DES MOINES – A North Iowa woman injured on her job at Diamond Jo Casino wasn’t satisfied with the care she was receiving from a doctor at North Iowa Mercy Medical Center – that her employer’s insurance carrier had selected – and has been allowed to seek treatment in Fort Dodge, a state report shows.
According to a complaint decided last week by the Iowa Compensation Commissioner, Danielle Janssen was injured on her job in 2012 at Diamond Jo Casino in Northwood. Her employer’s insurance carrier (National Union Fire Insurance Co), by law, was allowed to select the care provider, and chose Dr. Michael Crane in Mason City at Mercy Hospital.
Records denote resistance on the insurance carrier’s part to authorizing a repeat MRI on the injured knee and conversations with Dr. Crane’s staff questioning the need for the test. Further records denote Janssen was not allowed to engage in physical therapy ordered by Dr. Crane.
The report shows that Janssen became dissatisfied and “uncomfortable” with Dr. Crane’s care.
The report describes Janssen’s “abrupt release from care despite ongoing symptoms and a recommendation for surgery approximately one month prior to that release and Dr. Crane’s change in recommended surgical procedures following conversations with the insurance carrier. Janssen “expressed fear Dr. Crane does not have her best interests at heart and may not be particularly willing to provide her treatment, given past issues with authorization of her care by defendants”.
The records reveal [the insurance carrier] impermissibly interfered with Dr. Crane’s treatment recommendation for physical therapy and second-guessed his order for diagnostic testing. The records also “demonstrate a rather abrupt release” of Janssen “from [Dr. Crane’s] care, despite continued complaints and a surgical recommendation one month prior.
Furthermore, the treatment recommended by Dr. Crane is more invasive than that recommended a doctor that Janssen prefers, Dr. Emile Li of Fort Dodge.
The Commissioner found that Janssen “is clearly uncomfortable with receipt of further treatment with Dr. Crane” and that outcome is “entirely reasonable given the factual background of this case. The undersigned interprets claimant’s testimony and the records in evidence to evince a breakdown of the physician-patient relationship between claimant and Dr. Crane. Maintaining Dr. Crane as claimant’s only surgical option is unreasonable.”
The Commissioner allowed Janssen to seek alternate care in the form of the surgery recommended and to be performed by Dr. Li.
Long ago I dubbed this screwed up system as “Welfare for the Rich” and crap for the victim.
We all know that that the Doctors, Lawyers, and Politicians all get paid handsomely. The injured gets the trappings after they all get their big bucks and then the injured is forced to live with the long term affects of their injury!
Been there and done that. Politicians, Doctors, and Insurance Companies are in bed together to do the least they can for an accident victim.
When I confronted my ‘assigned’ Doctor about the lack of treatment he said “to many people are lying about their ailment.” I said, “so you punish us all?”
Two major changes are needed in the law: First everyone should be able to choose their own Doctor, no matter what. Second, attorneys should not be allowed to take 33% of a persons…
claim. Especially when the system is set up so accident victims are forced to litigate to be justly treated and compensated.
This doesn’t make sense…the insurance company is at fault because it does not want to pay for another mri and physical therapy. It wont matter if she goes to another doctor, the insurance company is still going to only authorize the exact same treatments they authorized for Dr. Crane. This lady has been going thru this for 2 years, it should of been resolved long ago. surgery or therapy, what ever works best, sounds like a way for this woman to scam out of work and get paid.
It sure reads like the insurance carrier is the one at fault here. “Thank you Obamacare”. I have been to Doctor Crane several times and have found him to be the most knowledgeable specialist doctor I have seen. His staff was excellent. Not everyone like every doctor and I have had problems with Mercy before, but if you don’t like your doctor get a different one. Oh, God, I forgot, under Obamacare you can’t do that can you?
@ LVS….Good points you made. Regardless if it’s a doctor a dentist, lawyer or even your butcher, if you don’t like the service you are getting, find another one. BUT…since the government is the only one who knows anything, we must be wrong. If only they would make marijuana legal, then everything else would be OK. 😉
Ya, you don’t want the government in our lives except for cannabis, then you do. What a two faced clown you are.
@Lucy-smoke another joint and go back to what you do best, being stoned.
Amazing reporting NIT. These are the stories that matter in people’s lives. I lived through my own medical nightmare at the hands of corrupt doctors. 1:1 (1 human = 1 acre). Liberation.
What should one human have to do to qualify for their acre? How are suggesting this redistribution be accomplished comrade?
Maybe you should consult the Native American Indigenous people or the African slaves for your answer. Billions of acres of land available, yet people packed in like sardines, and packed in prisons. You are sick. I am well. You are wrong. I am right. Bye bye animal keeper.
Wow, insurance carriers conspire with doctors to provide questionable treatment. Not good.
This was what I took from the report as well. I found it newsworthy. This is how we would be treated by an insurance carrier and Mercy should we need care. Whatever keeps the dollars in their pockets. But, Mercy got their street through buying off the mayor with campaign donations. Seems to me that Mercy is a sick,corrupt place. Then I heard from a friend whose daughter recently gave birth there. It was a horror story. Maybe I will write that story next.
Please do!
@Matt-I could tell you a worse story about Mercy. Maybe I will sometime. But, what I did learn was even though the management is corrupt there are still a lot of decent people that work there. I really don’t know what can be done to change the place. It is deep into making money at all cost and not caring about the people who go there or work there other than as a way to make more money.
We should all be telling these stories so that Mercy can be fixed. I am appalled at the things I hear from people about this hospital. This lady I spoke to recently was heartbreaking. Her family went through hell there trying to give birth. She said she and her family will never, ever set foot in that hospital again. I have heard similar stories over and over. For me, I would drive 90 miles before I even thought about going in there.
Ive been sounding the alarm about mercy for close to 20 years. Please do what you can to fix this place. Sick humans are vulnerable and learn about the incompetence when its too late. God rewards heroes and angels.
Matt, please tell me you’re not coming down on the nurses at Mercy. During my recent stay there I had the best nurses you could ever ask for. They clearly cared about the patients and were very attentive. The doctors? Not so much. Doctors would be in deep trouble without these very capable nurses. Yet the doctors that I saw treated the nurses as if they were second class citizens. I couldn’t believe how condescending they were. Mercy’s administration had better wake up!
@Opinion-I don’t always agree with you but I certainly do on this. When I was in the hospital I could not have asked for better care than I got from the nurses. They were great.
To no individual person was my comments directed. I can only remark on what information I am given and know of. I do know a personal friend of mine was nearly killed there when a health care provider (nurse or doctor) jammed an air tube into his throat; also injected air into his system. He is still scarred to this day. I am lucky in that I rarely ever have had to go to Mercy for myself or my immediate family for any reason. This story about the birth I described comes from an extremely good source and reliable, knowledgable person. And trust me, it was a horror story. So, as a whole, in my opinion, I would steer clear of Mercy North Iowa.