Doctor Shopping is alive and well at Comcare

Comcare has been accused in the past of sending claimants to multiple doctors, trying to get an opinion that Comcare prefers, so they can deny liability for an injury. It's a disgusting practice done by disgusting people. I can prove to you that Comcare is doctor shopping on my claim.

For starters, we will look at Comcare's policy regarding scheduling doctors

As you can see above, Comcare's own policy is to use the same IME/LQMP (Independent Medical Examiner/Legally Qualified Medical Practitioner) once Comcare has already sent you to one for the same injury.

Comcare themselves state that one reason for this is to avoid being "perceived as seeking a preferred medical opinion" A.K.A doctor shopping.

Given that it is quite clearly Comcare's policy to use the same doctor for re-assessment, I questioned why the Comcare delegate who uses the alias "Position No. 01 076" (who I suspect is Vesna Vasic (Alizzi)) was sending me to a different doctor? I made the allegation that 01 076 is doctor shopping, and here is what 01 076 had to say in response

The Comcare delegate is claiming that because the last doctor (IME) was done via telehealth, Comcare is in the midst of actioning a post COVID policy (in December 2023...) to switch from telehealth to face-to-face appointments. I do not believe this for a number of reasons, including:

a) My last doctor (IME) evaluation was in January 2023, it was a telehealth appointment, and COVID was well and truly over by that time. I was not sent to a telehealth appointment due to COVID.

b) December 2023 is extremely late to start switching back to face-to-face appointments... this doesn't seem likely.

c) It makes absolutely no difference to Comcare if the appointment is done via telehealth or face-to-face, none whatsoever, they will receive the exact same report either way.

d) Other claimants that I had communication with were not being changed to face-to-face, and they were still being sent to their usual doctor via telehealth appointments, and nobody was aware of any policy to move people back to face-to-face.

e) Generally when I ask a question or make an allegation like this I am ignored. The fact that not only did I receive a response, I received a response the following week, tells me that I struck a nerve with 01 076. They know they are doctor shopping, and they panicked and quickly (by their standards) replied with a lie to try and quash the allegation. Their behaviour alone was a tell.

f) It is cheaper and easier for them to send me to the doctor instead of send the doctor to me. They could have asked me if I was willing to travel to the doctor if they were genuine.

Piecing together all of the above, it was quite obvious to me that the Comcare delegate is lying. The Comcare delegate appeared to have manufactured an excuse to use a different doctor, so they can go shopping for an opinion that they prefer.

I thought to myself, how can I prove (or disprove) this? And the answer was to FOI the policy cited by the Comcare delegate. If what the Comcare delegate is saying is true, and there is a Comcare policy to move claimants back from telehealth appointments to face-to-face appointments, Comcare must have communicated this policy its delegates right?

I submitted my FOI for this information, and it turns out there is no Comcare post COVID policy to utilise IMEs face-to-face, it is entirely evident here that the Comcare delegate is lying because they have been caught out by myself doctor shopping. See for yourself

As you can see in the response to my FOI request, Comcare has stated that there has been no changes to how a doctor (IME) is arranged within Comcare. And that there is not, and never has been, a post COVID policy to arrange IME's face-to-face (does not exist).

I have just proven to you that Comcare delegate 01 076 is doctor shopping, and when questioned about it, they are inventing a Comcare post COVID policy that does not exist, and has never existed, to try and justify their use of a different doctor. It is black and white obvious here that the delegate lied, there is nothing else that could possibly have occurred. Lying is against both the APS Values and the APS Code of Conduct by the way, not that Comcare would care.

This behaviour of lying has become normal behaviour from Comcare delegates in my observation. In fact, in my experience, it seems that Comcare delegates are encouraged/enabled to lie to us claimants to try and find ways with which they can twist the facts to Comcare's advantage. Comcare is allowing Comcare delegates to hide their identity using aliases like position numbers, as they are lying, so that I can't make posts like this that say "person x is lying to me", I have no means to hold this person who is clearly lying to me accountable in the court of public opinion, and I cannot make a complaint to Comcare about the delegate, because Comcare (Catherine Chan, Liz Bell and the Statutory Oversight team) are the ones who I believe are telling Comcare delegates to hide their identity and lie to people, and they also put communication restrictions on me making it impossible for me to complain because they will not read my complaints! So the very team that I am forced to send my complaints to, are just throwing my complaints in the bin because they are the ones who appear to be enabling this behaviour.

The Statutory Oversight team is rotten to the core, it is supposed to make sure that Comcare is following the law and being a good Government department, but all it does in reality, based on my observations, and that of others who have come forward to me about the management of their claim by this team, is train delegates how to lie, conjures up weak excuses for any alleged wrongdoing one may complain about, and champions other areas of Comcare into hiding their identity so they can remain completely unaccountable for their actions. In my honest opinion, Catherine Chan and Liz Bell do not appear to be engaging in their Commonwealth employment in good faith. I see nothing but bad behaviour coming from these two, they don't try to fix any problems or do anything that remedies anything, everything they are doing seems petty/spiteful/vindictive and designed to cause a bigger rift between Comcare and myself, under false pretences that I am a threat to Comcare staff. This behaviour is now spreading through Comcare like a cancer, it gets worse and worse every day, more and more people start hiding their identity and starting to lie or begin to break the law etc. because they feel empowered by their newly issued anonymity. Once they take away their identity, they take away the ability for anyone to hold them accountable, and they know this. Comcare staff now have such guilty consciences, they are unable to staff reception desks at key locations.

Anyway, I have provided proof to you that I have been lied to by Comcare delegate 01 076 (Most likely to be Vesna Vasic (Alizzi)). I already knew this, it was just a matter of proving it, which I have now done.

Why did Comcare delegate position number 01 076 lie to me and pretend that there was a Comcare policy to remove telehealth IME's post COVID? There is no mistaking what has occurred here, the Comcare delegate invented a post COVID policy that has never existed in an attempt to justify their unethical behaviour. What other possible reasons can you think of for this delegate to lie to me like this? The only logical reason is that they were trying to make an excuse to cover for their doctor shopping. This is the only possible reason for this lie.

Doctor shopping is alive and well at Comcare.

I have put in an official complaint with Comcare about this instance of doctor shopping, but I am not expecting a proper reply. My complaints are never taken seriously. These people are corrupt to the core, it is just normal operations for them to be caught out lying, and they just invent some excuse for this, or they just reply with some ludicrous nonsense, or a lot of times they just don't even bother to reply at all. Then they proceed to sweep it under the rug like nothing happened. This is normal everyday Comcare, lies, lies and then more lies, and nobody blinks an eyelid about it, it is completely normal in the Comcare system.

There will be no repercussions for this nameless APS employee who is clearly lying to me in breach of the APS values/code of conduct, there never is. Most likely they will be congratulated, promoted, and told to lie to me even more.

Given that anything to do with my claim must go through the Statutory Oversight team, this means that Catherine Chan and/or Liz Bell saw that I was being emailed this lie, and they approved it, I believe because they have a bias/vendetta against me. It suits them to allow Comcare employees to hide their identity and lie to me. This is just one of many similar inappropriate incidents that have been occurring on my claim since this pair decided to launch their vendetta against me back in July 2023. I don't want anything to do with either of these ladies, or their team, yet I am being forced to submit my complaints via them so they can sweep them under the rug, all because I hurt Catherine Chan's feelings one time back in July 2023 in a moment of frustration, provoked by her inappropriate response to a question I asked.

It's also a massive conflict of interest. If Catherine Chan states that I have hurt her feelings so bad that she needs to stop the entire organisation of Comcare from being able to communicate with me, how then is it appropriate for everything to do with my claim (including my emails) to go through her and her team? This would never happen where I previously worked, this is a conflict of interest (which is also a breach of the APS Code of Conduct). For all I know, maybe 01 076 is not Vesna Vasic (Alizzi), and it is Catherine Chan? There is no accountability within these people, they conceal their identities, lie, break the law, and they are allowed to do so with impunity. It's just plain wrong what is occurring, and it will forever taint the reputation of the Australian Government as more and more people learn about this.

Update

Well, it is now 13/4/24 and I have not received any response at all regarding my complaint of doctor shopping, not even an acknowledgement that they received my complaint, nothing whatsoever. This is quite normal for Comcare, when I ask questions that they do not want to answer they just ignore me completely as if I never asked the question.