Author: Keenan Powell

The insurance companies have come up with a new dirty trick: filing a controversion of benefits but withholding the doctor's report which they are relying on.

Why would they do that? Because most attorneys, before they accept a workers compensation case, want to see the so-called "independent" medical evaluation and compare it to the treating doctor's records. Insurance companies know that most attorneys won't talk to an injured employee who has been controverted unless they can produce the so-called "independent" medical evaluation.

Why would they withhold that report? Because they know that there is something in that report that your attorney would love to see. Something that doesn't make sense. Something that isn't true.

Where does that leave the injured worker? You should have the controversion notice. Collect all of your medical records from every doctor you have seen for your work injury and call an attorney anyway. Your attorney can demand a copy of the report. And the insurance company is legally obliged to produce the report no later than five days after the claim is filed. If they don't, they can get into a lot of trouble.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663

There are many times when you should talk to a workers compensation attorney. These are some of the most important:

1.         If your employer does not fill out the workers compensation report of injury within 10 days of your injury. That’s a bad sign. You’ll know because you are supposed to sign the report. It could mean your employer doesn’t want to report the injury to keep his insurance premiums down. It could mean he doesn’t have insurance. It’s okay if he doesn’t have insurance, because there is a fund available to reimburse your benefits.

2.         If you don’t hear from an insurance adjuster within 14 days of your injury. That is a bad sign. You should have gotten a call or a letter with your claim number and an address for turning in your receipts. You’re hurt, you might not be able to work, you are racking up bills, you need money to pay the rent and buy food.  The longer it takes for the insurance company to set up your file, the longer it’ll take for you to get your benefits.

3.         If you were taken off work and haven’t received your first temporary total disability payment within 21 days. That is a bad sign. That means the insurance company is not processing your file correctly.

4.         If the insurance company schedules you for an “independent” medical evaluation. That is a bad sign. That means the insurance company doesn’t believe you got hurt at work.

5.         If the insurance company sends a nurse to your doctor appointments with you. That is a bad sign. She is an insurance company spy and sent to influence your doctor’s recommendations.

6.         If you notice someone following you around. That’s a bad sign. They do hire private investigators. They will videotape you buying groceries, filling your car up, walking in and out of your doctor’s office. That means they don’t believe you are really hurt.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.

Workers compensation benefits are not taxable. When you are receiving W-2s and 1099s from your employers, you will get nothing from the insurance company because it's not taxable income. You don't have to declare it as income because it's a disability benefit. Talk to your accountant if you have one. Make sure he or she is familiar with IRC 104. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/104

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.

What if you get hurt on the job and your employer knows you got hurt, but he doesn’t do anything about it?

The law says that he is supposed to keep a record of all injuries and to report any injury to the Alaska Workers Compensation Board within 10 days of learning about it.

Then what happens? The employer is also supposed to inform his workers compensation insurance company of the injury. Lots of times they don’t because they want to keep their safety record clean.

If the employer reports it to the insurance company, then an adjuster will call you for information. They will want to know how you got hurt, if a doctor took you off work, what doctors you are seeing, what kind of injury you have, and what kind of  treatment has been recommended. They will also mail you medical releases to be signed and returned.

Beware! The law has recently changed on what is proper to put in a medical release, so if you are sent one, you should check with an attorney before signing it and returning it to the insurance company.

The insurance company is supposed to pay your medical bills and send you disability payments. The first installment of disability check is due 14 days after the employer has received a work release from your doctor. The subsequent checks should come every 14 days.

Beware! Keep copies of all work releases for your records. Without it, you have no proof that you turned in the release. You can also send a copy of the release to the insurance company. But always keep a copy for yourself.

When is it time to call a lawyer?

            1.         If you told your employer you got hurt and more than 10 days has gone by without anything happening,

            2.         If the insurance company or its law firm sends you a medical release,

            3.         If your disability payment is late,

            4.         If your doctor says he isn’t getting paid or a treatment has not been preauthorized by the insurance company.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.

I’ve seen scenarios like this several times. Someone gets hurt at work. The employer pulls together all his co-employees to say “He looked fine to me” and “I didn’t see anything happen.”

In this particular case, a roustabout fell working on the North Slope and hit his head. When he came home from work, his daughter noticed he seemed different and his neighbors noticed he was acting out of sorts. His daughter took him to a doctor who diagnosed a fluid build-up in the brain requiring surgical placement of a shunt to relieve pressure. His daughter filed a claim on his behalf.

The employer denied that there had been a fall. At the hearing, employer’s witnesses provided a videotape that claimed to prove he couldn’t have fallen in the way he described and his co-employees testified against him. The employer also submitted a “independent” employer medical evaluation by Dr. Lynne Bell who found “very strong evidence” of alcohol abuse and a “history of severe alcoholism” based upon a report that his wife, not the injured worker, had been an alcoholic. Nice.

But the injured worker won his case. The Board found that the employer’s witnesses and Dr. Bell were less credible than the employee, his daughter, and the second independent medical examiner, Dr. McCormack.

The morals of the story: Don’t expect your co-employees to testify for you. They don’t want to lose their safety bonuses or their jobs. Don’t expect your employer to admit you got hurt. They don’t want their insurance rates going up. And if the insurance company sends you to see Dr. Lynne Bell, you’re in for a fight. Might was as well find a lawyer now.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.

The 2017 Annual Report shows some interesting trends.  In a nutshell, fewer injuries are being reported, less is being paid in benefits including medical and indemnity (TTD, TPD, PPI, PTD), and attorney fees have increased. One could conclude that employers are fighting harder to deny benefits and employee attorneys are having to fight harder to win benefits. You can view the Report on the Board’s website at: Annual Report 2017.

In particular, the statistics show that in 2017:

•           259.5 million total benefits were paid, a decrease of 3.8%
•             9.5 million was paid to employer attorneys, an increase of 9.14%

The take away: Employers are paying their attorneys more than ever and employees are getting less. Denying employee benefits is big business for insurance defense firms.   So, if the insurance company thinks it needs an attorney, maybe the injured worker does too.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, email: keenan@keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.

At the Law Office of Keenan Powell, we received several favorable decisions from the Alaska Workers Compensation Board and the Alaska Workers Compensation Commission during 2017-2018 in addition to settling a number of cases. If you take a look at the decisions, you’ll notice a couple of trends:

All the other cases were defended by Holmes, Weddle & Barcott which represents Liberty Mutual, Ohio Casualty Company and Berkshire Hathaway. On three different occasions, the defense showed up at the hearing and withdrew its controversions.

A fair conclusion from these cases would be that the insurance company will controvert and defend cases to the very end, and then, very possibly, give up.

Cavitt v Ohio Casualty Co/Liberty Mutual. In AWCB Decision and Order 0109 (9/13/17), the Board awarded ongoing temporary total disability (TTD) after the Employer’s attorney, Holmes, Weddle & Barcott, appeared that the hearing and announced it was withdrawing the controversion.

Merely three months later, the Employer took another bite at the apple. It sent the Employee to yet another employer medical evaluation (EME) at which time Dr. David Bauer and filed a new controversion of TTD and medical benefits.

At the hearing on the January 25, 2018 claim, the employer’s attorney failed to producer Dr. Bauer for testimony as demanded by the employee’s attorney and so his opinion was stricken from the record. No explanation was offered for the failure to produce Dr. Bauer. The employer’s attorney withdrew its controversion based on that opinion. Again. Just like it did in the 2017 case.

In the new decision, AWCB Decision No 18-0060 (6/25/18), the Board awarded ongoing TTD, past TTD, ongoing medical benefits and a remand to the reemployment benefits administrator. Moreover, the Board ruled that the Employee could not be forced to mediate his claim.

In Gillion v Berkshire Hathaway, the issue in dispute was whether the injured worker’s condition was work-related, which the Employer disputed right up until the hearing. At the hearing, Holmes, Weddle & Barcott conceded that the injury was work-related. Decision 17-0089 (7/31/17).

The Board awarded the Employee won the issue of work-relatedness (causation and compensability), medical benefits, back temporary total disability (TTD) for the periods of time he missed work due to his injury, a compensation rate increase and penalties and interest on underpaid compensation as well as late-paid per diem to attend the Board’s Second Independent Medical Evaluation (SIME).

Several issues were appealed by both parties resulting in a decision from the Alaska Workers Compensation Commission, Decision No. 253 (8/23/18), which ruled, amongst other things, that the Employee was entitled to TTD during the three days he was out of state attending a SIME and therefor unable to work at his job.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, use the contact form on this website or call:  907 258 7663.

It bears repeating!

Employees have no duty to cooperate with a nurse case manager sent by the insurance company.  Freeman v ASRC, AWCB Decision No 15-0073 (6/26/15). 

Think of the nurse case manager as an insurance adjuster with a nursing degree because that is what she is. Her job is to minimize the medical benefits paid for an injured worker. She looks for evidence that the injury may not be work-related in an effort to defeat medical benefits.

And, sadly enough, there is one case documented (and probably more which have not shown up) where the nurse case manager directed the injured worker from one physician to another with whom she had an established professional relationship - a relationship so cozy that the doctor signed letters that had been written by the nurse as if he had written them himself. The evidence in the case tends to show that real reason the nurse sent the employee to that doctor was not because she was trying to secure good medical treatment from him but because she was hoping her favorite doctor would say the surgery wasn't needed or that it wasn't work related.

Under the Freeman case, the nurse case manager has a legal duty to inform the injured worker of her role, of the adversarial nature of workers compensation (i.e. she is working against him), his right to decline her assistance and the possibility and likelihood that the insurance company's and the worker's interest may someday diverge.

If the nurse case manager you're working with hasn't disclosed all of her role etc, you got to wonder what's going on.

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 30 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases.  A sample of verdicts she has obtained for Employees is found at  http://www.keenanpowell.com/past-verdicts-settlements.

All consultations are free.  To set up an appointment, use the contact form on this website or call:  907 258 7663.

Back in October, I reported on the two wins in this case before the Alaska Workers Compensation Board. In Gillion v Berkshire Hathaway D&O 17-0089 (7/31/17),  the Employer disputed whether the Employee’s back injury was work-related right up until the morning of the hearing at which time the defense firm, Holmes, Weddle & Barcott, conceded that the injury was work-related. This happens more than one would expect.

In the decision, the Employee won the issue of work-relatedness (causation and compensability), medical benefits, back temporary total disability (TTD) for the periods of time he missed work due to his injury, a compensation rate increase and penalties and interest on underpaid compensation as well as late-paid per diem to attend the Board’s Second Independent Medical Evaluation (SIME). However the Board neglected to rule upon the Employee’s request for travel and denied TTD for the work he missed to attend the SIME.

We then filed a petition for reconsideration which was ruled upon 10/16/17, Gillion v Berkshire Hathaway D&O 17-0120. In that decision, the Board admitted that it overlooked the travel and misapplied the law as to TTD. It ruled in his favor and awarded him travel benefits as well as three days of missed work to attend the SIME.

We filed an appeal of denial of attorneys fees and challenged the adequacy of Dr. Bauer’s “IME” opinion. The Employer cross-appealed upon the award of three days of TTD for attending the SIME appointment. The Alaska Workers’ Compensation Appeals Commission ruled in Final Decision 253 (8/28/18) that the Board must award additional attorneys fees because the Employer had resisted the SIME, that Dr. Bauer’s “IME” opinion was adequate under old law, but would have been inadequate under new law, and that the Employee was entitled to the three days of TTD for the SIME appointment.

Win, win, win!

Keenan Powell has practiced Workers Compensation law in the State of Alaska for over 35 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans handling hundreds of cases. www.keenanpowell.com.

All consultations are free.  To make an appointment, use the contact form on this website or call:  907 258 7663.

These parties went to hearing before in the case of Cavitt v Ohio Casualty Co., AWCB Decision and Order 0109 (9/13/17). (Ohio Casualty claims are adjusted by Liberty Mutual.)  In that decision, the Board awarded ongoing temporary total disability (TTD). Merely three months later, on January 25, 2018, counsel for the insurance company sent the Employee to yet another employer medical evaluation (EME) at which time Dr. David Bauer opined that the employee was medically stable and that he needed no further medical treatment. That is not what the treating physician said.

A claim was filed on the employee’s behalf, which was controverted by the employer’s attorney. A petition for second independent medical evaluation was filed based upon the dispute between the treating physician and the EME regarding medical stability and ongoing treatment.

Soon afterwards, the employer’s attorney offered to “turn on” medical benefits and TTD if the petition was withdrawn. The petition was withdrawn and benefits were restored, but back TTD for the period of time when the employee had been cut off after the EME was not paid. Nor would the employer’s attorney agree to remanding the case to the reemployment benefits administrator for a new evaluation.

At the hearing on the January 25, 2018 claim, the employer’s attorney failed to producer Dr. Bauer for testimony as demanded by the employee’s attorney and so his opinion was stricken from the record. No explanation was offered for the failure to produce Dr. Bauer. The employer’s attorney withdrew its controversion based on that opinion.

The board awarded ongoing TTD, past TTD, ongoing medical benefits and a remand to the reemployment benefits administrator.

Moral of the story: Never give up. Never surrender.

Keenan Powell has practiced law in Alaska for more than 30 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans.

All consultations are free.  If you want to set up a meeting, use the contact form on www.keenanpowell.com or call:  907 258 7663.