Looking for Fraud in All the Wrong Places

ORA Submission Fraud & Abuse

The link above is our just-submitted response to the Ministry of Finance’s public consultation on Fraud & Abuse in the Auto Sector. I do hope you’ll read it – its quite short and includes some data you haven’t likely seen before. I expect most of you will find it affirms some of your own worst suspicions – and who doesn’t love confirmation bias?

We have been in discussions with FSRA for the past month or two about the concerns arising from our Emergent Issues survey. Alas, without any sense of a helpful response any time soon. This  submission reflects this rather exasperating experience – as does the crisper-than-usual tone.

As always – but maybe even more than usual – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Laurie Davis, Executive Director

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Study Recruitment Request: Amplifying Black Voices in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation

If you know a potential participant who may be interested in participating in the study, please share the recruitment flyer attached to this email. Rehabilitation providers will be provided with a conversation script to discuss this research opportunity with potential clients who meet the eligibility criteria for the study. If you are interested in participating, are willing to help with recruitment, or have any questions and would like more information about this research study, please contact Samira Omar at [email protected] or please call 416 946-0898.

Appendix C – Recruitment Flyer for Black Survivors of TBI and their Informal and Formal Caregivers_Version 2

Study title: Amplifying Black Voices in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: A Critical Examination of the Narratives of Black Survivors and their Caregivers

You are being invited to participate in a research study about the rehabilitation experiences of Black people who live with or care for someone with a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

You are eligible for this study if you:

• Self-identity and are living with a traumatic brain injury,
• Have experienced or are currently receiving rehabilitation in Canada,
• Self-identity as Black or someone who is from the African diaspora,
• Communicate, speak, read, write in English language,
• Be over 18 years of age,
• Sign legal documents on their own and provide legal consent to participate in a one-on-one interview.

We will be speaking to self-identified Black people who:

a)Self-identity and are living with a traumatic brain injury and have experienced or are currently receiving rehabilitation in Canada –Black Survivors

b)Informal unpaid family members or friends(such as parents, grandparents, and/or siblings) providing support with activities of daily living for someone who is Black and is experiencing or living with a traumatic brain injury in Canada OR, a community advocate and/or spiritual leader, and others working for and with Black communities and holding experiential knowledge and lived experience of traumatic brain injury rehabilitation –Black Family Caregivers

c)Formal caregivers of persons living with a traumatic brain injury including paid rehabilitation care provider such as rehabilitation nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists, social workers, and/or personal support workers working across the care continuum (ex: in-patient, outpatient, community) with experience working with individuals who are experienced a traumatic brain injury and are visibly Black –Black Formal Rehabilitation Providers

All participants must communicate, speak, read, write in English language, be over 18 years of age, and sign legal documents on their own and provide legal consent to participate in a one-on-one interview.

Participation in this study consists of engagement in two 60-90 minute virtual or telephone interviews to share your experiences. The interviews will occur at a time that is safe and convenient for you. All interviews will take place either over video conferencing software (i.e., Zoom), or on the phone. Compensation will be provided for your time.

If you are interested in participating, we will send you a research package. This research package includes a description of the study and its objectives, a consent form to be signed and returned to us electronically or by mail, a list of interview questions so you can think about them ahead of time, instructions on how to connect to connect virtually on Zoom and on phone, and a list of local resources for emotional support services.

If you know a potential participant who may be interested in participating in the study, please share the recruitment flyer attached to this email. Rehabilitation providers will be provided with a conversation script to discuss this research opportunity with potential clients who meet the eligibility criteria for the study. If you are interested in participating, are willing to help with recruitment, or have any questions and would like more information about this research study, please contact Samira Omar at [email protected] or please call 416 946-0898.

LAT Satisfaction

This recent and affirming LAT decision finding $8 K in costs for the claimant related concludes with a statement that we hope insurers take to heart:

“ since [the claimant] demonstrated that she was trying to cooperate with the [insurer’s] request, [Security National] should have showed more leniency rather than automatically holding her in non-compliance.”

If only that stance were not so commonplace….

Auto insurer hit with $8K cost award for not replying to insured’s correspondence

May 3, 2021   by David Gambrill

Ontario’s Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT) has ordered a cost award of $8,598.95 against Security Na

tional Insurance Company for failing to confirm receipt of an auto accident victim’s disability certificate and then not replying to her follow-up correspondence for more than a year.

“The [auto insurance] applicant is a vulnerable individual because she was injured in an accident,” LAT adjudicator Rebecca Hines wrote in A.J. v. Security National Insurance Co., released Apr. 30. “I am not commenting on whether she met the test for entitlement to NEBs [non-earner benefits] when the updated OCF-3 [disability certificate] was submitted, as no evidence is before me to confirm same.

“However, the OCF-3, which the [insurer] ignored, supported that she suffered a complete inability to carry on a normal life, which is a serious impairment. The [insurer] should have taken the OCF-3 more seriously and had a duty to respond promptly.”

Read the full article at the link below:

Auto insurer hit with $8K cost award for not replying to insured’s correspondence

Concussion Research Symposium

FSRA Priorities Submission

ORA COMMENTS: FSRA 2021-22 PRIORITIES
Submitted: October 26, 2020

The Ontario Rehab Alliance (ORA) is highly supportive of FSRA’s stated priorities for 2021-22. This submission will comment primarily on broad-strokes intentions and hoped-for outcomes.

At the Cross Sectoral level, we believe that all four priorities: Protect the Public Interest, Enable Innovation, Modernize Systems and Processes, and Transition to Principles Based Regulation may be harnessed to drive improvement to the auto insurance sector.

The ORA has made a number of previous submissions, along with other HSP associations, that reference our keen support for modernized systems and processes, and have offered multiple examples and specific suggestions of how and where we see the greatest need for these. As Principles-Based Regulation is a new form in Ontario’s regulatory environment we find it challenging to forecast how this transition might change our operations or the experience of our injured clients, so have focused our remarks elsewhere.

Read the rest in the attached PDF submission

ORA Commentary 2021-22 Priorities

We are 10 years old! 

 PDF Letter

For 10 years the ORA has represented the interests of health service providers in Ontario by keeping them informed, establishing resources and building bridges between industries.

Today we are channeling our most earnest gratitude to all our members, past and present, who keep the ORA going year after year. You are what make up this organization and the ORA would not exist without you or be nearly as successful without your participation.

A special thank you to all members who have volunteered their time to fill roles on the Board of Directors. Your contributions have greatly enriched the ORA with fresh perspective and direction. Thank you for being a sounding board for idea generation, the arms and legs of implementation and occasionally filling in as moral support for Laurie and I.

Recognition would never be complete without taking a moment to appreciate the contributions of Laurie Davis, fearless maven, and steady heart beat of the ORA for the last 7 years. She has devoted her time and talents to the cause, leveraging her acumen in the sector to strategically seat herself at many advocacy tables. The ORA victories we’ve seen, are due much in part to the waves created by Laurie. Thank you for all you do.

In celebration of the occasion, we are releasing our Proud Member badges for email signatures. Please consider adding this badge to your signature. Our hope is to unify our members and further permeate the industry. The ORA knows you walk the walk so show off that your organization puts the best interests of patients and health service providers front and centre.

A word document has been attached for your copy & pasting needs. If you have any trouble with formatting please reach out to me.

Thank you to you all, and cheers to 10 years!

Heather McElroy

Executive Assistant

Ontario Rehab Alliance

Participants Needed: University of Toronto & OAK Concussion Lab study

The University of Toronto and the OAK Concussion Lab are recruiting adolescents (ages 13-18 years) with concussion to participate in a research study. This study explores remote concussion care and will help bring concussion care to youth who live in areas without concussion specialists, or have difficulty attending in-person sessions at a clinic.

More information can be found below and interested participants are encouraged to contact [email protected] / 416-946-3273.

The OAK Concussion Lab is a team of researchers dedicated to improving concussion outcomes, knowledge and advocacy in youth.

ABI & MVA: The lived experience survey findings

Attached here is an important and beautifully crafted advocacy document outlining the findings from the survey conducted jointly by ABISS and McMaster. My apologies for the delay in sharing this with you; it was released earlier this month.

ORA member Sheila MacDonald, (SLP, Sheila MacDonald & Associates), supervised the project along with Dr. Lynn Turkstra. The ORA was very pleased to get to know members of ABISS over the past few years through Sheila’s introduction, and to have them present at several ORA events.

Do read this – the results and recommendations for all stakeholders are summarized in the attached brief. Copies of the longer report are available on request.

Do share this on your websites and through social media posts.

McMaster-ABISS Study Findings.PDF

Image by Ryan McGuire, Pixabay

It’s Quintuplets! ORA Members Sweep Award Nominations

Do consider supporting your fellow ORA members when you cast your ballot (by Aug 31) for the annual OBIA & PIA Awards of Excellence. There’s lots to choose from!

All five of the companies nominated in the Rehab Company of the Year category are ORA members, so you can’t go wrong voting for Abilities Rehab, Brainworks, Essentially You, FunctionAbility or Wright Rehab.

Colleen Boyce, (Bayshore), Sheila MacDonald, Kindrey Rowland (Orangeville, ORA members all, are nominated in the category of Healthcare Provider of the Year category.

Jennifer Jones (Abilities Rehab), Jodi Harendorf (Neuro-Rehab Services Inc.), Laura MacPhee (Rehab Results) and Maureen Palmer, are nominated in the Case Manager of Year category.

https://aoe.pialaw.ca/vote

Happy voting!

Help Distribute Important Survey of Individuals with Brain Injuries

The ORA is asking its members to assist in disseminating a survey to individuals with brain injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions to obtain information about their experience with auto insurance claims.

Please see the attached letters from student researchers at McMaster University and Acquired Brain Injury Survivor Solutions (ABISS), an advocacy group.

ABISS MCMASTER.TBI Insurance Study Approval 2020

Letter & Survey for Participants

Letter to Organizations & Professionals Assisting with Survey Distribution.

This research has received ethics approval through McMaster University from the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board. The researchers include:

• Principal Investigator, Dr. Lyn Turkstra, Department of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University
• Research Supervisor, Sheila MacDonald, Assistant Professor (Adjunct), Department of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University
• Student Investigators: Laura Brooks, Yvette Hou, Daniella Reid, Aileen Zhou

Clinicians distributing the survey are asked to ensure objectivity and privacy by observing the following:

• Allow the person to complete the survey in their private (non-therapy) time
• Do not discuss, assist with, or document survey completion in clinical notes and records (reporting, chart notes, emails etc.).

If you have questions or need more information about the study itself, please contact student investigator Laura Brooks by email at [email protected], or call Dr. Turkstra at 905.525.9140 Extension 28648.

The goal of this research project is to help better understand the experiences that those with brain injury following a motor vehicle collision have with their auto insurance claims.

Data from surveys like is so badly needed to support our advocacy for changes. Please do what you can to support this initiative.

With thanks,

Laurie Davis 

Executive Director, ORA

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