“Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.” By John F. Kennedy  

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• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 8/2/2008 4:29 AM UTC

  The Prayer Part 4
  

                                                                The Prayer Part 4

  After reading Parts 1-3 the basis for my story, one would think you have nothing to worry about. That is the false sense of reality. This program was written during WWII after the attack of Pearl Harbor. We are in a new era and on a much larger scale. This program has no safe guards or real tracking authority. Ask for a “Freedom of Information Act” about contactor stats and you will get very little.  Here are my reasons why the DBA Program is not working:

  1. It was written in the 1940s, under different circumstances. The insurer works 5 days a week and is off on many holidays with total control of the case. While we are left to worry 7 days a week 24 hours a day with little control of our life’s and case.
  2. The insurer has all the rights; the employee has little and in most cases has to hire an attorney to get anything accomplished.
  3. The employee has to prove he is injured, unlike our justice system where one is innocent before being proving guilty!
  4. The system safeguards are poor and the program is under staffed. Benefit checks are mailed and not Direct-Deposited like our payroll was, so they have an excuse for delays and problems. Our checks are only lifeline and we can not depend on them.
  5. The insurer can do whatever they want, until they are forced to court. Even then, if an employee wins a judgment, the insurer usually appeals.
  6. They are regulations & time limits for filing every aspect of the process for the employee, yet there are no such regulations & time limits for the way the insurer treats the employee with his case. Because of the law, the insurer can either stop any process at anytime or delay as far as they can with little damages leveled against them. Also without notice, they can change or cancel payment, benefits, appointments, or refuse to treat or allow you to see a doctor. They have all the power….
  7. As an injured contractor we have no insurance, when the carrier decides not to treat us, they offer each employee to take out the “Cobra” Company Insurance. But most of us can not afford to pay a monthly premium of around $800.00 for a family of three when we ONLY receive $1056.00 a month as their regular amount.
  8. The insurer uses the DBA’s injury labeling status and their hired gun, Voc Rehab Specialist, use a LMS, Labor Market Survey, to cut you out of the benefits that were paid for by your employer, the government, and all tax paying U.S. Citizens.  Lets talk about, TTD, which is Total Temporary Disability which is paid for life. It is paid for your inability to earn money and in return you receive 2/3rd  of your weekly wages caped off on a yearly basis. Secondly they have TPD, Temporary  Partial Disability that only last 5 years from 1^st payment received. It is used when you are capable of working again and have reached MMI “Maximum Medical Improvement” to get a job. Since you can not earn your “Total” weekly average wage they pay you for the 5 years. The usurer uses their hired gun, Rehab Rep, to do studies to show work in your area, regardless of having or getting job. The rehab rep only has to show availability and nothing else! The move in ONE letter is a move to reduce your benefits and reduce the time table for payment. The LMS is an excuse to hinder or suspend your benefits while you are truly disabled or to leverage you into an otherwise unfair settlement. Since 2005, AIG has been able to do that to me and I had to fire my first attorney for not helping me. Often the survey lack the elements required bylaw for them to ever hold up in court. Remember, once you have established that you cannot return to work at the job you  were injured at, the burden is on the employer/insurer to establish that a “suitable” alternative job exists if they are to reduce your benefits. Yet as in my case, I had a poor attorney that could care less of my future. My clock started in 2005 and after two attorneys & many delays my benefits could run out! This is not fair. The DOL and DBA could care less of the reality for people like me. They do not what to hear from us, nor do they like investigations started. When I knew my first attorney was not on my side, I wrote the chief judge and every political rep I could including the president and secretary of labor. All it did was give me a few letters saying we will look into it and they never did. The chief judge said it was not appropriate to write and said if I did again I would be sorry. My old attorney agreed, I thought if my attorney could not help and I was suffering, I had a right to plea for help to the officials that were paid to do so… I have never been at MMI, I    was working when come back from Iraq under doctor’s orders of  Permanent Working Restrictions- No bending, No lifting, No raising of anything over 10 pounds. After a year of non-treatment, I became Unable to work at all because of AIG’s refusal to treat me for any of my injuries sustained from Iraq from five separate occasions. My work related injuries have worsened due to non-treatment, other injuries have formed, and  old some old non-related injuries fall deeper & deeper into a medical black hole.
  9. They have used in my Mediation Hearing and overall case, personal threats, personal delays, personal attacks about my past wage ability, my past medical status, and my parts of my past life. AIG misleads the system with partial statements and questions. They try to use my weight as a crutch and my past as their balance. I have been over weight all my life, but never had as many problems as I do today because the injuries from Iraq. I was very active and involved in my sports or activities. Today I can do none. I went through All KBRs medical testing and processes twice, once in 2005, and once 2005. They hired me because I passed their battery of tests and because I was able to do the job. Now because it is convenient for them they say my weight, my pre-existing injuries, and my past stop me from getting my deserved paid treatment and benefit.

   

  These are the main issues and nothing is being done about them. I have done my part by doing my radio show and starting my web site. It has been my only life-line. Six months ago I was heading no where, now I have hope… But just like that hope has been taken away. I worked two contracts and was injured five times. I went back to work after every injury. I got a job when I came out of Iraq and they fired me because my circumstances. As disabled individual this company did not want on their payroll working with all my restrictions and issues. I am the one injured, why do I have to fight for what should be given to me? Am I not American? Do I not bleed the same as anyone else? I have multiple injuries received from 2004-2005 on three different bases. I can not do my job of over 35 years.  The job that I love and was made for. The insurer, AIG, wants me to move on with life and start over with little help from them. They refuse to treat me, pay me correctly, pay my back pay, and treat me with dignity or respect. Is this fair? AIG has created more stress and have destroyed a part of my life. I can not get back all the years they have wasted in my life. Time has passed by and I have lost a lot! I was healthy when I passed all their background & medical requirements. I returned damaged and with little hope. Before Iraq, I did the normal things like hiking with your daughter, going to the park, playing sports, mowing the lawn, and many other activities or events. Now I do none of these things because of injuries and non-treatment for any of my problems. Who knows where I would be today if the AIG took care of me. One thing is sure, I would have had peace and had a better chance of getting my life back…… If you took a walk in my shoes, what would you do? 

   

   

   

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