Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been an NJEA member 1986-present, and a teacher for 25 years.
I lost my job at CCTS in Camden County due to layoff this past May. I was diagnosed with celiac disease with IBS in 1996, and my condition has greatly deteriorated. This, compounded with related ailments emerging one by one through the years (diabetes, diverticulitis, thyroiditis with tumors in my nodules) and two serious work related injuries/ illnesses that befell me in 2005 and 2008, I CONTINUED TO WORK. The illnesses occurring in the workplace are PTSD, anxiety/panic disorder (from being assaulted on the job by students twice in one year), and occupational asthma (from having a desk placed over an unmaintained chemical pit/cesspool).
With the myriad of health problems I have, and the reality that a 50-something teacher, top of the pay scale, would be unemployable, I decided to retire on TPAF disability. I submitted my retirement in May, the day I was diagnosed with an ulcer with a laparoscopy. No-one at TPAF even bothered to send an acknowledgement, so I assumed my documents were in order, since I followed their instructions on the website for TPAF.
In July I was sent to an IME psychologist, but NOT to a gastroenterologist, which is the MAJOR part of my often crippling disability. The psychologist barely spoke English, and it took him six weeks to turn out a report.
The only communication I got from TPAF was when Senator Van Drew's offices finally got involved, and only then I got an email telling me the hearing was Oct 8. Before Sen. Van Drew got involved, the numbers on the TPAF website were either not answered, or automated machines came on saying “we can’t take your call. Call back later.”
I learned from Board Secretary Mary Ellen Rathbun that my disability was not approved. I was told to resubmit all of my doctor’s notes, and in detail, since the forms from the TPAF website did not have enough detail, “could not be read” and “incomplete”. She was the only person at TPAF that showed any compassion or kindness.
The 3 doctors were happy to re-write the letters, and my attorney for my 2005 and 2008 Workers Comp case gave me medical letters describing the disabilities caused by my job. The 2008 case is still in the courts, awaiting settlement. Who knows how long that process will take.
Ms Rathbun resubmitted my claim on October 21, and told me on October 29 that I will be sent to a gastro by the Pension Board. This means my claim was still open, and my benefits should have still been intact.
On October 16, I got a letter from SHBP dated October 8, mailed October 15, telling me my benefits were terminated November 1st. To keep the benefits, I MUST give them $3500 by November 1st, and $1800/mo until the mess they created is rectified. Using their own meeting calendar, the TPAF's next two meetings are December 2 and Jan. 6. It took their doctor six weeks to write the first letter and send it to the Board. Another doctor will examine me, send my report to doctor 1, and if the Lord is willing we might make the January meeting. This means I must come up with $10000 to stay insured, IF this moved quickly.
My benefits remain cut off, despite appeals to Mr. Pointer, Florence Sheppard, Jeanne Williamson, Governor Christie’s office, the NJEA, and many other government agencies recommended by Sen. Van Drew and his assistant, Danielle.
The NJEA gave me an attorney, Jason Sokolowski, to file an appeal if this resubmission is denied. Mr Sobolowski also contacted Mr Pointer, in addition to my two faxes. This man refuses to budge.
The TPAF people are the main cause of this mess, esp. their adamant refusal to assist the people who own accounts in their fund. What would it have taken to pick up the phone, and ask someone to resubmit forms? Why wouldn’t these people return calls when messages are left? One woman in particular, named Rhoda, never answers her phone, never returns calls- I lost track at 6 times I called and she blew me off. Are these people dead, or playing with computers? When I asked Ms Rathbun, she said, “some people don’t like talking to people, some are overwhelmed”.
I also spoke with Mr Pointer’s assistant, who has done everything but lock the man in the office and make him read the emails. She told me, “You are by no means alone. Many others are in your shoes.”
I am wondering if the State Health Benefits and TPAF are in collusion to keep disabled people from getting the benefits they need and have earned. He finally returned the many faxes with a letter. I responded with an appeal to his common sense and decency, and he got attitude on me.
I am just squeaking by with what my husband makes. My 2 sons are in college, and I am saddled with a ton of bills from my 2008 disability which has left me with less than 70% lung capacity.
I had a horrendous experience at the TPAF ordered gastroenterology medical examination that took place on 3 December 2010, at the office of Dr Goebel Marin, Trenton, NJ. This man is clearly a fraud, in cahoots to prevent me from getting my pension.
I have been suffering with severe gastric symptoms nonstop since November, unable to have them addressed since my medical insurance was cut off when my disability pension hearing took place without the proper documentation in place and my pension was denied. This could have been avoided if someone had answered my countless phone inquiries, and/or checked the paperwork I submitted via fax back on May 18. When told on October 8th that the Pension Board “did not like” and “could not read” my paperwork, it took me a week to gather up and resubmit a 60+page pile of documents, and have the matter put up for “review”. Nonetheless, Mr. Pointer ruthlessly had my benefits terminated November 1, insisting I was “denied” my disability, even though the Board re-accepted my revised application on October 21 via Mary Ellen Rathbun.
I am unable to take all of my prescribed medications because many of the generics cost as much as the “real” versions, and I have had to make an OTC substitution since I cannot afford $300 for a prescription version of Prevacid (OTC price $26 for 42 pills. The Effexor 75mg ER generic was $125, with a discount card, for a 30-day supply. It was a hardship, but I had no choice there. My GP, Dr Kane, gave me a 3-month supply of Januvia, since even with SHBP it costs $88. I went cold-turkey off of my Premarin, which was supposed to be a gradual withdrawal since I have been taking. 625 dosage for nearly 12 years, and my GYN wanted me to slowly taper down so I would be off of them by spring with no ill effects. The high cost of the refill of this non-generic was the reason I helped this process along in a manner different from my Doctor’s wishes.
I can’t go to my gastro since I cannot afford a $175 doctor visit, which would be immediately payable without any insurance. Only one of my doctors has agreed to treat me and defer the billing until my insurance gets reinstated retroactive to November 1st.
My husband took a personal day to drive me to Trenton, a minimum 90 minute ride from my home, without traffic. We arrived ½ hr early. Dr Marin came out several minutes later, and escorted me to his office. He pointed to his name on the office door, saying, “This is me”, then gestured for me to come in.
Marin continued to say that he was reviewing my illness for my disability pension, and would not make any comments or suggestions about treatments for me. He proceeded to ask me a series of questions, cutting me off every time I tried to answer them.
The phone rang several times during this interview, and I estimate Marin spent the entire office visit on the phone. Discussions were held with nurses, irate patients whom he curtly told to “go to the ER”, and hung up on. The longest of the calls was with another doctor, in which he got into a semi-coherent argument regarding whether the patient they were treating “had it” or “didn’t have it”, and he loudly insisted how the patient “didn’t have it when I examined him, and I AM RIGHT!” This debate continued for several minutes, while I sat there.
Of course, each time he got off the phone he forgot where he was, and I really don’t think he gave me a chance to express how my combination of disorders are influencing the bigger picture of my life in total- as a teacher forced to retire, marginally functional as a parent, wife and a person. He kept pontificating about how “there are no disabled people”!
After the last call, he told me he was going to examine me. I was led to a room, handed a robe and told to undress except for my underwear. I was in three layers of clothing, and I was freezing. I doubt that his examining rooms had heat. I kept on my underwear and my Nikes, and was examined with a nurse present. He took my blood pressure, listened to my lungs, then started pressing on my thorax-abdomen area, pressing so hard on my right side a hand’s distance above my navel that I had to hold my breath and squeeze my mouth shut with my hand to keep from vomiting on him. I let him know I was in pain, and then he pressed on my back, in the kidney region. As I rose, I was dizzy, and began passing gas. I barely made it to the changing room when I had an explosive bout of diarrhea, which luckily did not get on my clothing that I had to wear on my ride home.
I advised Marin of this occurrence when I returned to his office. Showing no concern or offering no apology, he said the visit was concluded. I respectfully requested that he expedite the report so that Ms Rathbun could have my case on the January agenda, he said, “I’ll see.”
Then, he stopped and looked at me. “If I could give you a pill that would make all of your symptoms go away, would you go back to work?”
So, what happened to his not making comments on my illness and treatments?
I looked him square in the eye. “There are no jobs where I live in Southern NJ. If I was 100% healthy, and had a job, I would be working. But I am neither.”
I have a BA, MA+, have been teaching 25 years in total, and wish I could have kept my job at CCTS. Unfortunately CCTS prefers young, entry-level teachers to middle-aged disabled teachers that they would have to make many ADA accommodations for in scheduling, providing bathroom breaks and room assignments. I have learned that if you teach, the ADA accommodations are for students, not for teachers. Even with many doctors’ notes, these accommodation requests are frequently ignored, and administrators look to get rid of the teacher instead of assist them in keeping employed.
I was ill- nauseous, cramps and gassy- all the way home, and have been ill with these symptoms and diarrhea ever since.
I immediately contacted TPAF. I faxed a letter to the Disability Director of TPAF on Monday Dec.6 detailing what happened. No action was taken against him.
I received a call this afternoon from a woman stating she was from United Review (732-653-7411). She was very concerned about what had happened, and insisted that she has sent people to this doctor before, and no-one has ever complained. I explained that my concern was due to the fact that he was too distracted with his phone calls to conduct a proper interview, and to listen to me when I told him I had active IBS symptoms- and he insisted on pressing on my sore spot as hard as he could anyway.
Whoever is paying the bill for his services should be concerned over the fact that he is being paid to provide a service that directly affects someone’s future, and instead he is concerning himself about other patient's matters on the State’s dime. I know IME charge about $400 on average, and the only persons that he had any vocal interaction with during this time were those on the phone.
I have reported this doctor who has colluded with TPAF with NJ medical licensing board, NJ comptroller, and to United Review’s CEO. Letters have also been sent to several media sources, and my attorney. I have found that the IME who sabotaged my pension determination has had his practicing privileges revoked at the hospital next to his offices for a year now.
I am respectfully requesting that an inquiry be made into this matter, and that it is rectified expeditiously so I do not have to live without the pension income or medical care I am entitled to any longer. I have been waiting since July 1st for my pension, and have been without benefits since November 1st. PLEASE see what you can do about correcting this matter as soon as possible, and not further penalizing me for the incompetence, laziness and omissions of the countless parties who have dragged their feet in the eight months before Marin came into the picture.
On January 6, I learned my pension was denied and put up for immediate appeal by my lawyer, all because of this report from Marin, who was paid for a job he DID NOT DO; and despite the complaints made about the legitimacy of his report and his lack of ethics and professionalism, his report was regarded as “expert”, and the detailed work of my doctors, hundreds of pages of records and reports, were cast aside. The letter I received today stated that TPAF denied my pension because I “lost (my) employment due to a nonrenewal of (my) teaching contract, and then retired due to an “alleged” disability”. Hundreds of pages of documents, letters and forms from a dozen doctors, and this is the best they can come up with to keep me from collecting the pension I am entitled to? They ARE “granting me a hearing in the Office of Administrative Law”, and “allowing me to sign up for my Deferred Retirement at 60.” With the number of letters from doctors documenting TWO MAJOR WORK RELATED DISABILITIES over the past 5 years, I should be asking for a work-related disability, which would be 70% of the salary earned 2007-08. They are getting off cheap giving me regular disability, and TPAF is too stupid to see this.
If my pension is NOT granted after all available court appeals are exhausted, I WILL NOT leave my pension with TPAF. It is very obvious that they have fiscal problems after their run-in with the SEC, and are doing all they can to keep everyone from their money. If everyone denied their disability pensions for no legitimate reason took their pension account from TPAF, the fund would collapse in a matter of weeks.
In closing, I have a question. What would I have done if I had become seriously ill from Marin’s mauling examination, and needed to go to the hospital? WHO would have been paying that bill?
Now I have to wait, and count on my attorney to get justice done. The wait could be as much as a year.
Advice for anyone intending to retire from TPAF on a disability:
• If you intend to deal with TPAF, send everything CERTIFIED MAIL. Save every document!
• If you get no answers, CONTACT YOUR SENATOR.
• Check out your IME before you go to him/her; if the person is questionable, ASK FOR ANOTHER ONE. Call the phone number on the letterhead advising you of your mandatory appointment, and do it in advance of the date so it can be rescheduled.
• DO NOT USE THE FORMS TPAF has on their website for doctors; ask your doctor to WRITE A NARRATIVE, in detail. Call, every week. Make a pest of yourself.
• The Director of Disability is Valerie McManus, PO Box 295, Trenton, NJ 609-984-3036. Fax 609-292-4212. Don’t call the numbers on the TPAF website. They are “too busy” to answer.
• Don’t send them emails on their TPAF website. It will take up to 3 weeks to get an answer.
• Keep a log of everyone you talk to, and write down ALL telephone numbers for future reference.
• Contact the Field Office of NJEA and ask for legal assistance. You are ENTITLED to it.
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