| Author | Subject: Magazine's review finds problems workers' compensation |
| Advocate | Posted At 09:28:32 01/20/2000
Magazine's review finds problems in workers compensation By TOM KIRCHOFER The Associated Press 01/19/00 10:09 PM Eastern NEW YORK (AP) -- The workers compensation system, which is supposed to provide a lifeline for people injured on the job, instead offers dramatically inadequate coverage to some workers, according to a report Wednesday by Consumer Reports magazine. The insurance industry says the system has made great strides in protecting the health and safety of American workers. At issue are a series of laws passed in the 1990s by state legislatures around the country to cut insurers' costs and stamp out fraud. "The new laws have generated profits for insurers and savings for employers mainly at the expense of injured workers," writes Marlys Harris, a Consumer Reports associate editor, in an article filled with anecdotes about injured workers who have waged lengthy battles with their workers compensation providers. The magazine accuses the insurance industry of stinginess in pushing laws through 29 legislatures that allow insurers to require claimants to be treated only by doctors approved by the insurer or employer. Some states lowered the number of weeks that employees could collect benefits and stopped benefits when an employee was determined able to return to work, among other reforms. The magazine reported that workers compensation benefits paid by insurers and employer premiums, as a percentage of payroll, fell by more than 20 percent from 1992 to 1996. It acknowledged that some of the decline came from new safety measures by employers and a declining number of dangerous jobs. Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the New York-based industry group Insurance Information Institute, said the workers compensation system works well for the vast majority of people injured on the job. "We want to pay all legitimate claims. Millions of workers are processed through the system expeditiously every year, and treated very fairly," he said. |
| Fred Johnson |
Re: Magazine's review finds problems workers' compensation (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 15:30:03 01/31/2000 It would only be fair and equitable if you were not tied up in the system. I am now going threw the starvation stage, of a fall in Sept. 95, followed by four operations the last paid for by myself, and of course Liberty NW still denies, the claim. Saying they reserve the right of remedy in case of fraud. And of course, by-lateral carpal tunnel combined with, by-lateral Distal Ulna Resection, is old-age, unnessarry, cosmetic, and to be compared to having a manacure. Next we go to some kind of hearing to prove I have been looking for work, which I'm am not qualified for, but of course I'm too upity to take a job at some lumber store assuming such a job was offered, Don't get me started, the system is far from acceptable. A black man would fair better at a KKK meeting, The Jews would fair better at Auswitch, at least they would be dead and not subjected to being called a liar, and a fraud, And the 5 by 5 strength thing with the IME doctors, yeas I'm sorry to say, a hang-man's nouse would be a better means of fall protection. |
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