Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

It should come as a shock to no one that prescription drug costs in the United States are extremely high. We do not have many of the cost control measures implemented by governments of other countries, such as Canada and Europe. In fact, Congress has actually made it illegal to purchase and ship drugs to the U.S. from Canada or Mexico, where the same drugs are cheaper.

With prescription costs being as high as they are and still getting higher each year, workers’ compensation insurance carriers are worried these high costs will make it costly to provide benefits to injured workers in need of expensive prescriptions.

In other words, as our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys can explain, large insurance companies, which collect trillions of dollars in premiums each year, are worried high prescription costs will cut into their profitability, which tends to upset investors, and that is the last thing way want. Essentially, the lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry are having more success in keeping prescription costs high than insurance industry lobbyists are having in keeping them low or getting federal subsidies.

According to a recent article from Insurance Business Magazine, the cost increases in pharmaceuticals are due to what industry insiders call high price inflation for brand and specialty drugs. They also argue there are fewer big name drugs going generic in the near future, which in the past had served as a cost corrector, as insurance companies can require a patient to use a generic drug if one is available. While they have not said how this actually affects workers’ compensation claims, they claim specialty treatments for Hepatitis C are very costly, and this is having a big impact on the value of claims.

In context to drugs more obviously associated with on-the-job injuries, such as antibiotics, narcotic painkillers, and antidepressants, many of which are already generic, and still increasing in costs, which is contributing to higher costs for workers’ compensation claims. It is not small increases these insurance companies are claiming either, as they note some generic drugs have increase in costs nearly 1,000 percent in the past year alone.
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Anyone who has ever gone into a nail salon is familiar with the strong smell of chemicals and workers wearing face masks when doing client’s manicures. While these chemicals may not be harmful to customers who go into a nail salon a few times a month at most, they are proving very dangerous to nail salon workers who spend all day around toxic chemicals such as acetone throughout each work day.

According to a recent investigation by The New York Times, nail salon workers are being poisoned. The author focuses on the lives at one popular nail salon in New York City. When a customer opens the door, seemingly happy workers greet her and ask her to pick a color for her nails.

At the first work station, an immigrant worker trims a client’s nails while talking about her two children. She does not mention a child lost in miscarriage. Another worker is on the internet looking for reasons she had a miscarriage, as well, along with four others before the most recent one.
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Millions of tourists come to Hollywood each year to see where movies are made and see where the stars spend their free time. People generally do not expect to see a car plow through a crowded restaurant while they are enjoying the sights.

According to a recent news article from Fox News, a worker was injured when a pickup truck and car crashed in way, which sent the pickup flying through the restaurant’s front door. Authorities say workers were at the restaurant at around one in the afternoon preparing the business to open later that afternoon when the pickup truck came crashing into the restaurant, causing him to suffer serious, but not life-threatening injuries.

While first responders were primarily there to help injured workers and driver of the pickup truck, who ultimately declined to be taken to a hospital, they became concerned about structural damage to the building and were worried it could collapse causing additional injuries. In total 44 firefighters responded to the scene of this car accident, along with city building inspectors to help contain the damage and prevent a structural collapse.
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In State ex rel. Turner Constr. Co. v. Indus. Commission, a workers’ compensation case from the Supreme Court of Ohio, claimant filed for benefits in connection with four on-the-job injuries. State ex rel. Those injuries occurred in early 1992, June 2005, October 2005, and July 2007. This appeal was filed in relation to claimant’s 2007 on-the-job injury.

In 2007, claimant was employed as a bricklayer when he suffered a thoracic injury and a depressive disorder related to the single incident. In 2011, claimant applied for a permanent total disability rating. Claimant included a report from his treating physician featuring an opinion claimant was suffering from permanent disability due alone to his psychiatric illness related to the 2007 injury. The workers’ compensation commission hired an independent physician to evaluate claimant, and this doctor agreed with claimant’s treating physician that claimant was not able to work due solely to his psychiatric condition caused by the 2007 accident.
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