OWCP and NIOSH Establish Quality Assurance Program

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced that they signed a formal memorandum of understanding last week establishing a quality assurance program for X-rays used to evaluate whether claimants are entitled to black lung benefits based on the presence of complicated pneumoconiosis. "In the past two years, the department has implemented several initiatives to improve the quality and timeliness of decisions on black lung claims," OWCP Director Leonard J. Howie III said in a new...