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Fraud Investigation Demanded for Ill. Prison Guards ' Carpal Tunnel Claims

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 09:35:22 AM EST
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Over the past three years, Illinois taxpayers have shelled out close to $10 million in workers comp claims to prison guards at one prison in Illinois. The payments are mostly for claims of repetitive carpal tunnel syndrome due to opening and closing manually operated cell doors. 389 guards (more than half of those employed by the prison)have put in claims and collected.

Even the warden put in a claim and got $75,000. How many times a day do you think he personally opens or closes a cell door?

State lawmakers are calling for a fraud investigation.

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    Fraud Investigation Demanded for Ill. Prison Guards ' Carpal Tunnel Claims | 12 comments (12 topical)

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    considering most evidence re: carpal tunnel... (none / 0) (#1)
    by Dadler on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 10:45:50 AM EST
    ...indicates it is almost always a psychologically induced condition (why did nobody have it when people were typing in office pools for twelve hours a day, for example), I'd say these claims are a combination of fact and fiction. And since western medicine refuses to accept the brains ability to initiate symptoms for psychological purposes, and has pumped these "in vogue" maladies as widespread epidemics of physical breakdown (which is absurd), claims like these will only increase in volume.  

    But I guess with CT, and lower back pain, and plantar fasciitis, etc.) the human body has just broken down completely in the last twenty years and devolved into the weak and fragile thing it is.

    Absurd.

    but.... (none / 0) (#2)
    by Dadler on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 10:47:11 AM EST
    ...the psychological factors at work for prison guards in our incarceration nation are, for most guards, fairly profound. and for prisoners? off the charts.  

    Parent
    and bring on the slings and arrows... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Dadler on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 10:50:17 AM EST
    for my saying CT is largely a mindbody disorder. but understand i suffered from it, and debilitating back pain, stomach pain, plantar fasciitis (which I still get and am able to get rid of on my own), and other conditions my doctors were useless in properly diagnosing and treating. except for dr. john sarno, that is.

    Parent
    The linkage between the (none / 0) (#7)
    by Harry Saxon on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 06:22:33 PM EST
    body and mind is profound.

    Western medical practitioners usually only scratch the surface of that relationship.

    The rare exceptions such as your doctor, who demonstrate a deeper understanding, are too few and far between IMHO.

    Parent

    I agree, On the other hand, (none / 0) (#8)
    by observed on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 06:34:48 PM EST
    Chopra and/or Weil, e.g., offer  quackery disguised as profound understanding of mind/body connections.

    Parent
    My statement comes from (none / 0) (#9)
    by Harry Saxon on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 08:11:11 PM EST
    neither gentlemen's teachings, but a combination of my own readings and experience with my own organism.

    Did you know that Tibetan monks practicing meditation can reduce their O2 consumption by 67% when in a meditative state?  

    Did you know that when these same monks practice what is vulgarly referred to as 'firebreathing ', it allows them to be comfortable in environments that would reduce you or I to shivering masses of flesh in less than 15 minutes.


    Youtube Click Me

    An honest practitioner admits to some uncertainty in his knowledge of medicine. I once spend a half-hour while visiting a friend in hospital listening to an infectious disease specialist explain that they didn't know why one of the lab tests indicated a bacterial infection that they couldn't locate or pin down with other tests.

    Parent

    Having been a typist (none / 0) (#11)
    by sj on Mon Jan 03, 2011 at 11:28:42 AM EST
    I will say that a major difference is that the typewriter has no mouse.  That's the device that kills my hand.  Typing uses all your fingers.  A mouse -- not so much.

    It is far from absurd to me.

    Parent

    And I believe (none / 0) (#4)
    by CoralGables on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 10:50:52 AM EST
    (as happens when workman comp claims run rampant in one particular company) they will find a large proportion of the claims were signed off by the same doctor.

    lax personnel policies (none / 0) (#5)
    by diogenes on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 03:23:40 PM EST
    Before paying out S75,000 maybe they should have had an Independent Medical Examination performed by an outside doctor.

    Why do you assume that ... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Yman on Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 05:59:08 PM EST
    ... there was no outside medical exam?

    Not sure how it works in Illinois, but in most states the employees filing claims are examined by their own doctor(s) and by the carrier's doctor(s).

    Parent

    In my state... (none / 0) (#10)
    by diogenes on Sat Jan 01, 2011 at 07:50:00 PM EST
    The carrier hates to shell out money and picks Independent Medical Exam docs who are impartial or even somewhat biased against the claimant.  If these correction officers really had disabling carpal tunnel syndrome from an independent medical exam then maybe they really are disabled.

    Parent
    And vise-versa ... (none / 0) (#12)
    by Yman on Tue Jan 04, 2011 at 11:04:13 AM EST
    ... by the claimant's docs - it's the nature of expert witnesses and worker's comp law.  A neutral independent exam (presumably binding) is an interesting idea, but it's not the law.  Therefore, I don't see how "lax personnel policies" in the form of failing to obtain an "independent (extra-legal) medical exam" are responsible.

    Parent
    Fraud Investigation Demanded for Ill. Prison Guards ' Carpal Tunnel Claims | 12 comments (12 topical)

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