In March, before most people
could get the vaccine,
COVID-19 got Danny Quintero at work.
He was rushed to the hospital,
struggling to breathe.
Every day, despite
all the different treatments
they're doing, he wasn't
getting any better. Danny
is a salesman at an RV
dealership in Pierce County.
A coworker got sick on a trip and
unknowingly brought COVID into the
office and to nearly the entire sales
team at just 31 and in good health,
the Federal Way husband and father
of two nearly died from the disease.
It felt like. You know this
is what you've been seeing on
the news for the past year,
and that alone is terrifying.
The thought of losing
your life to COVID Danny
made it through and came home
to recuperate where his company
sent him an urgent email.
His illness qualified as a workers
compensation claim and needed to be
reported a month into the process.
The Quinteros say they
started getting the runaround.
Every person has passed it off
to someone else that hasn't been
able to give us any information.
Elinor, records of their contacts,
show one delay after another.
Their claim is still undetermined.
It needs further review.
A claim specialist needs to
defer to a different supervisor.
Still no update review date
for management is unknown.
The claim is sitting to
be reviewed. It just makes you think
there's a stack somewhere that no
one is even paying attention to.
Not knowing how truly deeply
it's affecting people's lives.
Here's the effect.
The stress of loads of bills
coming in the door with medical
providers wanting to get paid
one way or the other with an L,
and I claim your regular
insurance doesn't kick in.
Expenses include $18,000 for an ER visit
in Federal Way that lasted five hours,
nearly $4000 for an ambulance
transport to Saint Joe's in Tacoma,
$330 a day there for oxygen,
more than five grand a day for the room,
and a vial of special medication.
For severe COVID pneumonia cost
nearly $30,000 and the clock's
ticking with creditors getting antsy.
This amount is past due action is required.
Final reminder.
Your balance is seriously past
due and if you don't pay your
headed to a collection agency,
it was hard enough emotionally getting
through this as a family and to still
feel like you're going through it
every day is just being powerless.
What would you say about that experience
that they say they had so my first?
Responses I am truly sorry, Sherry
ward is chief of claims for the
Department of Labor and Industries.
That's extremely stressful,
causing anxiety I'm sure, and so
that delay is not acceptable at all.
This is astounding. We
were at the Quinteros home when Danny
saw the itemized hospital bills for
the first time. The total more than
$156,000. I don't want to say
wow and without an approved L and
I claim the Quinteros would be
on the hook, it's pretty.
Terrifying. I can't sustain that.
We can't sustain that. It would ruin us
according to the state,
since COVID began 9200.
Workers comp claims have been filed
with Illinois for denied claims.
The average decision takes 96 days.
The average time for an approved
claim is 9 days, just nine days.
How long has it been
since you filed the claim?
Just over six months.
After half a year of phone calls,
phone tag emails and voicemails with
the state and regular calls from
creditors last week, the Quintero's
got a sudden notice. Our claim
was approved and the world was lifted
off of our shoulders.
The state approved the claim
after the King five investigators
called Ellen I about the case
and it was less than two days
after you made that first call that
got us that approval faster than
we could have even imagined. It
might make some people say,
hey, they called the media.
Their claim got quickly approved.
You know what does that
say about the process?
I mean, is that fair?
The inquiry from the media did not
cause us to make the decision to allow
the the particular claim in question.
It did bring to light,
however, that we had some.
Problems with our processors.
Sherry Ward says because of this case,
Illinois has changed public policy,
dedicating a team to focus full
time on COVID related cases that
are lingering without a decision
so that no one else to ever
experience is this delay and the
unfortunate circumstances that Mr.
Quintero did was liberating.
We got the approval for our claim and
I only hope that starting immediately,
everybody else starts to get approval.