Quarterly Update - Q3 2011

OK, so this quarter was a lot more fun than the previous one. Once we'd dumped the See U Next Tuesday of a Support Coordinator at ACC, it was really just about Kyle and I getting back to basics and moving on with our lives. We did manage to attend a few musical performances, which I've already posted about (the reviews need to be happen right away or I forget the details which make the posts worthwhile).


July

The quarter started out in a fun and hilarious way - I spent three weeks down in Inververgas (aka Invercargill) working at the firm's office down there. The primary goal was learning how to use our reasonably new audit software, with the secondary goals being relationship-building and, I suppose, actually completing some file work.

About Invercargill

Population ~ 53,000

Highways - One (#1)

Is home to a Licensing Trust, which means grocery stores can't sell you wine and beer like other regions in New Zealand

Home to Henry, a 111-year old tuatara who has lived at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery since 1918 or something. His partner Mildred (age 70-80 years) had 11 eggs in 2009. See the full article "Tuatara sex worth the 111-year wait" here from Stuff.co.nz.



OK, so my daily schedule at home is more or less like this
- 8am wake up, morning stuff, 15 minute drive to work, 10 minutes to park
- 9am to 6pm at work (not necessarily "working")
- 6pm to 7:30pm Dustin time - get groceries, do shopping, go bowling etc.
- 7:30pm-10:30pm spend time with Kyle, as Kyle needs at least a passive attendant 24/7 and we get 12 hours funded care per day (often at home, sometimes not)
- 10:30pm to 11pm get to bed
- 11pm to midnight TV / Internet / movies while awake in bed


My daily schedule in Inver-vegas was as follows:
- 8am wake up, morning stuff, 15 minute drive to work, 10 minutes to park
- 9am to 6pm at work
- 6pm to 11pm ?????? OMG I NEED HOBBIES ??????

So on Mondays I'd watch TV ONE's awesome TV lineup:

Customs - reality show featuring the weird crap people try to smuggle into Australia, usually from Laos / Cambodia / etc. My personal favourite was the lady who had 12 turtles concealed in her clothing.

Dog Patrol - reality show featuring the Dog Squad in Auckland and all of the random drug busts they make.

Kalgoorlie Cops - reality show featuring cops in Kalgoorlie, Australia, which is basically a gold mining town that never left 1890. Money flows freely, and boozed up 22-year olds blow the fortune they should be making by working in the mines on liquor, drugs and of course, sex (since prostitution is legal in ANZ, as long as the service provider is a permanent resident).

On Tuesdays I'd go to the Speight's Ale House, have two beer and watch The Ultimate Fighter (which is Big Brother, but instead of voting each other out the contestants have a two-round UFC match and the loser goes home).



On Wednesdays, I'd do things like draft blog posts. And one night I went to see Southland's version of Jesus Christ, Superstar (see previous post).


August and September

August was the start of our audit busy season due to standard year-end dates in New Zealand. A lot of companies have 30 June year ends (right in the middle of winter, to offset the 31 December that's prevalent in North America) and reporting entities - listed companies or those with public accountability such as Health Boards, Universities, Municipal Councils, etc. need to be signed off within TWO months of year end. So naturally a lot of work falls into this window and needs to be finished on time.

September was more or less the same thing - I have a few 31 July year ends in addition to a spill over of 30 June's, so it all kind of ran together straight through to the start of October.

I do need to address the Rugby World Cup, which ran from September-October this year, somewhat separately - see review in a later post.

Oamaru
Probably the highlight of the Quarter was getting away to Oamaru for a weekend with Minnie, Mumbly and new Antarctica friends.

Side note: Minnie and Mumbly met in Antarctica in what was basically an East Side vs. West Side adventure - she was at the American base (McMurdo) and he was at the English base (Scott), which are about 3km apart on the ice. A mate of Minnie's has, in the past, blogged about what life is like on the ice, or as he calls it the Big Dead Place (it's also now a book). Anyway, because Christchurch is the departure port for all American transit to and from McMurdo (which is NOT the South Pole station - that's out in the centre of the continent), a lot of Antarctica people tend to settle in and around there, or are routinely passing through.

I can't remember if I've blogged about Oamaru before, but it's a town of ~ 10,000 and New Zealand's Victorian capital. Shortly after the Kiwi invention of refrigerated meat, which opened up New Zealand lamb and beef to the international export markets, Oamaru was the largest port in New Zealand. It's likely now the smallest, but all of the nice old heritage buildings are still there and in decent condition.










Yes, I picked the hotel due to proximity to Mickey-D's for breakfast tastiness.



Oamaru is also home to New Zealand's Steampunk scene, which is set in Victorian England and all that jazz. I *know* I've stuck a post somewhere with an image from a Final Fantasy, so you should all be familiar.



This culminates in the annual Steampunk Fashion show, which leads to some unexceptional home creations. I haven't been yet, and I have a conflict for this year's June 2-3, but hopefully I'll make it up in 2013.

I'm too tired to do anything more useful at the moment, but here's the link if you want to know more and a picture of some of the costumes from the North Otago Museum.



http://www.steampunknz.co.nz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=54

Cheers,

Captain Awesome

Quarterly Update - Q2 2011

Hi Team!

Yes, I do realize that this post is about a year overdue. The truth is some really awful stuff went down last April - June in relation to Kyle's Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). As bad as the accident itself was and the disruption it caused to our lives, it was NOTHING compared to how the state-funded insurance agency treated us (or, more specifically, one individual at said agency).

I'll try to keep this short, and won't dwell too much on it, but here's the overview. All accidents incurred in New Zealand are paid for by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which is a state-owned corporation funded through:

a) worker levies (think WSIB rates in Ontario)
b) Road User rates (all vehicle drivers pay a ~ $200 premium per year)
c) General Taxes (for accidents that don't occur in the workplace or from a vehicle).


When you have an accident of any kind, the local Health Boards treat it, and then invoice ACC for the services. The basic idea is to remove "fault" - everybody pays for it, so nobody sues over a car accident, workplace injury, etc. Seems simple enough, right (and should in theory be the global standard of socialist insurance programs).

As a government-owned entity, ACC has all of the trappings of big bureaucracy. They also have all of the regular public sector problems such as grossly unqualified staff who work the exact hours of 9-4pm and evince a general disdain for the public as a whole.

Rather than give you my own list of complains against ACC, a woman up in Auckland recently gave her own list to a newspaper - I've picked out from her list of 45 (which have been amassed between 2002 and 2012) and recorded them below.

Link to her full list is here (thank you Dominion Post).

1. Repeated non disclosure of correspondence regarding [OUR] claim when requested.

3. No ability to restrict unauthorised access by 2500+ ACC staff and contractors to files, or medical files

5. Lack of procedure around dealing with statements of correction to incorrect reports

11. Derogatory emails by ACC staff

14. ACC167 Consent – used to coerce claimant’s into authorising otherwise unlawful collections of information.

15. Collection of personal information without claimant’s knowledge &/or attempted collection without knowledge

17. Imbalanced and biased decision making by Corporation

18. Covert/inappropriate communication to assessors which bias & negatively influence outcomes against claimants

22. Dictatorial approach of Case Managers, failure to make reasonable accommodations for claimant needs.

23. “cherry picking” of unfavourable phrases from medical reports which contradict the ultimate conclusion.

25. Failure to demand adherence of staff to State Services Code of Conduct and to take appropriate action for breach

29. ACC’s case management approach to [OUR CLAIM] is disruptive and destructive of [OUR] ability to rehabilitate/work part-time

30. ACC staff deliberately lying and writing false reports

31. ACC staff making clinical decisions without appropriate qualification

34. Prejudicial correspondence with independent assessors prior to assessments communicating ACC's desired outcome - that injuries are spent &/or due to non-injury causes

37. Taking advantage of disabled claimants for actuarial/financial gain

38. Poor decision making which adds cost to the Corporation

41. Lack of reasonable consultation and flexibility over assessments/ appointments/referrals

43. Focus on avoiding liability at the expense of effective early rehabilitation


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As you can see, we've experienced about 19 of the 45 complaints she noted, which arose from a 3-month "relationship" with a single Support Coordinator ("Case Manager"). After 3 months of lost sleep, and endless frustration, our request for a new coordinator was eventually granted and the new one has been FANTASTIC since.

I also had to add a couple of my own:

46. Not knowing the difference between their, there and they're.

47. Not knowing the difference between your and you are.

48. Sending us a letter describing how Kyle needs to attend a occupational assessment rather than an occupational assessment.


Here's where we are now, almost a year. Regarding #1, after six months of trying I eventually got half of our claim file - under law we're entitled to the whole thing, which I've been waiting for for 4 months now.

Needless to say, I audited the file in detail and gave a 62-page summary to the original coordinator's Manager, the Manager's Manager, and the National Service Director. It contained evidence from THEIR file of all of the above, including correspondence, notes, etc. that I had in MY file which corroborated the assertions above.

This whole incident was really unfortunate, because ACC does have really good systems, controls and processes in place to keep this sort of thing from happening. Unfortunately, all of these systems, controls and processes were being ignored / overwritten by the individual in question (yes, it's exactly like Enron). I am still following this up to see what kind of a stance they will be taking on my fraud / deceit allegations, since I did give them valid, identifiable evidence.

Anyway, that sums up April - June 2011, so I hope to have more updates soon. Oh, and if you missed pictures of our adorable new flat the first time around, here they are!