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Processing to take longer after 14-year ban

February 15, 2006

BY PATRICIA ANSTETT

FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER

PATRICIA ANSTETT

Fourteen years after federal regulators banned silicone breast implants for commercial use, thousands of women still haven't received a penny for legal claims that the implants damaged their health.

And starting today, processing of the cases will slow even more for two months while the court-appointed Settlement Facility-Dow Corning Trust installs a new computer system.

The administrator of the facility, appointed last May by U.S. District Judge Denise Hood, promises that the new computer system, plus a few additional employees, will allow most claims to be reviewed -- but not necessarily paid -- by September.

"I predict that by the end of October of this year, every single pending claim will have been reviewed, and people will have heard from us," said David Austern, claims administrator of facility. There is no payment deadline, but letters the facility sent in June 2004 led many claimants and their attorneys to believe they would receive money soon. They say their calls and letters have been ignored and that the court in Detroit promised a system that would allow them to track their cases electronically, which was implemented this year.

To get access to the system, claimants or their attorneys need passwords, and so far mostly large law firms have been the ones to get them.

A separate problem is that many courts are so backlogged that cases lag for years without resolution.

The court will begin installing a new computer system today that will, temporarily, halve the number of claims the staff typically can process, Austern said last week. Retraining the staff on the new system also will slow processing of claims, he said. "So, for two months, this will get worse.

"We're not going as fast as we should," particularly with claims that implants caused chronic diseases, such as arthritis, he said. Still, he added, "I'd rate the performance of the facility as very good ... which is not the same as saying there's room for improvement."

Vanera Collins, 58, of West Bloomfield, is one of thousands waiting for an answer.

A breast cancer survivor, she had breast implant surgery in 1986 for reconstruction. She had them removed in 1994 because they caused her pain, headaches and other problems, she said. The same year, she filed a claim to be paid for the surgery and implant-related health bills.

After no response for six years, she hired Clawson lawyer Wilbert Simkovitz to look into the matter. The facility told him to file another claim, then told him that her claim was being denied because she had filed two claims.

Now, the court will recognize only the latter claim filed in 2000, possibly explaining part of the delay. And Collins still has no idea where her case stands.

"Why has this taken more than 10 years?" Simkovitz asked. "Where is the court oversight?"

A spokeswoman for Hood said she does not comment on pending cases and referred questions to Austern.

Attorneys and women involved in the case said that, before Austern arrived, the facility challenged many claims on technicalities. Sometimes it demanded paperwork already filed. Other times, it nitpicked any discrepancy found.

For example, if a doctor filed records saying a woman's breast implant had ruptured, but supporting pathology documents mentioned that the implants had bled or leaked but not ruptured, the facility would deny the claim, said Doug Peters, an attorney with Detroit's Charfoos & Christensen law firm.

Contact PATRICIA ANSTETT at 313-222-5021 or anstett@freepress.com

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What it is: A $3.2-billion court settlement set aside by Midland-based Dow Corning Inc. to pay for legal claims filed by those with breast implants and others with silicone medical devices. U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood is overseeing the case in Detroit.

To date: In all, $527 million has been paid for 51,315 claims, according to David Austern, facility administrator.

What's next: The court facility processing claims slows today to install a new computer system. The administrator promises that all who have filed claims will get answers about their cases by October. Federal regulators have notified silicone breast implant manufacturers that they expect to lift a 14-year commercial ban on the products, but a federal investigation has slowed the approval.

For information: Call 866-874-6099 or go to www.dcsettlement.com and www.fda.gov/cdrh/breastimplants/index.html

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