(Alden). Companies tend to see those who have filed Workers’ Compensation claims as liabilities, and will frequently screen for prior claims as soon as an application or resume is handed to them. They may be subjected to constant video surveillance by private agencies hired to follow their every move (Beck). Although some of these tactics are used in legitimate attempts to investigate questionable claims, they have also become part of a broad employer attempt to intimidate workers from filing claims (Beck). The Santa Rosa Press Democrat found that many injured workers “slam into a wall of suspicion and distrust that will paralyze them with shame and frustration and delay their recovery (Fricker).” One of the claimants interviewed by the newspaper commented: “You get the feeling that even though you have a legitimate complaint and a six-inch scar, you’re somehow a malingerer (Fricker).” Even professionals such as Mr. Beck, hired to flush out fraud, concede that, “The real question is not why there is so much claimant fraud, but why there is so little. In most states, workers’ compensation benefits provide little more than poverty-level existence. The grossly overstated estimates of claimant fraud have seriously obscured the real benefits of Workers’ Compensation.”A large part of the problem is that many do not know what the signs are or how to recognize them. The Ohio Board of Workers’ Compensation Resources lists many of the warning signs and signals that individuals, companies, and health-care providers are involved in making false claims. The BWC cites some of the signs of claimant fraud include cross-outs and erasures on documents, the worker’s occupation being incongruent with the employer’s stated business, or that the accident occurs in close time proximity to a strike, termination, or job completion. Some signs of employer fraud include inc...
