 in penalties after the worker died when a 15-foot trench wall collapsed on him.

During the cave-in, the worker was pinned against a reinforced concrete box and covered with tons of dirt, OSHA said.

Hurtado Construction failed to implement adequate protections against trench collapses, the agency said.

The company was cited for similar violations in November 2021, and it had a history of other workplace safety failures dating to January 2007, according to OSHA.

Hurtado Construction has 15 business days to contest the latest citation and proposed penalties. 

 

 

A federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the California Trucking Association and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association challenging California’s employment classification law.

The association challenged Assembly Bill 5 on various grounds, including contending it violated the U.S. Commerce Clause and that it created “irrational or animus-based classifications for employment,” according to the ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California. The case is California Trucking Association et al. and Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association v. Attorney General Rob Bonta et al. and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The court had granted a preliminary injunction in 2019 based on an initial determination that the law might violate the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, but a federal appeals court ultimately determined there was no conflict.

Judge Benitez ruled for the defendants on all claims, saying AB 5 didn’t violate the FAAA or the Commerce Clause, and that it didn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. and California constitutions.

“Remedying complexities and perceived deficiencies in AB 5 are the kind of work better left to the soap box and the ballot box than to the jury box,” Judge Benitez wrote. “The courts, on the other hand, are not the proper bodies for imposing legislative amendments.”

The plaintiffs had sought a new injunction, but the judge denied the request and dismissed the case entirely.

 

 

 

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A New York appeals court overturned a decision granting summary judgment to the Long Island Power Authority and two other defendants in a case involving an electrical lineman who was injured during an explosion while working in an aerial bucket truck.

William Wittenberg, who worked as a journeyman lineman for Haugland Energy Group LLC, sued the power authority, Public Service Enterprise Group and PSEG Long Island for negligence and Labor Law violations over the workplace accident.

The defendants filed a third-party complaint against Haugland Energy for contractual indemnification and other claims.

A lower judge dismissed the case in January 2020.

The New York Supreme Court Appellate Division said the defendants and Haugland all failed to establish they were entitled to summary judgment at this stage of the litigation.

Haugland, the court noted, “failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether its negligence contributed to the accident,” and that the trial judge should have denied that aspect of Haugland’s motion for summary judgment seeking to dismiss the third-party claim for contractual indemnification.  

The power authority and other defendants in the initial case were also not entitled to summary judgment at this stage of the lawsuit because of certain procedural errors, the court wrote. 

 

 

 

Federal authorities have arrested and charged the owners of a Massachusetts roofing company with scheming to defraud their workers compensation insurers.

Ronaldo and Adriana Solano, who operate Framingham-based H&R Roofing & Construction Inc. and H&R Roofing & Siding Corp., were indicted by a federal grand jury over allegations that they avoided more than $627,000 in workers comp insurance premiums by underreporting payroll and paying workers through a shell company, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The alleged fraud scheme occurred between 2012 and 2020.

The couple was also accused of using $1 million in pandemic relief funds on personal expenses, including a $825,000 home down payment.

Mr. Solano faces separate charges of mail fraud and wire fraud.

Both defendants were arrested Wednesday, according to federal prosecutors.