McKinley v. Kenai Peninsula Borough & School District, 022521 AKWC, 21-0016
Case Date | February 25, 2021 |
Court | Alaska |
1. A board order that hearing loss and related treatment is compensable regardless of Medicare coverage.
2. Payment of hearing aid and related treatment.
3. Penalty, interest.
4. Attorney fees and costs.(WCC, August 23, 2017.) 5) On July 28, 2020, McKinley I dismissed Employee’s August 23, 2017 WCC, in part, for failure to timely request a hearing under AS 23.30.110(c). McKinley I dismissed the following claims:
1. Payment of hearing aids and related treatment
2. Penalty and interest
3. Attorney fees and costs (McKinley I.)6) McKinley I also denied Employee’s October 3, 2019 SIME petition as moot, as it related to the August 23, 2017 claim, which was dismissed. (Id.) 7) On April 23, 2020, Employee filed a second claim for benefits, requesting the following:
1. For a board order that employee’s hearing loss occurred in the course and scope of her employment
2. Payment of hearing aid related treatment
3. Penalty and interest
4. Attorney fees and costs(WCC, April 23, 2020.) 8) On September 25, 2020, Employee filed an SIME petition. (SIME petition, September 25, 2020.) 9) On October 12, 2020, Employer asserted it was inappropriate to proceed with an SIME as Employee’s claim had been dismissed as time barred in McKinley I and thus the September 25, 2020 claim and petition were barred by res judicata. (Answer, October 12, 2020.) 10) On October 21, 2020, Employer filed a petition to dismiss Employee’s April 23, 2020 claim for workers’ compensation benefits and her September 25, 2020 SIME petition as barred by res judicata. (Employer’s petition, October 21, 2020.) 11) On November 19, 2020, Employee amended her April 23, 2020 claim to be for future medical costs and not past medical costs. (Prehearing conference (PHC) summary, November 19, 2020.) 12) Employee testified she is married and has lived with her husband in Alaska during two time periods, the first in June of 2001 for less than a year and the second being from June 2007 to June 2018. She now lives in Cleveland, Tennessee. (McKinley.) 13) Employee testified she worked for Northwest Airlines from December 1995 to June 2001. While employed there she had yearly hearing tests as part of her job. She recalled those tests showed she had not suffered any hearing loss at that time. (Id.) 14) Employee worked as a substitute teacher in Michigan off and on starting in September 2002 while she earned her education degree, which she did in June 2007. She then moved back to Alaska and applied for teaching jobs, but only substitute teaching jobs were available. Therefore she obtained a position as a 911 dispatcher with the Kenai Peninsula Borough starting in April or May of 2008. (Id.) 15) Employee wore headsets that plugged into the console used to answer the phone, and talk with anyone within the 911 system and also record calls. (Id.) 16) Employee believes she suffered hearing loss as a result of her work as a dispatcher. After about a month working as a dispatcher, she started losing hearing in one of her ears, then in her other ear. She went to several doctors who were unable to determine what the problem was. She had a hearing test at that time and was then referred to a specialist who diagnosed ear infections and attributed the infections to the type of “inside-the-ear” headsets she was using. Her ear infections were treated with antibiotics and cleared up. (Id.) 17) After two years working as a dispatcher, Employee felt she needed a hearing test as she was experiencing tinnitus. She saw Thomas McCarty, Au.D., an audiologist, who diagnosed hearing loss and prescribed hearing aids. Employee did purchase and start wearing hearing aids shortly after they were prescribed. (Id.) 18) Employee’s hearing aids were replaced in 2013, but she has not replaced them since that time. She does not recall if she has had any other treatment for her hearing loss since 2013. (Id.) 19) Employee would like to have her hearing checked again. Her tinnitus is really bad. She did see a doctor within the last couple months as her ears started to be “impacted” again. Her ears were flushed and she was given medication, which she said it turned out she did not need. (Id.) 20) She would like treatment in the future in the form of a hearing test, the blockage she experiences in her ears, and new...
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