RE : Re: RE : Re: IME Report without seeing the patient?

[Guest guest]

In Workers Comp, there can be as many protocol to evaluate as there are states

in the union.

It may be that the record review gets substituted for the IME. Disability

retirements often have a 'paper' review, whereby you have to submit your records

to a reviewer, sometimes a nurse, who determines (without a physical) that your

disability status continues. It is not direct litigation in the traditional

context.

The concept of Workers' Comp is to make it the sole remedy of recovery and not

sue the employer. It is to remove the Tort theory of recovery. People would

wait for years, to recover, so states enacted Workers Comp. to make benefits

available more quickly. And, most states have laws requiring Workers Comp. This

was a public policy decision.

One of the most famous cases where there was no Workers Comp was the Rhode

Island - " Station " fire a few years ago, where the rock band used pyrotechnics

and there was extensive loss of life. They had no WC insurance and were in

bigger trouble for having no coverage.

If there is a 3rd party that is negligent, then, you may possibly go after

them, in court, but the statutes of the various states govern and Workers Comp.

is not like the usual court process.

This is a voluminous body of law with each law having its own procedures for

IME's and whatever else they use. There are some very old anthrax cases that I

read as well as baker's lung cases

from different states. These were early 'exposure' cases. If I remember

correctly, the animals with anthrax hides were buried, and the spores, when the

hides were disturbed, contaminated and rendered people sick. These cases were

those which were on appeal.

I personally found the process insulting and shocking, and took Workers'

Comp. to read as many cases as I could to make myself as informed as possible.

It is basically Administrative Law, governed by appointed commissioners or

judges. It varies from state to state.

It was, in some states that you didn't even have to be a lawyer to be a

Workers Comp judge.

If you bring your lawyer to the physical, you may lose your counsel, because

the lawyer would become a 'witness' if the issue went to trial. I have heard of

nurse 'consultants' who would go to workers' comp 'physicals' or IME's and make

notes of, for example, if a worker hurt his/her shoulder, and the doctor was

testing the 'range of motion' to send the worker back to work, the nurse could

make a notation that the patient/worker 'groaned or grimaced' when the doc

pulled the arm up to test the range of motion.

It is a very tricky area best handled by lawyers who do disability retirement

and Workers' Comp. exclusively.

I realize what goes on may be shocking, but the employer has the upper hand

and if they are self-employers they are the ' insurance company.'

*****THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.*****Consult an attorney who is competent to

handle Workers' Comp.