WC WON'T LET ME SEE A DR. ABOUT POSSIBLE DEPRESSION...

[dsny1mom]

jbravo2984 Wrote:So I fell off a ladder back in january and broke my ankle. WC has taken care of all the bills so far and hasn't been too much trouble to me yet. However, since my injury my life has been flipped upside down and I feel helpless. I can't sleep at night and I can't stay awake during the day. I eat two value meals at a time from the fast food joints and I don't get much pleasure in the things I normally would. I explained this to my WC claim manager and she said that overeating and weight gain are my problems and as far as the sleep goes, everyone has sleep issues and maybe I should try not sleeping for 16 hours at a time. Everyone else I've talked to (physical therapists, my dr.'s nurse, my GF) have all said, "sounds like depression" or "case of the blues". I don't have med ins. and I wasn't like this before the injury almost five months ago. I would like to see a general phys. about getting some meds to regulate my sleep and see where that goes before it gets any worse. Does my WC claim manager have the right to tell me what is and what isn't related without the opinion of a dr. I mean, she basically said there is no way the issues I'm having are related to my injury unless otherwisealready documented and stated by my dr. What should I do?
BTW... I have talked to my dr about the pain keeping me up at night and he basically said "yup, thats going to happen", and left it at that.


sorry I live in IL

Your claims manager should not be diagnosing your medical condition. She is saying there is no connection between your injury and your possible depression to avoid having to pay for further medical and possible additional PPD at settlement.

You need to speak to your DR and have him/her refer you to a physician that will be able to treat you depression if that is what it is. In order for the WC IC to pick up the bill your Dr will need to state that the depression is a result of your injury. I hope the DR you see is one you selected and not one that the IC selected for you.

In Illinois you are allowed one change in your Dr. If your current DR doesn't see fit to refer you to another Dr for the depression and won't admit atleast a casual connection for the depression to the industrial injury then find another Dr and ask to use your one time change in DRs.

You also might want to consider hiring a lawyer. It sounds like your claims manager needs to be knocked down a peg or two and the right lawyer could do that quickly.

dsny1mom