Call for answers in LIRR disability inquest

U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer and Edward Kennedy and Congressmember Tim Bishop understand the rigors of railroad work and the injuries and disabilities that often result from it.
But, as members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the legislators are concerned that certain retirees of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) are taking unfair advantage of the federal railroad disability system. They are calling on the U.S. Rail Road Retirement Board (RRB) for answers sooner, rather than later.
According to recent published reports, some of the LIRR retirees receiving disability assistance may not have been disabled prior to filing their claims. A New York Times analysis revealed that, during a recent year, as many as 97 percent of career LIRR employees received disability benefits soon after retirement. From that statistic, the Times deduced that a job with the LIRR is one of the most dangerous in the country. Yet, the newspaper learned that in four of the past five years, the LIRR won national awards for improving worker safety.
Since 2000, the Times’ research showed, former LIRR employees have received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in federal disability payments.
In a letter to RRB Inspector General Martin J. Dickman, the legislators referred to the “alarming evidence” of fraud that could “undermine a disability system that exists to safeguard railroad workers and their families in the event of an injury.”
They asked Dickman to expedite his ongoing review process and include in his investigation a comparison of Railroad Retirement Board application rates and disability benefits for the LIRR - which many experts, quoted in news reports, considered abnormally high - versus other railroads across the country; to assess the role that mediators or doctors may have played in assisting LIRR retirees with their applications; and to examine the likelihood that a select group of doctors were repeatedly used by former railroad employees seeking benefits.
The legislators requested investigation updates from Dickman and access to information on the cases of alleged fraud as it becomes available.
A source within the RRB said, “We’ll certainly do everything we can to provide them [legislators] with information as expeditiously as we can,” noting that the results of Dickman’s report may require legislative action.
While the disability fraud appears to have been widespread in the LIRR, the source said railroad retiree misconduct is by no means limited to the LIRR. In the RRB’s semiannual reports “you’ll consistently find reports of cases that we have investigated and have been prosecuted by U.S. Attorney’s offices,” the source said.