Tag: 2021 News

Cal/OSHA has cited multiple employers for not protecting workers from COVID-19 following inspections in various industries throughout the state.

Violations were identified in industries including construction, garment, correctional institutions and medical. Cal/OSHA opened the inspections after learning of COVID-19 fatalities and illnesses, and after receiving complaints. The full list of employers cited for COVID-19 violations is posted on Cal/OSHA’s website.

The employers cited for COVID-19 violations, and citations include but are not limited to:

Los Angeles Apparel, Inc. Garment Manufacturer Los Angeles – – $102,550
California Prison Industry Authority Correctional Institutions Vacaville – – $24,300
Integrated Pain Management Medical Group, Inc. Medical Practice San Leandro – – $9,450
Erickson Framing CA LLC Construction Fairfield – – $9,000
Erickson Framing CA LLC Construction Vacaville – – $9,000

The inspection at the Los Angeles Apparel factory occurred after reports of an outbreak, including six employees who died from COVID-19 complications. Cal/OSHA determined that Los Angeles Apparel intentionally did not report the COVID-19 fatalities. Cal/OSHA cited the employer for six serious, one willful-regulatory, three regulatory and seven general violations. One of the serious violations was failure to evaluate COVID-19 hazards, such as the lack of physical distancing or barriers to separate employees operating sewing machines. Another serious violation was the lack of employee training on preventing COVID-19 infection in the workplace.

An inspection was opened at the California Prison Industry Authority in Vacaville after the employer reported the serious illness of an employee hospitalized for COVID-19 complications, and another employee tested positive for the virus. Cal/OSHA cited the employer for three serious violations after finding deficiencies in its Aerosol Transmissible Diseases (ATD) and respiratory protection programs that exposed employees to COVID-19 infection.

Also cited for two COVID-19 related serious violations was Integrated Pain Management Medical Group, a San Leandro-based medical practice. Cal/OSHA opened an accident inspection following a report of an employee who was hospitalized for COVID-19 complications. The employer was cited after Cal/OSHA found that it failed to implement an effective employee COVID-19 screening procedure and that it had deficiencies in its respiratory protection program.

Cal/OSHA cited the Roseville-based framing contractor Erickson Framing CA, LLC following two COVID-19 complaint-based inspections at worksites in Vacaville and Fairfield. At the Vacaville site, the Cal/OSHA inspector found that the employer was not enforcing the use of face coverings or physical distancing between employees. In a subsequent inspection at the Fairfield worksite a month later, the Cal/OSHA inspector again found the same hazards: a lack of physical distancing and failure to require the use of face coverings. Cal/OSHA cited the employer for a serious violation in each instance for the employer’s failure to effectively establish, implement and maintain procedures to correct unhealthy conditions related to COVID-19 that affected its employees, including its failure to enforce face covering use and physical distancing for COVID-19 prevention.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released data on life/fraternal and property/casualty insurers. The reports provide market share information and identify leading insurance writers in several key lines of business. The numbers in the reports will increase throughout the week and month as the report runs.

The 2020 market share data include countrywide direct written premiums for the top 25 groups and companies as reported on the state page of the annual financial statement for insurers that report to the NAIC.

The Property/Casualty Market Share report contains cumulative market share data for the following lines of business: personal auto, commercial auto, workers’ compensation, medical professional liability, homeowners and other liability (excluding auto liability) insurance.

The top six carriers have more than a third of the market share (35.95%). Here are the top six.

1) Travelers Grp – Written Premium of $3,737,454,477 – – Market Share 8.91%.
2) Hartford Fire & Cas Grp – Written Premium of $2,992,053,652 – – Market Share 7.13%.
3) Zurich Ins Grp – Written Premium of $2,495,405,266 – – Market Share 5.95%.
4) Chubb Ltd Grp – Written Premium of $2,294,088,995 – – Market Share 5.47%.
5) Amtrust Financial Serv Grp – Written Premium of $1,895,538,139 – – Market Share 4.52%.
6) Berkshire Hathaway Grp – Written Premium of $1,673,865,206 – – Market Share 3.99%.

Other highlights from the report include:

– – With 69.47% of property/casualty insurance companies reporting to date, direct premiums written for all lines of business are $520,900,408,551.
– – The top 10 property/casualty companies reporting to date have a cumulative market share of 50.04%.
– – The two largest lines of business, private passenger auto and homeowners, have direct written premiums of $162,476,549,796 and $76,733,238,097, respectively, as of March 1.

The reports reflect data filed by insurers as of March 1 and will be refreshed daily through March 5 and then each Monday throughout March. The full 2020 Market Share Reports for Life/Fraternal Groups and Companies and the full 2020 Market Share Reports for Property/Casualty Groups and Companies will be available this summer and will contain more in-depth information.

Intravenous injection of bone marrow derived stem cells in patients with spinal cord injuries led to significant improvement in motor functions, researchers from Yale University and Japan report Feb. 18 in the Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Yale scientists Jeffery D. Kocsis, professor of neurology and neuroscience, and Stephen G. Waxman, professor of neurology, neuroscience and pharmacology, were senior authors of the study, which was carried out with investigators at Sapporo Medical University in Japan. Key investigators of the Sapporo team, Osamu Honmou and Masanori Sasaki, both hold adjunct professor positions in neurology at Yale.

For more than half of the patients, substantial improvements in key functions – such as ability to walk, or to use their hands – were observed within weeks of stem cell injection, the researchers report. No substantial side effects were reported.

The patients had sustained non-penetrating spinal cord injuries, in many cases from falls or minor trauma, several weeks prior to implantation of the stem cells. Their symptoms involved loss of motor function and coordination, sensory loss, as well as bowel and bladder dysfunction.

The stem cells were prepared from the patients’ own bone marrow, via a culture protocol that took a few weeks in a specialized cell processing center. The cells were injected intravenously in this series, with each patient serving as their own control. Results were not blinded and there were no placebo controls.

Kocsis and Waxman stress that additional studies will be needed to confirm the results of this preliminary, unblinded trial. They also stress that this could take years. Despite the challenges, they remain optimistic.

“Similar results with stem cells in patients with stroke increases our confidence that this approach may be clinically useful,” noted Kocsis. “This clinical study is the culmination of extensive preclinical laboratory work using MSCs between Yale and Sapporo colleagues over many years.”

“The idea that we may be able to restore function after injury to the brain and spinal cord using the patient’s own stem cells has intrigued us for years,” Waxman said. “Now we have a hint, in humans, that it may be possible.”

Two California residents were sentenced for defrauding Affordable Care Act programs in at least 12 states of more than $27 million.

63 year old Jeffrey White was sentenced to 36 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release, and 35 year old Nicholas White was sentenced to 13 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Both defendants reside in Twin Peaks, California.

Jeffrey White and his son, Nicholas White, conspired to defraud health care plans operating under the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as “Obamacare”) by fraudulently enrolling individuals in ACA plans in states where the individuals did not live.

The Whites created phony residential leases using fictitious landlords in various states.The Whites also used an online application to obtain false cell phone numbers for the individuals with area codes that made it appear that the individuals lived at the fictitious addresses, and provided the false cell phone numbers to the ACA plans. If anyone at the ACA plan called the false local number, the call would ring through to a phone controlled by the Whites.

In order to enroll the individuals in an ACA plan, the Whites paid the insurance premiums for the individuals, and also paid to have the individuals transported to California where the individuals were placed in expensive residential substance abuse treatment programs. The treatment programs then billed the ACA plans for thousands of dollars of treatment each week, including claims for expensive laboratory tests such as blood or urine toxicology screenings.

The treatment programs paid the Whites thousands of dollars in kickbacks for each referral, and some programs arranged for the Whites to receive a percentage of the money the treatment programs received from the ACA health insurance plans.

In order to maximize their proceeds from the fraud scheme, the Whites enrolled the individuals in ACA plans in states that paid the highest amount for substance abuse treatment, even though the individuals did not live in those states.

The Whites have admitted that their scheme resulted in more than $27 million in losses to ACA plans across the country, including plans in Connecticut, Arizona, California, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

The DWC has posted the 2019 Ethics Advisory Committee’s annual report on its website. The Committee is independent from the DWC, and is charged with reviewing and monitoring complaints of misconduct filed against workers’ compensation administrative law judges.

The EAC is required to make a public report each year summarizing activities in the previous calendar year. Anyone may file a complaint with the EAC. Complaints may be submitted anonymously but must be in writing.

In 2019, the EAC considered and resolved 5 complaints from 2018. Of 27 new complaints received in 2019, it considered 24 and resolved 21. Of those considered, 9 resulted in investigations, 6 of which were concluded.

Two resulted in findings of judicial misconduct.

In one of those cases, a defense attorney, wrote that complainant was reluctant to file a complaint for fear of possible retaliation against the law firm and its clients. Complainant complained that, for some time now, the attorneys at the firm have been under the impression that the judge acts with bias, often prejudging claims, and has exhibited behavior that they would classify as “bullying” of defendants.

In the specific case reported by this attorney, the judge was unprofessional toward complainant. The judge was belligerent and threatening and would not allow complainant to speak, rebut, refute, or explain anything, in violation of Labor Code section 5311.

Based on its review of the investigation, the EAC found that the investigation supported a finding of ethical violations, including ex-parte communications, prejudging the case, and a violation of Canon 3B(4) for failing to be patient, dignified, and courteous. Based upon that conclusion, the EAC recommended further appropriate action by the CJ.

In another case, a lien representative, complained that over 43 lien hearings have been held without a final order on the doctor’s lien. Complainant claimed that since 2011, 30 hearings have been held before the judge, who has deliberately delayed final adjudication of the lien.

Among other claims, the lien claimant reported that rude and punitive approach to hearings is representative of the judge’s treatment of complainant in all hearings. The judge forced the parties to stay until the lunch hour or the end of the day to receive a disposition unless the disposition was settlement, an unopposed continuance, or an order taken off the calendar (OTOC).

The EAC found that the investigation supported a violation of Canon 3B(4) for failing to be patient, dignified, and courteous. Based on that conclusion, the EAC recommended further appropriate action by the CJ.