From the Boston Globe:

Outraged Boston fire officials ordered Albert Arroyo to return to work Monday, just days after they watched a video of the firefighter in a bodybuilding competition despite his claim that he had suffered a career-ending back injury and was on paid leave.

“If he can lift barbells, he can lift a clipboard,” Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. said yesterday.

If Arroyo does not return to work, he could be subject to termination.

Boston is already facing a federal grand jury investigation of questionable injury claims by Boston firefighters. According to reports in the Boston Globe, 74 percent of retirements of Boston firefighters between 2005 and 2007 were granted because of disability caused by accidents. Comparable cities reported disability retirement rates of less than 30 percent.

From the Boston Globe, Fox News:

Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo had been out of work for weeks and claiming disability benefits when he competed in a bodybuilding competition. His performance (left) was caught on video.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has now called on the city’s Retirement Board to deny Arroyo’s disability pension.

Arroyo had presented the city with a doctor’s note saying he should be given accidental disability retirement because he is totally and permanently disabled as a result of an accident that no one witnessed, while visiting a firehouse where he was not assigned.

At the least, Arroyo’s injury claim and subsequent bodybuilding competition came at an awkward time. In mid-April, a federal grand jury issued scores of subpoenas to Boston firefighters as part of a criminal investigation into years of questionable disability injury claims by retired and active firefighters of all ranks.

Boston Globe editorial: A weight on the fire department

See also: A smoldering credibility problem, by Joan Vennochi

(more…)

From the Harrisburg [PA] Patriot-News:

Gov. Ed Rendell has signed a bill that advocates for people with autism say will make the state a national leader in helping children with autism.

It requires health insurers to pay up to $36,000 per year toward medically necessary treatments of autism.

Covered treatments include applied behavior analysis, a long-term therapy intended to teach people with autism to perform normal tasks.

See also: Parent advocate led the fight for autism bill (Lancaster Online)

From the Indianapolis Star:

Indiana residents wait more than two years on average for their Social Security disability claims to get processed — one of the worst records in the country. The average wait time across the country is 505 days, according to the Social Security Administration.

Without a job or any source of income while they wait, some applicants lose their homes and cars. Some must live with relatives or friends or in shelters. Some go on welfare. Some die before a final decision.

… Government officials blame the national backlog of disability claims on years of agency underfunding and understaffing combined with a growing number of applications from baby boomers.

Associated Press story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Army veteran Isaac Stevens (left) was discharged with a disability last November and was homeless by February. Veterans advocates say his experience was caused by a bureaucratic military system that releases injured soldiers on just a fraction of their salary and then forces them to wait up to a year or more before their full disability payments begin to flow.

“When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, ‘OK, you’re on your own,’ ” said Stevens.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers have been discharged in the past two fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans’ advocates and others say thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

From the Sacramento [CA] Bee:

As the economy sours, advocates for people with disabilities are expressing concern about that population’s already bleak employment prospects.

A 2004 Cornell University study showed just 37.5 percent of the nation’s working-age people with disabilities were employed, compared with 77.8 percent of those without disabilities.

With the Sacramento region’s unemployment rate at 6.2 percent in February – eight-tenths of a percentage point higher than it was a year ago – some advocates say people with disabilities are taking a particularly hard hit.

“People with disabilities should not be the last hired and the first fired,” said Bryon MacDonald, of the World Institute on Disability, a public policy center in Oakland. (more…)

Why soldiers with traumatic brain injuries and permanent handicaps are considered partially disabled

One in a series by Bob Woodruff, ABC News:

As veterans continue to face the everyday challenges of living with a brain injury, some also must struggle with the military to get the disability payments they believe they deserve.

Marine Cpl. Jeff Landay suffered a severe brain injury when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in May of 2006, and had to have part of his skull removed to relieve the pressure on his brain. He received a rating of 10 percent disabled, well below the thirty percent mark that allows soldiers to receive medical retirement with full benefits.

“He fought for his life and now he is having to fight for his rightful benefits,” said his wife, Michelle. “And that’s shocking. And I’m outraged.”

The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs acknowledge that the disability rating process is confusing and often cumbersome. The two departments rate disabilities in separate processes, which are separate still from the Social Security disability process. A presidential commission last summer recommended sweeping changes, but little has changed.