Sunday, May 27, 2012

Tell Queen’s Park there’s plenty wrong with car insurance

Disclaimer: The names have been removed in the following letter to comply with legal demands.



May 27, 2012

Via Facsimile 613-996-1626

Via Letter Mail
Clerk of the Committee,
Room 1405, Whitney Block,
Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A2.

Re: Public Hearings on Car Insurance Industry Practices


Dear Clerk of the Committee:

I thank you for this opportunity to express my views on car insurance industry practices. I regret not being able to come there in person as the trip would be too painful, and can not afford the gas because my Insurer has unjustly stopped paying accident benefits.

Having been a victim of a fatal crash in 2007, I can tell you first hand my dealings with the current Insurance System.

Brief Personal History

I am a xx year old white male, born in Canada with roots going back to 1670. Before the fatal crash I was a 3rd generation truck driver. My jobs included hauling almost every produce and commodity imaginable. I am a professional driver with a perfect driving record. We proudly display a Canadian flag on our back and front lawn. We have two children. Both my wife and I are law abiding members of the community with no criminal records.

Brief History of Crash

I was coming home from work travelling on a narrow country road I used often. When I was about 60 feet from the crest of a blind hill, suddenly there were two cars travelling towards me, side by side, one car was in my lane. There was no where for me to go !...
The teenage boy was speeding and passing on a blind hill and solid double line. He hit me with his car at 102km/hr; taking off the front wheel, sending me rolling 8 times, and into a tree.
I was trapped upside-down. The airbag went off in the side of my head at a force 2/3's more powerful than that of today s cars. I had used the steering wheel to block my face from the crash. As a consequence my head was placed sideways in the steering wheel at the time of impact, and at the time of air bag detonation. Unfortunately the teenage boy died in the crash as he hit another car and a cement barrier.

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Findings and Recommendations – Public Hearings on Car Insurance Industry Practices

Our adjuster Mr. xx of xx Insurance has rejected claims of treating physicians, without obtaining a medical opinion. My Adjusters have denied, delayed my legitimate accident benefits off and on over the last 5 years. They began paying accident benefits after a 5 month delay.
Then suddenly before Mediation they cut off my accident benefits in an effort to make me settle in favour of the insurer.

Mediation has taken 5 years in my case. Our adjuster Mr. xx of xx Insurance tactics of sending me excessive distances to insurer interrogations has created a delay. He also mandated an insurer’s examination with a doctor with an obvious conflict of interest  that he new existed, creating further delay. He also mandated on two separate occasions interrogations and the doors were locked creating again an even further delay.

Insurance Companies owe policy holders  fiduciary duties, including the duty to act in good faith.
Our insurer has created an adversarial relationship, which has created great mental distress.
My Insurer has never given the benefit of the doubt when medical reports conflicted in the face of clear medical evidence.

According to a survey by the Alliance of Community Medical & Rehabilitation Providers 42% of all requests for treatment are now being rejected by insurers. The purpose of motor vehicle liability policies is to protect people from financial and emotional stress and insecurity. The main rationale for no fault car insurance accident benefits is that we want people injured in car accidents, regardless of who is at fault, to have quick access to medical and rehabilitation benefits not covered by OHIP. The practice of insurance companies denying requests for treatment has corrupted that philosophy and creates a slow torture to its victims.

The Ontario Auditor Generals report said about 50% of all claims result in mediation requests. With an estimated 36,000 applications for mediation being launched in the current fiscal year, the backlog isn’t likely to decrease. What is a crash victim facing a denial of benefits supposed to do? Forcing injured people to wait a year for non-binding mediation before they can seek a remedy through the courts encourages insurers to deny claims. Mediation is supposed to be fast and inexpensive.

When you buy insurance, you depend on that, thinking insurance is going to help you out if you ever have life-altering injuries. But in reality you have to fight for everything, every step of the way.” They want their money but when roles are reversed, they’ll do anything not to pay.”

In examining the increasing cost of claims, shouldn’t we be examining the increase in costs attributable to defence or insurer medicals, adjuster’s fees and legal fees paid to insurers defence lawyers?
An examination of the insurance industry needs to take place to uncover excessive payments to medical professionals treating accident victims, and how those payments are being declared by the industry.
I have found examples of fraud in the Ontario automobile insurance industry.

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We can’t leave the job of making medical determinations to adjusters or even their financially conflicted experts to writing accurate insurer medical reports, with the doctors writing only a small portion.  I have read how the facts have been twisted by assessment mills. Our insurers retained preferred, wordhirelings have been allowed to write whatever they want in there reports, even if it’s not true.

The Insurance system has allowed my personal information to be accessed at the HCAI anonymously.  Wordhirlings working my case have shared all our personal information loosely threw many unsecured channels. I will be requesting an investigation further into this matter; there is obviously a bug in the software and very lenient rules for sending information. No one should be logged-in anonymously accessing my personal information from the Secure Dox web site. Obviously more testing should have gone on before the site was opened for business only a short time ago. They also send emails threw unsecured channels and put personal information in the subject lines that are not encrypted. I feel that the public would react negatively much like I do, when you find out that your medical files are at risk.

Who is going to stop them? They should be held accountable. They should read their own code of ethics. The state of the insurance industry isn’t an election issue. It should be. I feel the Insurance Industry as it stands today is contributing to the general meltdown of society. Insurance Companies hold too much power over the Medical Community. They make misleading allegations, manipulate, and provide false representation of a matter of fact. They report about Scores, and devise graphs with numbers, create paper trails, and make endless non-scientific claims that have little or no evidence to substantiate them. They include and rely on colleagues reports as to be true, and include their Reports, in theirs, over and over again, creating a repetitious paper trail and inducing others in reliance upon them.

To allow a Doctor to run loose to write bias reports to satisfy the agenda of the Insurance Company is criminal and for their own gain only exploits a crash victim further. It’s time for car insurance companies to open their books. Let’s not take our eye off what matters, insurance is supposed to be there for deserving policyholders. While your committee doesn’t have the power to implement changes, it can make recommendations to exam abusive practices by the insurance industry, and we kindly ask that you do so and bring this urgent problem to the attention of the Legislature.

I face a $30,000 deductible and must also satisfy a stringent threshold to recover any award.
We need to examine insurance industry practices to ensure policyholders are getting fair treatment.
The evidence is clear there is a breach of the duty, good faith and fair dealing. Crash victims should not get further victimized by there own Insurance company. We paid insurance premiums for 30 years!
No accidents, no claims, professional driver, and perfect driving records.


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Currently I am xx years old, disabled, no job, and no insurance replacement benefits.
I have constant neck pain 100% of the time and constant pain tuning my head that accompanies clicking, cracking, grinding, in my neck 100% of the time. It hurts just to brush my teeth.
I have a sharp pain that originates in the back of my head/neck and radiates into my upper back that feels like pinched nerve spasms. Another sharp electrical type shock radiates into my left shoulder into my left arm and hand. I have a constant high pitch ringing in my left ear from when the air bag went off in the side of my head. My headaches sometimes last for days. I have back pain, and a nerve in my back that is causing a nerve in my toe making it painful to walk. I grind my teeth all night thinking about the insurance and finances which in turn has given me jaw pain and further sleep disruption. I have been bed ridden on many occasions. I’m sure I will be in a ripe mood by the time I get a meeting with a FSCO arbitrator in about a year.

Thank you for this opportunity to submit my findings. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you should have any questions, comments, or wish to view evidence of my claims.  Looking forward to hearing from an advocate as soon as possible in this regard. Thank you, drive careful, and remember, you only think you have insurance if someone hits you.


Sincerely,
Mr. xx
xx xx Rd xx,
xx Ontario, xx








Cc: Mr. xx Law Office
Cc: Mr. xx Law Office
Cc: CEO – xx Insurance
Cc: Dr. xx – Family Physician


Next mailing:
Cc: xx, MPP – Queenspark
Cc: xx, MPP -Queenspark
Cc: xx, Mediator – xx Mediations
Cc: xx, Clinical Manager – xx Management Inc.
Cc: xx - xx Management Inc.

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Next mailing:

Cc: Mr. xx, Lawyer, Journalist – xx
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: Letter to the editor - xx Newspaper
Cc: xx - xx Psychologists
Cc: xx – xx Psychologists
Cc: Dr. xx – xx Psychologists
Cc: Ms. xx – xx
Cc: xx – xx Rehabilitation
Cc: xx – xx Rehabilitation
Cc: Mr. xx - xx Physiotherapy Clinic
Cc: Mr. xx - xx Physiotherapy Clinic
Cc: Chief Privacy Officer - HCAI Processing
Cc: xx, Broker - xx Insurance Brokers
Cc: Mr. xx – Morrison Insurance Brokers
Cc: xx, Privacy Commissioner – Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Cc: Dr. xx, Associate Professor, McMaster University
Cc: Mr. xx - xx Consulting
Cc: xx, Investigator – The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
Cc: Financial Services Commission of Ontario
Cc: xx, Lawyer for the Defence (Insurer) -  xx
Cc: Dr. xx
Cc: Dr. xx
Cc: xx, Vocational Evaluator – xx Inc.
Cc: xx – xx & Associates
Cc: Dr. xx
Cc: Mrs. xx – xx Insurance
Cc: Dr. xx
Cc: xx, Claims Examiner – xx
Cc: xx, Case Manager – The xx Company
Cc: xx, Head xx Insurance Operations – The xx Company
Cc: Mr. xx, Occupational Therapist- xx
Cc: xx, Occupational Therapist- xx
Cc: xx - xx Clinic
Cc: Dr. xx
Cc: xx, Occupational Therapist
Cc: Dr. xx, Orthopaedic Surgeon
 

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Next mailing

Cc: xx – xx Minister of Canada
Cc: Members of Parliament
Cc: General Media sources
Cc: Online Media sources
Cc: Online Forums and Blogs
Cc: Online Social Networks


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I bet they never contacted you about your letter. And you wont be invited to any dinners at their house.
Its too bad all the victims don't write like you.

Keep up the work you are doing to shed light on this important issue against the injured in our society.

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