 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Arline v. Administrator9/26/2000
tates the following:
1. At all times material hereto, I have been a physician who is licensed to practice medicine in the State of Ohio.
2. I have been employed for the past eleven years at LifeCare Alliance including at the time of the accident in question in 1995, as well as at the time I filed the claim with the personnel office at LifeCare.
3. I had always taken all insurance questions to the LifeCare Alliance personnel office and did the same thing with the Workers' Compensation papers on the claim which is the subject of this court case.
4. It was always my understanding that LifeCare alliance was self-insured which is why I turned all my forms in to the personnel office like all other insurance forms and incident reports.
5. The BWC form indicated to give the form to your self-insuring employer.
The forms utilized by the BWC for initial reports about work-related injury and disease tell the injured worker to "complete as much of this form as possible" and to " ear off this sheet and return completed form to your local BWC Customer Service Office." The forms then include on the first page a section describing treatment received and a section to be completed by the employer. The employer section provides a space for the employer to certify or reject the claim, with an explanation. Dr. Arline also provided the trial court with copies of the forms she ultimately filed with the BWC.
Dr. Arline alleges in the forms ultimately filed that she notified LifeCare Alliance of her injuries originally in 1995. The forms demonstrate that she provided the forms (as required) to her employer on January 24, 1997, but that the employer did not complete the employer's portion of the forms until September 3, 1997. Thus, if the employer had promptly completed the forms and forwarded them to the BWC, the forms would have been received within the two-year time allowed. Instead, the employer or its representative waited over seven months to process the forms and then indicated that it was rejecting the claim "due to the time of injury after working hours, untimely notification of injury and no medical evidence provided." The forms filed to apply for benefits indicate that the collision was reported to LifeCare Alliance on the day after the collision, that the time of the collision was 5:25 p.m. and that Dr. Arline indicated she was suffering from injuries to her neck and head and from left side numbness. This information was already on the forms when LifeCare Alliance received them.
Under the circumstances, a trier of fact could infer that LifeCare Alliance was painfully slow in processing the forms or deliberately delayed processing the forms until after the two-year limit had passed.
R.C. 4123.84 does not include a requirement that state-fund employers be provided copies of the paperwork before a workers' compensation claim case can be processed. However, as a practical matter, the BWC has installed such submission to employers as a requirement through the language the BWC has utilized in its forms. In addition to directing injured workers to complete as much of the forms as possible and to return the "completed" forms to the BWC, the BWC warns the injured worker that processing of their claims will be delayed if they send the paperwork directly to the BWC when their employer happens to be a self-insuring employer.
The average citizen of Ohio has no clue about the difference between self-insuring and state-fund employers. Indeed, most lawyers do not understand the difference. Injured workers should not be penalized for their lack of knowledge in this regard.
In workers' compensation m
Page 1 2 3 4 Ohio Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|