Aetna Technical Services Report on J-M's Claim, Medical and Cost Accounting Facilities at Manville (1977)

A seven-page report issued February 24, 1977, by Robert C. McDaniel, vice president of Aetna Technical Services, Inc., examining J-M's claim, medical and cost accounting work at its Manville, New Jersey, plant. Of the plant's roughly 2,000 employees, Aetna found that "approximately 90% of the Union employees have or will file a claim" for "occupational disease," either asbestosis or loss of hearing, and about 10% of non-union employees. J-M had received more than 600 claims in 1976 and, the report estimated, could expect about 3,000 claims totaling around $7,000,000 in benefits over the next five years. Recommendations included computerized loss records, reserving for the ultimate cost of a claim because "the condition never gets better, but continues to worsen," and spot checks on whether recipients were disabled or widows had remarried.

What it shows

The report praised the J-M Medical Center as "one of the best equipped medical centers that I have seen" and noted that the Claim Department had "full access to all information contained in medical records on each employee," with the cataloged chest X-rays "of innumerable benefit to your Claim Department." It observed that "J-M has many old employees with positive findings of asbestosis." In conclusion it credited J-M with preventive measures "since the early '50's," adding that "only time will tell if the many millions of dollars that J-M has spent to safeguard their employees will reduce these claims significantly."

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Report of Examination of J-M Claim, Medical and Cost Accounting Facilities at Manville, New Jersey, by Aetna Technical Services (Robert C. McDaniel), dated 2/24/77. McDaniel describes the present system and then makes recommendations; many of them are for computerization. States that approximately 90% of the union employees have filed or will file a claim based upon an allegation of "occupational disease" either for asbestosis or loss of hearing. Approximately 10% of the non-union employees will likewise file claims. Financial implications are predictable and are covered in the report.

States that the J-M Medical Center is one of the best equipped medical centers that McDaniel has seen. The cataloging and continuous updating of employees' chest X-rays allows J-M to make as good a determination of the continuous condition of its employees as can be gathered and is of innumerable benefit to its Claim Department. Praises J-M's devotion to loss prevention and awareness of the occupational disease problem. States that J-M has taken preventative measures since the early 1950's, "yet the contrasting medical opinions as to the degree of exposure to asbestos fibers, makes loss prevention extremely difficult if not impossible. . . [O]nly time will tell if the many millions of dollars that J-M has spent to safeguard its employees will reduce these claims significantly."