“Unfair and flawed”: icbc ordered to pay after cancelling victim’s treatment
Another cautionary tale out of British Columbia is showing Albertans exactly what life under a no-fault auto insurance system could look like.
Kaylene Tooby, a B.C. woman left in chronic pain after a high-speed head-on crash in 2021, was forced to take the province’s no-fault insurer, ICBC, to the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) just to get $4,700 in coverage for basic chiropractic and massage therapy.
Despite recommendations from her doctors that these treatments were “most helpful” for her recovery, ICBC denied her claim outright, citing "insufficient medical evidence" to justify the need for her continued care. The Tribunal saw it differently — and called out ICBC for, once again, interpreting the law too narrowly and limiting benefits which ought to have been paid.
“ICBC has repeatedly been found to interpret the law too restrictively,” the Tribunal said in its ruling.
The decision also shed light on the uphill battle Tooby faced in dealing with ICBC’s adjusters — something many B.C. crash victims have experienced under their Enhanced Care (no-fault) model. Tooby’s story is just one of many showing the dangers of a system where insurers - not doctors or courts - get the final say on care and compensation. If Alberta adopts Care First, Albertans can expect more stories like this. This is what no-fault insurance looks like:
Victims fighting insurers just to access basic care
Benefits cut without clear cause
No compensation for chronic injuries that don’t fit a bureaucratic checklist
A system where insurance companies define recovery, not your doctors
THE BOTTOM LINE: Kaylene Tooby’s fight shouldn’t have happened — but under a no-fault system, it’s exactly what we can expect. When insurers act as gatekeepers to care, people fall through the cracks. We need a system that puts injured Albertans first — not one that prioritizes profits over people.
Read the full story at Infotel.ca: https://infotel.ca/inwheels/unfair-and-flawed-tribunal-orders-icbc-to-pay-after-it-cancels-victims-treatment/it109941