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Crisis looms in Illinois workers’ compensation system thanks to Emanuel and Alderman Burke

Rahm Emanuel Picture.jpg The News-Gazette

By DR. DAVID FLETCHER

There’s a crisis looming in our state’s workers’ compensation system. If allowed to fester, it will keep workers from receiving timely medical treatment for workplace injuries. It will delay workers’ recoveries and their return to their jobs. And it will end up costing more for the very businesses and insurers seeking efficiencies in the system.

This crisis is not one you’ve heard about from the business and insurance communities. It’s a crisis created by their failure to implement laws that have been on the books in Illinois for more than a decade.

As doctors who care for workers compensation patients, here are our concerns: Illinois law spells out the right for medical professionals to receive prompt payment for the care we give to patients with workplace injuries.

Just like any other business or profession, we need to be paid for that care we give, so that we can compensate our employees and keep open the doors of our medical practices.

Yet, many Illinois workers’ compensation insurers completely ignore the prompt payment law. To date, there has been no remedy for doctors and other caregivers who remain unpaid for months and months at a time.

Furthermore, state law mandates that insurers accept electronic billing and documentation for workers’ compensation claims. This expedites the process.

Yet, many insist on an obsolete paper-based medical billing system, which delays medical care to injured workers and wastes resources.

Add to this bleak reality a recent, alarming increase in delayed payments for already-approved workers’ compensation medical care claims. The result is more and more physicians unable or unwilling to treat injured workers.

Since 2005, the Workers’ Compensation Act has allowed medical professionals a late interest penalty for approved workers’ compensation medical care.

Yet there is no way for doctors and others to enforce or collect this interest.

Even if the workers’ compensation insurer approves care for an injured worker, it can and often delays payment for the medical treatment rendered. These delays can last for years.

A recent court ruling found that medical professionals can’t even go to court to collect this interest.

Since the court decision, these payment delays have worsened to the point of doctors dropping out of the system.

What’s lost in the current debate on workers’ compensation policy is that medical professionals — the physicians, surgeons, hospitals and specialists — actually provide the care that supports our entire system.

Medical professionals are the ones who get injured employees back to work, reduce employer costs for time off and long-term injuries and work with employers to prevent work-related accidents from even happening in the first place.

We are often blamed for the system’s ills, even though we are in a unique position to make that system function.

When workers are hurt on the job, they need timely access to dedicated physicians, surgeons and specialists to treat their injuries. We in the medical community stand ready with solutions to the problems that are threatening the health of our workers’ compensation system.

It’s time to pass legislation that forces workers’ compensation insurers to start following the law. The alternative is having doctors and care centers rush to the exits.

John Maszinski, who works for the Illinois State Medical Society, submitted this piece by Dr. David Fletcher of Champaign.

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Commissioner Randy Conner looks the other way again on workers

Bricklayer truck final.jpg The City of Chicago Commissioner Randy Conner said he will buckle down on the Department of Water Management employees that continue to walk around doing nothing as Chicago Citizens are leaving Chicago. New Chicago Water Rates are going to make more people move soon.

Today at 9:30 p.m. a Chicago Water Department driver of a bricklayer crew went to 5509 North Harlem Ave. to walk around and talk on her private phone to friends. Sister PLEASE, do not talk so loudly that everyone can hear you. When she went to Taco Burrito King she forgot to wear her hard hat and safety vest. Sister PLEASE. She left the place after complaining about the high price of pop and decided to get a drink at a lower price. Please flush next time.

She walked out of the place of business after leaving her truck unattended with a full load of FA6 backfill, expensive cast iron sewer grates, expensive material, and tools. Sister PLEASE.

She got into her truck, got in the left lane, went south on Harlem, and went to the Wendy’s for some more affordable drinks. She enjoyed the air-conditioning and continued talking on her personal cell phone while at the counter. What a great job Randy Conner made for this young thing. Thanks, Randy, your reforms include employees doing the same old stuff as the last management team. I really hate to see an empty truck, not on a job site, and not earning money for Chicago’s taxpayers. It is time theft.

Back at the Sunnyside yard, another bricklayer crew was getting disciplined for another round of loafing. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Inspector General can control the Chicago Newspapers all they want, you can not hide this stuff, or make it up.

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Ed Vrdolyak Law Firm Workers Comp actions in question

Cynthia Davenport Illinois Injured Worker The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Program is under fire again as insiders game the system for their benefit. The City of Chicago, The Department of Water Management, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Alderman Burke, Illinois Lawyers have been fixing workers compensation cases for decades. One of the best tricks is the MMI maximum medical improvement doctors give to aid in the remove of employees and forcing settlements. The City of Chicago refuses to allow workers to return unless they receive a full Doctors release. The City of Chicago, under Alderman Burke’s direction, still allow major settlements for well-connected lawyers and employees that game the system year after year. Despite the major settlements, the City signs off on the loss of the person, quite opposite the full release. What? When you settle the Illinois Workers Compensation claim, you sign off the permanent loss. So, if you have a permanent loss, how can you return with no restrictions? The Illinois Lawyers have been working that angle for years and it is Insurance FRAUD. Alderman Burke takes hack Chicago law department lawyers off the cases and puts his private law firms to handle the cases for massive campaign contributions.

A major shuffle at the Chicago Committee on Finance will not save Crooked Burke. According to several Chicago Mayoral candidates, it will be an issue this next two years.

Please enjoy a lady I am going to write about and tell you about the criminal treatment she has received. Cynthia reported her poor treatment by Ed Vrdolyak and his workers’ compensation lawyer Mr. Casey. Mr. Casey seemed too busy to help Cynthia when she had a major stroke and was subject to abuses by the City of Chicago. When Mr. Casey was removed from her case, Mr. Casey went to the new Attorney to make sure he gets a cut “of the action”. This happened at the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission when the transition was made. Amazing what you see and “hear” in those hallways. Cases like these result in crippled workers getting less money and lawyers on both sides splitting the fees.

Alderman Burke has made a great life for him and his old lady, too bad he did so on the back of 65-year-old women, that just lost her husband, and got screwed out of her lawful benefits. Hey Alderman Burke, you keep the Chicago newspapers quiet about your lavish lifestyle, take a look at a lady whose life you have destroyed for greed.

Time to get my Irish Video hat on soon.

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Illinois Worker’s Compensation revelations explode in Chicago

The City of Chicago Department of Water Management, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Alderman Burke were front and center again in a massive amount of accusations at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission May 22, 2018. The Chicago Water Department was again accused of providing cover for injured city workers with clout. The Water Department again was accused of withholding injured workers payments to force settlements on black women and those that can not get signatures for Emanuel and other Chicago politicians. According to a source at the Jardine Plant, you pay to play.

One worker revealed he was eating out of garbage cans and was under the care of multiple doctors from the lack of needed care. One of those in attendance made a snicker. One worker revealed how Alderman Burke hires no-bid private contractors and receives lucrative kickbacks. One disgruntled worker in the Committee on Finance and finally spoke with the Chicago FBI office. An explosive set of documents are now in the public domain.

Cynthia Davenport, (case 05-WC-002827) a crippled 65-year-old women, just lost her husband. The City of Chicago under Mr. Conners, Commissioner of the Department of Water Management, continues to allow this crippled DOWM bricklayer to stave on only half disability pay. Many crippled employees do not even get that. Tomorrow, she will be at the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission to attempt to receive the duty disability pay reinstated. Cynthia was also a victim of Vocamotive Vocational program that sent this lady to whore houses to make her, “non-compliant”. She was sent to attempt to work nights at a place that had young ladies with short skirts and no panties allegedly servicing older men.

I surprised they didn’t force her to become a dancing instructor at “Fred Astaire”, her walker would be a great asset. As long as Vocamotive continues to contribute to Alderman Burke, this shit will continue. The City hired a Dan Weiler a private Attorney Hennessy and Roach P.C. to attempt to destroy her. It worked before.

Allegations such as Federal violations, labor laws, financial destruction, divorces, were common. Accusations such as Mercy Works Doctors sending referrals. Workers were treated “Like a subhuman animal”. DOWM women treatments steered treatment to destroy black women lies. The Committee on Finance. Examples of collusion with private lawyers lying to clients about settlements. It seems the City of Chicago is refusing to accept pictures of brutal injuries. One claimant is still waiting over 7 years for his settlement, but they refuse to settle until he is retired, and government benefits are used to pay for his needed care. Sounds like fraud to me.

A Chicago cop physically attacked Patrick McDonough in one case and the Chicago Inspector General failed to protect Mr. McDonough. Accusations of Chicago and Committee on Finance fraud, changing medical diagnosis was abound. Stunning accusations. What will the IWCC do to stop the City of Chicago?
What will the Alderman do? Thanks to former city employees and Frank Coconate, Federal Attorneys, and others, this will all be exposed prior to the next election.

Paul Hansen a former City of Chicago Department of Water Management employees name was brought up several times. Have a nice day, more on this soon.

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Thomas Conway special treatment, Chicago Department of Water Management

The 19 Ward is known for taking care of their own. Today I called the 19th Ward and some rude lady decided she did not have to identify herself. She had no intention of notifying Alderman Matt O’Shea, the press was inquiring into a report that Thomas Conway was receiving special treatment by the Department of Water Management Commissioner Cheeks.

Allegedly on May 17, 2018, Thomas Conway was being the “acting up position as Pipe Foremen”. He was allegedly being rude to a woman asking questions on a pipe job he was supervising. Thomas Conway was reported to Matt O’Shea’s office.

Allegedly, Commissioner Cheeks went to the job site due to a “strong odor” and the complaint. Two women of Commissioner rank from the Jardine Plant wearing high heels and dresses were on the job site. Once again the workers on the site were pissed because the women were a hazard and slipping on the uneven ground. A drug test was ordered by the Commissioner and a high rate of alcohol was determined. The City of Chicago has a zero tolerance for alcohol and drug abuse according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

According to several City of Chicago employees, Thomas showed up to work today, to get drug rehabilitation services. Most City of Chicago employees gets fired on the spot for drug violations. Most black employees are walked off the job like dogs.

No doubt, the 19th Ward is a bastion of bars, drugs and alcohol abuse. Many City of Chicago employees are given high ranking jobs due to their political work for the 19th ward, Matt O’Shea, and Tom Dart. The Chicago Inspector General turns his back on these investigations because he is ordered to do so. When these same people keep up with their actions, lawsuits of major amounts of money are paid out. You can’t fix stupid.

According to several sources, Plumbers Local 130 agents made the arrangement for preferential treatment. Today I spoke to Gary Litherland, City of Chicago Department of Water Management spokesperson, who sounds like he was jogging. Gary was again lacking any knowledge of the incident. Commissioner Conner tell your employees what is going on please. Please stop the cover-ups. More on this story and the ongoing cover-up of Andrew “Handy Andy” Anderson termination-resignation.

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Operation Open Gate Valve Department of Water Management Theft Ring

For decades, many City of Chicago Department of Water Management employees has been stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down. The 11th Ward mafia and Daley crime family protected the muggers and continued to place these people in positions in trust. Laborers involved always were disrespectful to trades of a higher rank. One position to clean house was the Laborer foreman. The job paid well on the side. Contractors with a connection to high ranking union goons and private plumbing companies made trips to the 39th and Iron street supply depot. Many other private contractors stopped by supply yards to load up on Chicago Taxpayer paid supplies.
The Chicago Inspector General was made aware of this many years ago and several times since. A single 8-inch water main valve is over $3500.00 dollars. Slip a few in the back of a truck after work or in the wee hours of the morning and you’re driving a nice car. The problem is sharing it with the bosses at the Jardine Plant. For years, private contractors were videotaped while Chicago Laborers used City high lifts, cranes, and big wheel forklifts to load the loot. Most of these thefts have no City inventory withdraw slips. Some of the pipe and fittings were given to private contractors that had a value of tens of thousands of dollars and then the private contractors charge the Department of Water Management as if they purchase the ductile iron and cast-iron parts. It is a massive scam.
If you are wondering how all this can go on, I will explain. The Department of Water Management has private contractors that determine the inventory levels with computer systems. The highly paid consultants look the other way as truckloads of supplies head out the door. The consultants also know if they rat out the commissioners, their contract will be over. So, they look the other way. During emergency water main breaks farmed out to private companies, the theft doubles as emergency provisions.
For twenty years complaints have been made about the scrap pipe, lead, and copper. This is a private slush fund the Jardine personnel keeps for themselves. That money goes for private parties, hotel rooms, and Christmas parties.
The Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson has sent his staff of knuckleheads to investigate the pipe yards but the never come up with any evidence. The I.G. has no idea what to look for. The I.G. is so stupid, they are too proud to contact the people making the complaints. The I.G. disappear, and the stealing goes on again. I am certain Joe knows who gave him letters telling him about the scam years ago. The Department of Water Management has done a great job promoting those they want to share the wealth with, they also attempt to punish and ruin the credibility of those that report the crimes.
You will never find this type of theft at the New York Water Department. The thugs are in Chicago.

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Chicago Department of Water Management Meeting with Commissioner Conners

Today, at the City of Chicago Department of Water Management’s Jardine Plant over 300 City of Chicago employees from the Jardine Plant, The Chicago pumping stations, and the DePaul Center employees waited for Commissioner Conners to get his ass to the meeting on time. Conners was at least 20 minutes late and cost the Chicago taxpayers thousands in wasted time. Conners arrived with his posse and launched again into a speech that made no sense at all. According to Conners, Rahm Emanuel is very happy with his subpar performance. Conners made the employees stand the entire time. Some of the ladies complained because he did not provide seating. Conners only had a few well connected private employees attend because the private owners are aware of the new policy to donate greatly to Alderman Burke and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Coo Coo Conners again wanted everyone to know he is large and in charge. He first said he opened his office to anyone and then stated all employees must follow the chain of command. Coo Coo.

Conners again said the North District General Superintendent Michael Dwyer was not fired, another bold face lie. Conners acted like a Chicago street thug and a man possessed with a need to prove he is in control of a job he can not handle. Look, folks, Conners knows nothing about the importance of a proper drinking water supply. He is getting paid to keep all the current lawsuits and future lawsuits from getting to Rahm Emanuel. Conners wanted everyone to know he is going to promote everyone he wants and do whatever he wants. Rahm Emanuel needs to terminate this goof that just does not have the class to do things the right way. The same crap that got the Department of Water Management into the mess it is in now will continue by the leadership of foolish nonsense. I hope when all the City of Chicago taxpayers sees the new water bills in the mail, they remember this warning, fire Rahm Emanuel.

Look if you need to tell everyone you are the boss, you are not. Time for Rahm to find a replacement, another poor choice, and decision.

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Randy Conner gets out the bullhorn at the Department of Water Management: Hispanics and Whites want Hansen return

Commissioner Randy Conner Chicago final.jpg
On Thursday, April 12, 2018, Commissioner Randy Conner, led a posse of underlings that currently lead the Chicago Department of Water Management. The Chicago Water Department has decades of second-rate losers that have been promoted by second-rate racists. You can not change the culture of the water department because cancer runs too deep.

At the 7:00 a.m. meeting Conner declared with a bullhorn to his lips, Get on the train or the train will run you over. Conner tried to make himself a tough-talking wise guy and made it clear he was running the show. If he had any brains, he would have kept his low-profile job, but dangle a few pennies, and these people jump. Conner must not have paid attention to all the Commissioners terminated since I started at the department.

Conner is not ready to control the click that makes all the decisions at the water department. Conner does not know he is a puppet. Conner does not have what it takes to lead this ragtag circus.

At the meeting, Conner went on to do damage control and say Michael Dwyer was not fired because of what was printed by Fran Spielman. Fran Spielman hit the nail on the head. A full-blown cover-up continues at the FOIA Department and Commissioner Conner is still trying to stop FOIA requests from being fulfilled.

The North District has some great workers, but the management has stunk for twenty years. Conner told the workers the North District is the worst district. It is also the whitest. Conner seems to be a racist and ignorant to the culture that has rotted the Department of Water Management. Conner thinks Facebook pages of blacks working happily at the Department of Water Management is going to fix things. Conner has no power to remove the private contractors that control the Water Department. The 11th Ward, M…. Management, and private contractors control the Department. If you think the companies that contribute to Alderman Burke and Rahm Emanuel are going to get forced out, you are sadly mistaken.

Conner, please stop all those private meetings with employees promising them the moon. Please also tell Wallace Davis to stop making promotional promises. While you are at it, make sure you stop the mistreatment of black women that get hurt on the job. Forcing out black single mothers is crude and low class. Also, keep your bullhorn close to your other bighorn.

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Alderman Burke toast, Hispanic Alderman in the works 14th Ward

If you thought for a moment that the City Council’s most powerful aldermen would ride off into the sunset after 50 years in politics to avoid a difficult election he could lose, think again.
Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, is running for re-election.
“Why would you wonder?” Burke asked reporters Monday.
Burke has a political bulls-eye on his back after his brother, state Rep. Dan Burke (D-Chicago), was defeated by 26-year political newcomer Aaron Ortiz in a race dominated by Edward Burke’s property tax reduction work for the riverfront hotel and condominium that bears the name of President Donald Trump.

But Ald. Burke said Monday he does not believe his brother’s March 20 defeat is a prelude to his own political demise.
“He carried the 14th Ward. Not by enough to overcome the other areas. But fortunately, the people in the 14th Ward did vote for him,” the alderman said.

Ortiz was part of a coordinated campaign led by Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, the Cook County commissioner who easily won the Democratic primary in the 4th Congressional District after being anointed by retiring U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
Even more humiliating was the fact that Edward Burke managed to carry his own 14th Ward for his younger brother by just 62 votes. That’s the same 14th Ward where Garcia captured 64 percent of the vote in a 2015 mayoral run-off against incumbent Rahm Emanuel.
On the day after that upset, Clem Balanoff, head of Our Revolution Illinois, a grass-roots political organization that grew out of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, made a bold prediction:
“We are coming after Ed Burke,” said Balanoff, who managed the Ortiz campaign.
“Whether he sees it or not, the handwriting is on the wall. Ed Burke will not be aldermen come May of 2019. … We have a young, energetic movement going on the Southwest Side of Chicago. There’s no room for smoke-filled, backroom politicians like Ed Burke, who are only serving themselves and not the public.”
Balanoff and Garcia could not be reached for comment on Burke’s decision to run for re-election.
On the day after the election, Garcia was asked whether he intended to field an aldermanic challenger against Burke.
He would say only: “The Burke dynasty is sunsetting. It’s sunsetting against the emergence of a Latino community that wants to make its voice heard and its vote felt. … This is only logical. The community is seeking to ensure that its vote begins to approximate the population that lives in those communities.”
Burke has run unopposed in 10 of the last 11 elections. He sits on a massive campaign war chest and has never won less than 70 percent of the vote.
But even his political allies have acknowledged that Dan Burke’s March 20 defeat was a gut-punch that should prompt Edward Burke to at least entertain the thought of political retirement and working with Garcia to find a suitable Hispanic replacement.
That would require burying a 19-year-old hatchet. Burke was instrumental in the Illinois Senate race that saw Antonio Munoz defeat Garcia.
“He has an opportunity to put in a progressive Latino and ensure that whatever legacy he has in the 14th Ward will continue. If he doesn’t, he can stay and possibly lose — particularly if Chuy backs someone against him,” a Burke ally told the Sun-Times.
“Ed has to make a decision as to whether he wants to dictate the circumstances of his departure. If he doesn’t give a shit about that, then hubris sometimes will make you stay a little too long.”
For Burke, it would be difficult to voluntarily relinquish the trappings of power he covets so much.
As Finance Committee chairman, he wields enormous influence over legislation, even when he abstains from votes because of the conflicts posed by having dozens of law clients doing business with the city.
His fundraisers are packed. He is squired around the city by bodyguards, though Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut his security team in half.
But during the heat of his brother’s failed fight for political survival, sources said Burke told more than one political associate: “This isn’t fun anymore.”
On Monday, Burke made it clear that the remark was not a prelude to political retirement.
That’s no surprise to retiring Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd).
“I don’t believe for a second that Ald. Burke is interested in leaving,” Zalewski said last week.
Pointing to the avalanche of tax increases that aldermen have approved to solve Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis, Zalewski said, “Everyone is gonna have to campaign a little harder next time. Ald. Burke is well aware of that. And I think he’s ready for it.”