When people in New York and other states around the nation think about workers' comp, they usually have an assumption that it only involves pay during their time out of work. However, there are many components to the program that deal with more than just wages. Those components are likely to change very soon. The following includes the changes you may see to this program in 2021.In recent years, certain issues have arisen from the overprescribing of pharmaceuticals such as pain killers. This will likely lead to certain restrictions on the prescribing of these and similar medicines. However, one should understand that not all states are implementing changes in their workers' compensation programs.Over the course of 2020, a new way of providing health services to people emerged. Telehealth services provide [...]

The number of motor vehicle accidents caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs usually increases significantly during holiday periods. This is why law enforcement agencies in New York and around the country often launch holiday drunk driving crackdowns. These efforts usually include setting up checkpoints near bars, nightclubs and other areas where drunk driving is common that are designed to identify impaired motorists before they cause accidents.The legality of sobriety checkpoints was challenged in 1990 by Michigan residents who claimed that they violated protections against unreasonable government search and seizure guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the role sobriety checkpoints play in deterring drunk driving and improving road safety outweighed a negligible" inconvenience for drivers. The justices also [...]

According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), more than 1.4 million workers in the United States are impacted by serious workplace injuries or illnesses every year. Members of the workforce in New York are probably aware that many of these injuries could be handled better if there were more preventative training in place. Having certain core information in every workplace safety training manual can be the secret to minimizing these injuries going forward.The key purpose of any occupational health and safety (OH&S) program is to increase safety in the workplace by laying out a plan of action that minimizes workplace hazards. Even though every company's needs vary to some degree, some key elements are at the heart of every business's safety plan. Having a written account of corporate [...]

Lockout/tagout procedures are essential to some New York workplaces because they protect workers from cases where dangerous machinery energizes or starts up unexpectedly. They are said to prevent some 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries every year across the U.S., but lockout/tagout violations were listed at number four in OSHA's Top 10 list of the most cited violations.Any LOTO training program must go step by step through the process. It all begins with the procedures for shutting down and restarting machinery. There can be hazards associated with the shutdown, which must be emphasized. The shutdown instructions should be written down for reference and must present the steps in the correct order.Isolation points, which are the points where the machine can be disconnected from its energy sources, must be identified and labeled. [...]