Many LIRR retirees' claims cite same illnesses

Alfonso A. Castillo

Sep. 26, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- More than 85 percent of the approximately 1,800 disability claims made by retired Long Island Rail Road employees during the last seven years cited the same two physical ailments -- bone infections and connective tissue diseases -- federal documents obtained by Newsday showed.

Bone and connective tissue disorders account for 29 percent of all disability cases filed through the Social Security Administration during the same period, statistics show.

Northport attorney Edward J. Yule, who often represents LIRR workers in injury cases, noted that "working on a railroad is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world." Railroad workers have physically demanding jobs that often strain bones and joints, and nearly all railroad workers get injured, he said.

But Thomas White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, an industry group representing the nation's major freight train providers and Amtrak, said he "can't think of anything that a railroad worker does that would lead to a disproportionate number like that."

The high number of disabilities coming from the two categories alarmed LIRR President Helena Williams, who said the figures "appear high" and "cause concern" in a letter she wrote last month to the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board.

State and federal investigators this week announced that they had launched probes of the little-known federal agency, which has recently come under fire for granting disability compensation to nearly all career LIRR employees who apply for the benefit after they retire.

Of 1,846 retired LIRR workers who were granted occupational disability compensation from 2001 to 2007, 1,603 claimed to be stricken with "diffuse diseases of connective tissue" or "osteomyelitis, periostitis and other infections involving bone," according to retirement board figures.

About 100 of 272 Metro-North employees who received disability payments for the same bone and connective tissue disorders during the same time.

The remaining 243 LIRR claimants cited 43 other disabilities.

Dr. David Parkinson, the former head of occupational medicine for Stony Brook University Hospital, yesterday called the number of LIRR retirees making claims in the two categories "utter nonsense."

"In my opinion, there must be some collusion going on between the medical practice that's seeing these people and the diagnosis. There's got to be," Parkinson said.

He said the symptoms that come with the disorders -- back and muscle aches -- more frequently can be attributed to far less serious conditions. "There's no way that so many people can be having osteomyelitis."

Yesterday, the retirement board released a statement in defense of its methods, noting that more than 70 percent of all its approved disability claimants "are also found to be totally and permanently disabled using the more stringent requirements of the Social Security Act.

"All board decisions regarding an applicant's eligibility for an occupational disability under current law are based on whether the medical evidence submitted meets the standards adopted by the board," the board said, adding that its standards were created with "the full cooperation of rail management and rail labor."

Hank Sheinkopf, spokesman for the United Transportation Union -- one of the two major unions representing LIRR employees -- responded to the figures yesterday by saying that all disability claims "are examined and their validity determined by an independent federal agency [the retirement board] that has no relationship to the union and to the employer."

Yesterday, LIRR spokesman Joe Calderone noted that "at no time was the LIRR asked by the Railroad Retirement Board to participate in the process of determining whether one of our retired employees deserved a disability pension from the federal government."

This year, an audit of the Railroad Retirement Board by an independent medical committee blasted the board for relying on "insufficient" or "poor" medical information in determining disabilities. Examiners "were making decisions based on the presence of a disease rather than on the functional limitations of that disease," the committee wrote.

Week's events at a glance

SUNDAY, SEPT. 21 Published reports say that nearly all Long Island Rail Road career employees have padded their retirement pensions with disability payments granted by the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, an obscure federal agency.

MONDAY, SEPT. 22 State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, directed by Gov. David A. Paterson, issues subpoenas to the LIRR requesting personnel records to determine which former employees appeared to have fraudulently claimed to be disabled. State parks officials launch a review of the practice of granting Access Passes in response to reports that LIRR retirees who received disability payments were being given free entry to golf courses at state parks.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 23 Federal agents raid the Long Island office of the Railroad Retirement Board in Westbury, seizing documents and computers for a widening investigation into its practices. Since 2000, the board has approved more than $250 million in disability payments to LIRR retirees.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24 Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Eliot Sander calls for a reform of the federal railroad workers' pension system, saying he would seek to have LIRR retirees covered by Social Security instead of the Railroad Retirement Board.

Disease definitions

From 2001 through 2007, nearly 87 percent of LIRR retirees who received payments for an occupational disability claimed to be afflicted with two disease categories

"Diffuse diseases of connective tissue," which include disabilities arising from arthritis, or various conditions involving joint swelling.

"Infections involving bone," which include osteomyelitis, a type of bone or bone marrow infection that affects two out of every 10,000 people, and periostitis, swelling of the periosteum, a membrane of connective tissue around bones.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0134-28344968