Former Cal-OSHA Chief Defends Workplace Safety Program
The former chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Division defended its Injury’s Illness Prevention Program following a study by think tank RAND Corp. showing the occupational safety...
View ArticleStudy: California Workplace Safety Program Only Superficially Enforced
An occupational safety program that requires California businesses to eliminate workplace hazards only works when it’s adequately enforced. That revelation comes from Santa Monica, Calif.-based think...
View ArticleRAND Study: Ending Individual Mandate Would Cut Coverage, Hike Government’s...
Eliminating the federal mandate in the new healthcare law that every individual carry health insurance would sharply lower the number of people gaining coverage, but would not dramatically increase the...
View ArticleConsumer-Directed Health Plans Show Mixed Results
Employer-sponsored health insurance plans with low premiums and high deductibles could cut U.S. healthcare costs significantly but not without potential risks for workers, according to a study...
View ArticlePassing of Torch at California Workers’ Compensation Institute
Workers’ compensation wonk Alex Swedlow will become the fourth president of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute in 50 years following the announced retirement on Monday of J. Michael Nolan...
View ArticleDixon, Feinberg to Head New RAND Catastrophe Research Center
The RAND Corp. is launching a new research center that will analyze different approaches to compensating individuals, businesses and others following catastrophes ranging from natural disasters to...
View ArticlePremium Increases Under Obamacare Are Exaggerated, Rand Says
Predictions of sharp increases in health-insurance premiums for people getting coverage under the U.S. Affordable Care Act have been overstated and many states will see little to no change, researchers...
View ArticleObamacare Premiums Called Affordable in 17-State Survey
A 25-year-old New Yorker earning $25,000 a year will pay as little as $62 a month for health insurance next year, and a peer living in Vermont may pay nothing, according to a 17-state survey of...
View ArticleWhy Not Renewing TRIA Could Cost Government More Than Renewing It
Ending the federal terrorism risk insurance program could end up costing the federal government more than if the program, TRIA, is allowed to continue, according to a RAND Corp. study. The analysis...
View Article3 Reasons Congress Should Renew TRIA
U.S. insurance markets, like the rest of the nation, were caught off guard by the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Loss of life and property led to an estimated $32.5 billion dollars in insured losses...
View ArticleHow to Make U.S. Traffic Safety Programs More Effective: RAND Study
Following a national approach to adopting traffic safety laws is more cost effective than following a state-by-state approach, according to a new RAND Corp. study. Boosting traffic safety funding by 10...
View ArticleClimate Change Exposes U.S. Infrastructure to Natural Hazards, Rand Corp. Says
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part column. A follow up column will focus on how catastrophe modelers are being asked to create products that take into account potential climate change...
View ArticlePrescription Drug Use Up, Out-of-Pocket Spending Down Under Affordable Care...
People who gained health coverage following the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion sharply increased their use of prescription drugs, while their out-of-pocket...
View ArticleLooking at Injured Worker Benefits from California Comp Reforms out to 2020
Will workers’ compensation benefits from California’s sweeping reform law passed in 2012 help or hurt injured employees over the next four years? Some people didn’t want to wait until 2020 to answer...
View ArticleRand Report Recommends Analytics for Fraud Prevention in Workers’ Comp
The California Division of Workers’ Compensation has posted a report from the Rand Corp. with recommendations to prevent fraud in the workers’ compensation system. The Department of Industrial...
View ArticleWorkplace Is Hostile, Stressful, Grim Place for Many Americans
The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile. So concludes an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California,...
View ArticleCyber Was Focus of California Symposium for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
There are more than 4,000 cyber-attacks each year aimed at small- to mid-sized businesses, many of which are exposed because they haven’t given cyber security a high enough priority, according to...
View ArticleEarly COVID-19 Vaccinations Prevented 140,000 Deaths: Study
A new study by Indiana University and RAND Corp. assessed the impact of COVID-19 vaccinations and found that 139,393 deaths were prevented during the first five months of vaccination efforts in the...
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