Getting Through Your Divorce and on With Your Life

Don't Let Workers' Comp Fraud Preconceptions Trip You Up

11 February 2020

Celina Henry

Almost everyone has heard that workers' compensation insurance is rife with fraud. Usually, this involves a worker who claimed to be hurt on the job faking an injury or illness to collect benefits. Unfortunately, the bad press about these fakers has caused the insurers to scrutinize legitimately hurt workers even more. In some cases, workers who need and deserve benefits are denied benefits and accused of not being as badly hurt as they claim. Read on to find out more about this issue and how you can make sure it doesn't happen to you.

Serious Surveillance for Serious Injuries

The worse your work-related injury might be, the more likely it is that you are being watched. Major injuries, particularly those that might end up being permanent, cost the workers' compensation insurance carriers a lot of money. It's well worth the money it takes to hire an investigator to watch hurt workers while they are unable to work at their jobs. The main goal of an investigator is to record you while performing actions that contradict your medical condition. For example, if a worker claims to have a hurt back, the investigator hopes to catch the worker bending, playing catch with their children, doing chores around the house, and more. Unfortunately, if a hurt worker is found to be able to perform certain movements, they could lose both their workers' comp benefits and their jobs.

Denials and Delays of Claims

Another unfortunate side-effect of the tendency to assume all hurt workers are faking it is the way some workers' comp carriers treat the workers. Just as with all types of insurance coverage, they don't make money by paying out for claims. This means that workers have to deal with lost claim forms, lack of communication, delays in paying claims, and more. To help ensure you don't run afoul of the insurer, take these actions:

Get medical care for your injury.
Report your injury to your supervisor right away.
Before you sign a claim form, ensure all information is 100% correct and pay special attention to times, dates, and names.
Find witnesses to your accident.
If your claim is denied, find out why and try to rectify things.
Be extremely careful about accepting a lump-sum settlement from the insurer because settlement offers can be premature and are often inadequate to cover your future needs.

Finally, seek help from personal injury lawyer if you have any problems with your claim. That means issues with accusations of fraud, denied claims, and rulings of permanent injuries. Speak with a lawyer from a firm like Prediletto, Halpin, Scharnikow & Nelson, P.S. for more information.

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About Me

Going through a divorce? I know how you might feel – alone, stressed out, and probably even a little sad due to the loss of the life you have always known. Whether you have children or not, you might even feel a little guilty about the break down of your relationship. But I'm here to tell you that a divorce is not the end of the world. In fact, once you get used to the idea and start to move on with your life, you may find just as much, if not more, happiness than you ever had while you were married! Getting through the proceedings of your divorce in a dignified manner is the first step, and hopefully this website will give you the insight, support, and motivation you need to get through the process as painlessly as possible.