Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's » injured workers

OhioBWC – Maximum Medical Improvement – Now What?

Mike Gruhin — Sat, 14 May 2011 15:49:55 +0000

Maximum Medical Improvement – Now What?

At some point in your Ohio Workers’ Compensation Claim, an injured worker will be declared to have reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) and Temporary Total Disability (TTD) will end. When that happens what do you do?

Without being represented by a Board Certified OhioBWC Specialist Attorney an injured workers options will be limited because he/she will not know how to navigate the Ohio BWC system. There are many avenues to take, if and when, found MMI.

With a Certified Specialist Attorneyyou will be counseled as to what comes next. It could be a new condition added to the claim, which then creates “New and Changed Circumstances”. With new and changed circumstances, TT can again be requested. Most likely, the Ohio BWC or the Ohio Industrial Commission most likely will reinstate TTD.

Another avenue to pursue is Vocational Rehabilitation (VOC) through the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. If you are accepted into VOC, you will then be entitled to receive Living Maintenance Compensation (LM) while you are in the program. From that program there is an option to seek Wage Loss (WL), while you look for work (Non-Working Wage Loss) or when you get a job that pays less than you made when you were injured (less than your Average Weekely Wage (AWW).

For the information you need to protect yourself and your family, you should call Mike Gruhin, “The Comp Specialist”.

Ohio Workers’ Compensation – Not User Friendly!

Mike Gruhin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:16:23 +0000

Although the BWC system was created to allow injured workers to request coverage for work injuries without the need of legal services, the system has become a nightmare of red tape and denials.

Over 90% of the hearings we attend on behalf of our clients result from the BWC denying the injured worker’s doctor;s request for treatment authorization.

If you are injured on the job, you should obtain legal representation to protect your legal right to medical care and injury compensation.

Contact the governor of Ohio and tell him to fix the system that was created to protect Ohio’s injured workers. He needs to replace the current BWC Administrator with one who did not come from the insurance industry where the top goal is to save money and increase premiums.

Ohio Workers need to unite and tell the Governor that Ohio Wokrers’ Compensation needs to be fixed NOW to benefit Ohio’s Injured Work Force.

Contact the Governor NOW! Let him know you are not going to let him continue in office until he repairs the system he pledged to fix when he first ran for office.

Ohio Permanent Total Disability Recipients – No DWRF Increase for 2010

Mike Gruhin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:21:44 +0000

DWRF Annual Adjustment

Due to a drop in the Consumer Price Index there will not be an increase in DWRF benefits this year. For most injured workers there will be no change in DWRF benefits. DWRF benefits may be impacted by changes in the amount of social security disability benefits that the IW receives. Letters were sent to injured workers, employers and their representatives regarding this issue.

Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation – making a bad situation worse

Mike Gruhin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:11:24 +0000

The current atmosphere at the OhioBWC is anti-injured worker. The MCO’s continue to deny requested medical treatment, the BWC is actively making settlements of claims more onerous.

It’s bad enough to get hurt on the job, but fighting the system that is supposed to protect injured workers is downright demoralizing.

The BWC is now forcing settlement allocations between compensation, future medical expense, and protection of Medicare interests. That would not be bad but when the BWC forces allocation in a settlement for an injured worker who will not be eligible for Medicare benefits until age 65 or 66, it becomes absurd.

As a result of an internal audit performed late in 2008, the BWC decided that, in order to clean house, it would reduce settlement offers to injured workers, utilize co-morbidity tables (taking a persons whole medical history into account in the settlement of a broken leg, for example), and use the current economic situation to ‘squeeze’ low settlement amounts for workers’ in economic distress (terminated due to economy, etc.)

So much for a system that makes a ‘Plegde’ of Service to injured workers.

Now, the Ohio Senate is considering bringing privatization to workers’ compensation in Ohio. Anyone who is injured in the service of a self-insured employer knows the extra nightmare of claim battles. Bringing privatization into the BWC arena will increase the battle between the injured worker and the benefits to which he/she is entitled.

Contact Governor Strickland and tell him that you want a change for the benefit of the injured worker.

Contact your state representative and tell him/her that you want a change for the benefit of the injured worker.

Unrepresented ? – Don’t make the big mistake!

Mike Gruhin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:09:47 +0000

I just was informed that an issue pending before the Ohio Industrial Commission is that of an UNREPRESENTED Injured Worker who tried to file an appeal to a BWC claim denial order.
By Mistake, this Injured Worker . . . .

sent in the wrong form. She sent in a form stating she was waiving the appeal period of the order when she meant to send in the form appealing the order. Don’t let this happen to you!

Unrepresented Injured Workers are ‘easy prey’ for the BWC and/or the attorney represented Employer.

If you are injured on the job, immediately file an injury report, tell a co-wokrer, get medical attention that same day (preferably immediately after the injury) and contact a Board Certified Workers’ Comp specialist attorney. Don’t make the mistake of going it alone.

Ohio Workers’ Comp – A page from Ripley’s Believe It or Not !

Mike Gruhin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:00:42 +0000

Today, I was blown away by the latest Bizarre BWC position with regard to ACS, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Pharmacy Vendor. The Governor of Ohio needs to take action and appoint a responsive person as Administrator of The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

It is so outrageous that ACS is not allowed or will not to talk to an injured worker’s attorney!

Now that we have taken care of the prior claim problems and gotten the claim allowed, we get a call from our client saying he is trying to recover his payments to the pharmacy for the prescriptions. As with most clients, he has a hard time explaining everything involved with the problem. So we call ACS.

So here we are, trying to help our lcient resolve an $8,000-$10,000 prescription mess up that occured because our client wound up paying for his prescriptions. To our surprise, ACS states it cannot discuss our clients claim with us.

WHAT??? We are the authorized representatives in the BWC claim. We are the attorneys for the injured worker AND YOU WON’T TALK TO US ABOUT OUR CLIENT??????

To make matters worse, once we do get this straightened out, our client who paid retail for the prescriptions will, at best, be reimbursed at the BWC UCR (usual, customary, reasonable) prescription fee schedule – which is much lower than you or I would pay a pharmacy for the same prescription.

We will keep fighting and doing all we can for our client, but the system is out of whack. It is a Bizaro World at the OhioBWC.

Ohio’s Governor promised BWC reform while running for election in 2006. He never came through on his promises to Ohio’s injured workers. Keep that ‘non-kept’ promise in mind when you go to the polls in November to vote!