A front page story in the Sunday, May 24, 2009 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution details the struggle of five catastrophically injured Atlanta police officers to obtain needed medical help from the City of Atlanta’s workers’ compensation office. Each of these police officers was injured in the line of duty – with injuries ranging from brain damage to paralysis arising from gunshot wounds to the spinal cord.
Like many city and county governments, the City of Atlanta “self-insures” against workers’ compensation claims, meaning that weekly wage benefits and funds for medical treatment come directly out of the City’s budget. The City does use a private claim’s administration service called NovaPro Risk Solutions out of San Diego.
The City is not denying responsibility for paying wage or medical claims, but it has been refusing to pay for various medical procedures and medical devices.
In one instance a police officer who had been rendered a parapalegic from a gunshot wound needed surgery on his Achilles tendon because his feet kept slipping off his wheelchair footrests. [Read more…] about Injured Atlanta Cops Fight Workers Comp System