I wonder if the woman who is totally disabled is receiving social security benefits? Most of the injured workers that I have seen that are 100% disabled, with the help of their attnys, have applied and are receiving medical social security benefits, in addition to workers’ compensation benefits.
With all due sympathy to the lady quoted in the article, I’m not sure that workers compensation benefits are supposed to be a lifetime replacement for earnings. In my state, the benefit level is intended to approximate after-tax earnings as of the date of the injury. There is no inflation adjustment, nor do the rates increase even if the Legislature takes action in the future to increase the maximum weekly rate. However, earnings do tend to increase with raises, promotions, cost of living increases, etc.
Perhaps California’s workers’ compensation statute has a different philosophy, but disability insurance, whether private or offered on a group basis as an employee benefit, is an entirely different issue from workers’ compensation benefits.
What we DO KNOW is that the system prior to the reforms was leading up to a major crisis for both insurers and employers. Simply trying to undo the reforms is not going to solve the problem.
……We all feel badly for people who are permanently injured…….but for every “Horror Story”, there are at least 100 fraudulent California W.C. claimants and on top of that you can add a lot of dishonest doctors and lawyers.
And, by the way, the fact that benefits have been reduced could mean that they were too high to begin with, not that they are too low now.
I think that it is a gross exaggeration to suggest that injured worker fraud is 100 times more common than undercompensation. Furthermore, for every fraud by an injured worker there is a fraud by an employer and insurer, and that is documented by the conviction rates for WC fraud. Reducing PD benefits to unconscionably low rates does not thwart fraud – fraudulent claims will still result in the payment of temporary disability and medical benefits – often the largest impetus for meritless claims. These inequitable TD rates – on average 70% less than the old rates – harm indiscriminately. Every valid claim is reduced by approximately 70% – that was not the intent of the reform. Finally, a person cannot collect more than 80% of their AWW in SSDI benefits, so if the woman in the article is collecting SSDI, her benefits are “offset” by any PD payment, to the extent that the combined total exceeds 80% of her AWW.
You think workers’ compensation is not intended to be a lifetime benefit? You should check out the history. It was intended to provide substantial protection from the interruption to income caused by an injury suffered in the workplace. When Theodore Roosevelt called upon the nation to establish a workers’ compensation system, there was a national crises being caused by too many injured workers becoming a burden upon the taxpayors. He pointed out that it was the employer in whose service an injury is sustained who has the best ability to make the workplace safe and to adequately plan for the costs associated with workplace injuries. Now claimsadjuster would like to see the burden shifted back to the taxpayor through social security which is, itself, going through financial hardship at this time. Why should the employer be allowed to make a profit at the taxpayor’s expense? As far as Claims Pro is concerned, He is either one of the reasons for the failure of workers’ compensation or he isn’t a real Claims Pro. I dare him to show me a hundred fraudulant claims. After years in this trade, the fraud I know about is the one committed by Fremont’s claims pro’s that sent Fremont Ins. Co. into bankruptcy.
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I wonder if the woman who is totally disabled is receiving social security benefits? Most of the injured workers that I have seen that are 100% disabled, with the help of their attnys, have applied and are receiving medical social security benefits, in addition to workers’ compensation benefits.
With all due sympathy to the lady quoted in the article, I’m not sure that workers compensation benefits are supposed to be a lifetime replacement for earnings. In my state, the benefit level is intended to approximate after-tax earnings as of the date of the injury. There is no inflation adjustment, nor do the rates increase even if the Legislature takes action in the future to increase the maximum weekly rate. However, earnings do tend to increase with raises, promotions, cost of living increases, etc.
Perhaps California’s workers’ compensation statute has a different philosophy, but disability insurance, whether private or offered on a group basis as an employee benefit, is an entirely different issue from workers’ compensation benefits.
What we DO KNOW is that the system prior to the reforms was leading up to a major crisis for both insurers and employers. Simply trying to undo the reforms is not going to solve the problem.
……We all feel badly for people who are permanently injured…….but for every “Horror Story”, there are at least 100 fraudulent California W.C. claimants and on top of that you can add a lot of dishonest doctors and lawyers.
And, by the way, the fact that benefits have been reduced could mean that they were too high to begin with, not that they are too low now.
I think that it is a gross exaggeration to suggest that injured worker fraud is 100 times more common than undercompensation. Furthermore, for every fraud by an injured worker there is a fraud by an employer and insurer, and that is documented by the conviction rates for WC fraud. Reducing PD benefits to unconscionably low rates does not thwart fraud – fraudulent claims will still result in the payment of temporary disability and medical benefits – often the largest impetus for meritless claims. These inequitable TD rates – on average 70% less than the old rates – harm indiscriminately. Every valid claim is reduced by approximately 70% – that was not the intent of the reform. Finally, a person cannot collect more than 80% of their AWW in SSDI benefits, so if the woman in the article is collecting SSDI, her benefits are “offset” by any PD payment, to the extent that the combined total exceeds 80% of her AWW.
You think workers’ compensation is not intended to be a lifetime benefit? You should check out the history. It was intended to provide substantial protection from the interruption to income caused by an injury suffered in the workplace. When Theodore Roosevelt called upon the nation to establish a workers’ compensation system, there was a national crises being caused by too many injured workers becoming a burden upon the taxpayors. He pointed out that it was the employer in whose service an injury is sustained who has the best ability to make the workplace safe and to adequately plan for the costs associated with workplace injuries. Now claimsadjuster would like to see the burden shifted back to the taxpayor through social security which is, itself, going through financial hardship at this time. Why should the employer be allowed to make a profit at the taxpayor’s expense? As far as Claims Pro is concerned, He is either one of the reasons for the failure of workers’ compensation or he isn’t a real Claims Pro. I dare him to show me a hundred fraudulant claims. After years in this trade, the fraud I know about is the one committed by Fremont’s claims pro’s that sent Fremont Ins. Co. into bankruptcy.