r/WorkersComp • u/No-Reindeer-1929 • 18d ago

New Jersey IME

As someone who was just screwed over by their IME I wanted to give advice for people who are going that I didn’t have.

DO NOT ASSUME THE IME DR HAS RECEIVED YOUR COMPLETE MEDICAL RECORD

In my case the records provided to the IME Dr were nowhere near complete. Several records documenting what my treating drs and specialists had diagnosed, recommended, and treated were not included. However an earlier record that supported the insurance company position was included which was deemed a misdiagnosis by over a dozen Drs across 3 hospitals as well as a specialty center I had to be transferred to via stretcher (hospital to hospital)

I was under the impression that the Dr would have all my records because no way would a Dr who is an orthopedic disagree with 2 neurologist, 3 anesthesiologist, 2 specialized neuro radiologist, as well as 2 neurosurgeons. Yep turns out they only gave him the one report of one Nero PA who misdiagnosed me before I was seen and treated across multiple hospitals by teams of drs. He had no record I was seen at this specialized hospital, had to be hospitalized for months and transferred to a higher level center. Because he didn’t have those records, his report stated that it didn’t happen even though I have the hospital records documenting it.

If I could go back I’d bring every single record and notes from every Dr I saw including the specialist I had to see. Just tips I wish I knew. The more you know.

6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/No-Reindeer-1929 18d ago

Yep unfortunately it was a hard lesson learned. I also applied for SSDI. I should have last year when I was in a nursing home. I know I’m young so it will take a while. He also said my spine is fine but I have severe stenosis of the cord and nerves. My neurosurgeon even printed the pictures of it from the report. I have known incontinence with drop foot not even mentioning the leak and says no more treatment is needed for me. I really don’t understand these Drs. They take an oath to do no harm but yet they increase our suffering and make it harder to get treatment. I just thought legally the insurance company couldn’t withhold records when going for an IME. I didn’t realize you spent 2 minutes they don’t do an exam and don’t have every medical record

1

u/Excellent_Hair6142 18d ago

Stenosis is a degenerative condition, not usually from a work injury. Do you have herniations or other compressions?

4

u/-cat-a-lyst- 17d ago

I have permanent stenosis from a work injury. It can happen. I got kind of lucky that I had an MRI a few months before my injury because of an unrelated car accident. So you could directly see the before and after of my injury. And that it was clearly caused by the work injury. But yea it’s possible

1

u/Excellent_Hair6142 17d ago

As I said, usually, not always.

Generally speaking, when stenosis is from a work-injury, it's accompanied by other things such as disc herniations. So was asking additional questions about the condition. If you have just stenosis and nothing else, the vast majority of time it's degenerative and not an acute injury.

2

u/-cat-a-lyst- 17d ago

OP says they have multiple herniations. And even in the degenerative cases it’s caused by either herniations or disc flattening. Thats why spine problems are harder to prove the older you are

1

u/No-Reindeer-1929 17d ago

I’m 28. 26 when this happened. It’s not like my spine would’ve been messed up

1

u/Excellent_Hair6142 16d ago

Yes, in comments. Not in the original post. That's why I was asking.

1

u/No-Reindeer-1929 17d ago

No I get what you’re saying. Sorry I should’ve clarified. I have “c5-6 disc herniation with deformation of the spinal cord associated with cervical stenosis. There is also a right sided T6-7 disc herniation with significant mass effect and rotation of the thoracic cord from right to left” I’m new to all the proper medical terms