ABC World News Mentions "Chronic Fatigue"

[frenchtulip]

ABC World News did a piece tonight on insurance fraud. In the piece, Jim Avila mentioned that there are 8.6 million Americans on disability and that there has been a 17-fold increase in the last four decades. He gave as one reason for the increase the fact that conditions like "persistent anxiety" and "chronic fatigue" are now being accepted by the government. It was not clear whether he meant "chronic fatigue" or "chronic fatigue syndrome." http://abcnews.go.com/Business/los-...on-mma-fighter/story?id=16194139#.T5X199kZvZc Several persons have left comments about what appeared to trivialize "chronic fatigue."

 

[SickOfSickness]

Really negative publicity for us. Implies that people are faking excessive anxiety or fatigue to get disability or defraud an insurance company.

 

[IreneF]

ABC World News did a piece tonight on insurance fraud. In the piece, Jim Avila mentioned that there are 8.6 million Americans on disability and that there has been a 17-fold increase in the last four decades. He gave as one reason for the increase the fact that conditions like "persistent anxiety" and "chronic fatigue" are now being accepted by the government. It was not clear whether he meant "chronic fatigue" or "chronic fatigue syndrome." http://abcnews.go.com/Business/los-...on-mma-fighter/story?id=16194139#.T5X199kZvZc Several persons have left comments about what appeared to trivialize "chronic fatigue."

I didn't see anything about chronic fatigue in that story. It was about a firefighter who was defrauding worker's comp.

Did the reporter give any source for his assertions?

 

[taniaaust1]

ABC World News did a piece tonight on insurance fraud. In the piece, Jim Avila mentioned that there are 8.6 million Americans on disability and that there has been a 17-fold increase in the last four decades. He gave as one reason for the increase the fact that conditions like "persistent anxiety" and "chronic fatigue" are now being accepted by the government. It was not clear whether he meant "chronic fatigue" or "chronic fatigue syndrome." http://abcnews.go.com/Business/los-...on-mma-fighter/story?id=16194139#.T5X199kZvZc Several persons have left comments about what appeared to trivialize "chronic fatigue."

Im sure their wouldnt be any payouts unless the situation was very bad for the person..

We all know how hard anything is to get when we need it. I doubt there is much actual successful "fraud" as far as CFS diagnoses go..

I dont think one can get disability for only "fatigue"... so i assume he would of been refering to CFS.

 

[frenchtulip]

Two Parts to Story--Watch Second Part

IreneF, I had a hard time trying to get the right link. There were two parts to the insurance-disability fraud story. The first part was about the LA fire-fighter. The second part had an introduction to insurance fraud by Diane Sawyer. Jim Avila did the story. I wasn't able to find a print version of the second story--the one that mentions "chronic fatigue" in a negative light. You need to watch the video. If you happen to get the first part, it should be followed by the second. The second video is less than 2 minutes.

 

[JayS]

I believe this comment was inspired by this:

"Driving this expansion is government's increasingly malleable definition of what constitutes a "disability." Currently, the SSA deems disabilities to be "total and complete" if applicants demonstrate that their impairments prevent them from earning at least $1,000 a month. But beginning in 1980 presumptions of disability began to be made based on age, education, work history and other mitigating factors. Four years later applicants were permitted to count the sum of multiple "nonsevere" impairments and count this as a "severe" disability.

"As a result, workers who complain of "persistent anxiety" and "chronic fatigue" are now viewed by the government as being disabled."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304299304577346341282507300.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[frenchtulip]

Great find, JayS.

Well, I already sent a message to Jim Avila. You can message him on Facebook, if you are a member.

 

[justinreilly]

This is why we need to stop using "CFS" and replace with ME.

 

[gregf]

This is why we need to stop using "CFS" and replace with ME.

Perfect. Exactly right. Thank you Justin. (Where is the applause smiley?)

CFS is known as a psychiatric illness. So abandon it.

We have a real disease called ME.

Our best weapon is to use that name. I wish the community could work together on this.
Its breaking my heart every time one of us calls it chronic fatigue.
No offence to OP. I realise CFS was in the story headline.

 

[Carrigon]

I HATE the words chronic fatigue and still to this day pretty much refuse to use them. When I was diagnosed it was chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome. And even then, they never should have had the word fatigue in there. I have real chronic immune dysfunction. Fatigue is secondary to my millions of other symptoms and health issues from it.

 

[SickOfSickness]

I don't like the ME name. It is much better than CFS but I like NEID (Neuroendocrineimmune Disorder) or Neuroimmune Disease.