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Field Representative’s Report
Preserving your medical time while putting your health first
Taking charge of your medical time and follow- ing a few simple steps may help slow down offi- cers running out of IOD medical time. Run-
ning out sometimes occurs because the
City delays an officer’s treatment by causing them to wait long periods of time for returned calls or emails or for referral to a specialist, or by not helping to expedite the scheduling of additional tests or therapy, wasting
days and sometimes weeks. These delays hurt the officer and contribute to the officer exhausting their IOD medical time before they are ready to return to work.
Officers needs to take some responsibility and keep tabs on how much medical time they have left in their bank. Taking these steps will not help all cases but can help many. The reality is that we have officers
who will suffer injuries or illnesses that will take more than a year to recover from.
One of the most common questions from members on this topic is “I am run- ning out of IOD medical time — what can I do?”
Let’s get into the steps that will help. Of- ten, officers who have exhausted all of their IOD medical time can take steps to avoid wasting the medical time they have left.
Be your own timekeeper. Every time an officer goes into the medical section, you should be asking for your days left in the IOD bank. Ask for a written and dated copy of this information. All too often, officers are weeks or days away from running out of IOD time and risk being placed in a no-pay status. Don’t rely on the medical section staff to give you a heads-up. Stay on top of your time.
Keep good records. Maintain a folder with
any paperwork, approvals, denials of bills,
emails, referrals, etc. This can help when the
City loses your folder or has questions about
dates and times of acceptances or rejections
of tests, medical devices, treatments or even
a case supporting a recocurring IOD. This will
provide officers with all of the pertinent informa-
tion when a grievance needs to be filed and will help to ensure that grievances can be filed on time.
Email your case manager. When you cannot contact the medical section because the phone just rings or they won’t
16 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2022
call you back, leave a footprint by emailing your case manager to prove that you followed med- ical roll policy. I think it’s no surprise that the medical section sometimes does not an- swer the phone or respond to officers’ voice messages or emails. Send that email, make a copy and put it in your medical folder. If you know how to put a receipt on the email, do that. This can give you proof that the email was de- livered and/or read with a time and date stamp on it. If you don’t have a case manager, email the
sergeant in the medical section.
Referrals. When you receive a referral from a physician, get a copy and ask the doctor’s
office to give you a document with the date and time that referral was sent to the medical section. You may choose to drop off that referral or email a copy to the case manager and keep a record of those dates. The delayed referral is often the cause of officers losing time when on IOD status. Officers have lost weeks, sometimes months, waiting for referral approvals. Two weeks after an officer has been given a referral, the officer should be calling or emailing the case manager, inquiring what the status of their referral is. Stay on top of this, and leave a paper trail. If two weeks have passed and you do not have an appointment for that
referral, please contact the Lodge.
IOD reports. Please review your IOD report
before your supervisor submits it and ensure that all your injuries are accurately reported in as much detail as possible. Not double-checking
steps can delay an officer’s treatment. When officers do not examine the IOD report and injuries are left undocumented on the report, this may cause the medical section to not certify your IOD, resulting in a delay in treatment. Get a copy of your
IOD report from the medical section.
Next issue, we will discuss the options for officers who will
run out of IOD or non-IOD medical time.
MONICA ORTIZ