.... years after being rear-ended in a car accident, Liese
Bruff-McArthur saw a small army of medical professionals. Most agreed
the crash had left her with chronic pain, depression, PTSD and other
troubles, making a return to work untenable.
Then she met Dr. Monte Bail.
Hired by the insurance company she was suing, the psychiatrist spent
an hour and a quarter with the Ottawa-area woman — the kind of work that
earned Bail as much as $77,000 a month — and concluded Bruff-McArthur
was essentially faking it..........
And such cases are likely just the tip of the iceberg, say lawyers
representing accident victims, the plaintiffs. Judicial criticisms arise
only in the five per cent or so of cases that get to trial, they note,
so most instances of bias stay under wraps as lawsuits are settled out
of court.
“It’s clear from the (reported) cases that it is far too prevalent,”
says Adam Wagman, a plaintiff lawyer and president of the Ontario Trial
Lawyers Association. “That attacks the very foundation of our system of
justice.”.....
Source/more:
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/hired-gun-in-a-lab-coat-how-medical-experts-help-car-insurers-fight-accident-claims
CIN is a non-profit Advocate for Insurance and Health Care Reform. Postings are cut/paste from other sources. @Cinsurancenews #rally4accidentvictims #ABPetition #CPPbacklog
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Putting the pieces together - what Ont auto insurers don't pay and how it is creating a crisis
Insurers are pocketing the health care costs of treating MVA
victims – funds that should be repaid to taxpayers (not to mention OW
and ODSP costs that the taxpayer is unknowingly picking up along with
prescription costs) and this has created a health care $ deficit problem
for Ontario taxpayers. A problem the Financial Services Commission has
known about for years – the Auditor General told the FSCO it needed
fixing in 2011 but nothing was done so the taxpayer has continually paid
some of the medical costs of MVA victims. To ‘cure’ the problem it is
now suggested by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to privatize some
services. Which means more people would have to increase their private
insurer coverage if they are lucky enough to have this extra coverage.
Who benefits? Not the taxpayer and not victims. Insurers who will now
sell consumers the coverage they can no longer get from OHIP.
Simultaneously auto insurance coverage (as of June 1, 2016) is decreased
by over $1 million for the most catastrophically injured among us,
thereby saving insurers about $6-800 million a year in payouts.
Rehabilitation/medical rehab access is also cut by 5 years for all but
children who are injured. http://truthaboutinsurance.ca/benefits-recently-cut-further/ . So
just as MVA victims are about to be increasingly shunted onto the OHIP
system, the proposal is to increase the privatization of that system.
Source/more: http://www.fairassociation.ca/2016/03/putting-the-pieces-together-what-ont-auto-insurers-dont-pay-and-how-it-is-creating-a-crisis/
Source/more: http://www.fairassociation.ca/2016/03/putting-the-pieces-together-what-ont-auto-insurers-dont-pay-and-how-it-is-creating-a-crisis/
The lingering symptoms of a brain injury force me to lead a double life
With lingering
symptoms from a brain injury, I found myself in my late 20s living
with a complex chronic illness. In many ways I had to start over. I
traded a life that I loved for solitude.
Source/more:
Becoming Disabled
A person without a
disability may recognize someone using a wheelchair, a guide dog or a
prosthetic limb, or someone with Down syndrome, but most don’t
conceptualize these people as having a shared social identity and a
political status. “They” merely seem to be people to whom
something unfortunate has happened, for whom something has gone
terribly wrong. The one thing most people do know about being
disabled is that they don’t want to be that.
Source/more:
It's all in their heads
"A concussion
is more a mild form of traumatic brain injury in which the brain is
exposed to abnormal forces that result in transient neurological
dysfunction," Ellis says. "But ‘mild traumatic brain
injury’ is a bit of a misnomer."
Source/more:
Canada’s expensive habit: Adding up opioid abuse’s rising financial toll on the health-care system
Public drug programs
spent $93-million on medications used for addiction to prescription
painkillers and illicit opioids in 2014, compared with $57.3-million
in 2011, according to figures for every province except Quebec
compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) for
The Globe and Mail. In four provinces, this class of opioids ranked
among the top 10 in spending on all prescription drugs – a group
that traditionally includes medications for arthritis, high blood
pressure and high cholesterol.
Source/more:
‘Situation is crisis all the time. There is no plan,’ says Ontario parent of adult son with autism
Ombudsman Paul Dubé
is set to release that long-awaited report Wednesday at Queen’s
Park. Last year, the ombudsman’s 2014-2015 annual report revealed
the investigation had drawn more than 1,300 complaints, including
“urgent, disturbing cases where adults with severe special needs
were ending up in jail, homeless shelters and hospitals because no
care or services were available for them.”
More/source:
These Are The Hidden Costs Of Living With A Disability
Do you know how much
a manual wheelchair costs? Not the kind you buy from the Sears
catalogue when you break your leg and need someone to push you around
for six weeks. I'm talking about the kind that a paraplegic might
need, that offers the correct ergonomic support and fits the
lifestyle of the person who will rely on it for years.
Source/more:
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
College fights to get groping MD’s licence revoked
Following a Star
investigation into doctors still at work after sexually abusing their
patients, the provincial government established a task force in
December 2014 to study the issue and make recommendations. The
Ministry of Health has said the report is expected to be made public
soon.
Source/more:
Opioid overuse is creating ‘lost generation,’ expert says
Opioids overuse is
the “worst man-made epidemic in modern medical history,” a
leading expert on workers’ compensation told Canadian physicians
Wednesday, urging them to take tough and immediate action to address
the problem.
Source/more:
The terrible cost of waste in health care
......Deciding who
will live, or have a chance at life, and who will die, is one of the
crueler ways Ontario governments have long controlled the costs of
health care.
Another is long
waiting lists for treatment......
...Premier Kathleen
Wynne’s government for wasting billions of public dollars on, for
example, unreliable and expensive wind and solar power, for cancelled
gas plants and, most outrageously, for spending scandals in the
health ministry such as eHealth and Ornge.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Patients with moderate to severe TBI twice as likely to die from an unintentional injury
Research examining
adults with moderate to severe TBI who participated in rehabilitation
showed that they were twice as likely to die from an unintentional
injury that occurred following their TBI. This was in comparison to
individuals in rehabilitation of similar age, sex, and race but
without TBI. People who have had a moderate to severe TBI may
experience changes in cognition and balance, which may put them at
greater risk of subsequent unintentional injuries.
Source/more:
Higher driver fees in Ontario
Drivers in Ontario
should get ready to fork out a few more dollars to the provincial
government to own a car or driver’s licence, because fees are going
up.
Source/more:
Everyday Legal Problems and the cost of Justice in Canada
......Nearly
one-third (30%) of the respondents reported their problems had not
been resolved and
were ongoing. The majority (55%), however, reported that
their problems had
been resolved within the three-year reference period of the
study. The remaining
15% of respondents reported mixed results with one
problem resolved and
one problem ongoing.
Many people felt
that the outcome they received was unfair. Among those
with problems that
had been resolved, 46% said the outcome for one (or both)
of their problems
was unfair. Further, 70% said that the outcome they
obtained did not
achieve all of what they had originally expected. Among
people with problems
that were ongoing, 16% said the problem had become
worse. Finally,
among self-helpers who said the problem had been resolved,
42% said that, in
retrospect, they felt the outcome would have been better if
they had obtained
some assistance.
These results
support other findings that indicate that some Canadians,
particularly those
with fewer resources and those who see themselves more
on the margins of
society, do not view the justice system as fair, accessible or
reflective of them
or their needs......
How people suffering from Invisible Disability are subject to wrong judgment and discrimination
When people hear the
word ‘disability’, they typically create the image of a person in
a wheelchair in their mind. However, what many people are unaware of
is the fact that disability doesn’t have to visible. There are
millions of disabled people around the world who show no signs of
disability on the outside, because their disability is usually linked
to their internal body system. This makes it very difficult for
people with invisible disabilities to explain their situation to
others and why they are entitle d to use disabled facilities as much
as the visibly disabled.
Source/more:
Legal woes taking toll, report says
Everyday legal
problems — from getting divorced, to fighting eviction notices,
to disputing cell phone bills — cost Canadians about $7.7
billion a year.
Source/more:
Court Finds It is an Abuse of Process For ICBC to File Inconsistent Pleadings From Single Collision
In today’s case
(Glover v. Leakey) the Defendant was involved in a crash and injured
two passengers. One sued and fault was admitted and ultimately
settlement reached. The second sued but fault was denied. In the
midst of a jury trial the Plaintiff discovered the inconsistent
pleadings and asked for a finding of liability.
Source/more:
Constitutional Challenge Launched Against Flawed Ontario Liberal Government Automobile Insurance Legislation- Discriminatory and Unconstitutional
Joseph Campisi,
lawyer and advocate, is launching a constitutional challenge in the
Ontario Superior Courts. Mr. Campisi is seeking a declaration from the
courts that parts of the legislation that were recently passed by the
Liberal Government are discriminatory and unconstitutional and should be
inoperative.
"The
right to access the Superior Courts is a fundamental right for
Canadians. I am concerned that the recently proclaimed legislation will
deny this right to individuals who have been severely disabled." said
applicant and noted Personal Injury Lawyer Joseph Campisi.
"Historically, the deck has been stacked against collision victims.
The recent amendments to the legislation have turned a bad situation
into a worse one for these vulnerable individuals. No longer will these
individuals be allowed to have the assurance of impartiality and
independence that is a cornerstone of our justice system when litigating
a claim against their own insurance company. I could not stand idly by
and let this happen."...........
Sources/more:
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE UPDATE
ACCESSIBILITY FOR
ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE UPDATE
Below are the email
addresses and Twitter handles for all Ontario MPPs as of February 28,
2016, broken down by their political party, and then listed in
alphabetical order for each party.
Source/more:
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Ontario needs a new government
Ontarians need relief from a government that has doubled the provincial
debt and is well on its way to pushing it up to a staggering $350
billion, making it the most indebted sub-sovereign borrower in the
world.........
Source/more: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/10/ontario-needs-a-new-government
Source/more: http://www.torontosun.com/2016/09/10/ontario-needs-a-new-government
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