Part I: Colorado study examines worker wellness program

Jan 22 2015

A recently published Colorado-based study looks at the degree to which small businesses in our state have embraced a worksite wellness program and how the program might benefit both employers and workers. The program was provided to them at no cost by workers’ compensation insurer Pinnacol. Past research has suggested that efforts to improve employee health can benefit employers, who can see productivity increase while health care costs and workers’ comp costs decrease. “Implementation of a Worksite Wellness Program Targeting Small Businesses: The Pinnacol Assurance Health Risk Management Study” was published in the January issue of the Journal of Occupational…

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House setting stage for battle over SSDI

Jan 14 2015

On the first day of the new Congress, the House of Representatives enacted the type of rules change that often flies under the radar in the nation’s capital. While the obscure procedural change didn’t grab headlines, its passage signaled a looming fight over Social Security Disability funding. As you know, the SSDI trust fund will be exhausted next year. If no new funding is appropriated, benefits to disabled workers, their children and their spouses would have to be slashed by about 20 percent.  That means a disabled Denver resident currently receiving the maximum SSDI payment ($2,663 per month) would see…

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How to claim disability for an adult disabled child

Jan 10 2015

Persons who qualify may be able to apply to receive Social Security Disability benefits to help adult disabled children. According to information provided by the Disability Planning Data website, over 10 percent of people in the state of Colorado from 16 to 64 years of age are considered to be disabled. This categorization can include a wide range of disabilities with some being mild to moderate and others being quite severe. The nature of each disability can directly affect the person’s ability to earn a living. Disability benefits can be made available to some people who are disabled to the…

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An experienced, focused firm

Jan 07 2015

As our readers know, people who want to excel must first be focused. Because our Denver law firm is focused exclusively on two areas of law – Colorado workers’ compensation and Social Security Disability – we excel in serving our clients and fighting to help them receive the deserved benefits they have earned and that they need. Our attention is on the workers who have been injured on the job and have been turned down for workers’ compensation benefits, as well as people who are prevented from working by illness or injury and are being denied Social Security Disability. In…

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The aftermath of an on-the-job car accident

Jan 01 2015

Some of our readers might remember a time when advice columns were a staple of daily newspapers. Dear Abby, Ask Landers and others dispensed advice to the lovelorn, neighbors annoyed with the person next door and co-workers fed up with someone at the office. One of today’s surviving sages is Harriette Cole, a syndicated columnist who recently received a letter from a Denver woman whose husband was recently “seriously hurt” and cannot work as a result. Though the letter was short on details, it said her husband was injured in a car accident and that he has applied for workers’…

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COLA coming in a few days for SSD

Dec 23 2014

As 2014 readies to draw to a close, a new year is about to burst onto the scene. The nearly 64 million Americans who receive Social Security retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability benefits can all expect a small gift to be part of each 2015 month: a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of 1.7 percent. Although the average monthly SSD benefit will only rise about $19, it will add up to $228 for the year. And as the old saying goes, every penny counts. The increase begins in January and will result in average monthly checks going up…

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Reasons you might be denied SSDI benefits

Dec 18 2014

For those Denver residents applying for Social Security Disability benefits, the focus tends to rightly be about their qualifying condition and the application process. Let’s shift that focus for a few minutes to reasons why a SSDI claim might be denied. After all, the Social Security Administration (SSA) rejects about two-thirds of initial claims and about half of the applicants who appeal the denial. So it’s important to understand why a claim might be denied. The main reason why disability claims are rejected is because the applicant fails to prove that they are disabled and prevented by disability from working….

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Manual patient handling sometimes leads to worker injuries

Dec 12 2014

Sometimes, in relation to their care, a patient of a hospital or nursing home needs to be moved or repositioned. Often, such patient moving/repositioning is, at least in part, performed manually by a nurse or some other health care worker. Sadly, such manual patient handling sometimes results in the health care workers who are performing it suffering injuries. Manual patient handling is considered to be the biggest risk factor for health care workers when it comes to one particular class of injuries: overexertion injuries. Some examples of overexertion injuries include back pain and general musculoskeletal pain. One wonders if this is a…

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Social Security Disability: The basics.

Dec 10 2014

Those who have a medical condition and are unable to work may qualify for Social Security Disability benefits. Social Security Disability is a system that is designed to provide assistance to those who may need it most: the disabled. Those that have worked in jobs covered by Social Security who have a medical condition that fits the agency’s definition of disability and are unable to work should receive benefits. Once approved, applicants receive monthly cash benefits. However, actually receiving benefits can be difficult. Those who believe they qualify can benefit from having a basic understanding of how the system works….

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Consider all the possibilities when you’re injured at work

Dec 04 2014

Imagine you go to work one day, as you have hundreds of times before, and your day starts off as normally as possible. Everything falls in line with the routine you’ve established over the course of your career, and by the afternoon it appears that this is just going to be another day. But then you get a special request to go into the warehouse and retrieve something. You do as you’re told, and you follow proper employee etiquette and safety procedures. Once you get the materials you were ordered to retrieve, you begin to leave the warehouse — and…

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