207c

Nassau County Comptroller Howard S. Weitzman today released an audit of the Nassau County Police Department’s 207-c (Line of Duty or LOD) leave system which found slack procedures that allowed 27 requests for LOD sick leave (out of a sample of 108) to be granted, despite the fact that a Police Department doctor had denied the LOD classification. LOD leave covers full salary and benefits for any County police officer or advanced medical technician (AMT) injured in the line of duty while they recover. Officers on LOD leave do not draw down on their sick day entitlements and continue to accrue sick, vacation and personal days. LOD wages are not subject to social security tax (FICA). The Comptroller’s audit covered the time period January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2007.

"The LOD system provides critical benefits for those officers who are injured in the line of duty, but the benefits should only go to those who qualify. In the past, sloppy procedures and a lack of checks and balances in this system have cost the County money,” said Weitzman.

However, Comptroller Weitzman pointed out that following the field work done by auditors, Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey and his staff instituted more aggressive case management and significantly improved the monitoring of LOD leave.

The cost to the County for the 27 unauthorized cases found in the audit, which covered approximately 89 leave days in total, was estimated at $84,346.

For the year 2007, the County paid out approximately $6.8 million for 7,124 Police Department LOD leave days. The total includes salary and estimated overtime costs. The County paid approximately $3 million for Police Department LOD and workers’ compensation medical costs in 2007. According to the Police Department, following the improved monitoring of the LOD system beginning in March 2008, the incidence of 207-c days was reduced by 35%, as compared with the previous year.

When an employee is granted LOD leave, he or she is subject to home visits by the Police Department’s Medical Administration Office. When auditors looked at six members out on LOD, they found that the members received only four home visits during the audit period, even though collectively, these members were out for a total of 88 months: of the four visits, two were made to the same member and three of the six had no home visits at all during the period.

In 2004, out of the 285 members on LOD leave, less than half received home visits. In 2006, with 288 members on LOD leave, there were only 34 home visits to 32 members.

Following the audit’s finding, the Police Department tightened the procedures for LOD home visits.

The audit also noted that documentation of injuries, hospital records and medical test results were missing from files and that the Chief Surgeon’s Office (CSO) relied on undocumented statements from the member alone to determine the extent of the injury or illness.

Auditors found that of 121 documented visits to the CSO, the required “Police Department Pain Picture” form was not completed at 64 of those visits. Pain Picture Forms attest to the severity and location of a member’s pain and provide one basis for the examining surgeon to evaluate the member’s condition, fitness for duty and injury status. In addition, the precinct is required to obtain a hospital report if a member is transported to a hospital, but when auditors looked at six injury packages, they found hospital records missing from all four instances in which members were taken to the hospital.

"It is difficult, if not impossible, to get a true picture of a member’s fitness for duty or eligibility for Line of Duty leave when there is routine failure to obtain authorized medical test results, hospital records and other pertinent required forms,” said Weitzman. Since the audit, the Department has revamped its procedures and files are jointly monitored by all affected sections of the Police Department to ensure that cases are properly documented and that officers receive necessary medical care more efficiently.

The auditors also recommended changes in the Department’s procedures for moving officers from LOD to disability retirement status. Once the member is retired, they leave the County payroll and receive a pension. At the time of the audit, the Department first submitted an application first for a more lucrative disability pension and only filed for the other type of disability pension after the first application was denied. The approval process could take up to two years.

Since that time, the Department has since significantly revamped its pension application procedures and applies for both types of disability pensions when appropriate. Since these changes were instituted, the approval time has been cut to less than a year.

Other improvements in the LOD procedures since the time of the audit include: the hiring of additional part time orthopedic surgeons to improve care and reduce LOD sick time; prescribing diagnostic testing, such as MRI’s to identify and treat injuries earlier, thus resulting in earlier recoveries; and having a representative for the third-party administrator of the County’s workers’ compensation benefits on hand one day a week in the MAO to expedite the care of members and consult on workers’ compensation and 207-c issues.

Weitzman’s audit of Police Department ‘line of duty’ leave finds

27 officers received unauthorized benefits, costing County thousands