Category Archives: workers comp

Workers’ Compensation affectionately referred to as “the system”

months without a real update

Current Mood:Important emoticon Important

ya, it’s been months without any type of a real update on here. so here I go on a rant with tangents and labor code references.

General Status: somethings are moving along, others seem more futile.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned on here that I am working again finally.  Only part-time for a ISP, but it’s something, I feel productive again, and my job title is the same as my last job with Eyematic.  But ya, I’m still getting a major refresh, along with having to expeditiously relearn all that I had forgot in my past jobs.  Not being able to work for as long as it was, was distressing to say the least. obviously didn’t want to help me with getting back to work, or with my work rehabilitation benefits which were due, and have since expired, and now at the end of this year are going away completely, and if I am to recover this benefit I need to file more bullshit paper work.

So using Google to search for California Labor code information kinda sucks, ca.gov should be within the first 10 listings, California’s issue, or is it Google’s?  Anyways, much of the labor code and processes is distressing, and in my situation I feel it is more in ’s favor unfortunately much of the time, because they DELAY for MULTIPLE YEARS, MONTHS at will. Well it’s plain to see that Labor Code 5814.(G) states;

(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no action may be
brought to recover penalties that may be awarded under this section
more than two years from the date the payment of compensation was
due.

SCIF could care less because there is no protections for me in the Labor Code in this regards.  and there is no labor code which reads something like, “An unreasonable failure to pay self-imposed penalty for delay or denial of medical treatment”, that way the insurance companies are better self-regulated.  As a Pro Per Injured Worker, it’s a fucking pain in the ass dealing with form after form, duplicate mailings, trying to remember everything, and then I come across this tidbit while reading.

“Unreasonable denial or delay of proper TTD payment at correct rate per LC 4661.5;”

Presently SCIF is improperly paying me, and their excuse is they are too busy.  Honest to god answer from today, 2008.11.13.

RE: TTD payments (wage loss).  I decided to pay you on the basis of your
working 40 hours every two weeks because neither Robert nor I have the
time to chase the information down from your employer.
We are probably
overpaying you if you are working more than 40 hours, but we may assert
that later and ask the court for permission to deduct it from other
benefits.

Tom Donovan
(818) 291-7078

(my emphasis)

Mind you 2008.09.25, I was told by the SCIF employee in charge of my TTD benefits something different.

My job is to call the employer to how much hours you worked every 2
weeks.  Not the employee.
I would really prefer to call your employer
instead, than call or email you everytime I need information.  Could you
please give us the number of your employer.  The number of your employer
in our records is invalid.

Thank you.

ROBERT P. MORDENO
Glendale District Office
(818) 291-7816

So Ya, My Dad came to visit Monday-Weds this week for the WCAB court date early Wednesday morning.  Apparently this WCAB whatnot was only for ONE main issue, and not all the issues which were to be addressed as ordered previously back in September.  not too sure, it just aggrevates me why we can’t get get all the shit out there when we’re all there, and it’s so goddamn informal as it is.  There is no court reporter.  It’s just me the SCIF lawyer; Arduino, The Judge, and my Dad.  Hell I wouldn’t be where I’m at with the hush hush process, unless I “crashed” a hearing for my case back in August or was it July?  I certainly didn’t crash it, they knew I would be there, I told them.  I even had the right at that time to bring up the issues which somewhat were addressed as I said.  It just doesn’t make sense, do they not see I want to get this shit handled post haste?  Tick tock tick tock, I was 20 when this started, 28 now, and fuck if I have had any real closure or sense of release from the bear trap which my leg is ensnared.

From what the Judge, and the SCIF attorney say, my case is very unique, possibly groundbreaking and I think very likely to gather attenion in the near future.  It’s plain interesting to me, when a quasi-state run entity chooses to completely ignore state law for federal law.  I stand by a good argument which is written on the California Division of Worker’s Compensation website.

Injured workers are entitled to receive all medical care reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of the injury, with no deductible or co-payments by the injured worker. For dates of injury on or after Jan. 1, 2004, an injured worker is limited to 24 chiropractic and 24 physical therapy visits.

At this time I won’t mention the particular California law which states my chosen medical care to be reasonable for relief from the chronic pain.

I really wish I was able to easily print the pages labeled; 114-115, 209-214, 412-420; and even a few hidden pages that are within the ranges.  Also page 426 has an interesting table, but it’s for in a section for post operative amputee’s.

http://books.google.com/books?id=q0Wx5VHo1HoC&pg=PA415&lpg=PA415&dq=california+reasonable+for+relief+from+the+chronic+pain&source=web&ots=FY1Hp3E0Yv&sig=b-nocJzh8GKYGYivFT27E2_SkE0&oi=book_result&ct=result&hl=en#PPA415,M1

back to the work force

A couple weeks ago an old boss/friend of mine from Flashcom called me up out of the blue and asked me to lunch.  Cool I thought to myself, it’s always nice to see old friends.  A few days later we had lunch and chatted about what we were up to.  I mentioned that I’ve been needing more to keep busy with at home.  That I have been trolling monster.com, thinking about trying to get a job again and I’d even failed a phone interview with Yahoo! a few weeks earlier.  It’s not like these past 7 years I haven’t wanted to work, I just haven’t felt able or had the opportunity.  Between the amount of pain I am in everyday; somewhat scared, my confidence, which has been shit along with my inability to sit upright and function with a computer for periods longer than 30 minutes.  I just feel useless, A.D.D. like and I’m not at the top of my game like I used to be.  Long story short, my friend gave me the chance to see where I am at, then a part-time job opportunity and plenty of room to grow in that job.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  :)

I started this week hoping I wouldn’t embarrass myself, or worse have some kind of melt down or failure.  I spent lots of hours “cramming” for a final as it were.  I tried to refresh myself throughout the week the best I could.  After my first day of work yesterday I was so extremely tired, even though I was there for barely 7 hours I probably didn’t rest enough on the job.  I woke up at 4:30pm today after sleeping around 16 hours.  Need to diligently take it easy not push myself too hard, and remember to lay down flat more frequently during my breaks.  Most computer work is extremely sedimentary.  Once I figure out how to do 50% or more of it walking around or laying down for cheaper than $4k, I’ll be quite pleased.

Today, I am more confident now, in that maybe I haven’t lost all my valuable skills.  I just need to continue to remember what I’ve already learned from past experiences, and then learn how to reapply what I know.  Sure it’s only day one.  It is just a big change for me.  I’ve really felt pretty worthless since I became unable to work.  The Physician’s Assistant at my appointment on Wednesday said it was great that I was trying to get back to work after so long and said it would really benefit me, as we discussed my work restrictions.  I’d say he was right on.

If only this string of positive events had happened sooner!  When will my psyche, lower back, and left shoulder get healed so that maybe then I can put this overly stressful ordeal behind me?  Only SCIF knows for now, my guess is much more time will be wasted.  For now let’s focus on the good things.  New Macbook, new job, and I’m back in California.  :)  I also don’t care as much about the issues of trying to find a roommate which would be icing on the cake at this point.

Got to goto the gym now and beat myself up more to push the envelope.  Today I really have the old man walk and I’d like to try out the spa and sauna at the gym if I can get over the ick factor.

PS: didn’t make it to the gym in-time. bah!  was going on odd days, now it’s even days I guess.  oh well, first time for everything.

PPS: Vitamin Water tastes like it sounds.

PPPS: my sense of time sucks, it’s only been 7 years.

this is Friday

About a week ago I was in the dumps, and today I’m doing OK with little progress, a few exceptions and notes.

  • I’ve been to the gym three times this week.  Going to try to go at least every other day to push myself.  It stated out as just a two week trial, but they had a deal going where it was $80 to start, and $30/month for access to the California clubs.  Seeing the deal, I got the membership to Bally Total Fitness which lasts for 36 months.  SCIF authorized 6 months.  Today I started keeping track of my limited routine in a notebook.  I’m only working out with 5 machines.  Mainly right now I am using the recumbent bicycle at the beginning and end of my work out for a total of 30 minutes.
  • Last week I made an appointment for a consultation with Barrington Psychiatry of Newport Beach, and the soonest available was for July 7th.  Which didn’t surpise me, any place SCIF has sent me to for psych has had a multiple month wait to be seen.  So this week I was able to get a sooner appointment on May 12th with another doctor whom my recommended, and this visit was authorized by SCIF.
  • In the mail today more crap was delivered to me from SCIF again reminding me that I need some form of digital document management system to better contain the insanity.  SCIF was again nice enough to send me someone else’s private medical records to boot.  It’s shameful the Worker’s Compensation industry are not held to the HIPAA standards of privacy, portability and liability.  I’m half tempted to mention the persons name here in my blog. I believe they might have an opinion as to how SCIF manages their “confidential records” records.
  • My computer crashed twice while writing this blog post.  I am continually glad WordPress has the automatic draft saving feature.
  • Last Saturday I got to see a couple old friends I haven’t seen since before I got hurt.
  • Last Sunday went to the water park with jen0r, kyrone, and their son Hayden.  It was very pleasant in the heat of the midday to just idle in a body of water.  I haven’t been in a pool in a long time.  The water has the nice effect of relieving my back pain thanks to bouyancy.
  • This weekend more social activities are in store for Saturday.  Plans unknown.  Hopefully I won’t be too sore tomorrow from today’s work-out.
  • The highs and lows of my depression are still there, but it seems to happen with more frequency, and less duration this week.

oooh scary monster; resume

I’ve been slowly updating my monster.com resume the past couple weeks. Boy has monster.com been around for a long time. It’s scary to see all the skills I used to have and utilize, and now where am I? I guess it has been several years since I last blew the dust off it, and have been able to add a few things too. Hell, I’ve even updated some of the verbiage accomplishments to be more appropriate, as my resume included names of now defunct bits of software.

I wish I had some help in getting back to work. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about it, that’s for sure.  I am just afraid, and not as confident as I’d like. I’m not sure if I can handle the responsibility of a Full time job, but I’d like to give it a try somehow. It’s not healthy sitting at home alone all day waiting for life to advance. I am supposed to be entitled to some job rehabilitation benefits, but those expired years ago, and unfortunately it has taken many of what should have been the best years of my life just to get to where I am today. Ok, well my left arm is really bugging me now and I’m feeling more depressed.

Dear Google

In the news today, Google Health got a lot of press, regarding their pilot plan for health information access.  I can only hope someone from Google happens upon my blog and is able to offer their company’s help.

Dear Google,

The amount of paper consumed in the process of my Workers’ Compensation case is immense, it’s also mind numbingly difficult to lookup and consume information.  Right now the amount of information I possess related to my case could easily fill a filling cabinet or three, it’s completely unorganized, and it grows every week it seems with more copies of the copies I’ve already received.  When I got injured almost 7 years ago I had no idea I would become a custodian to my medical records in addition to my own lawyer and advocate.  I would like you to please take into consideration opening up your project and service to me.  I could really use the help, and I would especially like it if the fruits our labor could be of service to others in my situation in the future.

sincerely,

-r0b friedman

1st post of the year

I haven’t felt like posting anything relevant, or irrelevant as nothing of interest has happened to me. So I’m just going to ramble or rant about whatever comes to mind and shove everything into one post.

It’s been a few days since beginning this New Year. The New Year’s Eve’s bash at Egon’s was sweet. It’s always great to chill with good peepz. Thank you for hosting!

Not a lot has changed with my Workers Compensation bullshit. It took one full month, but my physical therapy is now authorized as of yesterday, I just need to find a place to begin treatment. I can only hope that won’t take as long and is within close proximity to my home.

My sister and 3.5yr old nephew were visiting me for the past couple weeks, and they left yesterday too. I’ll miss my sister and the lil guy. Right now he tips the scales at 35 lbs. The next time I see him he’ll be a lot bigger I’m sure.

After my family left I sped off to eat lunch with Ic3b3rg at . It gets busy there for lunch so we got there early at 11:20. I had the Pho. It was good. I will eat there again, frequently I’m sure.

I got some Sear’s gift cards from my dad for xmas, so I purchased myself a HD last week. It requires a to work with the digital system and to get the HD channels over cable, so for the last week I’ve been enjoying basic cable with my TiVo. For some reason Cox has to send somebody out to “install” the card into my TiVo. I say “install” because, all the guy did was shove the card into a slot on the front. Not too difficult. Oh ya, he did read some numbers off the TV to a person over the phone . They wanted to charge me money for this. Good thing when I called I got them to not charge me a dime. Otherwise I would have been more pissed off last night when HBO HD wasn’t working, and every other HD channel was pausing after tuning in. So after spending more time in phone hell last night after calling to get info on what to do with the now useless cable box, which I had to either… oi I can’t rant/type fast enough to say how much bullshit cox is. charging for every damn thing, picking up a cable box $20 because they don’t do this by default when changing service, installing a cable card $44, x 2 money grubbing assholes. So anyways, I have an appointment Saturday for someone to come out and see what’s up with my cable card. I’ve had my HDTV for almost 5 years and this is only the 2nd time I’ve seen an HD signal on it. I’m kind of excited to get caught up in that respect. So I stayed up late last night, and caught Conan O’Brian who’s been back on the air for 2 days now without writers. He has a strike beard, and it was pretty well defined in HD.

Well that is all for now…

doggoned it.

The other day I neglected to mention another catch with back to California.  I need to get a letter from my , stating that is a companion animal, which is why I got a dog to begin with.

I hate that it is so difficult to find a place to live where dogs are OK, let alone places which do not have breed restrictions.  Which is another reason I hate insurance companies.  It’s like the Workers’ Compensation, and liability insurance companies banded together in making my life more of a .

So yeah, I’m not 100% moving back yet.  It’s all hinged on getting this letter from my doctor.  I hope he writes the letter so I can just relax somewhat, start on my , and start packing things.  Today, I already started on getting rid of some crap I don’t need to hang-on to.  Tomorrow I’ll see what else I can pitch or consolidate while waiting for an important phone call.

(I feel silly for asking my friends for help considering everything isn’t set in stone yet, but I also didn’t want to ask at the last minute.  We’re still trying to figure out the timing…)

Do you have time available on Friday the 16th( in the evening), Saturday the 17th, or possibly Sunday the 18th,  could you help my dad and I with unloading the U-Haul van?  I’ll provide the beer, pizza, <insert food here>!  Email me px at ns1 dot net. Thanks for the help.

I was also going to ask if anyone knows anyone looking a place/roommate but I’ll wait on that for another day.

6 years later

I was injured at work on July 26th, 2001.

$ ./days.between.sh 07/26/2001 07/26/2007
2191

Of note, I’ve tried to quit smoking several times since then. Dave Winer managed to quit 5 years ago, and is doing well.

receipts in the shower

Wow it didn’t take me long to get overly depressed today. i was in the shower thinking about how I had already submitted some, certainly not all receipts to SCIF. No one said anything about a form to go along with them, just said yeah, send them copies of receipts. Last month I had submitted 3 co-pay receipts from the first psychiatrist I saw and subsequently took me off work, and also about 6-7 receipts from my chiropractor. Of course nothing has materialized, except of course that the letter my massage therapist wrote is now part of my medical file, because that went along with these receipts. Again this stuff was served to SCIF and their lawyer over a month ago. Counting days, it has been a week since going before the Judge, and I have not heard back from SCIF on anything which was supposed to be hashed out last week. Way to go “System” just keep on failing me. In 37 days I will be 26 1/2. I want my 20’s back. I want my life back. I want to have friends again. No these aren’t tears of joy. I’m dying inside, and they’ve just let me waste away, they don’t care. Hopefully just writing about this will allow my mind to cease thinking about this for a day, or even a few hours of peace would be lovely. I need to be back in California, I certainly never left willingly. I lost my life, thanks to the inadequate, inappropriate care provided and paid for by SCIF, along with their consistent failures to authorize or deny treatments, and consultations, which left me nowhere for over a year. They are ultimately responsible. Writing about my life and how I feel seems like a bad EMO song.

2029 days later.

$ ./days.between.sh 07/26/2001 02/14/2007
2029

2029 days later, and where am I?

today sucks

the day wont end quick enough for me.
it feels like nothing was accomplished today.
the judge didnt read the pain management doctor’s report.
i still dont have vocational rehab.
i still have no psychological treatment.
im sick.
everytime i cough my neck pain goes through the roof, and symptoms of nerve pain drive through my arms.
im severely depressed still, if not worse by the events.
there is no progress.
my thoughts are dark, they run rampantly through my mind, and need to be extinguished like a wild fire.
today since the hearing, ive just been on the verge of crying my eyes out.
i cant take anymore of the feelings of pain, physically or emotionally.
i’m tired.
my feet are numb.
hello? i want help.
no.

that sums up the day.