Depression

 Big drepression today,

Lost my unenployment and didn't received my half payment of workmanscomp. They made me a settlelment and it was so low it was a joke, Now they are turning down medical tests and payments. I think they think if they cause me money problems I will accept what they offer. Its going to get tuff around here real soon. My wife works and we will be able to make morgage payments electric ( if they rates continue to be low for awhile). food thats a different matter all together. If they stop paying for my medications I will be in real trouble. But I guess some of you have or did have worse problems. If any of you have any sugestions it would be helpful to say the least. (I guess I should tell you all that it is workmanscomp).

Hi N&P, yep I too have been where your at and lost with W/C. I am begining to wonder if anyone ever wins with them.

I ended up taking a really low offer as well and after 2 years of fighting with them and getting deeper and deeper in debt I was backed into a corner more or less.

I also had a smart enough Lawyer that encouraged me early out to apply for SSD and I got that a few months after the settlement from W/C but they backed it up to my 2 year limit and I had medicare immediately. Still had a rough time of it as SSD wasnt enough to raise the 3 kids I still had at home but somehow we managed.

I might add that W/C held out on any offer until I had lost my house and everything I had except for all the medical bills that I could have built a new house out of!

Good Luck to and just keep fighting and praying.

PAlady dont mean to hijack the thread here but was wondering if your going it alone with SSD or do you have an Attorney? I have found that thru the begining it is not needed and you can save yourself alot of money if you dont hire one until the time they can do some good. There is also ways to expedite the processes of SSD at certain times and I will be glad to let you know what I found to be true about that later or in another post.

Just wanted to let you know and ask that question and sorry for the hijack!

W/C comp tried every dirty trick in the book to prevent me from getting anything and paying anything and it was a fight that definately didnt have a payoff and I have not seen too many make enough to make it worthwhile to them.

They even pulled a " Doing something outside of my job description" thing and that took me awhile to counteract. Long story with a bad ending altogether.

Good luck to both of you.

Newandpainful -
You got that right!

Angel - no, I'm doing it on my own at first. Am trying to dot all my 'i's' and cross all my 't's" and hope to get it on my own the first try. That's my goal, anyway. Right now I'm absorbed with getting all kinds of medical tests and such done before June 30, and in the process getting my medical records in order. Enough to make my head spin. I know the medical records are the key.

My unemployment just got extended again, too. State benefits. But that's all getting complicated ....don't know if I'm going to continue much longer. Don't want to go into it on the forum. Am trying to access some of my 401k without penalty. head spins and spins!

PaLady

Yes my lawer said that if you are close to 50 or above 50 that it is easier. In my case I have less than a year till 50. He also said that since I don't have a high school deplomia that will help too, Good thing they don't consider life experance and a lot of continuing education credits either.I have enough credits for high school and college just never applied for them never needed them. 

The Work Comp issue is complexed and lacks uncertainty because they don't use a single set of standards so what one person experiences is so different from another. I was a deputy sheriff and was injured while making an arrest. I fought my department all the way to Washington DC. I did not have an attorney as there was no money. I also lost so much just trying to pay the bills and keep the family together. I did speak to an attorney but he would only advise me as he did not want to take any money that would come from a settlement as he knew there would not be much. The settlement was an insult but what I did win was my right to keep cobra for as long as I wanted it. The justice department in DC ruled that if they refused to give me cobra as long as I wanted it, they would lose all their federal cops grants and have to pay back what they had received. It took many hours of research and preparation but since I was not working, I used that time. I was able to keep my work comp insurance for my injury and have cobra for my family and myself. Sometimes we are not aware of all that is available and there is not an easy way of finding out what there is.

Newanpainful, what I have to add is simply refuse to give up and keep searching.

Hi New,
Read your post and wanted to send out a reply to you. Jeez, I read about all these different people on the forum that either have workers comp claims pending or lost their claim and I am totally amazed. I do know every state has different laws concerning comp. I worked for plaintiff attys over 20 yrs, did nearly 18 yrs of comp and this is why I am blown away by what I read. Our laws in Tx changed 1-91 and they basically took away the claimants right to have an atty since they stopped paying lump sum settlements. This is how the attys got paid was out of the lump sum. Also, we no longer can have a jury trial on comp and to me thats an impingement on a persons constitutional rights, but thats another can of worms.
Ours laws were alot more fair under the old act believe me. People hired an atty to help them get what they were entitled to under law. Here the max weeks that can be collected is 401 weeks and for each week you are paid its deducted from the 401. Limits have been placed on accessing medical treatment it has to be from an approved list.I loved old law comp and seeing the people get what they were entitled too. I could probably count on one hand how many cases were lost at trial in 18 yrs. We were selective in what we took, culled them so to speak. Its a whole different ballgame out there now and I sure am glad I am not player in that game. I handled some new for nearly 3 yrs and I finally told the bosses, look we cannot make any money here and I am bogged down in so much darn paperwork its not balancing out. We finally stopped taking them, had to the numbers just did not add up. I helped alot of people on the phone calling in and needing help. With all of the changes the only people that benefitted was insurance companies. Employers were told it would help reduce the cost of their premiums and that did not happen either. What a crock.
I would be sure and ask my dr for any samples of medications that he has. Thats why the reps come around giving out the samples. Do not be a bit bashful asking for them either. Most of my drs offer up the samples regardless. In alot of instances you can get medication free or at a reduced price from the mfg, you have to qualify usually by your income. Look at the names of the mfg on your bottles that you have at home and look online to see if they offer an assistance program. Just about all of the companies offer assistance in some form, just have to ask for it. Medicine is too costly for most of us.
I have a question, why is your atty not on the phone hammering at the insurance company for not providing you with medical care and whatever else you need. I do not understand people that have attys and the atty sits on their cans doing nothing and meanwhile the person is not getting helped. Something is wrong with that picture. Did your claim actually get filed in district court or what? I would be on that lawyer to get things handled.
I hope something gives for you soon......Susie

The laws changed in this state as well and it almost coincided with my claim so I had a very difficult time as I had an atty already fighting and then he resigned or removed himself whatever it is they do during the process of trying to get a settlement from them.

He claimed at that point that the amount was going to be so low that he would end up with all the money anyway so it was far better for me to go at it alone from here.

Now I had already been thru this for almost 2 years and none of the info was adding up. They surgeon whom filled out the disability rating form for W/C scored me so so low that it hurt to the point of no return and at the same time the test and I cant recall the name at this moment that the physical therapy folks do to find out what you can and cannot tolerate as far as standing,sitting,pain levels at what kinds of movement,etc. was not following the rating that the surgeon had given me by any means. So i was from that point on in a battle of wills you might say with W/C.

I was backed so far into a corner with them not paying me when and what they were suppose to and not picking up medical payments and meds and I was in foreclosure of my house and bankruptcy court to boot that when they offered the $12,000 for the total loss of my knee I took it and ran! I was virtually destitute and on the street at the time with 5 kids along for the ride. It seemed like a lot of money to someone gettng ready to go to the shelter to live.

When in reality it was not nothing after the medical bills came out and the money I already owed the atty I barely had enough left to rent a apartment and not enough to keep one of the cars!

I can look back now and know that I should have never taken it as it also had a 5 year medical benefit clause that I figured was OK since I didnt intend to be here still having knee surgeries and PM care 11 years later. I had a horrid time getting medicaid to cover any type of care that involved my knee or anything closely related since it was origionally covered as a w/c injury.

What I am getting at here is make sure you do NOT take a cut off on the injury for medical as I did and even if you are not using an atty in the case make sure you get one to read the settlement before you accept it.

Good luck to all of those battling this joke of a system.