Physical Injuries Common Reason for Insurance Claims
By: Freddy Brouwer
Submitted: 2010-07-12 23:52:08 | Word Count: 558
Those who are involved in worker's compensation know that the system has problems and fingers are pointed at different people. Fraud is blamed on everyone, ranging from lawyers and legislators to doctors and other health professionals. The bosses of companies are zeroed in by the California Department of Insurance.
Employer fraud is one of the fastest growing areas of workers' compensation insurance. Forms of fraud could include the misclassifying of employees or underreporting of payroll. The state's top insurance regulator sees it differently. An enormous amount of cash is being paid to people who are misusing the workers' compensation insurance, claims a California insurance commissioner.
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The attorney dealing with workers' compensation issues says that the blame for this current crisis can fall on any group involved. The workers would be given his strongest defense. Workers hardly have any cases of fraud. The California applicants' attorneys association reveals in its Web site that a small number of arrests were made out of the 4 million injuries reported from 1993 to 1998.
According to him, it would give him a great relief if employers and employees come to the realization that they are in the same situation against insurance companies. Insurance costs began to fall a few years after deregulation of the insurance industry happened. Because there were very little claims made, the insurance companies invested in the runaway stock market and made huge profits.
What happened in 9/11 added to the problems. These terrorist attacks caused a $40 billion blow on the insurance industry, resulting also in many companies to go out of business. Any bill that would be made to post the 235 private insurance companies that still offer workers' compensation coverage in California gets his full support.
Rates are unaffected when there are no claims, but when there are claims, rates go up. He supports the provisions of Senate Bill 191 which seeks to give rewards to employees who did not make any claims for two years.
Compitis is the word that comes to this physical therapist's mind as he describes the conditions of his patients. According to this gentleman, there is a significant difference between how long it takes a work related injury to recover and how long it takes a non work related injury to recover.
Injuries related to work will not recover as fast as injuries related to other things. This new and direct form of payment would encourage health care specialists not to forget their patients with workers' compensation.
The health professional gets the payment when the paperwork is submitted. You can see obvious differences between this and HMO, which would usually leave negative impressions.
This one chiropractor who has been practicing for 13 years claims that only 15% of his patients are on workers' compensation. Providing a lot more services and therapies than necessary is how chiropractors take advantage of the system. He knows what patients do to abuse the system. Real and fake injuries can be distinguished through certain tests.
