Workers Comp Help
Rotator Cuff Tear and Shoulder Injury to a Paramedic
I'm a Paramedic for Rural/Metro Ambulance Inc. On 07/09/2001 I was moving a person from an E.R. bed to our ambulance cot when I heard and felt a pop in my right shoulder, the pain started in about 15min.
I went to the Hospital near our station at the end of our shift. The E.R. Doctor said he thought I had torn a rotator cuff. I had call the company office and told them I had hurt myself that morning and was going to the hospital and they had said fine.
Later that same day the Company called me and said that we were self insured and that I needed to go to a Company doctor as well. I went to the company doctor that same day and he said it was just a strain.
I later found out he was a sports doctor not an MD. or a DO. In the long run I was seen by three other Company doctors, and was given physical therapy for almost 3 mo. Then one day someone in our company office said I could go to the Doctor of my choice which I did as fast as I could . This doctor saw me one time and had no doubt that I had indeed torn the rotator cuff and messed up my AC Joint in the shoulder. This doctor did surgery 6 weeks later ( 6 weeks waiting on the ok to do it ) I'm now in Physical therapy again which my Doctor says can take up 9 mo. from the date of surgery until I get back to work.
The workers comp management co. for Rural/Metro was very hard to get started paying me , then 2 weeks ago they sent me a check for less than half of what I was getting. When I called them they said they had rechecked and all I was going to be getting paid was 206.00 a week, this is less than 1/3 what I was getting I knew that it couldn't be right. I called them to find out what was going on and the lady over my case was gone for two weeks until after the new year, and her supervisor had no way of checking anything out.
I called BWC then to see what they could do for me and the answer I got from them was all we do is have some information on your case but we have nothing to do with your pay because your company is self insured. The BWC has been no help to me in this case at all, they wont or can't even tell me what I an suppose to be able to be paid for. Then today 01/08/2002 I get a letter in the mail from my company that they are stopping my medical insurance for me and my family, but that I could keep it if I pay the cobra rate.
I called the Company and they said they treat it as a leave of absence from work, also the say I have to pay them over 685.00 which is what I would have paid for insurance if I was working. However if I was working then none of this would even be happening. I can't get BWC to tell me if this is even allowed or not . On top of that there are other things that I can't get any answers to. SO if your company is self insured workers comp. Then by all means don't count on any help from the real BWC. They talk about how they are there to help the injured worker but that is not the case at all when a company is self insured.