Author Archives: Emily Holbrook

About Emily Holbrook

Emily Holbrook is a former editor of the Risk Management Monitor and Risk Management magazine. You can read more of her writing at EmilyHolbrook.com.
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Yosemite Visitors Risk Disease

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Yosemite National Park is one of the most visited places in the U.S. with more than 3.7 million people treking to the California hotspot each year. Some of those nature lovers may be at risk for a serious disease, however.

It was recently reported that approximately 1,700 Yosemite visitors who stayed in tent cabins this summer may have been exposed to a deadly rodent-borne virus — a disease that has already claimed the lives of two people.

After learning that a Pennsylvania visitor’s death was caused by hantavirus, Yosemite officials sent emails Monday evening to those who stayed in the “signature tent cabins” in Curry Village between mid-June and late August, said park spokesman Scott Gediman. Letters were sent to visitors whose email addresses were not on record.

The fatality marked the third confirmed case of the rare rodent-borne disease linked to the park. Last week, park officials said a 37-year-old Bay Area man had died and an Inland Empire woman in her 40s was recovering after being exposed to the virus. Park officials believe there may be a fourth case but had yet to receive confirmation Tuesday.

All four stayed separately at the signature tent cabins in June, Gediman said. Officials have traced the outbreak to deer mouse droppings in the area.

Jana McCabe, a Yosemite park ranger, called the hantavirus outbreak “unprecedented.” Though the park dealt with the same type of outbreak in the past (2000 and 2010), neither instance caused a fatality, and since then employees of the park have been trained on proper hantavirus protocol.

Since this most recent outbreak, the park has stepped up its response, implementing “rolling closures” of the cabins for deep cleaning, McCabe said. Crews are tearing down interior walls to look inside and repairing holes where mice could get into the structures. Meanwhile, Yosemite is suffering a reputation setback. As word continues to spread about the deadly hentavirus outbreak, the park will undoubtedly see a drop in tourist attendance.

There have been only 587 documented cases on hentavirus in the U.S. since the virus was indentified in 1993.

 

Workers Comp in the NFL

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Tom Tupa was an NFL punter from 1988 to 2005. His 17-season career with seven teams ended abruptly on August 19, 2005 during a warm-ups for a preseason game. Tupa punted a ball and immediately fell to the ground complaining of back pain. It was the last time he stepped foot on the field as an NFL player.

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Football is inherently a violent sport; a game wrought with injuries. Players know this and because of the nature of the game, they are very rarely awarded workers compensation benefits. Tupa, as it was recently proved, is an exception.

Yesterday, Maryland’s high court rejected the idea that football injuries should not be considered accidental because of the rough nature of the sport.

Tupa’s injury happened “out of and in the course of (his) employment,” the Maryland Court of Appeals said in its 16-page opinion.

“He was warming up for a game when he landed awkwardly and thereafter sought immediate medical treatment,” Judge John Eldridge wrote in the opinion. “Ample evidence was presented to show that Tupa suffered a compensable accidental injury during the course of his employment.

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”

The team and insurers argued that Tupa’s injury was not an accidental personal injury within the meaning of Maryland’s workers’ compensation law. The court rejected that argument.

Just two weeks ago it was another story with a another player, however.

Bruce Matthews played for the NFL with several teams for 19 years before retiring from the sport in 2002. In 2008 he filed a workers comp claim in California, stating that he was injured in various locations throughout the state during his career, but failed to specify which injuries occurred in California.

But the state court wasn’t having it.

“He did not allege any specific injury in California or a need for medical services in California,” the ruling reads. “Matthews likewise did not allege in his complaint before the district court that he suffered any discrete injury in California. Nor has he directed us to anything in the record indicating that he tried to prove injury in California, or any burden on the state’s resources.”

The court noted that employees cannot bargain away state minimum labor standards in arbitration or collective bargaining agreements. But it said that argument does not apply in Matthews’ case, because he did not prove that he has a claim under California workers’ comp law.

In addition to potentially increasing workers comp claims, the NFL also has the issue of lawsuits stemming from player concussions. A fight is currently underway between the league and insurers over who will pay to defend the NFL against lawsuits involving more than 2,400 former players.

The NFL remains in hot water and seems to be hemorrhaging money on legal services.

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Will the sport become a safer one? Will the league eventually run out of funds. Both are highly unlikely.

Or are they?

Cavalcade of Risk #164

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Today marks the 164th edition of the Cavalcade of Risk, a gathering of the most important and well-written posts within the blogosphere pertaining to risk and insurance. In this edition, industry bloggers have covered everything from workers comp to investing risk to disease management. And it’s all here for you:

  • Investment Risk: Investing in bonds is relatively safe, but Darnell Brown points out the investment risks inherent in any type of bond purchase, as well as traditional stock buying.
  • On-the-job Risk: Julie Ferguson of Workers’ Comp Insider writes about the less obvious risks that law enforcement and first responders face in her hard-hitting post that cites a recent South Carolina case in which a sheriff was denied workers comp benefits for mental distress after he fatally shot a suspect.
  • Measurement Risk: If you can’t believe the actuaries, who can you believe? Unfortunately when it comes to disease management and wellness, the  industry is “rife with incompetent measurement of outcomes,” which leads to massive misallocation of funds, at least according to this podcast with David Williams and Al Lewis, president of the Disease Management Purchasing Consortium.
  • Liability Risk: Jason Shafrin tackles the question of who is financially liable for covering most American’s risk of falling ill? The answer is increasingly the federal government (i.e., taxpayers).
  • The Risk of Inadequate Coverage: Veteran insurance blogger Henry Stern writes about critical illness insurance policies — something all of us should be aware of, though few are.
  • The Risk of Working With Different Personalities: For life insurance risk managers, there is a type of buyer who wants to lead a more financially responsible life but often fails. Russell Hutchinson explores how you may be able to help them.
  • 10 Common Questions Claimants Have When Filing a Worker Comp Claim: Rebecca Shafer of Work Comp Roundup answers questions such as how to get paid and whether being assigned to a light duty job that pays less than your usual job is illegal or not.

Don’t forget to check out Jason Shafrin’s Healthcare Economist blog for the next Cavalcade of Risk.

An Insurance Fund for Futures Customers on the Horizon?

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First it was the massive fraud committed at MF Global, where company trading losses were conveniently covered with client money — $1.6 billion to be exact — that will likely never be repaid. Then it was the Peregrine Financial Group debacle, the Madoff-like scandal that resulted in $200 million shortfall in customer accounts.

On the heels of these investment banking scandals, lawmakers are working to create an insurance fund for futures customers. Michael Dawley, chairman of the Futures Industry Association and managing director at Goldman Sachs’, has put his support behind the idea, claiming the Institute for Financial Markets should examine the plausibility of such a fund. Scott O’Malia, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission commissioner and chairman of the advisory committee has called the recent scandals a complete betrayal of public trust and called for “an immediate and comprehensive overhaul of customer protection safeguards.”

Speaking at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on MF Global and Peregrine’s collapse this month, CME Group President Terrence Duffy said raising money for such a fund might be too costly to the industry to be appealing.

And even if futures brokerages were willing to pitch in, customers might still be dissatisfied by the ultimate payback.

“Ask the folks that were investing with Mr. Madoff when he took $50 billion and SIPC gave them $2.5 billion in return,” he said, referring to infamous Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.

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“Ask those that lost money on MF Global or Peregrine if they wish they’d have had insurance.

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Of course they would,” he said in an email.

In essence, the futures insurance fund would protect customers’ money in the event of another MF Global or Peregrine event, acting similar to the Securities Investor Protection Corp, which guarantees securities investments up to $500,000 in the event a brokerage firm collapses. Just yesterday, leaders from the futures industry and futures customers gathered again to discuss the feasibility.

With no sign of the slowdown in banking scandals, it would make sense to create a safety net for customers. But it remains to be seen if all parties will agree to the cost of such an endeavor.