Two and a half years ago, my ordeal started and it seems to me now that in some cases time does not heal all wounds. When AIG is the insurance carrier for your company’s workman’s comp it seems all too clear that there is no way to heal your wounds whatsoever. It seems extremely negligent to me for a company to grab up billions of dollars in taxpayer money only to spend it on cavorting and carousing in posh resorts, while those injured on the job cannot receive treatment and medication because of denial of services.
These denials of services are exactly what have been happening to me. I am also only being allowed access to sub par doctors in what I can only describe as the meat grinder of the workman’s comp system. Perhaps a little history might shine some light on my current dilemma.
Two and a half years ago, I was injured at work. I had a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I spent three months in agonizing pain because every doctor I saw diagnosed me with a sprain. Even the most unintelligent among us would understand that after three months, it must be something more than that and an MRI should be done.
When and MRI was finally done, a tear was discovered and I was scheduled for surgery. The day I had met with the surgeon, he was two and a half hours late. The sad thing is that he misdiagnosed me with a sprain while he was looking at my MRI scans. Needless to say, he did not perform the surgery on me. This is when I decided to get a lawyer in the hopes of expediting the procedure and getting me a decent doctor. Unfortunately, this did not happen and I learned that you do not really get to pick your doctor, but instead you must choose from in-network doctors.
If you have ever been seen by one of these doctors, you know that it is like a never-ending assembly line of broken patients. I liken it to McDonald’s, where you wonder how they can sell those cheeseburgers so cheaply; what they do not charge in quality, they make up for in quantity, and the burgers are sub par in and of themselves. The entire time that I was fighting for surgery on my right shoulder, I knew that I had suffered injuries to my back and neck because of the excruciating pain shooting through my neck and hips, but no MRI’s were done to check it out. It seems that the doctors and AIG were not willing to go that extra mile to provide me with a speedy recovery and eventual return to work.
When all was said and done I wound up with two tears in both shoulders, a herniated disk in my back and neck which are impinging on my nerves, pinched nerves in both elbows, and carpal tunnel syndrome in both arms. AIG has only authorized one surgery on my right shoulder and is denying me the rest. The doctors declared me permanent and stationary at Christmas of 2007 and AIG stopped paying the claim. This led to eviction from our home and utter financial destruction when we even had to cash in our 401k just to survive. As it stands now, I am still waiting for approval from AIG for my surgeries and it is getting even more difficult to get approval for my medications.
I must say that if AIG winds up on Capitol Hill testifying on its own behalf, then I would like to be on the other side giving them my story with which to nail these guys that put profit above the health and well-being of those that they insure.
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