health care workers News

Meatpacking Workers Get Priority for Vaccine Under CDC Guideline

Meatpacking and poultry processing workers should be among front-line workers next in line for coronavirus vaccines under guidelines approved by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control advisory committee. Outbreaks of the virus at some plants during the spring caused shutdowns …

California COVID Presumption Law Creates New Data Tracking Burdens

A California law enacted last month that eases the path to workers’ compensation benefits for employees who contract COVID-19 will require an unprecedented level of documentation and communication between claims managers and employers. “I have joked that this should be …

Health Workers Dealing with Shock of Virus Fight, Uneasiness in Current Quiet

Outside a back door to a hospital where the coronavirus hit like a hurricane, a half-dozen staffers gathered recently to look back, and look inward. “I am still scared,” Dr. Gwen Hooley told her colleagues at Elmhurst Hospital, which was …

More States Push COVID-19 Claims to Work Comp; Potential Cost Anyone’s Guess

Regulators and lawmakers in more states are demanding that workers who claim they were sickened by COVID-19 get a fair hearing, if not an outright presumption in their favor. The Wyoming House of Representatives and Senate both passed a bill …

Viewpoint: To Restart Business, Protect Workers

States that are reopening their economies even as cases of Covid-19 are still rising are threatening their own residents and the whole country. But they are also running into two challenges that all states will face: Employees don’t want to …

Hundreds of Washington Health Care Workers Sickened by Coronavirus

SEATTLE — Hundreds of health care workers and dozens of first responders in Washington state have become sick with the coronavirus while on the job, according to workers’ compensation claims. The new data provides some insight into how the coronavirus …

Deaf Woman Sues Michigan Hospital For Not Providing Interpreter

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A deaf woman sued a Michigan hospital, alleging that it violated federal laws by failing to provide her with a sign language interpreter when she was transferred to the hospital last fall. Christine Ketola is accusing …

Coronavirus-Related Crimes Capitalize on Global Fear, Panic

WASHINGTON — Thieves steal surgical masks. A clinic sells fake COVID-19 tests. Hate groups encourage sick members to infect law enforcement officers. Imposters pose as public health officials. Con artists peddle fake cures and financial scams. As the coronavirus pandemic …

Costs of Obesity in Workplace Highest for Government Workers

Although obese employees incur higher direct and indirect costs, the extent of obesity-related costs tends to be lower in some industrial sectors than others— including healthcare, reports a study in the February Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. This study …