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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Alabama lawmakers have introduced a bill that would nearly triple the maximum compensation for workers who suffer amputations on the job, ProPublica’s Michael Grabell reports today.
The bill comes less than a month after a ProPublica and NPR investigation showed that Alabama had the lowest such benefits in the country and provided injured workers with an amount that left them far below the poverty line. <script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js” async=”true”></script>
The story highlighted the stark disparity in workers’ compensation among states. It profiled a man who lost his arm at an Alabama chicken feed mill and received $45,000-far less than another man who lost his arm at an auto supplier just across the Georgia state line, who received benefits that could exceed $700,000 over his lifetime.
Highlights from Grabell’s report:
- The bill would eliminate a cap of $220 a week, in place since 1985, and raise the maximum benefit to 80 percent of the state average weekly wage, or about $635.
- It would also lift benefits for workers who suffer serious back and shoulder injuries, allow compensation for psychiatric illnesses, raise attorney fees, and give workers more choices on doctor selection.
- These increases would be offset by new limits on payments to permanently and totally disabled workers and stricter limits on the fees physicians and hospitals can charge for treating injured workers. And it gives employers and insurers more control over setting those fees.
The full story is here: http://www.propublica.org/
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