Legislators need to know what their laws are doing to Florida citizens. The work comp insurance companies and employers have lobbyists to constantly pursue them, present them with “facts” that are certainly presented in their favor and they have the money to get the attention of the Legislators. Injured employees have only a few dedicated attorneys and health professionals to stand by them. As a whole, the injured employees are not only too sick to organize a group effort to “lobby” the legislators, but they are also incredibly intimidated by the insurance companies, attorneys and employers so that they are afraid to say a word to anyone about the treatment they are subjected to on a constant basis. The laws have lowered the number of attorneys who are willing to take on injured employee’s cases. Some very questionable and unethical strategies involving the pressure applied to some doctors to get them to change their diagnosis or stop treating an employee are happening regularly and seriously need review by an ethics board.
The injured employees in Florida are great in number and what they have been and are being put through is unspeakable. Doctor prescribed medications and treatments refused – checks withheld – mental and emotional cruelty dished out to try to force employees to take settlements that will not cover their medications – trying to force work comp costs onto Medicare – false accusations of fraud - and more.
Yes, there are some employees who abuse the system. Just as many employers abuse the system – one in Panama City comes to mind immediately. Have the FL Legislators passed laws to hurt the employers because some have committed fraud??? Have the legislators taken away access to attorneys for employers? Have they forgotten that many (if not most) of the injured employees were hard working, productive citizens until an accident caused by an unsafe condition at work – something out of their control – changed their livelihood, health and everything for which they had worked. Many of these people had worked for many years – as much as 20+ years – and have paid their taxes, work comp, etc. Why now treat them as if they are criminals?
As the old expression goes, you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. But, in Florida, if you are an injured employee, get ready to be thrown out. You don’t abuse the honest people who have worked and been a part of the productive citizenship of Florida and are the victims of an accident that took away not only their employment, but also their social lives, their hobbies and in some cases, their ability to even go to church. The treatment dished out by the work comp insurance companies and attorneys rips apart self esteem, emotional and mental stability and families.
Is there not any kind of safeguard to stop the abuse? Even hockey players have penalty boxes and have to leave the ice for inappropriate behavior. Even animals are protected under animal cruelty laws. When will injured employees get protection and fair treatment? When will the employees’ doctors not be subject to threats if they (the docs) are not willing to change their diagnosis or release the patient from their care because they truly care about the patient and their health? When will the employees not have to be sent to the “hired guns” – the docs who are well known to write reports to favor the insurance companies – to prepare reports to dispute the doctors who have been treating the employees?
If the employee does have someone to represent them, it still takes a year or more to get a hearing in a court. If a medication is being refused, what good is it to wait for a year or more without the medication? Usually, the employee has to try to find another medication somewhere else or just give up taking that one and risk their health – Ding! That round goes to work comp and the employee’s health suffers again. How many rounds does an injured employee have in them – well, folks, that seems to be exactly the name of the game!!! Wear that injured employee out – make them too darn tired and/or too darn sick to get back in the ring – make them throw in the towel and walk away with a few pennies – or maybe even nothing! Be sure you make them crawl out of the ring, do not leave them with anything left of their former self.
Yes, there is a need for accurate diagnosis, but many of these cases turn into witch hunts!
It is an interesting fact that I have been told that there is not a kept statistic on how many injured employees in the Florida work comp system commit suicide. I hope this is wrong, because I think this is information that would very much tell how efficient the FL work comp system is performing. It seems that most docs I have seen and most knowledgeable people with whom I speak on the subject know of at least a handful of people who were honest injured workers who could no longer take the system and took the permanent way out. I have a feeling that the number would be frightening. To know that people were taking their lives out of desperation from being trapped in a life of illness and mistreatment by strangers who claim that they have the knowledge to make life altering decisions as lightly as if they were talking about the maintenance of a car and not a human being is surely a sign that the Florida government either does not care about the injured employees or looks upon all of them as a nuisance..
More To Come…Stay Tuned
