The March meeting was hosted at the home Dr. Kim VanGeffen, and our guest speaker was Dr. Michael Chafetz, who presented on the NFL Concussion Settlement Fund.
The NFL Concussion Settlement Fund provides for the development of the Baseline Assessment Program (BAP) and the Monetary Award Fund (MAF) programs. These programs evaluate retired NFL football players to determine whether they meet criteria for monetary awards for occupational exposure to brain damage based on findings of well-defined impairment. Dr. Chafetz discussed issues of concussion (with some coverage of the CTE controversy), the structure of the assessments, and sanitized/blinded cases he evaluated as part of both programs.
Dr. Chafetz is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist who runs a clinical and forensic group practice in New Orleans, LA. His research program has involved validity assessment in low functioning children, as well as adults being assessed for Social Security Disability, state rehabilitation, and child protection. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles on these topics, and wrote Intellectual Disability: Criminal and Civil Forensic Issues. Dr. Chafetz has consulted for a United States Senator on Social Security policy against validity assessment, testified at hearings at the Institute of Medicine, and consulted for the Office of the Inspector General on these issues. He has enjoyed conducting examinations for public and private disability, Louisiana rehabilitation, licensing board investigations, civil and criminal litigation, Federal Aviation Authority (pilot, air traffic controller) fitness-for-duty issues, safety-sensitive private fitness-for-duty issues, and NFL concussion settlement issues.