The Newsletter is the Source of Official Trust Policy Statements
Newsletter is the Source of Official Policy Statements
It is important for all Trust constituencies to note that the Manville Trust Newsletter is the primary means by which official Trust policy is communicated to our constituencies. Please review the newsletter carefully, and note any policy statements that impact the manner in which you process your claim(s). Trust Newsletters, indexed by topic, are available on the Internet at mantrust.org, beginning with the April 1, 1996 issue.
The Trust's subsidiary and claims resolution facility services provider, the Claims Resolution Management Corporation (the "CRMC"), will respond to your questions about the Trust, its operations and policies at inquiry@claimsres.com.
CONTENTS:
CLAIM PAYMENT SCHEDULE FOR 1998
During 1998, the Trust currently plans to issue offers to eligible claims that fall within a 40,000 claim FIFO range. This FIFO range from 286,001 to 326,000 encompasses claims with filing dates that span between June 1996 and June 1997.
ALLEGED CATEGORY TO BE REQUIRED FOR CLAIMS TO BE RECATEGORIZED
In an effort to provide law firms with more detailed feedback about claim deficiencies, the Trust will as of early January require law firms to provide an alleged category when requesting recategorization in response to an offer or denial letter. If the claim is categorized by the Trust to a category lower than that alleged by the law firm, the firm will be notified of the specific reasons the claim was not placed into the requested category even if the recategorization results in a check offer. More information will be provided just prior to implementation.
NARRATIVE REPORTS REFERENCING ILO’S
In order to ensure that medical reports are being correctly referenced, the medical conclusions about ILOs presented in narrative reports will only be considered by the claim reviewer if the date the ILO was completed, the name of the radiologist or B-reader, and the x-ray date are referenced. The narrative should state whether the disease process is unilateral or bilateral.
When an ILO report and narrative report are submitted together but the narrative does not present all three required items (date of ILO, B-reader name and x-ray date) the two will be considered together as long as (1) the ILO date is earlier than the date on which the narrative was written; and (2) the ILO shows the disease process as bilateral and the narrative provides causation.
THIRD QUARTER OPERATIONS REPORT
Approximately 7,300 new claims were filed during the 3rd Quarter of 1997, bringing the total number of claims received to-date by the Trust to about 360,000. Approximately 16,300 new claims were received during the first three quarters of 1997 and the Trust estimates total filings of 25,000 in 1997. This is approximately half the number of claims received during 1996, when for unascertainable reasons, approximately half of the year’s claim receipts were received in the last quarter.
Of the 360,000 claims filed to-date 163,200 have been settled (27,600 prior to the TDP). An additional 15,700 offers/denials are outstanding. Throughout 1997, settlement rates have averaged almost 2,800 claims per month, and through the end of the first nine months of the year, approximately 25,000 claims have been paid a total of approximately $120 million. Settlement rates in 1997 have decreased from the monthly average of 4,500 in 1995 and 1996 due to the large percentage of claims that now require the submission of an x-ray prior to an offer being made as a result of the Trust’s medical audit program and the substantial lack of response to those requirements.
As of September 30, 1997, a total of 35,200 offers/denials had expired. Once an offer expires it may become active in one of two ways. A law firm may request that a claim be reactivated in which case the claim is placed back into the active processing queue and given a new FIFO number based upon the date of reactivation. Some 4,900 claims have been reactivated in this manner. Alternatively, if the claimant agrees to accept the last offer made by the Trust (i.e., the offer that expired), the Trust will reissue it without options (the responses available to claimants receiving offers). Some 4,500 expired offers have been converted to settled claims in this manner. Thus, of the total of 35,200 expired offers only 21,900 were still expired at the end of September.
TRUST POLICY – POST 1975 EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS
The Trust has researched late exposures and concluded that the amount and type of JM asbestos used in 1975 or later varied substantially by industry, occupation and region, and by virtue of increased regulation the likelihood and intensity of exposure may have been substantially less than in previous time periods. Therefore, the Trust is requesting the submission of documentation which confirms the presence of JM product and the claimant’s exposure to it at each worksite when this claimant’s first exposure to JM products took place in 1975 or later. In categorizing claims, exposure deficiencies will be identified and deficiency letters sent when additional exposure documentation is required.
Claims alleging Category 5 injury will be treated differently because matrix Category 5 requires 15 years of "heavy" exposure to JM products. For Category 5 claims where 51% of the claimant’s exposure did not occur prior to 1975, additional documentation will be requested.v
The discussion that follows repeats information in previously published Newsletters. It is reprinted because law firms continue to have questions about the Trust’s offer procedures.
Reactivating Expired Claims and Reissuing Expired Offers. A claim may be reactivated by written request to the Trust’s Claims Processing Department. The date of receipt of the request is assigned as the claim’s new FIFO date at the end of the queue. The reactivated claim will be recategorized under then-current procedures and will receive a new offer when the Trust reaches its new position in the FIFO queue. Once a claim is reactivated to a new FIFO position, no activity on this claim will transpire until we reach that segment of the FIFO queue.
If a claimant wants to accept an expired offer and has signed a release so stating, the Trust will reissue the offer "without options" (e.g. recategorization, ADR or individual evaluation options are not available). To have an offer reissued, please send a letter requesting the "offer without options," and state that the law firm has a release signed by the claimant on file.
Important note: Once a claim has been reactivated with a new FIFO number, it is no longer expired, and the offer cannot be reissued without options.
Offer Extensions. When an extension is requested on an offer, the time that the offer remains valid increases from 180 days to 360 days. (180 days for original offer and 180 days for extension.)
Reissues Near Expiration. When a request to reissue an offer is made during the final 90 days before an offer expires, the offer remains active during the 90 days that the check is good. Only ONE reissue that extends beyond the annual expiration date will be allowed.
Limits On Reissues. The Trust will no longer allow offers to be reissued unlimited numbers of times. Offer checks will be limited to a maximum of three reissues.
The Trust Distribution Process (TDP) provides that claimants who have not signed a general release "may file a Second Injury Claim against the Trust for additional damages if the claimant subsequently develops an asbestos-related malignant disease." Section C.6., TDP. (Emphasis added.)
When a second injury is filed it must meet the following three criteria:
- The initial settlement must have been for a non-malignancy;
- The alleged second injury must be a compensable asbestos-related malignancy; and
- The initial diagnosis of the second injury must be made after the date on which the original claim was settled.
Under specific and limited circumstances, the Trust will allow law firms to annul a non-malignancy settlement if the claimant had a diagnosed malignancy prior to the settlement date. The firm must demonstrate that the cancer diagnosis was made no earlier than six months prior to the settlement date, and the law firm must notify the Trust of the error and request annulment during the six months following the settlement date. The Trust will not make exceptions to the time standards related to either the Second Injury or Annulment policies. Counsel should consult with their clients before accepting a Trust offer to ensure among other things, that their client’s disease has not progressed and that upon submission of updated medical reports they might not be entitled to a greater settlement amount. The Trust views its accepted settlements as binding agreements, which except as provided in the TDP constitutes a full release of all claims.
TRUST WORKS TO REMOVE DETRIMENT TO ASBESTOS VICTIMS IN TOBACCO SETTLEMENT
The current proposed settlement to resolve suits by various state Attorneys General against the tobacco industry requires Congressional legislation to effectively implement. Certain portions of that proposed settlement are a detriment to asbestos victims in that suits for contribution and indemnity by producers of asbestos and asbestos containing products entities which have paid significant amounts for illnesses of asbestos victims caused or exacerbated by smoking are effectively barred. There is an undeniable and very significant synergistic effect of the combined toxins of tobacco and asbestos. Until recently, successful defense against such suits by the tobacco industry has prevented entities like the Manville Trust from forcing the tobacco industry to contribute its rightful share to the compensation of asbestos victims. With recent revelations regarding the manipulation of nicotine to enhance the addictive power of smoking, and a weakening of the effectiveness of the tobacco industry’s "scorched earth" litigation tactics, it is now time to require big tobacco to contribute to the tragic shortfall in the funds available to pay asbestos victims.
The Trust’s Chairman, Executive Director and General Counsel have been actively working on Capitol Hill towards a solution of this problem, including the publication of the ad shown on the next page. If you would like to assist in this effort, or would like more information, please call the Trust at (703) 204-9300.
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