Letter to My Senator

ATTN: Greg Stuart

Senator John Kerry

One Bowdoin Square
Tenth Floor
Boston, MA 02114

My very dear Senator Kerry,

Having been injured on duty while serving our nation as an Enumerator for the United States Decennial Census, it has been my hope that I might see fair compensation as by law provided – and that I might rest assured of prompt and due treatment of my several injuries sustained. It has been a disappointment for me to learn the hard way how Census workers injured on the job face mainly delays, lost paperwork, and unmanaged pain.

I was injured on the job at 1 PM on the date of 8 May, the victim of a motor vehicle accident while traveling from home to home in the Town of Agawam, Massachusetts for purposes of interviewing households for the completion of Enumerator Questionnaires. I regret to report that I have yet to see compensation even more, more than one month after my sustaining injuries – and that my course of treatment for various injuries sustained has been interrupted to my physical detriment despite my being in intense, unbearable pain.

I must emphasize that I have found it a privilege and an honor to have worked as an Enumerator for the US Decennial Census. It was a joy for me to have worked alongside my late father when we both served as Enumerators during the year 2000 Decennial Census, and I have also found it a joy – generally speaking – to have worked as an Enumerator during the 2010 Decennial Census. I take great pride in the work that I have done for the US Census, and I do continue to look forward to so working during the 2020 Decennial Census. Despite my very real frustrations with how my very painful injuries have this year been received and dealt with, I do plan to yet again apply for 2020 work.

I am in pain. I have been suffering. My pain at times makes even merely walking a chore, while I have found myself without sleep on several nights due to the pain I find myself in. Pain in my knees has not yet to date been treated, even one month after this incident, and pain in my back and neck persists and is getting worse since my physical therapy was interrupted due to how my physical therapists have yet to see one cent in payment.

I do believe that I have taken every step and measure necessary to secure my continued treatment. I have certainly taken every step and measure that has been asked of me. My continued treatment, however, has not yet to date been authorized. I have yet to be compensated for lost wages due to these injuries. I have yet to see compensation for my various out of pocket expenses for prescription medications and travel; and my various medical providers all have yet to see payment for the care they so far have provided me.

Let me start at the beginning:

I received training as an Enumerator for the US Census during the last week in April of this year. Soon after was I set into the field work for my district office as an Enumerator within my hometown of Agawam. At 1 PM on the date of 8 May, while traveling from one home towards another for purposes of my work as an Enumerator, my motor vehicle was struck in the driver side door by one other vehicle traveling in violation of the rules of the road. Insurance information was exchanged after both vehicles were stopped, and I then contacted the Town of Agawam police as my vehicle sustained damage ample enough for police notification to have been required by law. The police allowed me to travel home, and I did this after telephoning my Crew Leader and insurance agency.

The pain arrived hours later, sustained and intense enough to prompt me to seek immediate treatment at the Baystate Hospital Emergency Room. I telephoned my Crew Leader to notify him of the situation. I was released that night, and prescriptions for needed medications were filled at Agawam’s CVS Pharmacy the next day. The PA, [name excerpted], authorized my leave from work for a period of three days and advised me to follow up with my primary care physician. Follow up I did, on the date of 11 May.

During those three days following my motor vehicle accident, I completed a form the police provided me – the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Operator Crash Report – and I provided my Crew Leader with all forms as my Census Enumerator Handbook urged I do within such a circumstance. The Boston Regional Census Center shortly forwarded more forms for me to complete, and I returned said forms while providing others as requested to those medical providers who cared for my injuries.

My physician authorized my continued leave from work up until the date of 17 May, while also prescribing a course of physical therapy for me. The date of my first initial observation at the physical therapist’s workplace, other pain beyond the headache, neck and back pain first experienced became manifest. I once again scheduled an appointment with my physician to help ensure that this other pain – most excruciating pain in my knees – would also see treatment. My physician did modify the physical therapy prescription to see to this, and I provided him with another form as I was requested.

Throughout all of this time, I quite conscientiously completed all forms as were requested of me. Just so, did I document and provide all receipts for prescriptions filled and medical travel. I was not even assigned a workers compensation claim number, however, until Friday of the first week in June. Approval for my course of physical therapy has not yet been authorized, even after all this time, and so my treatment has now been discontinued.

I have found myself providing the Boston Regional Census Center, the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers Comp Programs, and CCSI, LP – the entity responsible for case management and review of Census Worker claims – all information, forms and documentation that I find difficult to believe each could not share with each other.

Now, a claims representative of the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers Comp Programs appears to be questioning if I was indeed actually working for the Census at the time of my motor vehicle accident and – more than one month after my first filing my claim for traumatic injury – is only now telling me that documentation received from medical personnel is insufficient to substantiate my claim. I find myself wondering why that information only now being requested of me was not requested over one month ago.

I was injured in an automobile accident through no fault of my own, while on duty conducting my work as an Enumerator for the Decennial Census of the United States of America. My neck, my back and my knees all sustained soft tissue damage resulting in excruciating pain and requiring treatment as by my physician prescribed. Treatment, however, has not yet been authorized. I’m no longer being treated at all. My medical providers have yet to see one cent in payment. I have yet to see compensation for lost wages, for prescription co-payments, or for medical travel; and I remain in pain today.

I know not where to turn, nor what more must by me be done to further facilitate the process of miraculously navigating this astonishingly Byzantine bureaucratic maze. I need relief, and hope and pray that your office can help assist as I’m feeling discouraged.

I need to know what forms and information I must yet complete or provide. I need to know to whom such must be directed. I need to know what information the various parties involved in this case presently have, and what must be sent to where. I need to know why continued treatment cannot proceed while my claim is being mismanaged.

I need to know who has been in communications with my physical therapists and doctors, and who has yet to be provided with information needed regarding them and costs incurred. I need to know why the left hand is not in communication with the right one.

Should you find it in your heart and power to help assist in any possible way, the following information might prove of some assistance to you...

[Personal information excerpted]