Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Featured Link - Rushmore Drive.com

Is Google too White? That's the question posed by new search engine RushmoreDrive. The developers of this site say that Google is unconsciously biased in favor of sites sought out by Whites, and not those searched for by Blacks. So at RushmoreDrive, the search results tend more toward "Black" sites. This proposition seems a bit dubious to me, but I'm not really in a position to know. Here's the site's description:

We deliver a blend of mainstream search results plus a layer of more relevant search results influenced by the Black community. RushmoreDrive is where the Black community goes to find the best search results.

RushmoreDrive News enables the Black community to find news headlines from the entire World Wide Web, including well known Black media, blogs and countless relevant online voices, as well as recognized mainstream news sources.

At RushmoreDrive you will also find a feature-rich job networks community where members can create a professional profile, find job opportunities, and create job networks online. RushmoreDrive’s easy-to-use job networking tool will help members unlock the power in their professional connections.

RushmoreDrive is the starting point and the destination for its users to find what is most relevant to the Black community.

Friday Fun

Here's a retail products Web site that had a very clever programmer with a good sense of humor. Give it a couple of seconds to start, and be sure your speakers are turned on.

Muscular Dystrophy And Social Security Disability

Muscular Dystrophy (MD) is one area of a broader group of diseases known as Neuromuscular Diseases. Neuromuscular Diseases include not only the group of Muscular Dystrophies, but also  Motor Neuron Diseases, Metabolic Diseases of Muscle, Diseases of the Peripheral Nerves, Inflammatory Myopathies, Diseases of the Neuromuscular Junction, Myopathies due to Endocrine Abnormalities, and a few other difficult to categorize Myopathies. Each of these groups in turn include several diseases with strong similarities.

Muscular Dystrophy itself is a hereditary disease that causes muscle weakness and dysfunction.  As time progresses the symptoms will increase and affect multiple body systems. It will become difficult and almost impossible to perform simple activities, much less maintain employment.

Muscular Dystrophy is usually diagnosed as the result of a muscle biopsy. It can also be diagnosed through a DNA blood test. Currently, there is no known cure for MD. It is generally treated with bed rest, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.

Muscular Dystrophy is evaluated under Listing 11.13. Essentially, it is evaluated similarly to the residual effects of a stroke. Social Security will look for a “persistent disorganization of motor dysfunction.” This motor dysfunction can affect any extremity. While this is a listing level Impairment, most likely a finding of “Disabled” will be the result of exertional limitations. Because of this, it is important that your Doctor help identify those exertional limitations early on in the process.

For more information on Muscular Dystrophy check out www.mda.org. There you can make a donation and learn more about the disease.

Texas Still Leads In Percentage Of Residents With No Health Insurance

A U.S. Census Bureau report this week confirmed that Texas still has the highest percentage of residents without health insurance. Almost one of every four Texas residents – 24.8 percent – were uninsured in 2006 and 2007, based on an average of the rates for those two years. That's up from 23.9 percent for 2004 and 2005.

California still has the highest number of uninsured residents at 6.7 million, compared with 5.7 million Texans. The Texas number is up from 5.5 million in 2006.

Information Service For Your Cell Phone - ChaCha.com

The information service at ChaCha is pretty well-established now, and the business has an interesting structure to it. ChaCha employs thousands of "guides" who answer questions sent in from cell phones. The guides are paid $.20 per answer, and frequently use Google or Wikipedia to find the answers they text back to the users. The service is free, and here is an explanation from the Web site:

ChaCha is like having a smart friend you can call or text for answers on your cell phone anytime for free! ChaCha works with virtually every provider and allows people with any mobile phone device - from basic flip phones to advanced smart phones - to ask any question in conversational English and receive an accurate answer as a text message in just a few minutes.

What’s your question?
Simply text your question to 242242 (spells ‘ChaCha’) or call 1-800-2ChaCha (800-224-2242) from your mobile phone to ask any question. What are you waiting for? Ask away!

Financial Conflict For Texas Doctors?

The Dallas Morning News recently published a troubling story about Texas foster children whose doctors have financial ties to drug manufacturers. The doctors prescribe drugs made by these companies. Here are the opening paragraphs of the story:

One in three Texas foster children has been diagnosed with mental illness and prescribed mind-altering drugs, including some that the federal government has not approved for juveniles, state records show.

Many of these drugs are prescribed by doctors who have a financial stake in pharmaceutical companies' success, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. Dozens of physicians who treat children in state custody supplement their salaries with tens of thousands of dollars in consulting and speakers' fees, and they use drug company grants to fund their research projects.

Accepting this money is not illegal, nor is it frowned upon in most medical circles. Many of the state's leading medical experts receive income or grants from drug companies, money that has funded groundbreaking scientific advances. And financial ties between doctors and pharmaceutical firms are frequently self-reported by physicians on their Web sites, conference programs and journal articles.

But while the psychiatric drugs given to foster children cost millions of taxpayer dollars a year, it's hard to know how much the doctors prescribing them are making from pharmaceutical companies. Texas, like most states, does not require disclosure.

Restaurant Employees Lose Health Insurance, Even For Past Bills

I've been a little behind on blog posts while spending time trying to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so this story is a little old, but still compelling. The Dallas Morning News wrote recently about employees of Bennigan's Restaurants, approximately 8000 of who were laid off when the parent company filed for bankruptcy.

Usually, when an employer offers health insurance, and an employee is laid off, the employee has the option of keeping the health insurance, and paying the premiums. This is under a federal law known by the acronym COBRA.

But if this case, the restaurant was self-insured, and filed for bankruptcy. In that combination of circumstances, their is no responsibility for the corporation to make health insurance available to laid off workers. And in fact the employees will probably be personally responsible for medical bills that were incurred even before they were laid off. Terribly unfair, but that's what happens under the horrible federal ERISA law. Here are excerpts from the Dallas Morning News article:

But when the Plano-based corporate parent of Bennigan's, Steak & Ale and the Tavern pushed those chains into bankruptcy last month, it did more than terminate an estimated 8,000 U.S. restaurant jobs.But with news of the bankruptcy, all bets were off. When a company goes bankrupt, the future of its employees' health benefits depends on several factors.

It also threw thousands of employees and former employees who depended on the company's health plans into coverage limbo.

If the employer simply bought insurance from an insurance company, coverage is valid as long as the premiums are paid, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

But if the employer was self-insured, the story is different.    

And the company that owned Bennigan's – Metromedia Restaurant Group – was self-insured, according to a former company executive. Self-insured firms typically contract with a company such as Cigna to administer their health plans.

Such plans are governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, which is administered in part by the U.S. Labor Department.

ERISA does not require employers to hold money in reserve for their self-insured plans.

With little or no money coming in, such plans soon run dry. Since COBRA is tied to the employer's policy, once the company is gone, so is the policy, experts say.

Don't Use Cell Phones In School Zones

Across the country, kids are returning to school today. In the Dallas area, several cities now have laws that prohibit the use of handheld cell phones in school zones, so parents and other drivers need to be alert. Here is a list of Dallas-area towns and cities with this law: Dallas, Duncanville, Flower Mound, Highland Park, Highland Village, Irving, Sachse, University Park, and Wylie. Be careful out there.

Friday Fun

From the Disaboom Web site comes a list (with photos and captions) of the world's 50 funniest road signs. Warning: some are PG-13 rated.

Handguns And Kids – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

That's the question asked in a Dallas Morning News editorial today, regarding the recent decision by the Harrold school district to allow teachers to carry guns in school. This is a typically Texas issue. I doubt there are too many other states where such a matter would even be considered, much less approved. I think this is just asking for trouble. What do you think? Here's the editorial:

Don't mess with teachers in the tiny Texas town of Harrold. They may be packing heat.

An ill-conceived policy adopted by this community's school district allows teachers to carry their concealed firearms in the classroom.

Handguns and kids – what could possibly go wrong?

While Texans certainly are within their rights to carry licensed weapons nearly everywhere, schools are among the few safe havens where guns simply have no place.

Harrold's superintendent has blamed deadly campus rampages on government efforts to make schools gun-free zones. And he's suggested scenarios that include heroic, gun-toting teachers thwarting armed intruders or defusing hostage situations.

Setting aside any debate about the looming dangers in Harrold (population 320), the school district should consider other options for protecting students. Hiring a security guard, locking school buildings or installing metal detectors would help ensure safety.

Counting on teachers to double as police officers and hostage negotiators is a dangerous gamble.

Regrettably, Gov. Rick Perry endorses Harrold's policy, saying he's "a fan" of allowing registered gun owners to bring weapons to school. The governor is nothing if not consistent on right-to-carry issues. He has advocated allowing licensed gun owners to carry their weapons on college campuses, in churches and at bars.

But this practice fails the common-sense test, as does Mr. Perry's contention that many lives would have been saved if weapons had been permitted on campuses.

Injecting firearms into a school setting opens the door to tragic but avoidable accidents. And there are no certain safeguards to prevent an angry student – or teacher – from getting hold of a gun that was carried into the classroom.

Parents depend on educators to provide a safe learning environment for their children. Allowing teachers to be armed and potentially dangerous is a frightening prospect.

While school districts should make such decisions locally, this community near Wichita Falls is courting disaster. Harrold teachers should return their attention to reading and writing – and leave the revolvers at home.