As corporations grow, it becomes more and more within the corporation’s interest to uphold this wealth and capital at all costs, and not let the little things — like the physical and financial well being of their workers — get in the way.  So, not unsurprisingly, when a worker gets injured on the job, the corporation will take as many steps as possible to ensure its bottom line stays nice and pretty.

One way that directly hurts the worker and benefits only the employer is through the vast usage of an Independent Medical Examiner, whose sole job in the world is to act in the interest of the company or insurance agency to “evaluate” the victims — often belittling their clamorous experiences and injuries in efforts to safeguard against the company dishing out too much money on its employee.

There’s nothing “independent” about these examiners, who companies hire and pay to carry out somehow unbiased medical opinions, which the examiners then report back to their bosses on the true damages incurred by the employee. It’s the reality of this deeply engrained patron-and-client relationship that is so detestable and corrupt. By acting in the best interests of the company, IMEs get a hefty paycheck in return, effectively throwing the injured worker under the bus.

https://badgerherald.com/news/2018/01/30/visiting-doctor-disabilities-advocate-discusses-hardships-as-an-african-american-male-in-the-medical-field/

The only reason the public warrants IMEs or why they even exist is due to Wisconsin’s leniency toward who can evaluate a patient. The legislation stands that a company or insurance agency can handpick their own medical examiner — who don’t need to be licensed by the state — to come to Wisconsin and carry out their examination.

Companies often pay these IMEs extremely well to fly in and meet with the injured worker for a few minutes, write up their hot take on why the worker shouldn’t receive more than is necessary and, often, declare that certain injuries are preexisting or not related to the incident. It’s the little things that sway a judge’s rulings: Show a little emotion in your examination? Well, it could be held that you’re exaggerating your complaints.

Even in theory, it’s hard to understand why this law even exists. In a perfect world, it is valid for a company’s own IME to examine their employee since they want their own people doing the examination, but that in-and-of-itself is so transparently flawed. First and foremost, by having an examiner remunerated by the employer or insurance company, the examiner will naturally and inherently act in the best interests of the employer. They have no reason to act objectively. It is in their monetary incentive to help discredit the injured worker and minimalize injuries for corporations to maximize their bottom lines.

https://badgerherald.com/news/2017/09/28/uw-professor-aims-to-help-caregivers-communicate-with-doctors/

Take Richard Decker of Cedar Grove, for example: After an arduous back and forth endeavor of legal escapades, a judge decided to rule on the side of the IME and his employer instead of his own personal physician. In the ruling, the judge deemed Decker’s injuries healed, even though he must take daily doses of morphine and has obtained cognitive and physical ailments from the workplace injury.

It’s blatantly obvious the considerations nor the injuries of the actual worker matter anywhere in this equation, and why would they? If the IME didn’t side with the company, they would be out of a job. This exploitation of the worker, carried out by the employer through the proxy of an IME, is inherently and unequivocally a conflict of interest. But there is such a remarkably easy solution: Mandate that the IME needs to be state-sanctioned or a state employee.

By disregarding the interests of the company, medical examinations suddenly become far more balanced. If there’s an injury, and the company wants an independent evaluator, then the evaluator should be just that: independent. There’s absolutely no reason for an IME to be in the pockets of corporations. It’s detrimental to the injured worker and prosperous for companies zealous for profit, which effectively debases the purpose of the IME in the first place.

Adam Ramer ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history and politics.