Debunking the Myths of Workers’ Compensation Fraud

In you read the newspapers and listen to the ads by the insurance companies, the biggest problem in workers’ compensation is fraud by employees. According to some the entire system is filled with employees who are too lazy to work and just want to glom off the system. These doomsayers are wrong. There is very little fraud in the workers’ compensation system and in fact many of the worst offenders are the employers and insurance companies who are crying “wolf.”

Workers’ compensation attorney Dan Siegel addresses the myth of the “F” word in his column in Pennsylvania Law Weekly, highlighting many facts that are often overlooked or purposely not discussed. For example, employers often miscategorize employees as “independent contractors” in order to avoid paying their insurance premiums. Or, insurance companies file petitions when they know there is no legitimate basis to do so. It is because of these “bad egg” employers that Pennsylvania was forced to pass the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act in 2011.

In reality, however, fraud is a very small part of the workers’ compensation system in Pennsylvania, and Dan’s column squarely addresses and debunks the myths. Click here to read the column.