Denver Worker's Compensation Info: fraud

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Facebook Postings by Employee Doom Her FMLA Claim

By John H. Geaney 02/01/2013 11:18:00

Sara Jaszczyszyn worked as a Customer Service Representative for Advantage Health Physician Network. On August 31, 2009, she saw her physician about a recurrence of back pain related to a prior car accident and two prior surgeries. She was unable to work the next day and presented a Work Release Form on September 3, 2009 from her physician, who indicated that she was totally incapacitated.

Jaszczyszyn returned to work on September 8, 2009. Her doctor submitted an FMLA certification on September 9, 2009, indicating that Jaszczyszyn was having intermittent flare-ups of back pain which, when active, made it impossible for her to work. Jaszczyszyn seemed to treat the intermittent leave certification from her doctor as approval for continuous leave and stopped working on September 10, 2009. She never returned to work. She saw her doctor again on September 22, 2009, and the doctor indicated that she was disabled from September 10, 2009 to October 5, 2009. Eight days later, he amended that note and said she was disabled from October 5, 2009 to October 26, 2009.

On October 3, 2009, Jaszczyszyn attended Pulaski Days, a Polish heritage festival. She visited a number of Polish Halls with a group of her friends for a period of eight hours. One friend shared 127 photos from the day’s events with Jaszczyszyn, who then posted them on her Facebook. There was some dispute whether she was dancing or merely standing between two friends in one posting.

During that same weekend, Jaszcyszyn left several voicemails at work indicating that she would not be coming to work on Monday due to the pain she was in. Some of her friends at work saw the postings on her Facebook site and shared them with her supervisor. Jaszcyszyn was called into work to attend a meeting to discuss, in part, the postings on her Facebook. She addressed her presence for eight hours at the festival by saying that no one told her this was prohibited. She also said she was in pain at the festival. When asked how she reconciled her activities at the festival with the fact that she was asserting she was too incapacitated to come to work, she was silent.

The company terminated her employment as a result of its concerns about FMLA fraud. Jaszczyszyn then sued for alleged retaliation under the FMLA. The Court noted that the company properly considered workplace fraud to be a serious issue. The Court rejected her claim for retaliation:

While Jaszczyszyn relies heavily upon a significant amount of after-the-fact medical evidence (such as the deposition of her treating physician) in trying to cast Advantage’s justification as pretextual, Advantage’s investigation was adequate and turned in large part on Jaszczyszyn’s own behavior at the termination interview, which she does not address at all. She did not refute Advantage’s honest belief that her behavior in the photos was inconsistent with her claims of total disability. Thus, as a result of her fraudulent behavior, her claim of FMLA retaliation fails.

This case demonstrates once again that Facebook postings can often produce valuable evidence for employers in a variety of legal areas. Further, it shows how important it is to read medical certifications carefully. The initial certification was for intermittent leave, which promptly led to continuous leave contrary to the initial certification. The case may be found at Jaszczyszyn v. Advantage Health Physician Network, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 23162 (6^th Cir. 2012).

Read original article here

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Insurance Fraudster Proves Twitter Not Just For Smart People Anymore

By Robert Wilson 07/09/2013 17:19:00

60 year old Wanda Podgurski apparently thought she had it made. After claiming a fake injury in her home and collecting money from no less than seven insurance companies, she skipped town in the middle of her insurance fraud trial and headed for the hills. She vanished into that dark night, forfeiting $500,000 bail in the process. The fact that the judge in the trial sentenced her to 20 years in prison in absentia was almost moot. She was, as they say, “in the wind”. Histoire. Hasta la Bye Bye.

For five glorious months, she was free and clear, with authorities clueless to her whereabouts. Well, not entirely clueless. You see, our miscreant fraudster couldn’t resist taunting them with her Twitter account. While on the lamb, she sent no less than 10 tweets, including statements like “help find me before I con anyone else” and, my personal favorite, “Catch me if you can”.

Turns out they could. And they did; based on electronic Twitter bread crumbs that led them right to her. You see, Twitter has geo-tagging capabilities supported by many mobile devices using Location Services. If you don’t turn it off, it carries specific GPS info with every sweet tweet you complete.

What a dumbass.

On July 4^th, in what can only be considered an ironic “removal of Independence”, day for her, a Fugitive Task Force found her in a retirement resort in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, just south of San Diego, from whence she came. Turns out she didn’t go that far at all. She wasn’t in the wind so much as she was sitting around passing it, apparently. Her hot air cooled rather quickly I would presume.

She certainly was capable of more exotic locales. She is an experienced traveler – in fact that is one thing that tipped investigators to her fraudulent activities to begin with. The Los Angeles Times reported investigators discovered that she traveled to the Dominican Republic, New York, Seattle, Boston and other locations during the time she claimed to be completely disabled and in need of in home care. For all we know there is a Youtube video of her skydiving or bungee jumping during those trips. Certainly would be an action that fits in her wheelhouse. But, while we delight in the gloriousschadenfreude that Ms. Podgurski provides us, we recognize that this is the smaller part of this story.

Ultimately, this story is a huge boon for stupid people everywhere. Ms. Podgurski is a barrier breaker, shattering the myth that the Twittersphere is merely an electronic resort for the cranially gifted. No longer will Twitter be reserved for the uber intelligentsia; a restricted playground for those who have benefitted unfairly in the realm of intellectual distribution. No, it will now be a communication vehicle for the great unwashed, the ignorant masses of our time.

Get ready, Twitter. If you thought intellectually gifted persons could cram an elegantly entertaining tale into 140 character increments, you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait till Bubba meets tweet street. It makes complete sense, when you think about it. Twitter is ideal for people who cannot spell or those who are incapable of using vowels when they write. Thank you, Wanda. This changes everything, indeed.

Original Story Here