The Real Facts On Workers' Compensation Fraud
As an attorney who represents injured workers, I get so upset by the widespread public perception that most people who are collecting workers' compensation are "faking it" and somehow defrauding the system.
I know that's simply not true. The overwhelming majority of people who apply for workers' compensation benefits are injured and unable to work because of those injuries. But the media and the insurance companies have done a great job conducting smear campaigns that cast injured workers in a bad light. They've subverted the facts with anecdotes and a few damning videos and created the impression that workers' compensation fraud by employees is rampant. But in reality, only about 1 percent of all workers' compensatioin claims are found to be fraudulent.
However, fraud by employers and insurers is much more prevalent and costs billions of dollars annually. There's a human cost, too. Injured workers who are the victims of workers' compensation fraud often are unable to collect benefits that would make their lives easier and help them get the treatment they need.
Leonard Jernigan Jr., a fellow workers' comp attorney in North Carolna and the chairman of the fraud task force for the Workers Injury Law and Advocacy Group (WILG) has an interesting article in Workers First Watch about the prevalence -- and cost -- of employer and insurance fraud. In it, he provides the straight scoop on workers' compensation fraud.
I encourage you to read the entire piece because it includes some pretty enlightening and damning statistics. The next time you hear someone talking about some "layabout" who is fraudulently collecting workers compensation, share these FACTS with them:
In Florida, one of the more aggressive states in attacking fraud, out of 54,854 claims filed in 2005 there were 178 convictions (and 130 were against employers).
In Kansas, out of 66,469 workers’ compensation claims filed in 2006, there were 798 fraud complaints reported and 718 were against employers.
In Rhode Island, out of 6,971 injuries filed in 2005, there were 5,219 fraud claims reported and 5,174 involved employers (primarily from late filing or noncompliance).
In Tennessee, a penalty program was initiated in 2004 as part of the Workers’ Compensation Reform Act. Since that time the program has collected nearly $300,000 from carriers and employers.
In New York, a 2007 report by the Fiscal Policy Institute concluded that 25-30 % of all companies in New York are not purchasing workers’ compensation insurance and that non-compliance (failure to buy required insurance) was a growing problem in New York, which in turn increased premiums and shifted the cost of medical care to injured workers, taxpayers and other employers. It also concluded that between $500 million and $1billion was being lost to the system annually.