MN Workers Comp

I just have to vent and say MN Workers Comp is worthless.

My father was a Teamster for 30 years at a paper company. 7 years ago he tore his shoulder up on the job and needed major surgery. He was out of work for 6 months, went back to work on restrictions, had his hours and pay reduced. The injury pulled a few discs in his spine and two years ago had spinal surgery. He lost two months of work and when he returned to work he was let go because he couldnt perform his job. He filled a worker comp claim when he got the shoulder injury 7 years ago. Last year workers comp finally offered a lump sum for the lost hours and reduced pay after he saw thier doctors. He accepted the offer (which was about 1/2 of what he lost) and wanted to get this behind him. Now he gets a letter from them stating they want him to take a test to see if he can still work. He cant even lift his arm over his head and lives with pain everyday.

They have no problems taking your monthly payments, but they dont want to ever pay. 7 years and not a penny..

Why do we even have this type of coverage. IMO its totally worthless. They know hes not in good health. There probably milking this out to see if he will pass on..

I can’t imagine how frustrating that must be. At the risk of starting another political debate…..the biggest problem (by far) is the same problems we have with welfare, health ins. etc., is people who abuse the system. Heck, it was on the news again last night, the beauty queen who scammed the system out of $100M. She got caught and had to re-pay, but that was a high-profile case because of her looks. For every one person caught there must be thousands that don’t. Guess who pays those bills?? Hard working people like you, me and your dad. Now your dad has to wait 7 years for re-imbursement he deserves, from a system that IS needed, but all too often abused. Now ..welfare…..

You’re hitting the nail in the head there. Thats got to be a frustrating experience.

A close relative of mine is a federal work comp investigator for the US dept of labor who does a lot of work putting people like the beauty queen in jail for this. He tells me that a much larger percentage than we would think usually turn out to be fraudulous claims and that is the main thing hurting the ones that are legitmate. It takes forever to get a claim now due to the time it now takes pick over each one because by the number of fraud cases out there and they just cant keep up. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day on the job, you should hear some of his stories, freakin hilarious.

He’s even built a case on one guy from an internet pic of him holding up a 30+ pound catfish.

I just had my workmans comp. claim denied and am taking them to court. My injury is clearly work related but they are argueing that it could have possibly happend while fishing.

30 lb catfish? Try 3 lb bass…

Funny you say that. About 10 years ago I hurt my wrist on the job. I filled a claim just to have the doctor’s visit payed for. The bill was about $170. This clown from workers comp calls me and says “what do you do on the weekends”

I said, “I fish” He says ” thats how you hurt your wrist, I’m denying the claim”

I agree there are scum out there that are trying to file false claims and they should be sentenced to long prison terms if found guilty. But you cant pass judgement on a phone interview. The current system does not work.

I’m from Wisconsin and I agree this comp system needs to be revamped. However, I don’t agree that fraudulant claims are the biggest problem. I got a neck injury in Feb. of 2000. I just got my small compensation this January, and they are still trying to rip me off on what they agreed to pay.
They started to pay the bills in the begining. I called to make sure it was o.k. before seeking treatment. Then one day I saw I had a unknown carrier. I called them and they told me I was cronick and they didn’t handle cronics. By law they are to notify you before they cancle you. I found out that doesn’t matter much. SO my insurance company and I had a bunch of bills dumped on us.
Workmens comp. doesn’t get the dicount alotted to my health insurance carrier. They don’t pay my expenses the insurance doesn’t or lost wages when they denie your claim. So you get a lawyer and settle out of court for less than you lost just to get it over with. Your health insur. carrier wants to sue you for what they lost because it should have been a workmens comp. claim. Workmens comp creating fraud in the insurance industry? They spend a lot of money making it hard to get the compensation you are entitled to because you payed for it. Yup, they’re right there to get your money but don’t want to take care of you like they are supposed to. A lot of people let it slide because they don’t know what to do . They save money. You get a lawyer and settle for less, they save. They get the discount your insurance negotiated with the health carriers, and that can be huge if you need hospitalization and surgery. They very seldom get more than a slap from the law. Why should they do what they say they will for you when they know that by screwing around with you they save massive amounts of money? I’m sure they pay people pretty good wages to try to get you to not claim or stop claiming. The laws in place need to be tougher on comp companies AND need to be enforced so people can get well sooner and back to going on with their lives. I could rant on this for days but I’ll stop. Thank you. Cooker