Michael Grabell's "Insult to Injury" workers comp investigation

Michael Grabell has written an impressive collection of articles looking at today's Workers Comp realities.  He uncovers plenty of information to help us put Pinnacol Assurance's CEO Phil Kalin's misleading Amendment 69 articles into a more realistic light.

Become familiar with the following and you too will be wondering: Why do we allow them to get away with it?  Hopeful this information will help some understand why it's very important for you and your friends to get out and vote this election.  

Help create a Colorado health care system responsive to the people's needs rather than to corporate bonus incentive packages.  Vote Yes on Amendment 69!

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Insult to Injury

America’s vanishing worker protections.

Investigations by ProPublica Journalism in the Public Interest

List of articles authored and co-authored by Michael Grabell.

https://www.propublica.org/series/workers-compensation

The Demolition of Workers’ Comp

by Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, March 4, 2015

Over the past decade, states have slashed workers’ compensation benefits, denying injured workers help when they need it most and shifting the costs of workplace accidents to taxpayers. More »

Workers' Compensation Reforms by State

by Yue Qiu and Michael Grabell, ProPublica, March 4, 2015

In all, 33 states have passed laws that reduce benefits, create hurdles to getting medical care or make it more difficult to qualify for workers’ comp. Explore the interactive »

Employers Complain of Rising Premiums, But Workers’ Comp Is at 25-Year Low

by Sisi Wei and Michael Grabell, ProPublica, March 4, 2015

Despite the drumbeat of complaints about costs, employers are paying the lowest rates for workers’ compensation insurance than at any time in the past 25 years, even as the costs of health care have increased dramatically. More »

Insurance Information Institute Challenges Our Workers’ Comp Investigation. We Respond

by Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR 

March 18, 2015

Insurance Information Institute challenges ProPublica/NPR’s workers’ comp investigation. Here's our response.

https://www.propublica.org/article/insurance-information-institute-challenges-our-workers-comp-investigation/

Dr. Horiagon responds to Pinnacol's Phil Kalin's Amendment 69 bashing.

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Response to Phil Kalin

By Tom Horiagon MD MOccH

(http://workerhealth.vpweb.com)

This commentary is written is response to an article appearing in:  http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-columnists/ci_30282396/amendment-69-damaging-workers-comp-system

Mr. Kalin's assertions fly in the face of the facts. 

Let's address the big errors: Kalin cites the CHI report that had to use very tortured and adverse assumptions in order to derive a year 10 deficit. This long-range prediction assumes no dynamism or adjustment by the ColoradoCare board of directors, no structural cost savings, no effects of decreased administrative costs, no effects of decreasing unnecessary capital expenditures in over-served areas, and adverse assumptions about Federal actions. 

It is also worth considering the source. CHI is an extension of the hospital lobby and hospital networks that thrive by market segmentation and running away from under-served populations will be losers under Amendment 69. 

The claim that Colorado's workers compensation system is one of the nation's best is beyond preposterous. The notion that ColoradoCare would take away access to occupational medicine specialists in Colorado is a lie. 

The fact is that hardly any of the physicians participating in Colorado worker's compensation have any training in occupational medicine beyond what they got in the Level II certification course. 

The Regional OSHA Director cannot recall ever receiving a notification from a Colorado physician about unsafe or unhealthy work environments. 

Why start this blog? + Intro to Dr. Horiagon's response to Kalin

My little excursion into ColoradoCare's Amendment 69 has snowballed on me.  All I was doing was researching my response to the Pinnacol CEO's flippant letter to the Durango Telegraph because I have personal reasons to be irritated with Pinnacol Assurance's dishonest practices, but I had no idea...

It's turned into an adventure of dark discovery that just keeps on going.  I documented the first leg of this journey in my previous post.  One of the articles that didn't make the cut