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Holiday Horrors: Late and Missing Checks
Does the following sound familiar? You've checked the mailbox for the third time in an hour. You finally see the postal carrier drive down your street, but he does not leave a compensation check in your mailbox. You wave him down and angrily interrogate him about whether your check could be lost or stolen. Your briefly contemplate committing a federal offense by taking the postman hostage until you get your miserable, but necessary check. Instead, you stomp back into your house and call your adjuster for the sixth time. The adjuster never picks up the phone when you call, so you leave another pleading message to overnight you a temporary total disability check so that you can pay your bills on time and buy groceries.
What the heck is up with late and missing checks during the holidays? It seems that for every federal holiday without mail delivery, compensation checks are delayed by at least three days.
Here's what to do:
1. Look at the stub that was attached to your last TTD check. Find what time period was covered by the last comp check, and then look at the date the check was issued. This will help you determine whether your check is truly late, or whether you were just hoping it would come earlier than usual. Also, make sure that you sent in the request for compensation form or the physician's progress report that takes you off work, entitling you to another compensation check.
2. If your check is more than two days late, leave a polite phone message, and only one message, with your adjuster. You want your adjuster to want to help you, and leaving threatening messages only moves your claim to the bottom of the adjuster's stack of things to do. Understand that the adjuster may have correctly done her job to have your check processed on time, but that it may not have been mailed on time from a location in another state.
3. If your check is more than three days late, and you get a response from the adjuster that your check was sent on time, you have to decide whether to wait another day or two, or request a stop payment on the old check. Usually, the check will show up in another day or two. If you request stop payment and receive the old check before you receive the re-issued check, you may not cash the first check. Whether you request a stop payment depends on whether you trust the adjuster that the check was in fact mailed on time.
4. Call your creditors to let them know that your compensation check is late, and that your payment will therefore be late. Even if the creditor is not sympathetic, it is still better to let creditors know of your situation.
5. Before the next federal holiday, you might send your adjuster a friendly reminder to please process your check a day or two early so that it does not arrive late.
6. If your adjuster is habitually late in sending your checks, keep the envelopes and copies of your check stubs, and attach them to a complaint letter to DIR.
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About Workers' Comp Adjusters
The adjuster employed by the third-party administrator (TPA) is the person who controls most of what happens on your claim. Many injured workers mistakenly think that it is the employer that makes claims decisions. While the employer may have considerable influence with the claims adjuster, the adjuster may also make decisions your employer does not like. You therefore need to know the name of your adjuster, his or her phone number, and ideally, their email address. The clinic where you initially obtained medical care should be able to tell you the name and phone number of the adjuster if you cannot get that information from your employer before you get a letter from the adjuster either accepting or denying your claim.
Try to communicate with your adjuster in a way that provides you with a record of the communication so that you can file an appeal if the adjuster fails to act on your request within 30 days. Keep a copy of any letter that you send, and print any emails. Make a note of the date and time of phone conversations. Be sure to have your claim number ready when calling the adjuster, and put the claim number of all written or electronic communications.
Make it easy for the claims adjuster to agree to whatever it is that you are requesting. For example, if you are requesting a benefit check, make sure that you have provided the adjuster with a copy of the physician progress report that takes you off work, or that gives you work restrictions that your employer cannot accommodate. Or, if you are requesting a consultation with another physician, obtain the last report from your current physician, as the adjuster will want to review that before acting on your request to see a different doctor.
Be pleasant when speaking with the adjuster, and give the adjuster a reasonable period of time to act on your requests. Ask the adjuster when you can expect an answer, and do not call repeatedly or daily. Most adjusters are reasonable and try to do the right thing. Most also have too many files to handle properly. Think of ways you can make the adjuster's job a bit easier so that your requests are acted on quickly.
