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!
No comments:
Post a Comment