Due to her own stupidity. A woman, Nathalie Blanchard, who claimed she had "major depression" and couldn't work posted pictures of herself having too much fun on Facebook. The insurance company now says if she is "well" enough to have as much fun as she was having at a Chippendale's show, then she is "well" enough to get off the dole and go back to work. I agree.
Having worked in the legal field for many, many years, I personally saw the fraud and abuse of the Workers' Compensation system. One of the firms I worked at, "1-800-IAM-HURT," took these kinds of cases as a major percentage of their client base. I worked there in both the personal injury department - you know, the rear-end accident at three miles an hour which caused a person to suffer severe and debilitating injuries [not!], and on the Workers' Compensation department for all those "I pulled my back lifing a piece of plywood and I'll never be able to work again" and then would see that same client out on a Friday night sans cane and walking with NO pronounced limp. Which is NOT to say that there are not some legitimate cases in either personal injury or Workers' Compensation - I saw those, too - but more often than not it was someone trying to game the system and get something for nothing.
Unfortunately, there is less money to be made on the defense side, and yes, I compromised my integrity working on the "dark side." Thankfully, I am retired, now, and never have to concern myself about putting myself in such a position again.
It is quite telling that this exposed Workers' Compensation fraud - if that is what they call it in Canada - has very little support from the pages and pages of commenters! Oh, sure, there is some there, but I think - judging from this and from the comments left for that POS Ft. Hood murderer - people are FINALLY getting quite weary about what our responsibility is insofar as taking care of everyone else.
Nathalie - get off your ass, put your big girl panties on, and get back to work. The rest of us are sick and tired of supporting you and all of the others out there just like you who are taking advantage of a system that has been put into place to help the truly needy but which instead only encourages fraud and abuse!
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Having worked in the medical field for years, and having worked with my hubby who was in private family practice for years and is strictly ER now, part of the blame goes to the doctors.
ReplyDeletePeople come in, claim they can't work, they are disabled, want to get on disability, and many doctors give in.
We never did that and on many occasions has people jump up, start cursing as they leave the office, headed to another doctor who they hope will be more gullible. If we got all the fakers off the public dole, we could free up TONS of money.
We've seen people come into the office or ER, moaning, groaning, crying, wanting drugs... An hour later they are whooping it up at the local Pizza Hut or beer joint.
Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com
I know exactly what you're talking about, Debbie. There seems to be some sort of "underground network" of MD's who are willing to sign whatever paperwork and give out whatever drugs. Me? I hurt my knee so bad it was swollen to double the normal size, was fitted for a brace and given crutches and an RX for 10 or 12 painkillers. After that? Oh, just take a Tylenol. Umm. Okay. The orthopedist changed his mind and gave me a refill when I called him at 8P at night, at home, crying! Did I demand drugs at the ER? No. They gave me the first shot of morphine I've ever had - and I probably wouldn't have needed it if a nurse wouldn't have tripped over my leg and fallen on it. Just saying. Not the "drug seeking" type, didn't want a note for disability or anything - it was not a work related fall - but you'd think that someone like me could at least get a refill on pain meds. Nope. A friend gets painkillers for her headaches! Oh, yeah. I know the "type."
ReplyDelete"If we got all the fakers off the public dole, we could free up TONS of money." And, if we put a stop to fraud and abuse of the system via payments we'd have TONS more money.
It goes both ways. I've got a work-related injury that's kept me out of work since April '08. I've had five surgeries on my hand with one to three more to go. I'm on tons of pain pills, as well as nerve medications. I do suffer at times from a little depression due to it and I take something for that that works dually on the depression and nerve pain. But you know what? I'm a good "faker" in front of people. No one wants to hear me complain. Looking at me, unless you looked closely, you'd think I was okay. But everything is difficult from cooking to laundry to driving. I'm tired of being sent to different doctors by the insurance companies in the hopes they'll get someone to say I'm a malingerer, and in the end their docs always concur that I'm totally disabled (though hopefully not permanently.) But I go on vacations from time-to-time. I go out to dinner. Sometimes I even manage to laugh. Most of the times I can put myself together to look not bad. Just because someone is on WC or disability doesn't mean they need to hole up in their house and never leave.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I work in the legal field and have done med mal and worked on tons of trials that show me the people that are out there looking for an easy buck.
Unfortunately there are no easy answers to it. Some people will end up defrauding insurance companies and many others will be cut off their benefits unjustly.
I made it clear in my post that there ARE legitimate cases out there, Anonymous. I know there are. I totally agree with everything you said. But I still think that our society has made it so that a far number try to play the system and get away with it - ruining it for the ones that really need AND deserve it.
ReplyDeleteSabra, I do agree with part of that. (And I only posted as anonymous because I'm not sure how to do it with my name ... it was the only way I could post it. Don't like to write things anonymously.)
ReplyDeleteOne thing that bothered me about the insurance end of things was that SOME law firms/insurance companies go after everyone no matter what. I used to take depositions and examinations under oath and for a while I filled in for a friend when she couldn't take a case. What bothered me was the way some (maybe most) of the attorneys in this firm handled the accident victims. They were always so rude, going through their credit information, asking why their Macy's bill was paid 3 days late. It used to bug me that they made an assumption that because someone may be poor that they would commit fraud and had no ethics.
That said, I know for a fact that these accident scams are huge and it is a disservice to all of us. I know they tend to cluster in certain cities, with certain treating physicians/chiropractors, and often it tends to be a certain ethnicity that's involved in them.
I do think there should be a better way to handle it. Not sure what that way is but you would think someone could figure it out.
I personally don't understand why anyone would want to be on WC or disability unless you need it. Your life is so limited being on disability and the amount of money you get isn't really enough to make ends meet. I don't really see the attraction to it.
I'll add my name since this will come up as anonymous again and I feel if you write something you should add your name to it.
Mary