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Greetings
Senator Prague,
Representative Ryan and Labor Committee members.
Medical treatment in Workers Compensation has become almost
non-existent with
the abusive delays, appeals, lies and denials by employers and
insurance
companies. I am supportive of HB No 5249 An Act Concerning Timely
Medical
Treatment for Injured Workers.
Thank you
Labor and Public Employee
Committee for listening to workers stories of Bad Faith from Employers
and
Insurers relative to (HB 5626) (2008) and seeing the truth
that
allowed you to propose substitute language permitting Civil action by
injured
workers outside the exclusivity of Workers
Compensation. I
have been following other state legislation relative to bad faith and
medical. I am not aware of any other legislators taking such a
proactive
stand towards obtaining the medical treatment now being denied so
frequently by
Connecticut employers.
Most of
you know my story as I we
have met. You have tried to help contacting by the Workers
Compensation
Chairman for clarification of the abuses I have described, and please
don't
think I was unappreciative, just very sick from the pain. It
took me
a year to realize the excellent work you did on HB 5626. (2008).
My Workers
Compensation Case as most Committee Members are aware, dates to
1991. Workers Compensation has
tried everything to kill me. I can tell you this from
example of
what Connecticut Workers Compensation has done by killing
three claimants.
It is my
opinion after the severe
abuse I have suffered from Connecticut Workers Compensation, the
doctors and
lawyers resulting in my losing my family, home, car, boat, motorcycle,
money
and dog, along with reading and meeting others suffering the same, that
the
corruption in Connecticut Workers Compensation begins at the top.
That is
why I started the website Rellsmells.com and picket the Capitol,
The Governor’s
Mansion, my former employer and insurance companies and agencies.
You may read my Workers Compensation Story at Paybilly.com/
I
was escorted from Governor
Rells office no fewer than 3 times in 2005 begging for help so I could
get the
medical treatment Workers Compensation was not providing to eliminate
my pain.
Within only months after my last contact with Governor
Rells
Office, I was forced to pay $ 30,000 cash for my own 2-level artificial
lumbar
disc replacement.
Why won’t
Workers Compensation
Insurance Work? Answer: it is not insurance.
The
purpose of insurance is to
indemnify. Indemnity is defined as “compensation or
remuneration
for loss or injury sustained” Principles of Insurance, Mehr,
Robert
1980. The buzz in insurance training is “to make whole”.
Also to
return the person to the point they were before the loss/accident.
This is
far from what occurs.
The system has become the judicial procedure it was designed to replace
100
years ago.
A.)
I found
a claimant last November. Vannoy. She has been injured since 1985
and
sought lumbar disc replacement like I had. Workers
Compensation
turned her hearing into a chance to make a case precedent in order to
deny all
future such claims. Vannoy and Crisco are how they are operating
like
courts and negating their function as enacted by the Legislature.
Here is
the Connecticut Law Journal opinion of the Vannoy decision. “The Compensation Review Board clarified the
standard of
scientific evidence needed to approve an unconventional surgical
procedure.” NO.
5164-CRB-8-06-11 Vannoy. This case goes back
to January 2008
decision and I found it November 2008. I called Vannoy. She
didn’t
even know she was denied. I couldn’t tell her before the
holidays. And still can’t. She did tell me that her
lawyer
told her she had a precedent setting claim.
B.)
Here is
a curious Workers Compensation case I would ask you to read and help me
understand the case setting precedent and the warning to the
legislature that
the Chairman apparently has made. NO.
4271
CRB-3-00-7 Criscio v. State of CT
C.)
Here is a case where the Chairman was knowledgeable of the injured
workers
inability to self-representation but allowed her to continue so he
could show
us how smart he is and then slap her in the face with this decision.
"Unfortunately, the claimant’s remarks in this regard merely serve to
betray her profound misunderstanding of the trial commissioner’s role
and underscore
quite clearly the perils of self representation." CASE NO. 5267
CRB-1-07-8
D.)
In 2005
Senator Prague and I had conversation regarding the Commissioner
handling of my
case. During a meeting in 2005 Commissioner Frankl asked if I had
been
complaining to Senator Prague. When I said yes, he ordered my
file
transferred to Middletown, in retaliation. At the same hearing he
would
not look at the MRI film I had showing the medical condition of my
discs.
After I had surgery, he claimed it was done without his authorization
and
cancelled my benefits, actually yelling across the room when I was on
the
telephone with the assistant. I asked which benefits were being
cancelled.
the ones I had not received in 14 years?
Former
Co-Chair of Labor Committee
James O’Rourke. Said of Frankl "Workers Compensation
Commissioner
Frankl lacks the judicial temperament and sound judgment necessary when
you put
people’s lives in someone's hand." What I don’t get, is you
had
this guy in your sights knowing he has destroyed countless claimant’s
lives,
why didn’t you lock him up? I come along, run into this guy, get
hammered, and everyone wonders why I am angry.
I have
more stories about me and
others, but I will refer you to my website, Paybilly.com/. I
was going to make copies of
this testimony like I did last year but I had the idea to save the
money I
don’t have, and purchase three copies of a new book in 2008, Depraved
Indifference. The book describes in detail the National
horror of Workers
Compensation and Chapter 12 offers legislators some great suggestions
of what
is broken and where to look for corruption. You can read a review of the book Depraved
Indifference
and my printed testimony today on Rellsmells.com. I have left the
two
copies of Depraved Indifference in Room 3800.
Annotation
by Depraved
Indifference Patrice Woeppl (2008)
92
Connecticut residents with
work-related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders were
indentified.
Of the 292, only 31 (10.6%) had filed a worker’s compensation
claim. Of
the 31 cases, only 23 cases (7.9% of the 292) were accepted by the
insurer. Sixty percent of cases were primary wage earners.
Another
13% had been the primary wage earner prior to the injury.
Twenty-one (7.2%)
reported job loss due to their condition. The authors note that
physical
and occupational therapy were more likely to be paid out of workers’
compensation that other medical costs and procedures. The study
concludes
that almost 90% of the likely work-related musculoskeletal disorders
are not
reported to workers’ compensation.
These
studies also demonstrate how a
very low percentage of worker injury costs are being covered by
workers’
compensation. If workers’ compensation is paying only small
percentage of
the cost of worker injuries, one must ask how these costs are being
paid.
In the same Connecticut study referenced earlier, Morse et al (1998)
found that
10.9% of medical visits and procedures were paid by general health
insurance
with another 8.1% being paid out of the patients pockets.
Rellsmells.com/ wants to know
what
has been done with the extra insurance profits in claims not paid vs.
actuarial
statistics or (pure premium).
There is another Workers
Compensation Group in Florida, Voicesflorida.com and Mary Bailey has
written a
history of the 1972 Commission National Commission on State
Workmen's Compensation Statutes. Please note that she
wrote
this in 2002 and just last week I told you of U.S. Congressional HB 635
that
was sent to committee January 22, 2009, that . "Serious questions exist
concerning
the
fairness and adequacy of present workers' compensation laws....found
that the system of State workers' compensation
laws was
`inequitable and inadeq uate'." National
Commission on State Worker's Compensation Act 2009 HR 635
Can you imagine how I felt after protesting
in the
streets since 2003 against the abuse I suffered for 18
years in
Workers Compensation, to find out there was a National
Committee previously
recommended by Congress describing and just reopened? Kind
of like I
was right and Rell is wrong.
I would ask of you two things today.
Would you take National
Commission on State Worker's Compensation Act 2009 HR 635, rubber stamp it and attach it to your
raised bill HR 5249
along with legislation to form a committee to investigate corruption
within
Connecticut Workers Compensation? Just call me anytime and I will
show
you where and how Iowa and North Dakota caught up with their
Workers
Compensation corruption.
The second thing is to
think of your
monetary life for the past 18 years, add the loss I suffered and
calculate how
much it is worth. Then double it for the next 18 years. That is
about
what I am figure is the true value of my loss. Read Depraved
Indifference for some guidance.
William
Lawler
Manchester,
CT
February
26, 2009
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