By Walter V. Robinson
The Boston Globe
BOSTON — Albert Arroyo, the Boston firefighter and professional bodybuilder, paid 13 visits to Dr. John F. Mahoney, including five examinations in the 13 months before Mahoney concluded in April that Arroyo was “totally and permanently” disabled from a back injury.
Although Mahoney said Arroyo doffed his shirt during appointments, the neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital insisted he never noticed Arroyo’s near Hulk-like physique - until he saw Arroyo’s photo in the Globe a week ago.
“If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn’t tell me, how the hell would I know?” said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.
Mahoney said he noticed nothing amiss when he examined Arroyo, who looked to him like any patient who has “lost some weight and was working hard on his physical therapy and being fit.”
He added: “When I saw that picture in the paper, I didn’t recognize him as the man who came to my office.”
Mahoney’s assertion that he had no idea Arroyo was a bodybuilder prompted a sharp rebuke yesterday from Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-supported watchdog agency.
“Dr. Mahoney’s statement that he did not notice Mr. Arroyo’s bodybuilding physique with his shirt off is not believable,” Tyler said. Such a “go along” attitude by Mahoney and others, Tyler, added, “contributes to abuse of the disability retirement system, and those abuses are costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Mahoney is no stranger to firefighters with back and spine injuries. He was the Fire Department’s in-house medical officer for two years in the early 1980s. And city records made available to the Globe under a public records request indicate that since 2001, Mahoney has seen 25 firefighters whose injuries he determined to be so severe that the city should award them accidental disability pensions. Of the 25 firefighters, 21 have had their disability pensions approved; four others are awaiting final approval.
The Arroyo case has focused attention on the doctors who give the approvals for firefighters to collect tax-free, lifelong disability pensions.
On May 3, just 15 days after Mahoney decided Arroyo could no longer work, the firefighter competed in a national bodybuilding competition and finished eighth.
With Mahoney’s letter, Arroyo filed for the disability pension in April. On May 21, Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr., citing the bodybuilding, asked the Boston Retirement Board to reject the application. The board, in turn, wrote Mahoney to ask if he stood by his diagnosis. Mahoney, without answering that question, responded on June 23 that he did not know Arroyo was a bodybuilder. The Fire Department quickly shifted Arroyo from injured leave at full pay and tax-free, to sick leave. Last Thursday, Fraser ordered Arroyo to show up today for his job as a fire inspector. If he does not, he faces possible termination.
‘Ruined career’
Mahoney’s name was incorrectly redacted by the Retirement Board before the city gave the Globe Arroyo’s records on July 11. Mahoney said during a lengthy interview that when he saw Arroyo’s photo last Monday, he concluded that his career would be ruined when his identity became known.
“I knew my practice would be destroyed. I accept that,” Mahoney said. “I am prepared to get [expletive]. ... Holy [expletive]. I am [expletive] and it was in the stars.”
He added: “I’m going to look like a foolish doc getting money from the city, knowing someone’s a bodybuilder and writing a letter that he’s disabled, and not knowing he’s a scam artist.”
Even so, Mahoney said that were it not for the restrictions imposed on him by the doctor-patient relationship, people would understand that his diagnosis was legitimate. But he acknowledged that the firefighter’s back problems may have resulted from the strict weightlifting regimen that bodybuilders follow and might not be job-related.
Ten days ago, Arroyo told a Globe reporter he would not answer questions. Last night, his lawyer, James E. Dilday, who is in Vietnam on business, also declined to comment.
The Arroyo case has further fueled criticism over alleged fire department pension abuses, which in April spawned a federal grand jury investigation. Scores of firefighters have been subpoenaed and federal agents have issued sweeping subpoenas for thousands of documents from several city agencies.
One question that has left many perplexed is why nearly 75 percent of all firefighters who retired between 2005 and 2007 received accidental disability pensions, many of them after languishing on injured leave, at 100 percent of their pay, tax-free, for several years. Their pensions, once approved, guarantee them 72 percent of their pay, also tax-free. Boston’s disability rate is three times greater than other large cities.
In January, the Globe reported that, between 2001 and 2006, 102 Boston firefighters who received disability pensions reported that their career-ending injuries happened while they were temporarily filling in for superiors at the superior’s rate of pay. An additional 30 firefighters had similar applications pending. On average, that means that each of the 102 will receive an extra $250,000 over the course of his lifetime.
Many of those injuries were sustained by high-ranking district chiefs who were subbing, sometimes for a day, in desk jobs held by deputy chiefs. At the time, Fraser said he thought some of the claims were fraudulent.
All of those claims were certified as legitimate by physicians.
Mahoney, for his part, denied that he is a “go-to” doctor for disability-seeking firefighters and said virtually every firefighter he sees had been referred to him by the Fire Department’s medical office.
Yesterday, Dr. Michael G. Hamrock, the department’s physician, said that he does refer some firefighters to specialists who will treat them immediately with “a goal of getting them back to work.” But he said Mahoney is not among those who receive such referrals.
Hamrock pointed out that the Firefighters Union contract permits injured firefighters to choose their own physicians. “Those who choose to see Dr. Mahoney do so on their own,” he said.
Tyler said the lack of skepticism by Mahoney and other doctors who are sought out by firefighters has played a critical role in the ballooning number of disability retirements. “These doctors need to be held more accountable because it is their certification of a firefighter’s medical condition that significantly influences the decisions to grant these lifetime disability pensions.”
Any doctor, Tyler said, “who certifies a disabling injury that is determined not be legitimate should face consequences.”
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