Letter: Workers’ comp fund succeeds on backs of injured workers

Friday, May 1, 1998 | 10:47 a.m.

I invite the Las Vegas SUN to visit the lobby of the Southern Regional Office for SIIS on 1700 W. Charleston Blvd. or the waiting room for the state of Nevada Hearings Division of the Department of Administration, 555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 3300, and inquire of the injured workers whether they are the recipients of better customer service.

As a former chief of legal services for the SIIS in Las Vegas, I remember when the emphasis was on paying benefits when legitimately due under the law. Now, the focus is on saving money, even if it means that a legitimately injured worker does not receive needed medical care or disability compensation because of a procedural error or an honest mistake.

Compassion for the injured worker comes from the few individual claims examiners, nurses and other SIIS employees who bravely sidestep the current unwritten policy to cut costs regardless of the consequences to the injured worker.

Didn't it occur to ask how this "success" was achieved, and who is paying for this "success"? If the SIIS gets more "successful," there will be nothing left for the poor injured worker.

Virginia L. Hunt