Study: Why Workers Avoid Making Workers’ Compensation Claims
Date Posted: December 23, 2015
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From Engineering News-Record (ENR): A new study funded by the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) confirmed a developing trend in workers’ compensation: employees don’t always use it when they can.
Instead, they regularly make claims under medical insurance plans for injuries or conditions developed as a result of work.
And while that shifts the costs away from one overburdened insurance system, it places those costs on another.
Workers’ compensation systems are frequently the targets of reform intended to improve efficiency and care for workers. But the CPWR survey of almost 1,500 male floorlayers’ health insurance claims revealed that the floorlayers were likely filing claims with union medical plans that would normally be considered work-related and eligible for workers’ compensation insurance coverage.
Fifty-one percent of the floorlayers filed claims and were diagnosed with a musculoskeletal disorder, compared to 39% of workers in other industries.
The data also indicated that young floorlayers, whose duties require them to work on their knees, file these claims at higher rates than other age groups.
The researchers identified many reasons for workers to prefer private health insurance over workers’ compensation.
In some cases, filing a claim is the end of a floorlayer’s career, because the only treatment for some knee conditions is a replacement.
While waiting for surgery, a worker who files the claim with private insurance has the option of continuing to work.
After a knee replacement procedure, the worker would not be able to kneel and employers often struggle to accommodate a worker with limited range of motion, says Dr. Ann Marie Dale, lead author of the study and assistant professor at Washington University St. Louis School of Medicine.
After a knee replacement surgery, a worker may receive partial pay but never again enjoy full knee function.