There might be an audience somewhere that readily accepts the notion that workers’ compensation fraud occurs only in rare and isolated circumstances across the United States.
It wouldn’t comprise insurance company principals, though.
Indeed, insurers’ views on the subject of bogus workplace ailments are tempered by their routine uncovering of workers’ bad-faith attempts to fake illnesses and injuries they claim are linked to the job.
Of course, legions of American workers do indeed suffer on-the-job health misfortunes. Unfortunately, though, some employees across the country – including in Louisiana – also try to take advantage of the system by fraudulently seeking benefits through workers’ comp programs.
Just how often does such fraud occur?
Sadly, the ruse appears to be widespread, recurrent and arguably of epic proportions. The National Insurance Crime Bureau posits that the American public – employers, workers, insurers and consumers – suffers more than $7 billion in losses annually from workers’ comp fraud.
Extrapolated, that comes to a stunning $200 million or so on an “average” day, every single day of the calendar year.
One recent article spotlighting workers’ compensation fraud looks at the problem from a narrowly focused perspective, examining the phenomenon as it plays out in the country’s landscaping industry.
Notwithstanding that the piece makes several notable points focused on that specific realm, it still conveys information that is broadly relevant to the scourge of workers’ comp fraud generally.
We believe that readers might find the article’s key takeaways to be both interesting and instructive. We’ll underscore them in our next blog post.