[Maria]

I had placed a call to the Risk Manager as I didn't want to sign anything w/o knowing what I was signing.

First question was do I want to do a compromise and release? I said I didn't know what that is and she stated it's where I get to manage my own health care dollars. I then asked if that meant lump sum settlement. She hemmed and hawwed a bit and replied to the effect in a round about way it is.

I then asked about the medicare set aside fund and she said it's $ goes into a medicare account if I'm eligible so I would have to sign the paperwork so she could start the process to find out if I'm eligible for this and how much I could get.

Before this I had stated that I still wanted surgery and she had asked when so I didn't want to make it sound too far into the future so I said 2 months and some other things that she was typing into a report.

Back to Medicare Set aside fund I told her I had looked at a website for a company that does this and they have detailed the steps needed to take but it was mentioned that the person should be MMI and then I said that I didn't think it could be determined that I was MMI if I hadn't had surgery yet that was recommended and authorized by the surgeron and WCAB of CA had approved this. I said that I thought MMI would be determined after surgery and probably that then is when it would determined if I were to do a medicare set aside fund ... (I had replied I have had SSDI and Medicare since year 2000 and not worked since then and she sounded taken aback like I'm the world's biggest slacker)...

She sighed and agreed. Then I asked what happens if I don't sign this paper and had stated I wanted to keep my benefits structured the way they are now..

She replied that I just need to write on the paper that I don't want to do either of these options at this time and send the form back so I then asked again if things would remain the way they are and she said yes.

I'd like to speak to a WC attorney before I return anything because I just to be sure what I'm doing.

But see how WC works? They send a form and if one doesn't ask questions and just returns the form ~ they gotcha!

Knowing the insurance carrier I'm sure there is another card up their sleeve like sending me to a QME or just trying to cut me off with nada..

I will try cold calls to some attorneys to see what information I can glean and I hope that someone will actually talk to me even if I have to pay a blob of $ for 10 minutes..