Abusing The Disabled

To the Editor:

After reading "City Tries to Limit Disabled Doctor Visits" (Dec. 19 issue), I feel compelled to correct the comments of EMS Local 2507 President Patrick Bahnken. Mr. Bahnken stated he "encouraged retired and active EMS workers to arbitrate any problems they had with the Workers' Compensation system." He said the city had the right to challenge any invoice it felt was unauthorized.

To clarify, no arbitration procedure exists for the injured workers to fight for treatment. Currently, the only arbitration procedure is for medical providers - when they are not being paid by the city - to arbitrate their bills or take a reduced settlement. All of our disputes must be resolved in a Workers' Compensation hearing before an Administrative Law Judge.

This is not a matter of "unauthorized treatment." Our treatment has already been authorized by the state. We should not have to fight for treatment that has already been approved. The city is trying to limit treatment and withholding payment for services for treatments they have already authorized. As disabled workers, we have already been found permanently disabled by the NYS Workers' Comp Board and were all granted symptomatic treatment at our hearings before an Administrative Law Judge. Under the law, we are entitled to treatment of our symptoms, whether it be twice a month or twice a week.

State officials advised that when they look at the treatment over a long period of time, they look to see peaks and valleys, and said that the Law Department is not correct in its actions in limiting care to 1-2 times per month. In my conversations with the State Comp Board attorney, I was advised the city has free rein to do as it wants and the state has no recourse. The state has advised the Law Department on numerous occasions that its interpretation of the state law is erroneous, yet the city acts without consideration for the state's position. This is an egregious failure on the part of the state and abuse of power on the part of the Law Department that has gone unchecked.

The Law Department is not just violating the law but the rights of these injured workers. The system needs help, and if our people are forced to fight a system that our unions know is not working, we as leaders should be compelled to change that system, and hold the carriers responsible so the system does not further add to these workers' troubles. The unions have an even greater impetus to force the city to follow the Comp Law as written and interpreted by the state; if they do not advocate for the Law Department to pay for our treatment as ordered, it has been shown that most people will resort to using their union health benefits to pay for their care.

MARIANNE PIZZITOLA, President, Uniformed FDNY EMS Retirees' Association, Inc.