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Feds launch workers’ comp probe

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Illinois

* Here comes the heat…

Federal investigators have opened a wide-scale criminal probe into the way state government compensates its injured workers, targeting three state arbitrators and a rash of claims at a downstate prison and in seven different state agencies.

Federal prosecutors in Springfield and Fairview Heights in southwestern Illinois issued subpoenas in February seeking records on workers’ compensation claims filed since Jan. 1, 2006 by scores of government employees.

The subpoenas obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show an emphasis on claims filed by workers at the Menard Correctional Center, where the Belleville News-Democrat has reported more than $10 million has been paid to 389 prison employees since 2008, including the prison’s warden.

That total included more than 230 guards who have claimed they developed repetitive-stress injuries caused ostensibly by manually locking and unlocking prisoner cell doors, the downstate newspaper reported.

“This is not common,” Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said of the volume of on-the-job injury claims coming from Menard, one of Illinois’ oldest prisons. “We haven’t seen anything like that in our other prisons, and we have prisons almost as old as Menard.”

* What they’re looking for…

* Any email about workers’ compensation claims made by employees of Menard Correctional Center or other state agencies.

* Email, personnel records, employee vouchers and reimbursements for CMS employee Susan Lemasters for the past five years. Lemasters decides workers’ compensation settlements for Department of Corrections employees.

* Email and personnel records for Bill Schneider, the former Assistant Attorney General who handled the workers’ compensation claim of Matt Mitchell — the Illinois State Police Trooper who slammed into a car at triple-digit speeds while using his in-dash computer and talking on his cellphone. The crash killed Collinsville sisters Kelli and Jessica Uhl in November 2007.

* Email and personnel records for Workers’ Compensation Arbitrators Andrew Nalefski, Jennifer Teague and John Dibble.

* More…

Federal prosecutors demanded emails and personnel records from commission arbitrators Jennifer Teague and John Dibble. The state put Teague and Dibble, who make $115,840 a year, on paid administrative leave Feb. 15, the day after four subpoenas were issued by U.S. Attorney James Lewis of the central district.

Teague was suspended following a News-Democrat report that she tried to conduct a high-profile workers’ comp hearing “on the sly with no press,” according to an email, and offered to speed up another hearing in return for a quicker payment in her own injury case. The newspaper reported that Dibble, who approved 125 of the Menard prison cases, also received a workers’ comp payment of $48,790 for a November 2009 fall that did not show up in commission records. […]

The lone subpoena from U.S. Attorney Stephen Wigginton of the southern district of Illinois, dated Feb. 23, demands all email account information for Dibble and Teague.

* Gov. Pat Quinn’s response…

“We need to get to the bottom of everything and I’m very happy that this is happening. Back on the 28th of January I appointed a special person to look into the whole matter of No. 1 we gotta make sure that we look at the work comp commission. To make sure everything is done right there. Any wrongdoing has got to be ferreted out. Number two we’ve got to reform the whole law in Illinois. Next week we are going to be proposing a work comp reform that I think is good for workers as well as businesses across our state. I think it’s also good for Illinois because we’re an employer, one of the biggest employers in the whole State of Illinois. State government. And we want to make sure that everything is done right when it comes to workman’s compensation. Those who are injured, we want to make sure they get fair compensation. At the same time, if there is any fraud, if there is any abuse, if there is any monkey business if there’s any wrongdoing it’s gotta be prosecuted. I appointed someone from our Department of Insurance to oversee all this. The federal government and law enforcement is involved as well.”

Thoughts?

* Related…

* Worker’s Comp Bill Progresses in Illinois: A state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill that would deny worker’s compensation to people who are injured while committing “reckless homicide [that] caused an accident resulting in the death or severe injury of another person.” The committee voted after hearing emotional testimony from the mother of two sisters who were killed in a head-on crash with a state trooper.

* Unemployment benefits extended for thousands in Illinois

* Caterpillar visitor center project still on track: Caterpillar Inc.’s visitor center, long viewed as the development that helps maintain Peoria’s relationship with the Fortune 100 company, could be under construction by next month. No talks of discontinuing the project have been considered, according to a company spokeswoman, despite the hullabaloo raised about CEO Doug Oberhelman’s letter to Gov. Pat Quinn in which he admits other states have been wooing the heavy equipment manufacturer to leave Illinois.

* Feds probe scandal-plagued Cook County jobs program

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 4:20 am

Comments

The real problem with this situation is the state’s worker’s compensation law. Any investigation seeking to find source behind this out of control problem can start or end there. Now, if doctors or lawyers are in cohoots to manufactor claims that is another issue. The doctors or the lawyers involved in such a scheme should be freaking out right now. I hope all that money from Menard is worth it now.

Also, the media stories villanizing the “injured” workers and the front line staff at CMS and IDOC are unfair. Any inquiry or real story should concentrate on the big businessinterests

Comment by Tony Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 6:27 am
Continued… should concentrate on the big business interests behind the the worker’s compensation law and any law revision (doctors and lawyers haha and labor).

Legislators need to do the right thing and the lawyers and doctors raking Illinois of millions should rightfully be heavily investigated.

Comment by Tony Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 6:40 am
The train’s getting set to leave the station. It would be wise to get on now.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 7:17 am
“Also, the media stories villanizing the “injured” workers and the front line staff at CMS and IDOC are unfair. Any inquiry or real story should concentrate on the big business interests”

It is impossible for the lawyers and doctors to commit fraud without a willing worker. Those people need to be included in any investigations and disciplined according to their actions.

Comment by Pelon Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 7:22 am
Close old worn out, out dated sections of the max joints [Stateville, Pontiac and Menard]transfer the money appropriated to run them and move those inmates to THOMSON. This is such a no brainer - once again this is high school economics at best. The politicians of Illinois and AFSCME are a joke. The taxpayers and the AFSCME members deserve better.

Comment by intheknow Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 8:54 am
- This is such a no brainer - once again this is high school economics at best. -

So moving these inmates to Thomson would prevent all workers’ comp abuse in Illinois? Or do you believe that these workers are actually suffering injuries because of the outdated prisons?

Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:22 am
with blago almost gone and todd stroger out the door and too many politicians too new to have done anything wrong, we really need a new front page scandal to distract us from the nfl lockout and the impending woeful cubs season so hopefully the feds will find something big.

Comment by shore Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:23 am
Wordslinger is right. It will be interesting to see who makes a deal first and who gets thrown under the bus. This is a terribly corrupr system and I predict more than a few individuals will be heading to prison.

Comment by Fed-Up Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:25 am
“Caterpillar Inc.’s visitor center, long viewed as the development that helps maintain Peoria’s relationship with the Fortune 100 company…”

The visitor center is adjacent to the riverfront museum which I referred to in past posts. Without the taxpayer funded museum, Cat was not going to go forward with the visitor’s center. The implication, of course, was that if the museum wasn’t approved, Cat was NOT necessarily going to “maintain its relationship” with Peoria.

Comment by Secret Square Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:34 am
In the end the focus here is going to be on the the CMS employe. Why did she pay the claims? Was she lazy? Overworked? Incompetent? Was it easier to pay that do the investigation whether to deny the cases? There will probably be some questionable, but not illegal, actions/comments by attorneys, arbitrator’s and doctors. But ultimately it comes down to why did CMS pay the claims. The tinfoil hat folks are going to be disappointed.

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:53 am
At last the G is in the picture. Our Workers Comp
has been set up by trial lawyers,doctors, and unions. The go along get along politicans know this. Lets see if someone in Springfield has the brains to correct it. Better yet just get copy Indiana law and Pass it.

Comment by mokenavince Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 9:56 am
Mokenavince - what is so good about the Indiana law other than it pays very poor benefits to injured workers?

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 10:04 am
Actually the workers comp law was not set up by trial lawyers, doctors, unions. It came about in the early 1900’s modeled after legislation from Germany. It created a no-fault system with limited benefits in return for elimination of civil suits where a jury would decide damages. It started in Wisconsin and Illinois followed soon after.

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 10:09 am
In our shop at one time 1/2 the employees were off on work comp. People would brag about all the money they were getting from their settlements, with no questions asked. Next thing you know people were dropping like flies. You could always tell when someone was going down for the count when they were cruising through the car lots looking at new vehicles. Nobody on this blog has the slightest clue of how much fraud is going on with state employees

Comment by foster brooks Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 10:13 am
- Mokenavince - what is so good about the Indiana law other than it pays very poor benefits to injured workers? -

I’d say what’s so good about it is that Mokenavince hasn’t ever had a serious job related injury.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 10:23 am
Response to small town liberal. No I do not believe for a moment that the transfer of inmates to Thomson “would prevent all workers’ comp abuse in Illinois”. I do believe that some if not many of the claims made by officers may be legitimate. Repetitave act of keying and rolling doors possibly hundreds of times per shift who’s to say… I am not a Doctor. If you look for video on the internet of Thomson you will see the cell doors are not keyed the are electronically activated pnuematic. As far as fraudulent w/c claims by all means INVESTIGATE - those who are guilty should be fired and prosecuted including Dr’s, Lawyers and Employees.

Comment by intheknow Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 11:04 am
All the Illinois politicians who have toured Thomson and are in favor of selling it to the Feds should now be touring Stateville, Pontiac and Menard. Once again high school economics! Old buildings in need of millions for repair the state does not have and even if they were repaired they would not hold a candle to Thomson. For the most part these politicians know nothing about security - they have no training in the area. They would however learn quickley if they had to walk a gallery turned into a blind corner and confronted an inmate that wanted to kill them.

Comment by intheknow Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 11:28 am
Foster Brooks - if there is so much fraud - report it. It is a felony to commit work comp fraud. Bring it to the AG. Bring it to your state’s attorney. Bring it to the comp commission fraud unit.

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 11:39 am
I work for the state. Requests for some type of survillance for questionable work comp cases always fall on deaf ears. In private businesses the insurance companies routinely do surveillance when alerted to questionable claims. It just does not happen in the state system. It is not just doctors and lawyers - although they prosper in the weak system - it is also employees who seem to get hurt in clumps around holidays and school vacations. I know no one wants to learn by comparative examples, but look at the Indiana system. Fair, equitable, and less physician/attorney/dishonest employee control.

Comment by pizzajohnny Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 11:50 am
Marcus Agrippa and Small Town Liberal - Indiana’s system allows employers to direct injured employees to physicians of employer choice, and employees to seek their own at their own expense. In Illinois it is just the opposite. A case can be made on either side of the argument which physician would level the more objective judgement. You both are sure the Indiana system does not pay well, etc. Any evidence or studies other than anecdotal evidence would be more convincing. Please cite for our edification.

Comment by pizzajohnny Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 11:56 am
Tony:
What do you mean the little guys? Have you been reading the articles? This was the WARDEN of Menard, the Worker’s Comp hearing officers, and other officials. Besides which, over half the correctional officers at Menard are not just “little guys.” They perpetrated huge fraud against taxpayers and should be held accountable. How corrupt and cynical an environment could that be? The implications are very disturbing.

Many, many, many congratulations to these reporters for doing what several layers of government should be doing. Not to mention what Tribune and Sun Times reporters should be doing…

Comment by tired of press Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 1:34 pm
intheknow:
Blago tried to close Stateville and Pontiac. The legislators and AFSCME had a fit. Good luck with that. Apparently our state function is to make sure people have prison jobs.

Comment by tired of press Friday, Apr 1, 11 @ 1:37 pm