Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem agrees that Workforce Safety and Insurance cannot cherry-pick which funds to include when calculating its surplus, according to an opinion issued Tuesday.

A 2007 financial audit of WSI found that its surplus was nearly 164 percent of the agency’s reserves, or about $467 million. It cannot go above 140 percent by state law.

WSI contended that it could exclude some grants and other funds from its surplus to bring it below the 140 percent limit, but Stenehjem’s opinion aligns with State Auditor Bob Peterson’s argument that the agency must include all its funds in its calculation.

But since September, that surplus has dropped below that 140 percent limit, even with all of WSI’s assets added to its surplus, because of the slumping economy, said Bruce Furness, interim WSI director.

Stenehjem said he will take no immediate action in light of his opinion, adding lawmakers will be better equipped to clarify WSI’s surplus law instead of forcing the agency to sell off its assets in light of the sputtering economy.

The Industry, Business and Labor interim committee has recommended a bill that would extend the maximum surplus for WSI from 140 percent to 150 percent of its reserves.

Furness called Stenehjem’s opinion a “reasonable solution to the problem,” and said he expects the Legislature to find a solution to the surplus law next year.

“I think it will be resolved, I don’t know exactly how,” he said.

As for the dispute over whether certain funds be counted in the agency’s surplus, Furness said WSI will follow the law and comply with Stenehjem’s opinion.

“We felt we were doing what was originally intended,” Furness said of the state law. “Obviously the auditor didn’t and the attorney general agreed with him.”

I like this blog on the BT.

Just have to say wrote on Nov 19, 2008 8:55 AM:

Thank you Mark for the email, and the interest in this website. We will keep plugging away, and if you have any ideas please feel free to email them to me. I only hope we recieve more letters like this in the future. Take care Mark, and all the readers out there. If you would like to send us an email to either the Editor, or MIKE please specify which one when you email, and our email address is editor@iwofndadvocates.com.

Open letter to the Editor,

I have been reading this site for some time now and want to say what I think about this site, and the visitors that the administrator has shown me that have visited this site. I know that this site by viewing some stats he showed me there are hundreds of visitors a day, yet very few blog. The system of WSI is still a big issue even after Measure 4 passed, issues must still be talked about, and peoples memories must be refreshed which the two administrators of this site have been trying to do. I have emailed this site to my friends and know some that have visited, and some that have blogged, I am asking others to do the same. We need all the attention we can get for the injured workers in this state. So if you know someone who is injured, or is interested in state issues please forward this website to them. The person that started this site has done this to help the injured workers, and their supporters communicate, and to let the public know what is really happening to them.

I commend the work that has been done here by the editor, and MIKE the relentless hours worked, research done, and issues brought out are incredible. I ask that you two keep up the work, and I pray that others join in on this site, and start posting their comments good or bad either way they should post what they think.

Please people there are very few websites out here to assist in the communication of ideas just for injured workers, and the money that this editor has probably put into this site is more then I probably want to think about today. So do not just stop by, but get involved. I do not think you have to be injured to comment, since it seems to be an open forum.

Thanks again to the Editor, and MIKE for your dedication to this website, and your work. You can post this on your website if you like.

Sincerely

Mark

BISMARCK—Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has sided with the state auditor, saying Workforce Safety and Insurance’s surplus has been kept at illegally high levels.

In an opinion this morning, Stenehjem said WSI can’t pick and choose what monies it counts in calculating the size of its surplus.

Read the full story in the Jamestown Sun.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has declined to resolve an argument about whether North Dakota’s former workers’ compensation director was entitled to almost $128,000 worth of severance benefits.

State Auditor Robert Peterson had asked Stenehjem whether the payment was legal in light of evidence that Sandy Blunt resigned shortly before the directors of Workforce Safety and Insurance voted on Dec. 6, 2007 to dump him.

Click here for the rest of the story in the Insurance Journal.

George Elhard

I am not sure if everyone has heard about WSI going after injured workers for selling vegetables and making a little over one hundred dollars or so off of the sale. Once WSI got wind of this they reopened the injured workers case and went after the man to repay benefits that WSI had paid him. There have been other cases of this over the years where WSI will reopen a case if it is their favor to collect a debt due to going against “their” laws. The injured workers who have been seriously injured and have had to take a large cut in pay with receiving WSI weekly benefits can not make any money any other way but their weekly benefits. Social Security on the other hand allows disabled workers to make a certain amount a month without penalty, so why is WSI so strict? I believe it is that they can not accept someone going outside their ideas to try to make ends meet. Injured workers have been stripped of any rights; any loophole that is found by an injured worker is later closed by WSI changing a policy to close the loophole.

Many employers have stated that employees are their biggest overhead cost, as WSI looks at injured as the biggest cost to their profit margin. So if an injured worker goes against WSI on making any money, they have cut into their profit, and the amount of money that WSI can return to the employers.

Although I need to get back onto the subject of WSI reopening claims, and refusing to reopen claims of injured workers. The reason I bring this subject up is the numerous cases brought before the courts in North Dakota that have this issue in them with “injured workers vs. WSI” which you can look up online. There are certain injured workers who spoke at different Labor and Industry Committee Meetings in Bismarck, and Fargo, asking for their cases to be reopened, and almost all were denied to have their WSI cases reopened. Why would WSI deny to reopen an injured workers case when there is new evidence, or evidence that WSI overlooked when deciding to deny any future benefits to these injured workers? Now with workers being forced to take the hand they are dealt by WSI being able to make the final call on their cases, these injured workers, and their families are left to struggle even though they have a justifiable reason to have their decisions overturned. The bottom line is that if there is a chance WSI will have to pay an injured worker for life, they will refuse any attempt to review the cases.

Now I want to remind everyone about a few cases WSI did decide to review, and the reason they did decide to reopen the cases. There are two cases I remember reading about that were in the Fargo Forum the two people were George Elhard, and Marvin Wanner who both had their cases reviewed by WSI, and were told by WSI to repay all their back benefits over small amounts of money.

First off George Elhard:

“George Elhard’s sporadic duties as mayor of Gackle, N.D., demand little of his time or effort. He presides over the monthly city council meetings, a ritual of governance usually disposed of in 1½ hours. Beyond that, most of Elhard’s mayoral chores in running the town of 335 can be dispatched with a phone call. For his contributions to public service, Elhard receives a quarterly stipend of $147, payments he accepted with little thought and had automatically direct-deposited to his bank account.
But, unwittingly, those quarterly checks became the reason the state cut off his $880-a-month workers’ compensation disability checks - his livelihood since a 1987 lower-back injury ultimately left him disabled.

Because Elhard neglected to disclose the checks in his monthly status reports to workers’ comp, the state bureau determined, without ever talking to him, that he had committed fraud.
In North Dakota, workers’ comp requires disabled workers to report all “work activities” and “any” income to ensure benefits aren’t paid in error.
For failing to report payments totaling $2,203, the bureau was halting all of Elhard’s future benefits and demanding that he repay all of his disability benefits for more than three years - $46,577 in all.”

Secondly Marvin M. Wanner:

“Marvin M. Wanner never dreamed of the nightmare he would cause himself by growing a vegetable garden.
The North Dakota workers’ compensation bureau called it fraud when Wanner failed to declare the income his garden raised - an estimated $129 to $160 one season.
For that failure, and because he didn’t report his volunteer help for a farmer, the bureau ordered Wanner to repay $6,679 and it cut off future wage-replacement benefits for the disabled truck driver.
But Marvin Wanner’s problems were only beginning.”

WSI will open cases like this in a heartbeat to go after injured workers although only if it is in WSI’s favor. Also WSI can go back years and years ago to go after cases like this just to collect their money back from the benefits they paid out. Although if it is an injured worker and their case has been closed WSI will refuse to reopen the case, and review any evidence that would favor the injured worker having their benefits reinstated, and receive back pay of benefits. It seems this is another case of one sided policies by WSI. Which makes me wonder why WSI would even state that when the case is in doubt the tie goes to the injured worker, when in actuality they do not follow that statement. From what WSI has been doing along with lawmakers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Governor, and big business has made it to where the tie goes to WSI when in doubt!

This is just a great example of WSI deciding once again that they are the ultimate decision maker of claims, and how the fate of the injured worker will go no matter if the injured workers are right. We deserve better, and we deserve true justice not justice of convenience!

Now why do they refuse to reopen all the injured workers cases like Doug D. Riley’s case? Because if they did it could turn into a landslide of cases being reversed, and they might have to pay out some of the millions of dollars over the reserve amount they should have to these injured workers, and there goes WSI’s profits to turn back to the employers. Also WSI then will be on the other side of the fence instead of demanding benefits being returned they might be forced to pay out against their will.

This site is for those whom believe there needs to be serious change at WSI and the laws. The injured workers of this state, whom own this website, are the backbone of the issues that are brought to the surface here. Without the injured workers whom have supported the efforts of this site, and the people who believe that injured workers have justifiable arguments to bring up to WSI and the lawmakers of North Dakota this site would not be possible. We understand that not everyone agrees with the injured workers because WSI throws out a mix of numbers that make them look good on their treatment of injured workers, but if you really dig into the numbers they mostly are a smokescreen. As was brought up by MIKE in an article earlier why doesn’t WSI keep records of successes and failures of seriously injured workers whom have tried to return to work, it is because the failure rate is much higher then the success rate for injured workers.As a blogging website, we have both seen positive and negative responses to articles, which we expect. I do not mind reading the negative responses to this site because it makes us look into their claims and realize how much they really research their work, or are just supporting WSI’s smokescreen.

We also have to credit the northdecoder.com which is run by Chad Nodland, who has done such an outstanding job for searching for the truth about WSI’s actions, and questioning the legality of their actions. This is a site you need to keep up with too, as Chad started it as a hobby, and ended up the top blogger of the state for the Democratic Party. Our hats off to you Chad.

I also have to give an enormous amount of credit to this websites other administrator MIKE who has been relentless on the quest for answers, and for truth and accountability of WSI, Lawmakers, and executives of WSI. We should all thank MIKE for the research MIKE has done to find the truth of the issues for this website.

We are here for those whom want their ideas, and letters heard. We welcome letters to the Editor to be posted here for anyone to comment on. If you are interested in writing a “Post” for this site feel free to do so, and email it to the editor@iwofndadvocates.com and we will post the article. (Please indicate if you have a picture you want posted with it, or send a picture to be posted with it.)

Thank you again to everyone for the thousands of views a week, and the comments made.

Have the lawmakers taken a hundred and eight degree change on their stances about WSI issues, laws, and injured workers since Measure 4 passed? Before Measure 4 passed Keiser, Berg, Wald, and even Bruce Furness were stating that nothing was wrong with WSI, yet after the measure passed; they have changed their tune somewhat.

Keiser has raised the issue of “the 11-member panel should become an advisory board to the governor” now why would he start doing this when all the while he has denied anything is wrong with WSI or how the board runs? Could this be due to the 67% of voters that voted to pass Measure 4? Is Keiser thinking this could be the same 67% that will be voting him back into office in 2010? If this is, what he is thinking this could be one of his best political plays, if he really does change many of the issues that others have raised with being wrong with WSI. Then again, the only things that might be changed at WSI are the laws to protect those that run WSI.

Not one of them has said anything about how WSI takes a law and inside WSI changes their rules to make the law fit what they want it to do against the injured worker. WSI’s interpretation of WSI laws that they word into their policies against injured workers is what helps them keep the high reserves, and hand back to employers. The rules of engagement between WSI and an injured worker change from the time the law passes, and the time WSI changes the details of it to work in WSI’s favor. The two main people in charge of this are Tim Wahlin, Jody Bjornson the two that have figured out how to skirt around the laws passed.

What amazes me the most is how each lawmaker, or spokesperson for WSI make it sound like they are really trying hard to make changes, and changes that need to be made to make it easier for injured workers to understand, and get help from WSI. Where as if truth be told they are not even touching the surface of the issues that really mater to injured workers, and their families. The damage has been done over ten years, and will not be undone overnight, but there needs to be more direct issues that really affect the whole family of injured workers. The laws in place now limit the ability of a seriously injured worker to recover in the time they may need to have to improve. Giving an injured worker two years to recover in some cases in just not feasible, and in many cases impossible. Other things are WSI does not cover any side effects of the injury, just the injury itself. They do not cover other issues from an injury such as other side effects from medication, and some times they even ignore physiological issues that have affected the injured worker due to an injury.

Then there is an issue that keeps coming up over, and over again by injured workers, and people trying to understand WSI requirements, is forcing injured workers to become telemarketers. I have even asked politicians that have agreed with this as being a job option if they signed up for the “No Call List” and everyone I asked said they signed up for this. Now remember these are lawmakers that consider telemarketing a job, yet they themselves have blocked injured workers from making a living. Now can someone explain to me why they refuse to let telemarketers call them, but yet force-injured workers to become telemarketers? Which last time I checked there were only two openings in this whole state for telemarketing jobs.

Is WSI going to change? On the other hand, is Bruce Furness going to keep status-quo? We have seen no change in WSI’s stance on issues; if anything, we have seen a sign of defiance towards Measure 4. Awhile back Bruce Furness showed us his idea of status-quo in the fact that he held an illegal meeting at the East 40, and later admitted to doing so although acting as if he did not know better. With this kind of denial and his on going playing, the I do not remember, or I forgot, or I have not seen this issue that he uses on the phone makes me wonder just what he is doing as the ICEO of WSI if he has no idea what is going on there.

Then I started thinking more about that, and started to think more when he was our mayor, just what was he thinking, and doing while he ran this city. How many ordinances were passed while he was there with “illegal meetings” held by Bruce Furness as mayor? Kind of makes some of the people of Fargo really wonder what he did do honestly as mayor. If I actually had the time, I would research the issues he pushed, and how they got passed while he was in office. As it seems Bruce Furness being in the public’s eye all these years did NOT know about the “Sunshine Law”, or did he and just ignore it? I seriously doubt he did not know about the law, but like most others in this state in government, positions have ignored it.

WSI is in business to help the IW successfully return to work yet no one is keeping score.

How many seriously injured workers do return to their original job?  Of those, how many are still there 6 months, one year or two year post-injury?

How many seriously IW must change employer are employed 6 months, one year or two year post-injury?

Though the use of such programs as CorVel for the injured workers who must change field of employment, how many found employment? What are the top five employment fields CorVel finds for the IW?  How many are still employed 6 months, one year or two year post-injury within the field?

How many IW are removed from ND workers compensation TTD/PTD have successfully applied SSD and are receiving benefits?

How many seriously injured workers have a substantial return to work post-injury outcome?

I can ask this question 50 ways and still the legislators, WSI and CorVel would not have the answer.  You see no one is keeping track of the true success rate of returning the injured worker.