Insurer adjusts, to pay 'miracle' Joplin survivor

[proud2BlibKansan]

ST. LOUIS (AP) - An insurance company that initially refused to pay the medical bills of a man injured in the Joplin tornado while he tried to save three residents of a group home where he worked has now agreed to pay the claim, the company said Monday.

Mark Lindquist was in a coma for nearly two months, broke every rib, lost most of his teeth and suffered other catastrophic injuries in the May 22 tornado. He had placed three middle-aged men with Down syndrome beneath mattresses, then climbed atop one of the mattresses, to try and protect them.

The men died. Lindquist survived but ran up medical bills in excess of $2.5 million. He worked in a job paying barely above minimum wage and couldn't afford medical insurance.

He sought workers' compensation, claiming he was injured on the job. His company's workers' compensation provider, Accident Fund Insurance Company of America, denied the claim in June "based on the fact that there was no greater risk than the general public at the time you were involved in the Joplin tornado," according to a letter from a claims adjuster.

But on Monday, a day after an Associated Press story, Accident Fund Insurance Company of America agreed to pay.


Read more: http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/missouri/insurance-firm-agrees-to-pay-joplin-survivor#ixzz1bkmna1ji

[bullwinkle428]

1. Good. Just shows that public outrage still goes a long way these days.

K&R.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. +1

[elleng]

3. THOUGHT SO!

:toast:
:applause:

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Yep. Could have predicted this one.

[cyglet]

4. Why does it always take press intervention

for companies to do the right thing?

[kestrel91316]

6. Gosh, I wonder if the fact that the story went viral and they wound up

with egg all over their corporate faces had anything to do with it?

[jmowreader]

7. The reasoning they gave was bullshit

Supposedly he was denied because he wasn't in any more danger at the time than the general public was--which in the abstract is true; pretty much everyone in Joplin was in mortal peril at the time.

The problem is, there are a LOT of things you do at work that don't put you in any more danger than the general public is in, but if you are at work and injure yourself doing them, worker's comp pays.