This is a non-sequitor. My comment went directly to the topic of the OP. If you want to whine about “corruption and non-accountability” as they relate to right wing politics, the traditional complaint has to do with corporations (It’s wrong, but that’s it’s usual target), and I don’t see how that applies in a thread about firemen. You’re either way off base or you’re being so obscure that your point is not obvious.
One benefit of medical practice in a prison is that we can capture on camera our patients doing things that they swore they couldn’t do.
Tell that to the Chicago City Council. They’ll be surprised to hear that they learned it from the right-wingers.
I generally respect your posts but this is bullshit. Fraudulent cases cost us all. I understand the point about disabled meaning not being able a specific job but he wasn’t caught mowing his lawn, he was bodybuilding.
It’s pretty easy to tell when an orthopaedist knows his patient is bullshitting: their notes will always say, “no objective findings to support subjective complaints,” or (among the tactful ones) “restrictions/impairment rating based on subjective complaints”.
Problem is, because there occasionally really is that one guy who really is in pain, they’re extremely reluctant to call a patient a liar, even when they’re 100% certain.
Sadly, a prosecution for work comp fraud is a one-in-a-million deal. It’s almost impossible to get anyone charged with fraud regardless of what sort of evidence you’ve got, and the employer and insurer basically have to build a case on behalf of the state attorney’s office before it will do anything. Much, much cheaper just to settle the case for peanuts and hope that when the claimant files their next claim you aren’t the insurer for THAT employer too.
Problem is, work comp laws, like any laws relating to healthcare, are vague, arcane, and almost entirely beyond the understanding of the Average Joe. What that means is it’s almost impossible to prove that someone knowingly tried to defraud an insurer.
Thanks! Wow, it’s nicer in here than I expected. Here’s my coat—I’ll take a dirty martini to start. And name brand, not that well shit, okay? You’re a doll.
To play devil’s advocate, you don’t have to be carrying heavy weights to fall down the stairs and hurt your back. And if you hurt your back bad enough, climbing those stairs in the future (in the course of your inspector duties) would be painfull, even carrying just a clipboard.
Still, if this guy competed in a body building tournament, I don’t think his back is messed up. (I don’t think his doctor would want to prescribe pain killers, and not have anything to say about the strenous lifting…)
Dr. John Mahoney is your man. His reply to a reporter: “If somebody doesn’t tell me they’re a bodybuilder, how am I supposed to know?”
He did say one thing he does know, though, give him credit: “My career is fucked”.
Several other “disabled” firefighters’ medical records suddenly disappeared recently, too.
Your comment was not about the OP, it was about Foie’s story.
If you want to view this thread purely through the lens of entitlement and unfairly insult half the country, I want to view it purely through the lens of corruption and unfairly insult the other half. It’s ridiculous to claim that this firefighter was somehow brought to you by the left **or **right wing.
You should maybe read what I wrote. If I had said “fucking Liberals”, you’d maybe have a point. I specifically targeted the far left. Now, if you want to take ownership of a far left mentality, be my guest, but claiming that such attitudes are common to “half the country” is not accurate in the least.
In any event, please tell me what individual fraud has to do with corruption, unless it was just a knee jerk: “Hey, he insulted my side, I’m going to insult people who don’t agree with me”.
That’s a relief; for a moment there I thought you might be referring to some of us here. But the far left—I mean, how many of those could there be? Hard to tell, they being so shadowy and hard to pin down, gathering wherever malevolent cabals typically gather. Ski Lodge of the Elders of Zion, maybe, in the off season. Slippery bastards, soon as you think you’ve got one, they move a little farther left and you find yourself with a handful of air.
Still, it’s a little troubling: being so few in number and so extreme, how did they succeed in poisoning the rest of the nation—all of us right-thinking folks—with their malignant philosophy? Free Che t-shirts? Been a while since I read the Manifesto, but I recall it being a pretty dry endeavor, even on acid.
Pretty impressive feat theirs, you have to admit. Let’s pray their Doppelgängeren on the far right never aspire to the same level of influence—who knows what might happen.
I think I love you.
I laughed so hard I started coughing.
Given that the brother served in both Bosnia and Iraq, it seems more of a bi-partisan thing.
Oh, and you’re a fuckwit.
I initially read this as “Free Cher t-shirts.” That’d be enough to get me to join up!
Haha, I saw one of those shows that had investigators checking up on insurance/workers’ comp scammers and this one guy says he hurt his wrist and elbow and was 100% disabled. Well, in turn he got a check every month, didn’t have to work anymore and also got a settlement for $250,000.
Welp, the P.I. caught this guy, who turns out to be a semi-pro wrestler, in the ring jumping from the top rope on top of his opponents, doing back flips, pile drivers and everything else wrestlers do in their “matches”. lol He had to pay it all back and got 5 years supervised probation plus all kinds of other fines. It’s just not worth it, people.
But what about if you’re not silly enough to start/continue a career as “El Torque Wrench” the Luchador once you’ve gotten your compo payout?
I’m sure there are people that have managed to get $250k as a result of dodgy worker’s compo claims and have then devoted the rest of their life to watching DVDs, travelling, going fishing, and generally doing bugger all.
I suspect the gentleman mentioned in the OP and the quoted post would have gotten away with it [del]if it weren’t for those meddling kids[/del] if they hadn’t decided to enter bodybuilding contests or become a semi-pro wrestler…
It’s very, very difficult to get a workers’ comp claim settled for that kind of money, unless you were making very, very good money beforehand.
Most well-paid people work in entirely or largely sedentary jobs and just don’t suffer w/c injuries.
“…brought to you by the far left wing of American politics.”
I don’t see how this applies in a thread about firemen either, but you were sure quick to step up and throw it in.
The story continues:
Boston Globe August 1, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/01/holding_firm_in_backdraft/
Although that news item has yet to be confirmed, given the circumstances of a 100% “disabled” bodybuilder, it isn’t that hard to believe is it?
Boston Globe August 2, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/08/02/pension_board_official_to_retire/
Not surprisingly, Robert Tierney will be retiring from his post in a few weeks.
Don’t forget the cops. Chiefs Disease.
You have any interest in doing anything for him to get him off the crack?
A lot has changed in the military since Vietnam. I don’t want to sound like I’m discounting your dad’s service or your own, but the techniques the military has developed to crank out “better soldiers” (in the sense that they will actually try to kill the enemy) starting in the 60s make it increasingly harder to return to normality.
Pile on the all volunteer nature of the military (i.e., what’s happening to you is a result of your choices), the increasingly arcane political justifications for being in Iraq, et al. and you get a lot of people that can’t reconcile what they’ve had to do with any concept of themselves that is honorable.
Protecting your buddies might be the right thing to do, but an otherwise ineloquent marine can give a pretty striking description of what .50cal does to children. And then he comes back from where he’s been and seems just like any other guy.
The disability is probably for the PTSD, not the shoulder. Please try to get him off the crack and onto legal medication for whatever he’s trying to deal with.