Injured Workers ‘Left to Languish’
* I applaud your work to enlighten us on the workers’ comp system problem (Aug. 6-7). I am a psychiatrist and have been asked to treat several injured workers. They have tragic stories. Men and women in mid-career with witnessed injuries and multiple surgical interventions left to languish for years dependent on the whims and errors of insurance companies for their livelihoods. Workers become patients and true rehabilitation is postponed. The unseen effects of the process are despair, divorce and bankruptcy.
The system employs doctors, attorneys, investigators and insurance companies. These folks seem to get more out of the system than the injured workers we might wish to protect. The medical fees are structured to pay the dueling experts at twice the rate that treating physicians are reimbursed. Attorneys receive a minimum of 15% of the settlement. The aggressive efforts to detect fraud defy logic. I recently had an investigator tail a patient into my office waiting room. I hope your article initiates changes. No system is perfect, but we can do better.
JOSEPH A. SCHWARTZ MD
San Luis Obispo
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* Re “Anti-Fraud Drive Proves Costly for Employees,” Aug. 7: The article failed to take into account the presence of lawyers. The workers’ compensation laws in California were promulgated to get the injured worker medical treatment and to reimburse him for lost wages during convalescence. The intent being that all of this could be accomplished without litigation.
During the period of terrible fraud in the late ‘80s, employers would receive the letter from the lawyer before the employee told us he was injured. Every employer has had the experience, while talking with the supposedly injured employees, of hearing this plaint, “My lawyer says I can’t come back to work until he says it’s OK.” Attorneys have sponsored “educational cruises” for the workers’ comp judges. Get the attorneys out of the system and the system could once again become fair and compassionate.
RAYMOND G. BOYD
Ventura