Real Facts on Florida Workers' Compensation Fraud
As an attorney who represents Florida injury victims, I get upset when I hear a common public perception that the majority of people who are collecting workers' compensation are "faking it" and are defrauding the system. For some reason many people think that victims of work-related accidents strike it rich and go on with their lives like nothing ever happened and with newfound wealth. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Given the fact that the workers' compensation laws in Florida and many other states were drafted to benefit insurance companies and employers the only ones profiting from the workers' compensation system are insurance companies. Having handled over a thousand workers' compensation claims on behalf of injured workers in the State of Florida I have seen the dramatic effects an injury at work can have on the injured worker and their family. I have seen many of my clients lose their jobs, homes, cars, and life's savings as a result of being injured at work. I have also seen many of my clients' marriages end up in divorce due to the added financial and emotional stress caused by being injured at work.
Just look at the following facts:
In Florida out of 54,854 claims filed in 2005 there were 178 fraud convictions and 130 of those were against EMPLOYERS. So out of almost 55,000 claims filed there were only 48 fraud convictions against injured workers. That's less than .087 percent of all claims and certainly not to be considered "rampant."
In Kansas out of 66,469 workers' compensation claims filed in the year 2006 there were 798 fraud complaints reported and 718 of those were against employers.
In Rhode Island, out of 6,971 injuries filed in the year 2005, there were 5,219 fraud claims reported and 5,174 of those involved employers.
In Tennessee, a penalty program was initiated in 2004 as part of the Workers Compensation Reform Act. Since that time the program has collected nearly $300,000 from employers and insurance carriers.
In New York, a 2007 report by the Fiscal Policy Institute concluded that 25 to 30% of all companies in New York are not purchasing workers' compensation insurance and that noncompliance, or failure to buy required insurance, was a growing problem in New York State, which in turn increased premiums and shifted the cost of medical care to injured workers, taxpayers and their employers. It also concluded that between $500 million and $1 billion was being lost to the system annually.
As you can see the facts simply do not support the common misconception of rampant fraud by injured workers. In fact the studies show that there is possibly rampant fraud by employers and their insurance carriers which is costing the system and taxpayers far more money.
While we can all agree that any fraud is too much fraud in the workers' compensation system (and any other industry for that matter) the focus should be on eliminating fraud by employers and their insurance companies and not the injured worker.
