Company was sold, Now what?

[mytruck]

In California

I was injured 12/08 and the company I worked for was bought 2/09. I received a letter from the buying company at the end of 2008 stating that *** Insurance was going to be handling my worker's comp claim. Once the company was bought, another insurance company different from the one I was told that would be handling it was sending the TD checks and approving the medical treatments. This has been for a year and a half now.
The checks stopped coming at the beginning of May for no reason given. After a month and a half, I got the eqivelant of 3 TD checks plus a 10% penelty for them being late. The next day, my attorney got a letter stating that I was hurt before the sale of the company and that the buyers of the company now hold no responsibility to the worker's comp claim and stopped all payments, treatments, procedures and doctor's appointment.
I cannot get an explanation, after a year and a half into this process, how they can do this. My attorney has stated that this is going to take 3-4 months to get straightned out, that they are just trying to use a loophole.
Can anyone please explain what just happened and what I may be now expecting from this ongoing nightmare?

[1171]

was the original company self-insured or did they have a policy?
if they had a carrier the original carrier retains liability.
if they were self-insured then they have to provide a means of paying claims after the sale. self-insurance regulations can be complex and i expect that was the case.

[mytruck]

Thank you for the reply. Maybe you can help me with this line of reasoning and a suggestion what I can do.

The original company had **** Insurance. I was contacted by them from the start. Once decisions had to be made and TD payments started, it was from **** Insurance, this is the workers comp insurance from the new owners. These new owners are the one's who sent me a letter stating **** would be handling the workers comp. When things came from **** , I asked why and was told that it was switched to them. This has remained the same for a year and a half.

If **** is responsible, why did **** do everything all this time?

If **** is now saying they are not responsible, why pay the 3
missing checks plus the penalty and then drop it instead of saving the money and dropping it a month and a half ago?

Lastly, if **** is saying they are not responsible, **** was the insurance of the company before the company was sold per the letter I recieved and initial phone calls from them.

Seems simple: **** does it from the pre sale or **** does it from post sale. This is their problem to figure out; their mistake if they chose the wrong company to handle this. They can go to court and work this out between them. Why do they legally get to punish me for it, stopping the WC benefits I am entitled to and have been receiving?

[admin]

The two companies you mention are the same company. The second is simply the operating division of the first. They made that name change a year or two back, about the time you are describing the sale.

We did edit the names out, since it is our policy to not name entities here.

[mytruck]

Sorry about that. I guess I should have used Insurance Company A and Insurance Company B.

Based, then, on your last post (admin), I am totally confused what the insurance company is doing as if they are the same company?

Does this make sense to anyone?

[bodybuilder1958]

When a company is sold they take on all liability that includes work comp claims. It may not be the same insurance company. With my former employer it's 3 that my lawyer deals with then the lawyer from the employer. Keeping up with such causes many, many headaches.

BB

[1171]

baloney.
a work comp policy is not transferable.
it sounds like there was a problem with ownership identity.
they may have mistakenly believed there was not a significant enough change in ownership to qualify as a new entity for comp purposes.
later on it was clarified that there was enough of a change in ownership and it reverted back to the original carrier.

just to clarify: it was the employer that changed hands not the carrier?

[mytruck]

Yes, just ownership of the company.

[1171]

mytruck Wrote:Yes, just ownership of the company.

yes, ownership rules can be very technical and occasionally there are mistakes.
the new carrier will request reimbursement from the prior carrier for its costs.
the original carrier will have create it's own file an review the facts before it decides how to handle the case.
the ownership could still be clouded and the employers & carriers may have to go to court to get a decision as to which entity is responsible for your claim.
hopefully one will continue providing benefits until its resolved.

[mytruck]

So seeing that this issue is between the prior owner and new owner of the company, I have done nothing to merit not receiving the treatments, pain meds and TD payments I am to get under workers comp. What rights then do I have as the injured worker so I can continue to receive what I had been getting? It cannot be lawful to just drop the injured worker from care because they just decided to do so after a year and a half. What rights do I have regarding this?