Employer Workers’ Compensation Fraud

Yes.  You read the title correctly.  The universe has a balance to it and therefore, if an employee can defraud the Workers’ Compensation system, so too can the employer.  While there are perhaps more instances of employee fraud (faking injuries, malingering, etc), damage caused by employer fraud can be far more extensive.  This is due to what this article describes as the Tentacle effect.  Think of a pyramid, with the employer at the top and the employees at the bottom.  If an employee decides to break the law, they typically act alone.  However, if an employer breaks the law, more than likely there are accomplices involved – co-owners, managers, lower-level employees, and other businesses.  The company mentioned in this article reports that over a four month span, from July to October, an estimated $7.3 million had been cashed out fraudulently!  Once again, a good-intentioned program is taken advantage of, resulting in the loss of money that could be used for employees that deserve the assistance that Workers’ Compensation provides.

Written by Industrial Health, a specialized Workers’ Compensation therapy center which services Northern Virginia , Sterling , Loudoun , Fairfax , Dulles , Chantilly , Leesburg , Ashburn , Herndon , Reston , Centreville ; and offers programs including Physical Therapy , Functional Capacity Evaluations ( FCE ) , Work Hardening , Work Conditioning , Work Simulation , Impairment Rating , Permanent Partial Disability Rating