Independent Medical Exam Conducted by Dr Richard J. Mutty in NY Workers Compensation Case

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• published: 13 Oct 2016
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What Happen in a NY workers compensation? What Can You Do? Please help me raise money for surgery that will enable me to have good neck function and reduce pain significantly. On 8-24-16 Dr. Richard J. Mutty conducted an IME on Peter Wrobleski related to a NY worker's compensation claim. These independent medical examinations are a requirement for injured workers, and this IME video has been shared in hopes that the information within is useful to others in similar circumstances. Written reports of the IME is available at http://bit.ly/IMEexam More about IME below: Unjust Treatment: 'Independent' Medical Examinations & Workers Compensation in New York State A Special Report prepared in 1998 by the New York State AFL-CIO and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. For more information on the origin of this report: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/webdocs/NYCOSH_Independent_Medical_Examinations.htm Each year approximately 500,000 occupational illnesses and injuries are reported to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. Of these, several thousand claims for an occupational disease are challenged by workers' compensation insurance carriers for reasons that frequently defy close medical analysis and too often defy common sense. With millions of dollars in profit at stake, insurance carriers: - challenge valid occupational disease claims, which results in workers often failing to pursue their cases or eventually settling for less than they are entitled to; - claim that many workers are less disabled than they are or that they are not disabled at all; and - raise issues contradicting workers' claims that their injuries and illnesses are a result of work. As a consequence, injured and sick workers are often forced into prolonged wrangling with insurance companies in an attempt to get their claims established. The process is so tortured, convoluted and demeaning that many workers do not file for compensation or become so discouraged that they fail to pursue their valid claims. Rather than attempt to use the workers' compensation system, many workers use their own health insurance -- if they have any -- to get needed medical treatment. Many others rely on welfare or social security disability. In either case, the insurance companies and employers externalize the costs of job-related injuries and force the public to pick up these expenses through taxpayer-funded social welfare programs and higher medical insurance premiums. What is particularly unfair is the routine challenge by insurance carriers of workers' claims for occupational disease and frequent disputes over the degree of workers' disabilities in cases that have already been established. The challenges over occupational disease can often mean, de facto, the cutting-off or slashing of wage-replacement benefits and medical treatment before any hearing takes place. In New York State, a pivotal point for injured workers filing workers' compensation claims is the medical evaluation. When a worker is initially injured or made sick at work, the worker notifies the employer, sees a doctor for diagnosis and treatment, and files a claim. Based on the treating physician's report, workers will be entitled to receive wage-replacement benefits and reimbursement for medical treatment for injuries and illnesses related to work. Once the claim is filed, the insurance carrier has the right to demand that the injured worker see a doctor chosen by the insurance company. This speciously named evaluation is called an Independent Medical Examination, or "IME." However, IMEs are anything but independent, and they frequently don't appear to be "medical" examinations of any kind. They are paid for by -- and conducted on behalf of -- insurance companies, self-insured employers and the State Insurance Fund, a quasi-state agency that provides workers' compensation insurance for approximately 40 percent of the state's employers. Moreover, IMEs are used by these interested parties as ammunition to challenge claims, lawsuits and the evaluations of injured workers' treating physicians.