Document 7RZD3EZBJQzyrop5O1dBYEEq8

industrial Hygiene Digest February, 1956 medical director, aad industrial hygienist, or a safety dlroctor may result ia aa Inadequate aad unbalanced performance of the total function through lack of Interest ia soma at the more prosaic parts o( saaitary maiataaaaca. Ail aspects o( Industrial sanitation should ba placed under a Ugh larel administrator.. < 292 Health aad Weliara Baaafits in Maw York State, June 1954. 'State of Now York. Department ol Labor, Division ot Research aad Statistics. Publication No. B-83. 95 pp. (Dec. 1955). Obtainable from Division o( Research aad Statistica, State of New York, Department of Labor, 80 Centre St.. New York 13, N. Y. This report presents the findings of a survey of health and welfare benefits, ia New York State that are paid for, in whole or ia part, by the employer. The main exclusions are (arms, government offices, railroads, nonprofit establishments, and establishments with fewer than four employees. It supersedes Memorandum No. 57, (XHF Abet. 1-015, Aug. 1955). Tabulated information is given oa hospital, surgical, medical, life, aad accidental death and dismemberment insurance, aad retirement pensions. Some of the data in the tables . are' classified according to types of industry aad some according to geographical location. 293 Supplementary Report of Board of Trusteea: Progress Report of Commission oa Medical dare Plans', J. Am. Meil. Assn. 159. 1370-1379 (Dec. 3. 1955). Statistics are presented oa the number, scope, costs, and features of medicsl core plans. Including those for occupational and nonoccnpatlonal medical care by ladostry, as well ns Blus Shield and other medical society plans. Additional and continuous studies are recommended in order to accomplish the prime purpose of the Investigation, which Is to determine whether the plans axe being utilised to their highest degree and whether they are being so conducted as to protect the public and the best Interests of the medical profession. 294 Health and Welfare Plans from the Viewpoint of the Practicing Physician. P. G. Bovard. Peuaa. Med. J. 58, 1329, 13^0 (Dec. 1955). The anther discusses some of the abuses la welfare and retirement fund practice, especially that of the UMWA (see abstract following). Criticism of professional care by the medical management of the Fund should be taken up at the hospital level, and abuses of fiscal behavior by doctors should be investigated at the county society level. Two other al ternatives, namely (l) appointment of a bargaining agency by the medical profession to meet with the miners' ngsecy, and (2) letting the Fund have a close sod select panel of its own choice and at Ua own price, axe rejected as contrary to the principles of good medical practice. 295 Health and Welfare Plans. Present Status from tha Viewpoint of the State Society. . W. Meiser. Med. fcSurg. *4. 4 li.-'iii'tDee. 1955); Penns.Med. 1. 58, 1331, 1332 (Dec. 1953). The idealism of medicine and the realism of organised labor have given rise to mutual distrust, dialiks, aad misunderstanding. Somewhere between these two attitudes there must bs a mutually accepted area of medico-socio-economic relationship; this area must bs found by mutual effort. Every problem that has risen between labor and medicine in the operation of welfare toads ia based on the question of remuneration. Some fruits of mutual efforts are described. These include methods of choice of physicians and methods of payment by the Fuads, The examples are cited to prove that the differences between medicine aad labor can be resolved, and it Is felt that the major ones have already been solved or are nearing solution. v 296 Problsma la the Operation of the Paired Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund. W. t. Draper. Ind. Med. kSurg. 24, 519*521 (Dec. 1953); Penan, Mod. 3, 58, 1334-1339 (Dec. 1955). Satisfactory .progress is reported ia the organization and operation of the Fund. Several problems are'dii^viised, Including (1) lack of Information, misunderstanding, and prejudice regarding the Fund; (2) abuses^. fuch as unnecessary hospitalization and prodecures; (3) relative responsibility of organised medicine and the Medical Service of the Fuad; and (4) methods of payment for physicians. Progress ia the solution.of these problem* is diseased. ^ V*