Utilization

[tiredofpain]

New to this so bare with me,
About June of 2007 I reported to my superviser of pain in my left hand.After about 2 weeks of complaining he sent me to to w/c.Dr
They put me on restricted duty.I was off from work for about 9 weeks.During that time I also told my superviser I was having the same pain in my right hand, this was ignored. During my Dr visit I was given 6 p/t for 2 weeks, than refered to an orthopedic. Who pinched my thumb so hard I had to pull away, He announced You have arthritis, Go back to work full duty, I asked him why does my wrist hurt also. He said same thing. He had no xrays or anything. Just go back to work.
I continued to complain about both.Jan 2008 as recamended by a co worker, I went to see my own Dr, who said that it was teninitis.And He put on off from work for 5 days, I took this to my superviser.Now he could no longer ignore me. W/C was informed. I went to see there doctors, and was put on restricted duty. I stayed home for about 2 weeks before a letter came and said that I would be informed in no later than April, If I would be aproved. So in the mean time my superviser and w/c decided the would have the Dr remove some of my restriction, so I could come back to work. Also I had no money comming in so I went back to work. Now from what I understand I am in Utilization. I have no Idea what this mean, but they will not approve anything the Dr ask for, and I still have not been payed for the time I had off back in Jan-Feb of this year. Could someone please tell me whats going on. I so tired of working in pain everyday

[AQA]

Before any specific info could be given, your state would need to be known. wc. is state specific.

[tiredofpain]

I live in California

[1171]

The employer controls your treatment thru utilization review regulations.
You can appeal the decisions to the work comp court.

[sparkey]

Boy that sounds so familiar except when my hand hurt i dropped a needle as I was a phlebotomist and told right away to fill out a wc form and they sent me right to their doctor within the hour. I was given pain meds and they set me up with their ortho doctor that i would see in 2 days time. I was took out of work till I saw him.

When i went to their ortho. he took a xray of my hand and grabbed my thumb just like yours and told me i had thumb arthritis. Put a thumb splint on me and sent me back to work to not use that hand. It was my dominant hand. I went in and tried to work and had so much pain that i ended up crying and was going to go home. They then sent me back to their doctor who took me out of work for a few weeks.

I was then contacted by the IC workers comp. adjuster to find out what had happened and my HR dept. had to take 13 weeks of my pay and divide it and came up with a TTD payment. I received a payment from them for the first few weeks out of work.

I was then sent back to work with one hand and limitations. I worked 2 months straight and in the meantime got a splint/medication and told to go to PT/OT 4 x's a week for 7 months. I also had to go back to the idiot ortho doc and get a few cortizone injections into my thumb which did nothing. I was then sent to a neurologist who was confused by what may be going on and sent me for a EMG test. Then to a pain management doctor who ordered another EMG test as the first one they were not satisfied with. It came back with Mild carpal recurrance, but yet the PM doctor said it was tendonitis.

The pm doctor took me out of work due to "overuse syndrome" and put me on stronger meds as i was getting much more pain. I was out going to therapy and it did not work. Finally i went back to work with my employer finding a light duty job they made for me which was sitting watching the waiting room patients. I was working 4 hours a day and driving 3 hours a day. Finally I was offered a position at my husbands construction jobsite and I was then put at MMI.

I got so bad with my hand turning blue, hot, cold, numb and a rash only on that arm. I had 7 out of the 8 symptoms of RSD. PM refused to diagnose me with it and to this day i have had 4 or 5 diagnosis. I am currently working at a new job as i can no longer do my career of 15 yrs. I had my PIR rating of 19% whole body and the IC thought that was way to high. So i just went last week for a IME through the IC's lawyers doctor. I am currently waiting on the result. So I would say, if you do not have a lawyer, your case sounds like they owe you money and you should GET ONE. They owe you and even owe you for the mileage to the doctors visits. If getting medication you should have a medicine card that you use for your meds all paid for. Seems like you need to do alot of reading of your state and what you are entitled to and go after it.

You have already started out badly and being taken advantage of it seems. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

[tiredofpain]

Are u saying they can decide not to pay me for the time that I missed?. That I will not recieve. 6 weeks pay, that was lost because the Workers Comp Dr restricted my work?
And that is why they refuse to even check my left hand at all?

[hurt at work]

this was a work injury rite?have you talked to a attorney yet?sounds like it wouldnt hurt.the longer this goes on the more damage your doing to ur body and its only going to get worse.wc should be taking care of this but like most of use on this site ur going to have to fight to get the proper help you need.wc knows how to play the game of not taking care of injured people,dont give up atleast talk to a wc attorney and see what happens.

[Lilly]

Hi tiredofpain,
So sorry you are in pain & having to go through all this.
Sparkey was telling you that they DO owe you. But....they will take advantage of you if at all possible...and since you have no lawyer, they are exercising their power by playing games & withholding what is due to you. A lawyer will get you monies you have coming...but he will take a percentage of the money he obtains for you....but it's sure better than nothing! He will also most likely be needed to fight/prove your "overuse" syndrome....as it's not from an actual one time injury...but an acummulative syndrome of overuse which has caused you an actual disease which is repairable.
Please at least talk to a cert. WC lawyer to see what your rights are.
(don't choose TV ad lawyers...it's a rip off)
Take care & good luck, Lilly

[hurt at work]

tiredofpain listen to lilly she knows and telling straight up.most people here will tell you the trueth if they have the same problem or know someone that does.good luck wish you well.

[tiredofpain]

hurt at work Wrote:this was a work injury rite?have you talked to a attorney yet?sounds like it wouldnt hurt.the longer this goes on the more damage your doing to ur body and its only going to get worse.wc should be taking care of this but like most of use on this site ur going to have to fight to get the proper help you need.wc knows how to play the game of not taking care of injured people,dont give up atleast talk to a wc attorney and see what happens.

Thank you, I will get in touch with a lawyer.