I spoke to Tina Panichi in length about this case. It is established for multiple injuries. The claimant was a volunteer that had no earnings from our employment but he did have concurrent earnings which put his AWW about $1,062.67. He had been receiving total and then it was reduced to marked. Most recently as of 05/09/17, he was picked up on payments because he had more surgery and we have an IME scheduled in July. I spent a long time talking to Tina about a third-party action, possible recovery and our contribution to that recovery. This happened as a result of a motor vehicle accident and has some pretty bad injuries. I think we are paying his wife for home health services. So I went over the fact we have no lien on the first $50,000.00 but our lien as of today is about $228,000.00 The claimant’s third-party attorney is calling and asking how much we have paid but they haven’t been asking for consent to any third-party. I started to explain to Tina the Burns verses Kelly. I told her the idea behinds Burns was that the future benefit to the carrier was speculative then the claimant has to prove it as he goes along and the only cases that are not …show more content…
Just before the claimant went to his doctor he went to Walgreens or some place like and did not sue his cane and then he went to his doctor and used his cane. The doctors report does not say anything one way or another. Then after that he goes shopping some more at a couple stores and he does not use the cane. I went through the medicals a little bit with Tina as we spoke. The claimant is reporting use of the cane to IME’s and to his own doctors from time to time but there is no discussion whether he uses it all the time or part of the time. I told her we really needed more. They are going to continue to keep an eye on him. Next time we have an IME she is going to ask the consultant to comment on what if any assistive devices the claimant