.... years after being rear-ended in a car accident, Liese
Bruff-McArthur saw a small army of medical professionals. Most agreed
the crash had left her with chronic pain, depression, PTSD and other
troubles, making a return to work untenable.
Then she met Dr. Monte Bail.
Hired by the insurance company she was suing, the psychiatrist spent
an hour and a quarter with the Ottawa-area woman — the kind of work that
earned Bail as much as $77,000 a month — and concluded Bruff-McArthur
was essentially faking it..........
And such cases are likely just the tip of the iceberg, say lawyers
representing accident victims, the plaintiffs. Judicial criticisms arise
only in the five per cent or so of cases that get to trial, they note,
so most instances of bias stay under wraps as lawsuits are settled out
of court.
“It’s clear from the (reported) cases that it is far too prevalent,”
says Adam Wagman, a plaintiff lawyer and president of the Ontario Trial
Lawyers Association. “That attacks the very foundation of our system of
justice.”.....
Source/more:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/hired-gun-in-a-lab-coat-how-medical-experts-help-car-insurers-fight-accident-claims
CIN is a non-profit Advocate for Insurance and Health Care Reform. Postings are cut/paste from other sources. @Cinsurancenews #rally4accidentvictims #ABPetition #CPPbacklog
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Putting the pieces together - what Ont auto insurers don't pay and how it is creating a crisis
Insurers are pocketing the health care costs of treating MVA
victims – funds that should be repaid to taxpayers (not to mention OW
and ODSP costs that the taxpayer is unknowingly picking up along with
prescription costs) and this has created a health care $ deficit problem
for Ontario taxpayers. A problem the Financial Services Commission has
known about for years – the Auditor General told the FSCO it needed
fixing in 2011 but nothing was done so the taxpayer has continually paid
some of the medical costs of MVA victims. To ‘cure’ the problem it is
now suggested by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to privatize some
services. Which means more people would have to increase their private
insurer coverage if they are lucky enough to have this extra coverage.
Who benefits? Not the taxpayer and not victims. Insurers who will now
sell consumers the coverage they can no longer get from OHIP.
Simultaneously auto insurance coverage (as of June 1, 2016) is decreased
by over $1 million for the most catastrophically injured among us,
thereby saving insurers about $6-800 million a year in payouts.
Rehabilitation/medical rehab access is also cut by 5 years for all but
children who are injured. http://truthaboutinsurance.ca/benefits-recently-cut-further/ . So
just as MVA victims are about to be increasingly shunted onto the OHIP
system, the proposal is to increase the privatization of that system.
Source/more: http://www.fairassociation.ca/2016/03/putting-the-pieces-together-what-ont-auto-insurers-dont-pay-and-how-it-is-creating-a-crisis/
Source/more: http://www.fairassociation.ca/2016/03/putting-the-pieces-together-what-ont-auto-insurers-dont-pay-and-how-it-is-creating-a-crisis/
The lingering symptoms of a brain injury force me to lead a double life
With lingering
symptoms from a brain injury, I found myself in my late 20s living
with a complex chronic illness. In many ways I had to start over. I
traded a life that I loved for solitude.
Source/more:
Becoming Disabled
A person without a
disability may recognize someone using a wheelchair, a guide dog or a
prosthetic limb, or someone with Down syndrome, but most don’t
conceptualize these people as having a shared social identity and a
political status. “They” merely seem to be people to whom
something unfortunate has happened, for whom something has gone
terribly wrong. The one thing most people do know about being
disabled is that they don’t want to be that.
Source/more:
It's all in their heads
"A concussion
is more a mild form of traumatic brain injury in which the brain is
exposed to abnormal forces that result in transient neurological
dysfunction," Ellis says. "But ‘mild traumatic brain
injury’ is a bit of a misnomer."
Source/more:
Canada’s expensive habit: Adding up opioid abuse’s rising financial toll on the health-care system
Public drug programs
spent $93-million on medications used for addiction to prescription
painkillers and illicit opioids in 2014, compared with $57.3-million
in 2011, according to figures for every province except Quebec
compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) for
The Globe and Mail. In four provinces, this class of opioids ranked
among the top 10 in spending on all prescription drugs – a group
that traditionally includes medications for arthritis, high blood
pressure and high cholesterol.
Source/more:
‘Situation is crisis all the time. There is no plan,’ says Ontario parent of adult son with autism
Ombudsman Paul Dubé
is set to release that long-awaited report Wednesday at Queen’s
Park. Last year, the ombudsman’s 2014-2015 annual report revealed
the investigation had drawn more than 1,300 complaints, including
“urgent, disturbing cases where adults with severe special needs
were ending up in jail, homeless shelters and hospitals because no
care or services were available for them.”
More/source:
These Are The Hidden Costs Of Living With A Disability
Do you know how much
a manual wheelchair costs? Not the kind you buy from the Sears
catalogue when you break your leg and need someone to push you around
for six weeks. I'm talking about the kind that a paraplegic might
need, that offers the correct ergonomic support and fits the
lifestyle of the person who will rely on it for years.
Source/more:
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
College fights to get groping MD’s licence revoked
Following a Star
investigation into doctors still at work after sexually abusing their
patients, the provincial government established a task force in
December 2014 to study the issue and make recommendations. The
Ministry of Health has said the report is expected to be made public
soon.
Source/more:
Opioid overuse is creating ‘lost generation,’ expert says
Opioids overuse is
the “worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history,” a
leading expert on workers’ compensation told Canadian physicians
Wednesday, urging them to take tough and immediate action to address
the problem.
Source/more:
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